Strikes: Who will pay

[L00b]

If the private sector is short changed as you put it, the public sector must also suffer because the private sector pays for the public sector. If the private sector makes no money the public sector can't exist.

That's a fundamental principle which too many public sector supporters on here are failing to grasp.

 

The recession and following (still ongoing) dead-cat-bounce has greatly dented tax income. Really majorly.

 

Contrary to popular belief, it's not so much private sector employee taxation which pays for public services, as corporate taxation. Companies going to the wall don't pay tax. Companies surviving by the skin of their teeth don't pay tax, or a negligible amount. Start-ups don't pay tax, or a negligible amount, until established and profitable (if ever). There really aren't many companies left that pay substantial amounts of corporate tax. In the current (still more darwinian) context, every last trick in the book is being used to reduce their tax liability. Who can blame them: balance the books or die (since banks don't do cashflow advances as readily as they used to).

 

Against a background of a dramatic growth in public sector employment in the preceding decade.

 

It's not a them-and-us, or divide-and-conquer, between the private and public sector. It's simply a case of the private sector, as a whole, not making enough money to be taxed, for that tax income to pay for the current levels of public services, more or less since 2008. 3 years ago.

 

Of course, in reply to that, many will argue and finger-point £million-earning City types. The reality is, as a matter of scale, these are a mere drop in the ocean. A high-visibility one, for sure, boo-hiss and all that. But just a drop.

[Guest sibon]

Then how has he got it wrong? That's exactly what he said.

 

 

It is exactly the opposite of what he said.

[spooky3]

It is exactly the opposite of what he said.

 

Half / half... my error was that the majority of public pension funds aren't invested in safe stocks and shares, they are used as investment by the government. The rest / majority is made up by taxes, hence me saying that the only place it's going to come from is from taxing the private sector more, from shop workers to bankers.

 

 

In the past i've worked for the council and the BBC, personally I couldn't hack the mentality about pensions and unions, the "once you're in mentality", hence why I go it alone nowadays. i can only blame myself and as they say, "If you want a job doing properly, then ..."

[Andy]

Mine is 7% and 13%. The complication being that they both really come from the same pot.

 

If your employer said to you that they were closing the pension scheme, but would give you a 13% pay rise to compensate, would you be happy or would you feel worse off?

[spooky3]

The last government raised the public sector to over 53% of the workforce, primarily by selling off all the assets, how did they expect the country to survive past their golden handshake. They would have had to seriously raise taxation or sack everyone and smash the pension schemes.

[Guest sibon]

If your employer said to you that they were closing the pension scheme, but would give you a 13% pay rise to compensate, would you be happy or would you feel worse off?

 

Good question.

 

If I could have got hold of my employers contribution to invest myself, I might have done that from the start. I'd have enjoyed the investment bit too. I like a bit of trading:)

 

Right now, about ten years from retirement, I'd be a bit annoyed that the security that I thought I'd bought by taking a modestly paid job was gone.

 

On a related note, why do private pensions perform so poorly?

[spooky3]

Good question.

 

If I could have got hold of my employers contribution to invest myself, I might have done that from the start. I'd have enjoyed the investment bit too. I like a bit of trading:)

 

Right now, about ten years from retirement, I'd be a bit annoyed that the security that I thought I'd bought by taking a modestly paid job was gone.

 

On a related note, why do private pensions perform so poorly?

 

I thought there was some kind of option where you could? Maybe i'm wrong but I swear whilst at Sheffield Homes I signed to join their scheme instead of handling it myself!

[spooky3]

On a related note, why do private pensions perform so poorly?

 

Because the government spend it on improving schools and such, only to then sell them off and rent them back.

[Andy]

Good question.

 

On a related note, why do private pensions perform so poorly?

 

They don't really. The real problem is people start paying in late, and don't pay enough in. They also don't remember to increase their contributions to take account of inflation.

 

I see quite a few people with pensions that they started years ago, contributing £50 a month, and they somehow think this will be enough to give them a decent income in retirement.

[Andy]

Because the government spend it on improving schools and such, only to then sell them off and rent them back.

 

The government certainly haven't spent my private pension on improving schools. That I can assure you!