'Decades of austerity needed to cut debt'

[Anna B]

The rich get richer because they own the debt, right?

 

Well, default on the debt then. Globally.

 

The rich get made poor overnight, countries' balances of payment are zeroed, no more cuts are needed. The world economy does a hard reboot.

 

The end.

 

 

(EDIT: mind you, I'd give it 6 months before we start seeing the rich and poor divide start to grow again - tops)

 

 

Not often we agree Loob, but it sounds about right to me.

 

---------- Post added 18-07-2013 at 13:27 ----------

 

You borrow money. You have to pay it back. The government borrowed £1200 billion pounds. Shall I spell that out one thousands two hundred billion pounds. That is £19500 for every person in the country. They thought it was a great idea to borrow money to make us think we had a better standard of living than we actually had. So they spent it on extra nurses, extra welfare, extra infrastructure that we couldn't afford. It was a real vote winner until the bills came in. In fact our standard of living is actually around £2000 per person less than we currently think because the rest is still going on the government credit card.

 

I know it is all very nice to imagine we can nip out with the Visa card and buy flat screen TVs, new furniture and nice cars. But at some point the nasty man from Visa comes along and asks you to pay for it all.

 

 

 

Oh Tom, don't believe everything the government tells you.

 

It's a lot more complicated than that. We are paying for the Bankers greed.

[Vincero dOro]

The rich get richer because they own the debt, right?

 

Well, default on the debt then. Globally.

 

The rich get made poor overnight, countries' balances of payment are zeroed, no more cuts are needed. The world economy does a hard reboot.

 

The end.

 

 

Well not quite the end. You see the UK still has a budget deficit of over £100 billion. So defaulting might get rid of our debt but would do nothing for the deficit, although it would mean our credit rating was non existent. So with a budget shortfall of £100 million and no credit we would have to make cuts of £100 million per year on top of the cuts already made.

But of course it gets worse. Many of he countries creditors are UK pension funds, taxpayers etc. And many creditors of foreign debt are also British funds and taxpayers. So a global default would also wipe £10s of billions off the UKs tax revenues, and without credit would also require more cuts.

 

So we would be slightly down market of Greece. Most of the NHS would have to go, along with anything available that the government could sell like municipal buildings, railways, motorways, military equipment. The end result would be another 2/3 million out of work, which would increase welfare payments and cut tax revenues making more cuts necessary. This would lead to....etc etc etc...

[Old Tom]

 

Oh Tom, don't believe everything the government tells you.

 

I'm more inclined to believe them than I am to take any notice of the politically motivated rants that you post. But I take my financial advice from independent advisors, Hargreaves Lansdown Who's advice is just about diametrically opposed to your's. As they declare profits several hundred million pounds and get me a good return on my investments I would conclude their advice is probably worth paying for where as yours most certainly isn't!

[Mecky]

The debt needs to be paid it's as simple as that, if the OP can come up with a brilliant scheme then I'm all ears.

 

Currently the only option is to slash costs and/or increase taxes.

 

Since most people don't want massive tax increases we'll have to slash costs.

 

The debt is not the problem, the western world is still reeling from the 2008 crash

[Dingus]

The debt is not the problem, the western world is still reeling from the 2008 crash

 

Only the ones that crashed in 2008 are. The ones who saw it coming, or listened when other told them it was coming, seem to have done quite well.

[Anna B]

Only the ones that crashed in 2008 are. The ones who saw it coming, or listened when other told them it was coming, seem to have done quite well.

 

According to Gordon Brown, and I quote, 'No one saw it coming.'

Ranks in the same league as Cameron's 'We're all in it together.'

 

Just shows what total liars politicians are, and how stupid they think we are.

[Staunton]

Well not quite the end. You see the UK still has a budget deficit of over £100 billion. So defaulting might get rid of our debt but would do nothing for the deficit, although it would mean our credit rating was non existent. So with a budget shortfall of £100 million and no credit we would have to make cuts of £100 million per year on top of the cuts already made.

But of course it gets worse. Many of he countries creditors are UK pension funds, taxpayers etc. And many creditors of foreign debt are also British funds and taxpayers. So a global default would also wipe £10s of billions off the UKs tax revenues, and without credit would also require more cuts.

 

So we would be slightly down market of Greece. Most of the NHS would have to go, along with anything available that the government could sell like municipal buildings, railways, motorways, military equipment. The end result would be another 2/3 million out of work, which would increase welfare payments and cut tax revenues making more cuts necessary. This would lead to....etc etc etc...

 

The budget deficit is £100 Billion? Well by a strange coincidence that is about one year's worth of tax chicanery by the multinationals here in the UK.

[Dingus]

According to Gordon Brown, and I quote, 'No one saw it coming.'

Ranks in the same league as Cameron's 'We're all in it together.'

 

Just shows what total liars politicians are, and how stupid they think we are.

 

I always thought Brown's classic was "An end to boom & bust". Although to be fair there wasn't much boom before the bust phase.

[Anna B]

So what's the solution?

 

There's more of us being played than there is the rich, we can out vote them in an election and put the powers that we want in charge. If we can find the powers who can enact this mystical solution without ruining the country even more.

 

Who would you vote for? Short lists of candidates are drawn up by the same politicians who want more like themselves in power, not the ones who rock the boat and can actually change things.

 

Forget the idea that politicians have the interests of the people uppermost in their minds; with just a few exceptions, they are only in it for themselves.

[geared]

According to Gordon Brown, and I quote, 'No one saw it coming.'

Ranks in the same league as Cameron's 'We're all in it together.'

 

Just shows what total liars politicians are, and how stupid they think we are.

 

I find that one galling, especially if you follow how the Chinese are conducting their economy (ok it's very different to ours)

 

However, they are currently putting the brakes on things to slow growth (which has raced to 10% per year for a while)

They're looking to stabilise it around 7% and maintain a slower but stable long-term growth.

 

Why can out lot never figure this one out