Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story

A._Badger

I suspect Sir Humphrey is spreading the whig view of history a little thinly by applying it to to 'Right-wing libertarians' like so much margarine. They're as diverse (though possibly less factional than) the liquorice allsorts Marxists that infest humanities departments.

My experience of RWLs (mostly of the American variety, I admit) suggests they do not subscribe to the quaint belief that mankind can be perfected by the adoption of a particular economic system.

Most of the ones I've encountered are plain, old fashioned, fiscally conservative social liberals, who believe we should be allowed to go to hell in our own ways.

doire_2

I already know the UK is a mess thats why i watched HIGNFY on BBC1 instead

nomoreboomandbust

funguy wrote: »

Theres extremes in all countries for videos like this...im sure we could film worse in this country!

Are you sure ? That is truly awful, my dog sleeps in a crate bigger than some of these poor people have

wherediditallgothen

StevieJ wrote: »

Or maybe it turns into greed.

Most likely both. The eaxct mix of which depends upon the person involved.

Sir_Humphrey

A._Badger wrote: »

My experience of RWLs (mostly of the American variety, I admit) suggests they do not subscribe to the quaint belief that mankind can be perfected by the adoption of a particular economic system.

Most of the ones I've encountered are plain, old fashioned, fiscally conservative social liberals, who believe we should be allowed to go to hell in our own ways.

I do not think most Americans who claim to be RWL are anything of the sort. People like Ron Paul yes, because they think things they do not approve of should be allowed. I disagree with that sort of RWL view in the same way that I disagree with Trotskyism, but it is a genuine and honest position.

However, a lot of American RWLs of the Tea Party variety seem to think it is okay for them not to have pay taxes/carry guns etc, but seem to have a problem with other people being homosexuals, or unmarried mothers etc.

Thinking that other people should be free to do things provided you agree with them is not libertarianism but bigotry.

ILW

The gist of the programme seemed to be that for the last 50 years, governments have been constatly spending more than they were taking in taxes. This was funded by ever increasing borrowing. It seems pretty obvious to me that that cannot go on forever, or have I missed something?

It also made the point that the public sector is now nearly as big as the private sector which needs to create the wealth to pay the bills, at some point it all has to fall down and it appears we are fast approaching that point.

Sir_Humphrey

ILW wrote: »

The gist of the programme seemed to be that for the last 50 years, governments have been constatly spending more than they were taking in taxes. This was funded by ever increasing borrowing. It seems pretty obvious to me that that cannot go on forever, or have I missed something?

It also made the point that the public sector is now nearly as big as the private sector which needs to create the wealth to pay the bills, at some point it all has to fall down and it appears we are fast approaching that point.

If that is what the programme was saying, then it is simply factually untrue.

tomterm8

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

A lot of right-wing libertarians used to be communists.

They both believe in the perfectibility of human nature given a certain economic system. The difference is in which system that is. They are in fact two sides of the same coin from a philosophical point of view.

Oddly enough, the same theory of human perfectability seems to run trhough economics like a rash... completely tosh... the idea that people are rational agents is complete fallacy, half of them still believe in witches, and the other half are crazy.

ILW

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

If that is what the programme was saying, then it is simply factually untrue.

Which bit, the overspend or the ratio of public/private sector.

suburbanwifey

ILW wrote: »

Which bit, the overspend or the ratio of public/private sector.

I'd like to know how it was factually untrue also - it sounded spot on to me and explained why Hong Kong is thriving and the UK is sinking.

I hope the PM watched this and reduces all our taxes so we all have more money to invest, spend, create jobs and get this country back on its feet. Hiking taxes and NIC payments like is happening, tax on heating and lighting (the most awful thing the Govt. ever did) and increasing VAT to 20% is going to cripple us all, reduce our spending, which will result in even more job losses.

I thought the program was fantastic, its showed exactly how easily we could get out of this mess...why don't the Govt. do it?

Greedy money snatchers...even then, they throw it away creating useless Govt. jobs and funding benefit lifers....if tax was removed from minimum wage earners, it would PAY to work for the masses of benefit claimants who point out they are better off on benefits...should someone on 12K a year lose 7K of it via all the taxes we are stung for?

No wonder rich people leave this country...I would if I was a millionaire.