Banker's exodus possible - does anyone care?

carolt

whathavewedone wrote: »

The issue is that if they go there will be fewer taxes received for the NHS, education, defence, welfare state etc etc etc.

It's pure scapegoating and class war politics that achieves the complete opposite of what's intended, ie fewer taxes received for frontline services. Then the only option is to impose higher taxes on people who can't afford to fork out for expensive tax advice and or make drastic cuts to public services.

The government know this full well which is why they have increased national insurance on everyone over 20k which is going to bring in a lot more revenue than this banker's tax which even by their estimates which only bring in 500 million but will in reality probably end up losing the country more in taxes than it brings in.

Carolt and Sir Humphrey, can you provide an explanation as to why when Lawson lowered the top rate of tax to 40% more taxes were received than when the rate was set higher?

Carolt, you said on another thread how great it was to get paid for fingerpainting etc (can't recall exactly what you said but got the impression you maybe teach reception or Year 1 children?). Clearly you enjoy your job - many people don't. You also get great holidays and that should be reflected in your salary.

Banking, at the level where big bonuses are paid, is a highly pressured job. People go into it for the money - they retire early because otherwise they'd burn out.

I used to work as lawyer (another profession that's vilified by people who haven't got the first clue) and often clients would treat me like dirt - and that was just over thousands of pounds. When money is as stake even the nicest people can become quite vile. I don't doubt for a minute that bankers take a lot of abuse on a daily basis as well working very long hours, weekends, taking hardly any holiday etc. If they don't make their targets they are going to be out on their !!!. As someone who works in the public sector, you can't understand the sort of pressure that puts on people - as someone who worked as a lawyer who was only as good as last month's billing figures, I certainly can.

Why can't you just be happy that you've got a job you enjoy with great job security, a good life work/balance which enables you to spend time with your kids and accept that the trade off is that you aren't going to get rich doing it?

It's somewhat ridiculous to come on a forum about the economy after the year that we've had and say that banks aren't imporant. So you don't want to borrow money, you don't want a mortgage, you don't want to save money or invest on the stockmarket - newsflash - you are not representative of most people in the UK and even you must surely have your wages paid directly into a bank or building society account - I can't believe that a teacher gets paid cash in hand and keeps her money in a biscuit tin in the kitchen.

No, you must have got me confused with another poster. No fingerpainting in my job. As I've said elsewhere, I teach privately, not at primary level, and yes, actually, do often get paid cash in hand, and if I want to keep it in a biscuit tin, I can! I get no paid holidays at all - if I'm ill/sick, I get NOTHING. Such is the lot of the self-employed. Teachers included.

I think you misunderstand my point - I've got no problem with high street banks acting as safe 'vaults' for my savings and earning the (pretty low) wages of the staff sat in my local Natwest or Barclays or whatever by creaming off the difference between what they pay me in interest and what they can earn on it.

I have a problem with us bailing out the gamblers, the investment banks that did very nicely out of the heads we win, tails you (the taxpayers) lose because you have to pay for all the losses - and then awarding themselves huge bonuses...

I think we urgently need a separation of investment and retail banking; the latter I agree performs a useful function, the former does not, except for themselves. Claiming a trickle-down effect is pretty far-fetched when the economy is doing well - when we've all paid and will continue to pay thousands each for many years to bail them out of the hole they willingly dug for themselves, then it's nothing short of ludicrous to still keep believing bankers are some kind of fairy godmothers to the economy.

markharding557

no i don't care