4 ms·

For the last 50+ years, Western governments have largely acted to funnel wealth from the poor to to the wealthy. Each economic crisis seerms to have ushered in

by jmyeet 11mo ago

For the last 50+ years, Western governments have largely acted to funnel wealth from the poor to to the wealthy. Each economic crisis seerms to have ushered in a big jump in inequality. The OPEC oil crisis, 1987, recessions in the 1980s and 1990s, the dot-com bubble, the GFC and Covid. Ultimately this is going to correct. My preference is that it corrects by governments enforcing a fairer distribution because otherwise it's going to end violently and we're rapidly approaching a point of no return where the wealthy hold so much power and there's nothing left to steal. Basic human necessities like food, water and shelter are being eroded. You can look at a bunch of warnings like this. Food bank usage, claims for various forms of welfare (such that it is), homelessness (and housing insecurity more generally), levels of debt, etc. Sadly, I personally believe we're beyond the point of no return where it comes to solving these problems with electoral politics. The world is going to sink deeper into fascism and for awhile "order" will be maintained with ever-increasing police states. In the UK in particular, Labor has predictably completely failed to address affordability issues. Keir Starmer will likely be ousted in a leadership challenge and the likely winner of the next election is Reform. All so a handful of people can have even more wealth they just don't need.

ukrefugee 11mo ago
tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever also self entitlement, reliance on the government is at the highest, individual autonomy is at the lowest ever
- barbazoo 11mo ago
  Source?
  - ukrefugee 11mo ago
    24 million people receiving benefits (aka cash) in uk https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-august-2025/benefit-combinations-official-statistics-to-february-2025 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statis... in addition to the usual free everything free health care free roads free housing (often) free education free riding and on top of it you get to complain about the rich!
    - AlecSchueler 11mo ago
      That source doesn't cover the claims you made.
    - Joeboy 11mo ago
      > 24 million people receiving benefits (aka cash) in uk It looks like most of those people are claiming State Pension / Pension Credit. Which doesn't make it not true, but it's maybe not what most people will think of first when you talk about benefit claimants.
    - duncanfwalker 11mo ago
      Spending is paid for out of tax and all those people will have paid tax. Paying less tax than someone else doesn't make a free rider. Deliberately opting out of an obligation while taking from the group makes a free rider.
- vivekd 11mo ago
  I believe your statement can be 100% true without affecting the truth of the parents statement. It's possible for a government to charge high taxes and have high social spending while also funneling larger and larger amounts from the poor to the rich through regulations and government agencies that favor and act for the interests of the rich.
  - ukrefugee 11mo ago
    what are the rich anyway. UK average citizen is in the top 95 percentile in global wealth. there are no poor in UK, just wasted opportunities. if you want to listen how massive inequality is created in UK, start by looking at immigration
    - solumunus 11mo ago
      You will find inequality growing in Japan and South Korea where there’s very low immigration. How do you explain this?
      - mindslight 11mo ago
        The same scapegoat of immigrants in the UK, obviously.
- haizhung 11mo ago
  Obviously every nominal value is going to be higher YoY. That just immediately follows from inflation. Almost every year in almost every country will have: - record GDP - record government spending - record total wages - record stock market prices - record asset prices - record government debt You need to put these values in relation to something, otherwise they don’t mean anything. For the UK, take for instance the public sector net wealth (Ie. Everything the UK public collectively owns). It collapsed drastically, from 220bn in 2006 to -900 bn in 2025. Absolutely off the charts. As a result of this, the government can’t provide health care and basic support for its citizens anymore. Question: who has all this wealth now, who is the UK indebted to? https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/timeseries/j8rq/pusf https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxe...
  - ukrefugee 11mo ago
    https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/298478/public-sector-expenditure-as-share-of-gdp-united-kingdom-uk.jpg https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/298478/public-sector-expe... no, I speak in relative values to GDP only during WW2 was spending higher. on top of it UK does no longer spend on military or infrastructure, it goes overwhelmingly to consumption of dependent population
  - tome 11mo ago
    > > tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever > Obviously every nominal value is going to be higher YoY It's not just nominal. You can see on the Institute for Fiscal Studies website that, as proportion of GDP, public spending has not been notably higher than since the second world war: https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-data-item/uk-government-spending-over-time https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-data-item/uk-government-spe...
- bluescrn 11mo ago
  Government competence seems lower than ever. There's just no ability to get anything done. Whether it's big projects (HS2) or the basics (emptying bins, fixing potholes), nothing seems to work any more. And it feels like most of our tax is being converted directly into private profits while getting very little done.
  - adammarples 11mo ago
    But the covid enquiry just cost £200 million, proving that we have world beating enquiries. No, it's not finished yet.
- webdevver 11mo ago
  i assume you left the uk - out of curiosity, where did you move to?
  - fy20 11mo ago
    No OP but I left right before Brexit and live in an Eastern European country now. We still have a lot of the problems as the UK, but what I like is that individual autonomy is a lot higher. That has two faces though, as it means if you are earning minimum wage or have some kind of disability and can't work it's probably a worse place to be, as the social support is a lot weaker. On the other hand if you are earning a decent wage (think generic office worker) you can live a pretty good lifestyle. Safety, health care, education, housing, opportunties are all much better than the UK. Taxes are about the same, corruption I'd say is worse (on paper it's better), roads are worse (partially due to our climate being harsher).

by jmyeet 11mo ago

ukrefugee 11mo ago

tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever also self entitlement, reliance on the government is at the highest, individual autonomy is at the lowest ever

barbazoo 11mo ago
Source?
- ukrefugee 11mo ago
  24 million people receiving benefits (aka cash) in uk https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-august-2025/benefit-combinations-official-statistics-to-february-2025 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statis... in addition to the usual free everything free health care free roads free housing (often) free education free riding and on top of it you get to complain about the rich!
  - AlecSchueler 11mo ago
    That source doesn't cover the claims you made.
  - Joeboy 11mo ago
    > 24 million people receiving benefits (aka cash) in uk It looks like most of those people are claiming State Pension / Pension Credit. Which doesn't make it not true, but it's maybe not what most people will think of first when you talk about benefit claimants.
  - duncanfwalker 11mo ago
    Spending is paid for out of tax and all those people will have paid tax. Paying less tax than someone else doesn't make a free rider. Deliberately opting out of an obligation while taking from the group makes a free rider.
vivekd 11mo ago
I believe your statement can be 100% true without affecting the truth of the parents statement. It's possible for a government to charge high taxes and have high social spending while also funneling larger and larger amounts from the poor to the rich through regulations and government agencies that favor and act for the interests of the rich.
- ukrefugee 11mo ago
  what are the rich anyway. UK average citizen is in the top 95 percentile in global wealth. there are no poor in UK, just wasted opportunities. if you want to listen how massive inequality is created in UK, start by looking at immigration
  - solumunus 11mo ago
    You will find inequality growing in Japan and South Korea where there’s very low immigration. How do you explain this?
    - mindslight 11mo ago
      The same scapegoat of immigrants in the UK, obviously.
haizhung 11mo ago
Obviously every nominal value is going to be higher YoY. That just immediately follows from inflation. Almost every year in almost every country will have: - record GDP - record government spending - record total wages - record stock market prices - record asset prices - record government debt You need to put these values in relation to something, otherwise they don’t mean anything. For the UK, take for instance the public sector net wealth (Ie. Everything the UK public collectively owns). It collapsed drastically, from 220bn in 2006 to -900 bn in 2025. Absolutely off the charts. As a result of this, the government can’t provide health care and basic support for its citizens anymore. Question: who has all this wealth now, who is the UK indebted to? https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/timeseries/j8rq/pusf https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxe...
- ukrefugee 11mo ago
  https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/298478/public-sector-expenditure-as-share-of-gdp-united-kingdom-uk.jpg https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/298478/public-sector-expe... no, I speak in relative values to GDP only during WW2 was spending higher. on top of it UK does no longer spend on military or infrastructure, it goes overwhelmingly to consumption of dependent population
- tome 11mo ago
  > > tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever > Obviously every nominal value is going to be higher YoY It's not just nominal. You can see on the Institute for Fiscal Studies website that, as proportion of GDP, public spending has not been notably higher than since the second world war: https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-data-item/uk-government-spending-over-time https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-data-item/uk-government-spe...
bluescrn 11mo ago
Government competence seems lower than ever. There's just no ability to get anything done. Whether it's big projects (HS2) or the basics (emptying bins, fixing potholes), nothing seems to work any more. And it feels like most of our tax is being converted directly into private profits while getting very little done.
- adammarples 11mo ago
  But the covid enquiry just cost £200 million, proving that we have world beating enquiries. No, it's not finished yet.
webdevver 11mo ago
i assume you left the uk - out of curiosity, where did you move to?
- fy20 11mo ago
  No OP but I left right before Brexit and live in an Eastern European country now. We still have a lot of the problems as the UK, but what I like is that individual autonomy is a lot higher. That has two faces though, as it means if you are earning minimum wage or have some kind of disability and can't work it's probably a worse place to be, as the social support is a lot weaker. On the other hand if you are earning a decent wage (think generic office worker) you can live a pretty good lifestyle. Safety, health care, education, housing, opportunties are all much better than the UK. Taxes are about the same, corruption I'd say is worse (on paper it's better), roads are worse (partially due to our climate being harsher).