I don’t want to hear any ‘I refuse to pay for feckless benefits scroungers’ shit either - pensioners are, through no fault of their own or anyone’s, the biggest portion of the welfare budget by a country mile, to make no mention of the NHS.
We should be proud to contribute to support every part of society who needs it, according to and proportionate with our ability to do so. People like this are just saying they think they should be exempt. They are, in the most literal sense possible, selfish.
Two groups in society that are some of the biggest net beneficiaries of the state are parents and pensioners.
Neither of those are bad. We should invest in our future generations and look after our old.
But yeah, when one of those groups then chastises others…
The whole taxing my pension thing is nuts too. It completely ignores the tax relief originally gained. Disproportionally beneficial for those in higher incomes.
And in this case the huge benefit of asset inflation. Who do they think pays the cost there?
Non-state Pension systems globally tax at some point regardless - either on contributions, on investment returns the fund makes or on the pensioner when they draw down - and there’s no consistency globally. (The really weird one are Oz superannuation funds)
(Where the collective fund is taxed until a pensioner retires and starts drawing down, at which point their part of the overall pension fund becomes tax exempt, which just seems really odd from a compounded growth perspective iyam)
(But the most successful bit of soft propaganda that was necessary to get the British PAYG system off the ground was that it is not a benefit. The amount of people who will vociferously deny that an amount given to you by the government paid out of general taxation could actually be one…)
Absolutely. The word ‘burden’ is so overused in the country when referring to tax. UK taxes are less than the European average but we want better than European level services….
It just feels wild to me to look at the state of basically everything in Britain and not enthusiastically call for higher taxes. But of course most actual people want them, and the electoral scramble to not talk about it is aimed at marginal groups.
I saw this from that other site. Seems they're allegedly off to Australia...where there is a Labor (Aus spelling) government.
The tax system there will crucify them!
Oh how little they must value their home, their neighbours, community and surroundings, if that's all it takes for them to uproot their entire life. Tragic, really. 😔
They are actually quite poor – and more money wouldn't help them in their most unfortunate kind of poverty.
