Stubads

Raiders and LUFC fan, both have a habit of letting me down but it doesn’t stop me loving being part of it. #Raidernation 4L and #MOT

[Daniel Priestley @DanielPriestley]

Gary’s theory is that the cause of wealth inequality is wealth inequality.

In his Oxford thesis he claims that wealthy people become rich, buy assets and then use their passive income to buy more and more assets. He also claims that the rich don’t pay taxes like the rest of us.

If his theory was correct and the UK was experiencing a wealth inequality crisis the share of wealth held by the top 1% would be rising. It’s not - it’s been stable for decades.

The two reasons we are seeing issues at the bottom of the economic pyramid is because of technology and low skilled migration.

Technology is replacing entry level jobs and to the degree that there are entry level jobs the UK now has a large population of low skilled migrants competing for these jobs. Those two factors put massive downward pressure on people at the lower end of the economy.

What we are seeing is millions of young people who are economically inactive. Millions of people whose only economic opportunity is to claim any available government benefits. It has nothing to do with the rich.

The cost of housing has also risen. It’s not because a tiny group of elites buy up houses. It’s because the government had a decade of low interest rates and stimulus and an aging population don’t want to sell their homes and pay stamp duty on a smaller place. We actually have over 9M homes with 2+ spare rooms. Rich people are not interested in owning a 3BR terraced home in the midlands.

It’s easy to blame the rich for the problems we see but the truth is hard to hear… The UK is only surviving because we still have about 3M high earners who are paying historically high taxes. Actually just 300,000 people (1 in 100) are paying a third of the taxes and 30,000 of them (1 in 1000) are paying 10% of the tax bill. In a country with 70M people a few football stadiums of hard working, responsible, enterprising people are paying disproportionate taxes and demonising them isn’t helpful or based on any accurate data.

[Jay @_jaylawrence]

A lifetime of income tax… in just four years?

Most people probably underestimate just how progressive the UK’s income tax system is.

Take someone earning the UK’s median full-time salary of around £39,000.

They’ll pay roughly £5,300 a year in income tax.

Now compare that with someone earning £150,000.

They’ll pay around £53,700.

That’s more than 10x as much income tax…

…despite earning less than 4x the salary.

Over 4 years, the £150,000 earner will have paid approximately £215,000 in income tax.

That’s roughly the same amount of income tax the median full-time worker pays across an entire working life.

A median full-time worker keeps around 86p of every £1 they earn after income tax.

Someone earning £150,000 keeps around 64p of every £1.

Many people imagine a £150,000 salary guarantees financial freedom.

In reality, many high earners are paying extraordinary amounts of tax while still facing many of the same affordability challenges as everyone else, especially if living and working in London.

Whether you think that’s fair or not is a matter of opinion.

But it illustrates just how dependent the UK’s income tax system is on higher earners.

[All Leeds Away @allleedsaway]

Leeds United fan Mick Hewitt was travelling to Boston via Barcelona for the World Cup but he has not been seen or heard from for 9 days.

Please share this post in the hope that he can be found safe and well. #lufc

[Phil Hay @PhilHay_]

Lots of Leeds fans will know Mick - if anyone can help, please do

[Daniel Priestley @DanielPriestley]

Two misconceptions that need to be cleared up…

1. The UK never had austerity - government spending has been rising year over year for decades. The tories said the word”austerity” a lot but didn’t actually do it.

2. There is no wealth inequality crisis in the UK. The share of wealth in the top 1% and top 10% has been stable for decades. People like @garyseconomicsare sounding the alarm but can’t point to actual data that supports the cause to panic.

[Stubads @BaddeleyStuart]

@lufcstats Lucas?

[Mees Wynants @MeesWynants]

Only 8 million people pay for the entire United Kingdom.

The UK has 70 million people. 40 million pay no tax at all. Of the 30 million who do, only 8 million pay more into the system than they take out. They are funding a government that keeps importing more people who take more out than they put in.

This is pure economic and civilizational suicide of the UK.

[Luke Robert Black 🌳 @lukerobertblack]

.@RishiSunak was right. “You name it, they will tax it”.

We were warned, time and time again.

[Hilton Holloway @hiltonholloway]

'Austerity'

[Liam Deacon @LiamDeacon]

Is she crossing her fingers like a sulky teenager?

Just googled this fierce socialist anti-imperialist.

Private school, from a wealthy British military family, and a long line of English colonial academics.

It's all an act. Even the accent.

Wealthy socialist indulging and benefiting from all the things they'd deny working people. Classic.

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

Remarkably, this was posted exactly two years ago today.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Your SNP campaigned to stop further exploration/exploitation of the North Sea and opposed new nuclear power stations in Scotland. So what exactly are you on about?

[Scott Goetz @ScottGoetz_]

You would think that student loans exist to fund the continuation of the higher education system but no they are just rip off taxation to fund welfare.

[Cat @catdeans]

This is awful. The last ever Denby Pottery going to the kiln. Why is there not uproar? Where’s the government in this?? We all have Denby in our homes, in family heirlooms, as our history and now it’s closing through lack of support, such a sad sad day. #SaveDenby @denbypottery

[Lewis Deighton @LewisDeighton17]

The clubs’ graphic design, video production, social media output and marketing has been exceptional this past 18 months.

Easy to praise ownership, players, manager and coaching staff - but things like this matter just as much to me. Really feels like a proper club again.

#LUFC

[David__Osland @David__Osland]

Many MPs tell us that the current state pension age is 'unsustainable'. Which is odd, really, given that they can claim parliamentary pensions as soon as they turn 55.

[🤍𝕁𝕆🤍 @jomickane]

Last summer a driver crashed into this ladys house. He was in a stolen car, uninsured and going 70mph in a 30mph area. Luckily her and her family weren't home at the time. They had to move out for over 6mnths & live in a hotel whilst her home was repaired through her house insurance. She's just been informed by GMP that there will be no further action against the driver & he faces no charges....how is that right? So you can go to jail for 2 or 3yrs for a social media post but if u go out & steal a car & drive it at high speed without insurance & crash it into a family home, not knowing if anyone is in & you dont face any charges whatsoever 🤷‍♀️🤬

[Peter Hague @peterrhague]

The tax thresholds are ridiculously low here so basically this means that if you sell a successful business, approximately all of it will be taxed at 45%.

The Labour Party looks at an economy that hasn’t had significant growth in 18 years and thinks 45% CGT will help. 🤦‍♂️

[Polemic Paine @PolemicTMM]

Every policy change in the UK is about accepting a more miserable life 'for the greater good'.

The UK is becoming a Trappist economic monestary. Less is good and you can't speak out against it.

Degrowth and reframing of failure and sufference as success.
More on that here. https://t.co/82SAHarMhY.
It's all just so depressing.

It's a narrative con.

[Iain Martin @iainmartin1]

The more you read about the energy crisis the more you realise everyone else, every serious country, is going flat out increasing production, more oil/gas, prioritising domestic production where possible,
ripping up policy assumptions, Uniquely, one major country is pressing on in the opposite direction. It would have to be us, wouldn’t it? Banning new oil and gas exploration and fields, by law! It is quite mad. Future historians will be astonished. Like looking back on Tony Benn’s policies in government decades later and thinking how on earth was that allowed to happen?