Household wealth falls by 5-6% during recession

[andyofborg]

One way would be to have a wealth tax (on those who have made a lot of money) at say, 10% per annum on their savings? That surely would reduce the deficit.

 

how would you identify those who have made a lot of money?

 

what is a lot of money?

 

and what would you do if they have spent their money or invested it in non-liquid assets?

[Titanic99]

given that much of your alleged increase in wealth includes the notional increase in property prices, just how do you expect to tax people on it?

 

Ask your friends in the Libdems as they had a Mansion Tax in their manifesto.

 

Shame they joined with the Tories and this was lost.

[andyofborg]

Ask your friends in the Libdems as they had a Mansion Tax in their manifesto.

 

Shame they joined with the Tories and this was lost.

 

I don't have any friends, LibDem or otherwise.

 

Anyway, the policy we were exploring was yours, so how would you extract a proportion of the wealth that is notionally locked up in properties?

[Vague_Boy]

I still struggle to understand this commonly expressed argument that the country is broke and that we need to slash Public Services.

 

It's very simple. Debt and borrowing are not the same as wealth.

 

We can't pay for existing services without borrowing £167 billion every year (the deficit). The interest on the national debt (the cumulative deficits of previous years) is costing us a further £42.9 billion. And that's durig a period of abnormally low interest rates.

 

Add in to that cleverly disguised "off-balance-sheet" liabilities such as PFI and unfunded liabilities, the true scale of our debt is closer to £4 trillion.

 

(An unfunded liability is something that the government has to pay out on, such as pensions, but for which there is f**k all money.)

 

* Existing "official" national debt of £903 billion (projected to rise to £1.3 trillion by 2015).

 

* Future payments for the state old age pension: £1.1trn to £1.4trn

 

* Unfunded public sector pensions for teachers, NHS staff and civil servants: £770bn to £1.2trn

 

* Payments under private finance initiative contracts: £200bn

 

* Contingent liabilities (eg bank deposit guarantees): £500bn

 

* Nuclear power plant decommissioning: £45bn

 

* Impact of financial sector interventions: £1trn to £1.5trn

 

LINK to sources (ONS data)

 

If I was unable to keep going without getting further and further into debt each year, I would not consider myself wealthy.

 

 

The linked article confirms an estimated reduction of between 5 and 6% in the wealth held by Households over the course of the recession

 

Much of that increase in "wealth" is merely equity in overpriced houses. Even if this were real money, it cannot be accessed unless everyone sold their houses. Mortgage Equity Withdrawal (MEW) is simply another way of getting into debt. Isn't a UK personal debt mountain of £1,444 billion enough for you? Do you want people to get into even more debt in order to reflate a collapsed bubble?

[carosio]

how would you identify those who have made a lot of money?

 

what is a lot of money?

 

and what would you do if they have spent their money or invested it in non-liquid assets?

 

Just being satirical again-if that were applied then anyone with any sense would be racing down to the bank or b.soc. to get their savings out. Actually, Council Tax is a form of Wealth Tax. Spain had a form of Wealth Tax but I believe this has been phased out, I think you paid something like 5% of the value of your assets per annum. They now appear to be even more broke than we are.

[Vague_Boy]

I still struggle to understand this commonly expressed argument that the country is broke

 

Britain no longer has the cash to defend itself from every threat

 

Britain cannot afford to protect itself against all potential threats to its security, Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, has warned.

 

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dr Fox said the dire state of the public finances meant the Armed Forces could no longer be equipped to cover every conceivable danger.

 

LINK

 

"Dire state of the public finances"? I wonder who's to blame? Perhaps someone can tell me, who was in charge of the public finances over the last 13 years? I think they must share a large portion of the blame.

 

Britain is broke. Get used to it.

[Longcol]

And did Britain ever have the cash to defend itself against every conceivable danger? During the cold war didn't we rely a tad on NATO (aka the USA).

[barny_100]

I still struggle to understand this commonly expressed argument that the country is broke and that we need to slash Public Services.

 

Can we sell your house to keep some Diversity Facilitators in Jobs and Index-linked pensions then?

[Bedders]

Absolutely, the money to keep services going is there we just need to persuade people that we should start taking from the well-of to protect the poor.

 

Starting with the cushy middle class jobs of the public sector with wages that don't reflect those of the private sector!

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/6779753/Public-sector-enjoys-more-pay-rises-than-private-sector.html

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7835366/Public-sector-pay-conditions-outstrip-private-sector-report-says.html

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/public_sector/article6974029.ece

 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Public-Sector-Workers-Earn-30-More-Than-Private-Sector-According-To-Policy-Exchange-Report/Article/201006315651421?f=rss

 

Are you getting the picture yet Titanic?????

[Mecky]

It's a crock and everyone knows it.