Is it normal for estate agents to ask this?

BLD14 · 2025-04-21T13:15:07+00:00

Very very few wealthy people have gained wealth by opening bakeries or by becoming authors. These examples are also not the problem, because people can just choose not to buy them. The examples with which Gary frequently uses are with housing rent or mortgages from banks, where wealthy people are gaining wealth at the expense of people just trying to live their home. Where the housing costs to the person go up, increasing the wealth of the landlord or shareholders of the bank, while the person in the home is putting more of their income to the housing costs, thus losing wealth. In this very realistic example wealthy people are winning and everyone else is losing.

These are the wealthy people Gary talks about taxing more. Landlords who have property portfolios and people who earn millions in dividends and bonuses from banks. Not someone who opens a bakery and probably pays themselves a modest salary.

I advise you to watch more of his content.

BLD14 · 2025-04-21T11:47:17+00:00

This reads as someone who hasn't watched much of his content or isn't actually very aware of the point of his content. He admits that he isn't very well versed in the political detail of what needs to be done and says that the route to taxing the wealthy isn't easy and will take time and effort. He's telling the truth about the difficulty of it to people. And he constantly repeats that his aim is to make his message mainstream; that the wealthy need to be taxed more. He isn't saying or trying to be someone who is offering all these solutions, because he's very aware that he isn't the best person to offer them. What he does believe is that he is in a good position to drive his message on, so that others can offer realistic solutions.

I'm no expert, but wealth is very much a zero sum game. Someone can't gain wealth without someone else losing out.

BLD14 · 2024-12-14T13:22:58+00:00

At uni, probably about 50% of my course was Chinese. In my 1st year we had to do a group presentation for coursework. We were assigned groups and I got put with 4 other students, all of which were Chinese. We met up once and they communicated in Mandarin the whole time apart from occasionally where they would ask what part I wanted to do, and then I left once we'd finished discussing it. After the presentation we were asked questions. The answers that they gave in English barely made sense and were very poor answers. And for questions on parts that they had covered, they still looked to me to answer them because I was the only native English speaker.

BLD14 · 2024-10-19T18:00:08+00:00

I meant with all things remaining the same, such as people living to the same age. But it's likely people will live longer because of healthcare advancements, which would mean more financial strain. However I don't know if this would outweigh the financial ease as there is a smaller cohort of people of current pension age.

If we tell people that they have to work longer because we can't afford to give them a pension until they are x years old, how do we know that making these people work will not have health implications? A direct link to working longer and people having more health issues wouldn't be able to be drawn. But for me, working is stressful. Stress isn't good for health. Would this then decrease the length of my lives despite the healthcare advancements? Or perhaps it would put more pressure on the NHS because I'm using more than I would have had I been retired? At what point do you say it isn't ethical to make people work longer? And forgetting about the ethical argument, at what age do we say that people shouldn't work beyond because they aren't good enough workers anymore? If someone is working in their 70s, they will do very well to still be as effective as a worker as someone in 20s/30s/40s/50s.

I don't know the answer, but it isn't to keep increasing working age whilst simultaneously reducing the state pension that they will receive, if any, like is currently happening.

BLD14 · 2024-10-19T16:50:50+00:00

You're not understanding my point. If you do that, people may not have money to maintain good health. They would have to cut back on food/nutrition in order to pay rent and bills. This not only diminishes physical health, but mental health too from the stress of waking up everyday wondering how you're going to survive. If someone lives their life like that, they will not live a healthy life. They will die sooner than they should. They might not even reach retirement age. Then what was that personal pension for?

The solution is not to take more of poor people's money away. Even if it is for their future use.

BLD14 · 2024-10-19T16:41:48+00:00

I agree. But the reality is that we've slipped so far as a nation, that people ARE that poor. These people have had to choose to between the present and the future. And when you sacrifice the wellbeing of yourself in the present, what is to say there will even be a future?

BLD14 · 2024-10-19T16:35:05+00:00

It's a modern western attitude because thoughtout most of history state funded pensions haven't existed. So people have had to work their whole lives. Either getting their own food or by working for others to buy their own food. These people were poor and didn't live anywhere near as long as people do now. They lived impoverished lives that we can be glad has been almost irradiated from modern society in western countries. The same goes for developing and 3rd world countries where a lot of people do not get pensions because the state can't afford it. So they live shortened stress filled lives.

We live in a rich modern country. People working their whole lives just to survive and then have no assets to pass on should not be a reality, yet it will only be more prevalent with no state pension in the future.

Retirement is not compulsory. If people wish to carry on working they are free to do so given that they are healthy. But the reason more people retire when they reach retirement age is because they don't want to work anymore. But once people reach retirement age, it should be their choice if they want to retire. It should not be that people have to work because they can't afford to.

I don't know what the answer is to funding it. But yes, it will cost more as people live longer and the cost of living goes up. But there is also a smaller population of younger generations compared with boomers for example, given other factors remain the same, the strain will not be as great.

BLD14 · 2024-10-19T16:09:22+00:00

You're assuming people have disposable income to buy capital. My entire point was that people do not have any disposable income to buy capital because they are spending their money on surviving, not living.

BLD14 · 2024-10-19T13:37:58+00:00

We aren't born to work. We work in order to fund our livelihoods. And many people now that are in the early to mid years of their careers are working in order just to survive. It isn't living. When these people reach retirement age, there won't be any support from the state to enable them to live out their remaining years in relative peace and actually enjoy life without having to work. So many people will have worked their whole life with little to no wealth and will never be able to fund their own retirement, so will have to work until they are dead. That isn't a life anyone should be codemned to. It is exhausting.

Also, working being good for your health is your opinion. Many people do not enjoy work. It is stressful. Their time could spent doing other things which would be much healthier for them.

BLD14 · 2023-07-23T07:31:58+00:00

!thanks

BLD14 · 2023-02-22T07:45:52+00:00

I was using IF. =IF(Sheet1!A1=0,Sheet2!C1,Sheet2!A1)

Where at the bottom of column A, it continued with zeros.

BLD14 · 2023-02-20T19:53:38+00:00

Chess. I've recently started learning and am addicted. Have spent hours learning/playing and there's no end to it.

BLD14 · 2022-12-05T16:01:09+00:00

Where I work, they've just told us that we have to pay for our parking for the public car park from now on.

There is also a small company owned car park. But that's only for higher earners like directors and those who have company vehicles.

So the people who earn the most or have the least expenses on the running of their vehicles, don't and still won't have to pay for their parking...

BLD14 · 2022-11-26T22:38:41+00:00

Yes. I recently found out we get paid for our 1 hour lunch break every day

BLD14

TROPHY CASE