Tell me this is not the best country in the world

Takedap

triathlon wrote: »

Well I wouldn't, and most people if they were honest would agree with me. And what in reality have you ever done to actually help your fellow man?, not much I bet accept voting Corbyn.

Well there's an example of why you shouldn't be betting.


Best of luck in your gated community. Hope the armed guards don't get any ideas above their station.

Hectors_House

Takedap wrote: »

Well there's an example of why you shouldn't be betting.


Best of luck in your gated community. Hope the armed guards don't get any ideas above their station.

And as Scottish economic scientist Mark Blyth says: ‘The Hamptons is not a defensible position.’

https://youtu.be/nwK0jeJ8wxg

Cakeguts

Hectors_House wrote: »

Funnily enough I was talking to my sister the other day about how skewed things are now for the young.

We own our house outright having worked full time all our lives.

Children never came along for either of us.

We are now in the envious position of having property, private pensions and various assets with no one to leave it to so may as well cash in some of it and enjoy our old age.

All of which is really very sad. I don’t know of any young people either of us know who will be in this same position when they reach our age.

And that is wrong.

We got to our position through never having the cost of raising children so being unencumbered to be able to work full time and put money into the works pension.

This shouldn’t be how it is.

I don't think you need worry about having no one to leave it to what with the cost of nursing care most people won't leave anything much to family members.



Don't forget that by not having children you have saved the cost of educating them and the cost to the NHS.



I think you will find that two people working who don't live in the London area will finish up in your position at retirement age as long as they live the same kind of lifestyle as someone born in 40s, 50s and 60s when people were more frugal.



You can't compare your lifestyle to young people who have bought new cars on finance and have expensive mobile phones because older people were born in an age when there wasn't as much disposable income so they learned really young only to buy things they need rather than things they want.

Sapphire

Cakeguts wrote: »

To answer this. Many of the people sleeping on the streets are there because NHS care of people with mental illness is just not good enough. Remember the NHS closing all the big mental hospitals and then selling the land? How much of that money do you think has gone into "care in the community?"

The ones near where I live appear to comprise at least three-quarters immigrants. I don't know why they are here, why they were allowed into the country, and why they don't go back to their own countries, where they would at least be among their own people.

triathlon

Takedap wrote: »

Well there's an example of why you shouldn't be betting.


Best of luck in your gated community. Hope the armed guards don't get any ideas above their station.

Do not live in a gated community, but I have no problems with them, not with how parts of society are at the moment, bitter wannabe home owners for example.

lisyloo

triathlon wrote: »

Oh who cares about other people in reality?

Every one should care about others even if for only selfish reasons.

If you don’t want to advance society general and let other have opportunities then the reason to care about others is that you don’t want lots of feral people running round stealing your stuff to feed themselves. If we had that you’d need to live in a gated community which you can do in certain parts of the world if you wish.
Being totally harsh about it you should pay the minimum to gain the maximum amount of peace and lawfulness for your own benefit.

lisyloo

Cakeguts wrote: »

I don't think you need worry about having no one to leave it to what with the cost of nursing care most people won't leave anything much to family members.

I don’t think this is entirely true. Firstly most people won’t end in residential/nursing care as this is a last resort (help at home is given first e.g. meals on wheels).

Secondly some people don’t spend very long there. My FIL spent 11 days and I’ve seen other men spend a matter of days. I’ve seen averages quoted of 26-30 months which hides a much wider range, but most are not long enough to spend their entire inheritance.

Thirdly there is a cap of £72k coming in April 2020. In reality that’s roughly £120k as its for care not board and lodging, but that’s still only around 50% of the average house.

One thing is for sure, people can’t rely on an inheritance nor getting it at a point that’s useful. I’ve not had any and I’ve paid my mortgage off, so inheritance will make no life changing difference to me probably in my 60s/70s or even my 50s.

lisyloo

Sapphire wrote: »

The ones near where I live appear to comprise at least three-quarters immigrants. I don't know why they are here, why they were allowed into the country, and why they don't go back to their own countries, where they would at least be among their own people.

Possibly asylum seekers.
If they are at risk of war or violence then they might not want to be among their own people and that might explain why they exhibit trauma or mental health issues.

I don’t think we are blameless in our foreign policy and selling weapons, so are we morally in a position to turn a blind eye to the results?

westernpromise

What I find bizarre is that there's a full-time Romanian beggar at Henlys Corner. He looks unwashed and unlaundered, has a limp, and he just bums change off drivers stopped at the lights.

Initially of course I took him for a Scotsman, although I did wonder why he wasn't therefore drunk or shouting at himself. But one day I said salut, ce faci to him, which is Romanian for "hi, how are you doing", and he replied. So he's either a multilingual Central European beggar, or he's a Romanian beggar.

Either way, what I find exceedingly odd is that he would get together the motivation and the money to come to Britain. Yet, once here, he just continues to beg, rather than work, for a living.

I am not sure whether he overturns the Daily Mail caricature of immigrants here for the freebies or not. On the one hand, he's clearly not here to work. On the other, if he's a professional beggar, he arguably is here to work.

On balance I think the Scots have it right: they live on money begged from the English, but at least they stay in Scotland.

triathlon

Sapphire wrote: »

The ones near where I live appear to comprise at least three-quarters immigrants. I don't know why they are here, why they were allowed into the country, and why they don't go back to their own countries, where they would at least be among their own people.

Racist.

Simple as that