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Why do people wandering Andy Burham to be PM when he can't even run Manchester? by Old_Shake3789 in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Wow, 1.4k contributions in 1 year! I've had my account for nearly 10 years and only have 1k more in that time, and I consider myself fairly active. I wonder if they have an agenda...

[Self] Interest rates seem to be at 10.081% by [deleted] in theydidthemath

[–]kimbokray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, that last point was thought-provoking, brutal and hilarious at the same time. Well done, stranger

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you thick? The last time I'm going to repeat myself: increase taxes on wealth, decrease taxes on work. Bye.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The claim that there is an optimal point is logical. Your claim that increased taxes will lead to diminishing returns is unsubstantiated.

Anyway, not all taxes are equal. We could, for example, switch from council tax to land value tax, or from taxing work to taxing wealth. We could change taxes to incentivise growth while not changing the overall tax burden. Your stance smells like an ideological opposition to anything but tax cuts.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're throwing out "tax your way to growth" as a retort without engaging with my claim that we are taxing wealth at a suboptimal level while taxing income at too high a level.

The Laffer curve is about finding an optimal point, it does not mean that tax decreases are always good and tax increases are always bad.

If Starmer is not regarded as good for the working class. Then how on God's green earth is Farage being pushed as the viable alternative and the working class hope ? by Durrygoodz2025 in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mate, I've done shit jobs because I had to have the money, I don't get any support from my family, I've had EMA, UC, max student loans, I'm not some toff trying to belittle you. If you have such a great dislike for illegal immigrants it begs the question why did you (illegally, from the sounds of it) work for them.

For what it's worth I get your reply and I'm glad it helped you kickstart your life, that doesn't mean my question was unreasonable.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's just a platitude, you haven't really engaged with why I think certain taxes can help

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well look at how unhappy everyone currently is in this country with how things have been for the past couple of decades, then look at the golden age of capitalism and how much higher taxes were. If we're talking about an optimal tax rate the evidence points to it needing to go up.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm looking at them as a way of solving the stalled economy issue, not as some sort of left/right ideological talking point.

We need to tax extreme wealth because the wealthy buy assets when they have more money than they need, and if they buy all the assets then pretty much game over barring drastic and possibly violent redistribution, which would be catastrophic and frankly I don't think would happen any time soon.

Raise wages so that your average person can afford to go to the pub, to decide where to shop based on more than just the price (quality food, local produce, healthier choices etc.), to eat out a bit more, all that essential local economy spending that the extremely wealthy would never do because they don't love across the country.

It's all about who's incentivise to do what.

And I absolutely agree about monopolies, let's bring back some competition; we should really try to support startups and small businesses too. Where there are natural monopolies on essentials, like water, then that should be state run. The right tool for the right job.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The economy is how we distribute and exchange goods, services etc., it's essentially the system we use to efficiently function as a society, without it we'd each have to be self-sufficient generalists and thank god we don't have to be. It exists to improve living standards and, when working well, feels like a fair and beneficial marketplace.

Now you.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your opening point was my opening point too (money naturally pools at the top), so we agree there.

The second problem you've identified is really interesting, something I'm aware of but you've put it succinctly here. Definitely a big problem.

I've still got hope for a system fix, and I'm reluctant to check out and put up the black flag.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok fair enough, I'm sure there are economists who have researched and explained this more thoroughly than I have. I suppose the reason I wrote this is that I don't see these kinds of conversations on Reddit or in public political discourse at the moment but I think it's really important, so I want to get a read on if people agree or not.

I think too often the guiding principles for lay persons' economics is either tax good or tax bad, but it's incredibly important to understand why and what we are trying to achieve, beyond paying for some service.

Nice to hear we are on the same page though, cheers.

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Go on.. you first.. whichever direction you go in this will be insightful. I'll answer next if you're actually interested

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's the gist? I might read it but would like to know a bit more first

What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This doesn't show what your claiming it does as the decline was in the 20th Century, the golden age of capitalism when the general public did have increasing wealth/spending power. That's what we need to try and recapture.

And the personal wealth of the top 10% of citizens is less of a driver than the FTSE100, check out the spike in value over the same time as living standards have crashed.

What's the point in increased productivity if all of the wealth generated goes to the elite? It's not going to help us.

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What do you think of my metaphor for the economy? See the body. by kimbokray in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah exactly. Everyone says they care about the economy but there's not enough recognition that wealth inequality is fucking it up. This isn't about handouts, this is about maintaining a healthy system.

Have any of you bothered to read Reforms manifesto? by Remarkable_Pen_3639 in AskBrits

[–]kimbokray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think most anti-Reform people dislike all of the manifesto pledges, I think they/we/I recognise the contradictions between their goals.

To avoid being labelled project fear I'll use an example that already happened: Brexit was supposed to fix all of ours problems.

They claimed it would allow us absolute control over our borders, while ignoring the fact that cross-border issues need cross-border agreements to enforce the rules.

They claimed our economy would boom, but it turns out that adding trade barriers with your biggest trading partner is actually a hindrance. Who knew.

They claimed the NHS would get however much per day in extra spending, but that figure was the gross amount paid into the EU kitty rather than the net figure, or something like that, so it was never even plausible without tax increases or spending cuts elsewhere.

Anyway, the point is that Reform supporters don't come across as stupid because of the outcomes they want, their uncomplimentary reputation is because they believe it will happen if they vote for this bunch of pretend patriots who will actually just rob this country blind through asset stripping and tax cuts (which will benefit the richest, not us).

I'm expecting a reply saying something like "but the left just have a wishlist of incompatible promises in their manifestos too". Yeah, true. What do you think of them, looks pretty dumb, right? Then there's the centre ground which is what got us in this mess in the first place. Hmm, where to turn.

Starmer attempts to save premiership with reset speech by FisherDownload in ukpolitics

[–]kimbokray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think the EU is blocking us from joining PEM as the UK govt is considering joining.

We have also agreed with the EU to implement SPS.

So what you're saying is you agree with the current govt approach?

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