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Everything accrues to the rich. Tax breaks, handouts, benefits all for the rich. The people in power are rich therefore they look after the rich. There’s no m

Everything accrues to the rich. Tax breaks, handouts, benefits all for the rich. The people in power are rich therefore they look after the rich. There’s no middle class any more, just people who own houses and the poor. There’s ostensibly two political parties but in fact they both represent the rich. I’m talking Australia here but wouldn’t be surprised if the trend was the same around the world.

bamboozled 3y ago
I know right, can't these people just get into robotics, space tech or AI startups? geez \s
- sparrowInHand 3y ago
  Or at least get a job, writting crude unjust-world-justification blogspam. Obviously they lack noble blood and inflicted this upon themselves. If you measure the noose to cheek ratio, they all fall short of an Elon.
short_sells_poo 3y ago
The UK seems to be uniquely hostile to the middle class. It sports a trifecta of: 1. High taxes. The marginal tax rate from 37k onwards is 40%, and that's just the income tax. On top of this there's national insurance (another couple of %). 2. Poor services and infrastructure. The roads are crumbling, massive potholes even in the richets towns and cities. Public transport is falling apart. There have been near constant strikes or disruptions in the past couple of years. 3. High concentration of wealth and a significant "housing as an investment" culture. Unless you are born into wealth or happen to luck your way into finance in London - the only high paying industry and location - you'll earn fairly little money. The government then takes a large portion of this money and gives you very little in return. Both the infrastructure and the living standards of former Eastern Bloc countries are now better than the average in the UK. A friend of mine summed it up neatly: the UK acts as if it was a first world country, whereas in reality it is a developing country. It needs to start thinking like a developing country, the policies it adops need to be that of a developing country. I'm an expat, but I like it here and I really like the people. It breaks my heart how much of a shitshow the country has become and how much each day the hope of a better tomorrow slips away.
- 15457345234 3y ago
  Without sounding too much like a conspiracy theorist, the UK has always seemed to me like a fairly 'sewn up' place with a lot of sheep and a few wolves. If you show too much enthusiasm for not being a sheep you're gently reminded that the exit is always open: before it was the colonies (either by choice or by transportation!) today it's Australia/NZ or America - the door is always open and it's trivial to get into either one of those countries (by marriage) Thatcher fought the system and tried to free people (please don't laugh) and set a lot of people on an upward trajectory, being able to own their first home which is key to building wealth and a hugely powerful black PR network set about demonising her the moment she left office. She's now utterly reviled despite winning a gigantic share of the vote on several occasions and doing a huge amount to set the working classes free of rentiers. The 'public housing selloff' in the UK wouldn't have been a scandal if new public housing had been built but the idea of building that stuff just to sell it to the 'proles' really didn't go over well with those who hold the purse strings so they basically vetoed any more ever being built from that point on. Now it's even worse, many new housing developments are shared ownership, even with cash you can't buy outright, you have to accept owning only a share and paying rent forever. Also it's virtually impossible to build your own house or even have anything constructed that has any sort of interesting architecture. The difference between UK small towns and French/German small towns is ludicrous - in Europe the architecture has long since adapted to modern living patterns and styles, in the UK the houses still need to be built with a certain 'look' because 'that's the UK look' and it's so tedious. Vested interests in the UK have simply been there too long to accept any challenge to their power. They just point to the door.
  - short_sells_poo 3y ago
    I suspect there's at least a grain of truth to what you write. The housing stock (even newly built) in the UK is atrocious. The quality is really poor, unless you pay a massive premium. And I agree with you: it all looks the same dreary brown. Everything has to be identical baby diarrhea brown and the same design. And somehow nobody seems to be keen to demolish and replace the terrible 60s-70s houses either. Why is that? It costs too much? Or someone, somewhere actually enforces that the design must remain as it is? I have yet to see a new development where I can say: oh this looks nice and positive. I don't know who to blame for this, whether it's some funky conservation societies who wield way too much power, or whether it is self inflicted dreariness that people somehow like.
cynicalsecurity 3y ago
Damn those rich. If only we could take their riches and divide it amongst ourselves, then it would have been a paradise on Earth! Wait, comrades, why am I in the gulag, where are you dragging me... Please don't shoooot...
- andrewstuart 3y ago
  Whenever any concern is shown for the massive wealth inequality, always people like this yell “communism!” There’s no empathy or desire for everyone in society to do well, just unbridled greed.

bamboozled 3y ago

I know right, can't these people just get into robotics, space tech or AI startups? geez \s

sparrowInHand 3y ago
Or at least get a job, writting crude unjust-world-justification blogspam. Obviously they lack noble blood and inflicted this upon themselves. If you measure the noose to cheek ratio, they all fall short of an Elon.

short_sells_poo 3y ago

The UK seems to be uniquely hostile to the middle class. It sports a trifecta of: 1. High taxes. The marginal tax rate from 37k onwards is 40%, and that's just the income tax. On top of this there's national insurance (another couple of %). 2. Poor services and infrastructure. The roads are crumbling, massive potholes even in the richets towns and cities. Public transport is falling apart. There have been near constant strikes or disruptions in the past couple of years. 3. High concentration of wealth and a significant "housing as an investment" culture. Unless you are born into wealth or happen to luck your way into finance in London - the only high paying industry and location - you'll earn fairly little money. The government then takes a large portion of this money and gives you very little in return. Both the infrastructure and the living standards of former Eastern Bloc countries are now better than the average in the UK. A friend of mine summed it up neatly: the UK acts as if it was a first world country, whereas in reality it is a developing country. It needs to start thinking like a developing country, the policies it adops need to be that of a developing country. I'm an expat, but I like it here and I really like the people. It breaks my heart how much of a shitshow the country has become and how much each day the hope of a better tomorrow slips away.

15457345234 3y ago
Without sounding too much like a conspiracy theorist, the UK has always seemed to me like a fairly 'sewn up' place with a lot of sheep and a few wolves. If you show too much enthusiasm for not being a sheep you're gently reminded that the exit is always open: before it was the colonies (either by choice or by transportation!) today it's Australia/NZ or America - the door is always open and it's trivial to get into either one of those countries (by marriage) Thatcher fought the system and tried to free people (please don't laugh) and set a lot of people on an upward trajectory, being able to own their first home which is key to building wealth and a hugely powerful black PR network set about demonising her the moment she left office. She's now utterly reviled despite winning a gigantic share of the vote on several occasions and doing a huge amount to set the working classes free of rentiers. The 'public housing selloff' in the UK wouldn't have been a scandal if new public housing had been built but the idea of building that stuff just to sell it to the 'proles' really didn't go over well with those who hold the purse strings so they basically vetoed any more ever being built from that point on. Now it's even worse, many new housing developments are shared ownership, even with cash you can't buy outright, you have to accept owning only a share and paying rent forever. Also it's virtually impossible to build your own house or even have anything constructed that has any sort of interesting architecture. The difference between UK small towns and French/German small towns is ludicrous - in Europe the architecture has long since adapted to modern living patterns and styles, in the UK the houses still need to be built with a certain 'look' because 'that's the UK look' and it's so tedious. Vested interests in the UK have simply been there too long to accept any challenge to their power. They just point to the door.
- short_sells_poo 3y ago
  I suspect there's at least a grain of truth to what you write. The housing stock (even newly built) in the UK is atrocious. The quality is really poor, unless you pay a massive premium. And I agree with you: it all looks the same dreary brown. Everything has to be identical baby diarrhea brown and the same design. And somehow nobody seems to be keen to demolish and replace the terrible 60s-70s houses either. Why is that? It costs too much? Or someone, somewhere actually enforces that the design must remain as it is? I have yet to see a new development where I can say: oh this looks nice and positive. I don't know who to blame for this, whether it's some funky conservation societies who wield way too much power, or whether it is self inflicted dreariness that people somehow like.

cynicalsecurity 3y ago

Damn those rich. If only we could take their riches and divide it amongst ourselves, then it would have been a paradise on Earth! Wait, comrades, why am I in the gulag, where are you dragging me... Please don't shoooot...

andrewstuart 3y ago
Whenever any concern is shown for the massive wealth inequality, always people like this yell “communism!” There’s no empathy or desire for everyone in society to do well, just unbridled greed.