£120,000,000 a day in interest alone!!!

diable

Thrugelmir wrote: »

A few facts about the National Debt.

We owe £37,133 for every man, woman and child
That's more than £80,595 for every person in employment
Every household will pay £1,881 this year, just to cover the interest

Depends on how you play the game......... after 30 years of paying in to the system I make the effort to pay the least now...........

Degenerate

ILW wrote: »

So what is the point in posting if you are not going to let us know if you have an opinion?

To point out the inadequacies in yours. An argument based on "OMG! £[BIG NUMBER]!" without appropriate context to gauge the scale is entirely unsound. Do some research and start making your case in GDP/revenue-relative terms and we could perhaps have some interesting debate, but to this point, in this entire thread you have been spouting ill-informed rubbish.

I was trying to prompt you to raise your game to make it actually worthwhile debating the issue with you, but from the obtuse way you have responded to my challenges, it seems to be beyond you.

Xiderpunk

Degenerate wrote: »

To point out the inadequacies in yours. An argument based on "OMG! £[BIG NUMBER]!" without appropriate context to gauge the scale is entirely unsound. Do some research and start making your case in GDP/revenue-relative terms and we could perhaps have some interesting debate, but to this point, in this entire thread you have been spouting ill-informed rubbish.

I was trying to prompt you to raise your game to make it actually worthwhile debating the issue with you, but from the obtuse way you have responded to my challenges, it seems to be beyond you.

Can see why you have chosen the name of Degenerate, your pompous and pugnacious approach to debate is beneath contempt. Get some class, and remember there is always someone cleverer than you.

Degenerate

Xiderpunk wrote: »

Can see why you have chosen the name of Degenerate, your pompous and pugnacious approach to debate is beneath contempt. Get some class, and remember there is always someone cleverer than you.

There are plenty of people cleverer than me, but ILW is evidently not one of them if he cannot grasp the simple concept of judging things in context.

ILW

ILW wrote: »

Just noticed all the fuss about Manchester City Council closing a load of it's services because they need to save £25 million a year. And I am being told that £120 million per day going in interest is somehow insignificant. I will probably just get insulted for pointing out the comparison.

How about that for context?

DervProf

ILW wrote: »

Just one more daft question.

Would it have been better to have spent a little less over the last decade or so and not have to be paying any interest at all?

I suspect we'd have had to spend nothing, in fact I think that the taxpayer would have had to make payments to reduce the defecit balance to zero.

I see you've been having a "discussion" with someone who appears to suggest that the £120miillion per day interest is not that significant. I'd say that £43,800,000,000 per year in interest is a significant amount (not when compared with the overall defecit, but still a significant amount).

In my opinion, this country runs it's finances badly. We have become debt addicts. The current overspend, let alone the interest payments and total borrowings balance would backup my claims. Running a defecit, be it national or a single household should only happen in times of financial hardship, not as a "normal" thing. Running a defecit when you don't need to increases the risk of financial hardship in the future.

Degenerate

ILW wrote: »

How about that for context?

Nope. You need to put it in the context of the benefits and costs to the overall UK economy, not the expenditure of one local council. What the interest could pay for is irrelevant if the benefits from the borrowing outweigh the cost. That's the debate we should be having, but it's evidently too complicated for you to grasp.

DervProf wrote: »

I see you've been having a "discussion" with someone who appears to suggest that the £120miillion per day interest is not that significant.

If you're referring to me, I did not suggest it is not significant, I suggested he provide context to judge it's significance instead of bandying around a big number for shock value.

ILW

Degenerate wrote: »

Nope. You need to put it in the context of the benefits and costs to the overall UK economy, not the expenditure of one local council. What the interest could pay for is irrelevant if the benefits from the borrowing outweigh the cost. That's the debate we should be having, but it's evidently too complicated for you to grasp.




If you're referring to me, I did not suggest it is not significant, I suggested he provide context to judge it's significance instead of bandying around a big number for shock value.

In your opinion, do they?

asc99c

With all this talk of whether the benefits of borrowing outweigh the cost...

This figure doesn't include PFI repayments, so for the most part the benefits do not include recent schools and hospitals. PFI interest repayments are rather harder to calculate, since generally the payments for PFI projects combine maintenance and services alongside capital repayments.

Degenerate

ILW wrote: »

In your opinion, do they?

Yes.

That's all you're getting out of me, though. You've spent too long wasting my time with you fallacious big number argument for me to be interested in debating the pros and cons of the actual issue with you. It's obvious you will just turn the conversation around in circles with bogus arguments like you have to this point.

Your arguments are on the level of Daily Mail headlines. You're not capable of participating in rational, informed debate.