Most Frightening Words

chris_m

It doesn't really matter for whom you vote - the government always gets in.

ManofLeisure_2

You have a letter from HMRC ......

mikb

"We are chasing the borrower ..."

jamesd

"progressive taxation"

Looks so innocent until your realise that politicians using the phrase means further increasing the percentage of the population that are net recipients of tax money, with an incentive to vote for higher taxes and benefits paid for by someone else.

In the UK at the moment the time when a household transitions from net receiver to net giver is around £35-£38k of gross income. There's been a lot of "progression" of another sort: back in 1980 the top 1% of tax payers paid 11% of all income tax, today it's 30% of it.

gadgetmind

That's what our "grads" earn when they've been working for us for 3 years and cease being grads. So age 25 and you're down to do the heavy lifting for the rest of your life. What a spiffy reward for paying attention at school.

Thrugelmir

jamesd wrote: »

In the UK at the moment the time when a household transitions from net receiver to net giver is around £35-£38k of gross income. There's been a lot of "progression" of another sort: back in 1980 the top 1% of tax payers paid 11% of all income tax, today it's 30% of it.

Has to be put into perspective that wage differentials weren't as great back then. I can recall days of quoted company financial directors earning less than £100k. That was well after 1980 as well.

colsten

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Has to be put into perspective that wage differentials weren't as great back then. I can recall days of quoted company financial directors earning less than £100k. That was well after 1980 as well.

Quoting absolute numbers from past years is pretty meaningless unless you compare them with other absolute numbers from the same past years.
£100K in 1980 would be about £450K in today's money, simply through inflation.

Of course the difference between salaries is growing wider as inflation grows. For example: 1980: £100K versus £10K = £90K difference

Now apply the same inflation effect to both numbers and you end up with:
2015: £450K versus £45K = £405K difference. And no unfairness in sight as the same inflation effect is applied to everyone.

nicknameless

So income inequality has remained static during that period?

colsten

nicknameless wrote: »

So income inequality has remained static during that period?

I never mentioned anything about income inequality.

jamesd

I agree with the implicit nomination of "income inequality" as frightening words.

nicknameless, UK income inequality was the lowest it'd been for 25 years in 2013. Of particular note: "On average, the bottom three-fifths of all households received more in benefits than they paid in taxes".

That's 60% of households who have an incentive to vote for more government spending, knowing that on average they won't be paying for it.