Inflation. War. Lack of jobs. No retirement. Global warming. How and why could anyone consider having children in a world like now!?
31-35, F
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Roundandroundwego · 61-69
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@Roundandroundwego Interesting point, especially given today's News reporting S. Korea's even lower birth-rate than hitherto, potentially leading to problems in the future with fewer tax-payers supporting more pensioners.
Roundandroundwego · 61-69
@ArishMell if wages rose as the economy grows we could afford fewer workers because pensions would be easier to pay with payroll taxes. This poverty is inflicted because people don't want freedom. Foreigner people would enjoy the rights if we had them! Hate foreigners? Accept poverty. This poverty is a political choice designed to keep Americans in control of the globe.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@Roundandroundwego Oh, the more employment and the better the pay the more the total revenue, yes, but it's not as simple as that. It is also affected strongly by the balance of working and non-working adults - "working" for pay that is, as employees or self-employed.
It's not only payroll taxes either. The better-off are the more we pay by Duty, Value Added Tax or similar by buying more goods and services on which those are levied. Some of that is inescapable, but a lot of that expenditure is voluntary, on luxuries or habits.
''''
I live in a country that is free, and does have comprehensive national health and welfare systems, including a State Pension. So I know they are not cheap to run, nor perfect, but far better they exist than such protection being available only to the well-off.
So I can't readily compare it to the situation in the USA, which seems to have very limited national schemes to support its citizens; alongside much harder "sink-or-swim" attitudes with much laxer employee-protection rules than in many other countries. The impression I have is that a lot of Americans are terrified of comprehensive national welfare systems because they think them somehow "Communist".
The problem with fewer workers of course is less tax revenue, even with rising wages, both by payroll and indirect taxes; but lower employment available is not the only factor in higher numbers not paying Income-tax.
Co-incidentally this was examined in an item on the radio here yesterday: the UK seems to have high unemployment but it's not only due to a lack of opportunities. There are plenty of those but not readily available to everyone, and some industries are crying out for workers. There is too a growing number of retired folk (including me!) living longer but potentially needing more health care over more years, and many who choose not to work for whatever reason. Some don't see any need to work, but they must have very limited lives. Very many not in paid employment are so because they are caring for elderly relatives, usually their own parents.
All this is expensive of course, and many public services here are struggling as a result, but there is little appetite for a nation that reduces its taxes by removing those services already suffering from big funding cuts. Less appetite for what is happening - more tax but more cuts, simply because the cost of everything continues to rise, often by factors at least partly outside of any government's control.
There is a widespread something-for-nothing attitude, and that is encouraged by misleading terms like "government money" (there is no such thing) and titles like "National Insurance". Many older people grumble, " I have paid into it all my working life!" - no you haven't. They have paid Income Tax and NI all their working lives but to support those already on pensions or other benefits, and the NHS that they and everyone else needs for many reasons at many times throughout their lives.
You say "people don't want freedom". I don't understand what you mean there. If you are living in absolute grinding poverty that alone means you are not free to enjoy so many luxuries your better-off neighbours have. So freedom is perhaps rather academic. Nevertheless, Politically and socially you still have the same freedoms as them in a democratic (small 'd'!) sense, in a democracy - but your lack of money cramps your life.
Ideally of course we would all have both freedom and enough money to live at least in modest comfort with a few luxuries like hobbies and cultural events. I have to watch my spending and have cut down a lot, but I am lucky enough to enjoy both. There are many who have the freedom but very little money.
Notably, even before President Putin's actions, a lot of Russians expressed some yearning for what happened under Communism. The USSR was a terrifying dictatorship, and Russian has never been democratic anyway, but at least most of its citizens had a fairly stable life and despite continual shortages in the shops and strict limits on life even within Russia, they did have fairly good health and welfare systems. (As China does... if you are not a Uyghur.)
...
As for the USA controlling the world, yes, outside of the two World Wars she spent much of the 20C trying do that, including buying other countries' assets and industries often just to destroy them. Now though, her star is slowly falling as other nations and ideologies, far less benign, are rising. Helped ever since Chairman Mao's death by "The West", the People's Republic of China is likely to succeed in her long-term aim to overtake the United States of America as the World's Number One economy and political power.
''''
(In the UK system, you are still income-taxed even as a pensioner if the total of your State plus any private or employee pensions exceeds a certain level. You then pay Income-Tax on the extra. For most people the tax is paid by the pension administrators. Income from private sources like shares holdings is also taxed.
Just as employees' Income Tax and National Insurance - not "insurance" but a tax to support the welfare systems - are paid employers under the Pay As You Earn method.
Self-employed and private-income people are legally bound to pay the same taxes, too, and usually employ an accountant to do so because the system and laws are very complicated and HM Revenue & Customs pounce on the smallest mistake!)
It's not only payroll taxes either. The better-off are the more we pay by Duty, Value Added Tax or similar by buying more goods and services on which those are levied. Some of that is inescapable, but a lot of that expenditure is voluntary, on luxuries or habits.
''''
I live in a country that is free, and does have comprehensive national health and welfare systems, including a State Pension. So I know they are not cheap to run, nor perfect, but far better they exist than such protection being available only to the well-off.
So I can't readily compare it to the situation in the USA, which seems to have very limited national schemes to support its citizens; alongside much harder "sink-or-swim" attitudes with much laxer employee-protection rules than in many other countries. The impression I have is that a lot of Americans are terrified of comprehensive national welfare systems because they think them somehow "Communist".
The problem with fewer workers of course is less tax revenue, even with rising wages, both by payroll and indirect taxes; but lower employment available is not the only factor in higher numbers not paying Income-tax.
Co-incidentally this was examined in an item on the radio here yesterday: the UK seems to have high unemployment but it's not only due to a lack of opportunities. There are plenty of those but not readily available to everyone, and some industries are crying out for workers. There is too a growing number of retired folk (including me!) living longer but potentially needing more health care over more years, and many who choose not to work for whatever reason. Some don't see any need to work, but they must have very limited lives. Very many not in paid employment are so because they are caring for elderly relatives, usually their own parents.
All this is expensive of course, and many public services here are struggling as a result, but there is little appetite for a nation that reduces its taxes by removing those services already suffering from big funding cuts. Less appetite for what is happening - more tax but more cuts, simply because the cost of everything continues to rise, often by factors at least partly outside of any government's control.
There is a widespread something-for-nothing attitude, and that is encouraged by misleading terms like "government money" (there is no such thing) and titles like "National Insurance". Many older people grumble, " I have paid into it all my working life!" - no you haven't. They have paid Income Tax and NI all their working lives but to support those already on pensions or other benefits, and the NHS that they and everyone else needs for many reasons at many times throughout their lives.
You say "people don't want freedom". I don't understand what you mean there. If you are living in absolute grinding poverty that alone means you are not free to enjoy so many luxuries your better-off neighbours have. So freedom is perhaps rather academic. Nevertheless, Politically and socially you still have the same freedoms as them in a democratic (small 'd'!) sense, in a democracy - but your lack of money cramps your life.
Ideally of course we would all have both freedom and enough money to live at least in modest comfort with a few luxuries like hobbies and cultural events. I have to watch my spending and have cut down a lot, but I am lucky enough to enjoy both. There are many who have the freedom but very little money.
Notably, even before President Putin's actions, a lot of Russians expressed some yearning for what happened under Communism. The USSR was a terrifying dictatorship, and Russian has never been democratic anyway, but at least most of its citizens had a fairly stable life and despite continual shortages in the shops and strict limits on life even within Russia, they did have fairly good health and welfare systems. (As China does... if you are not a Uyghur.)
...
As for the USA controlling the world, yes, outside of the two World Wars she spent much of the 20C trying do that, including buying other countries' assets and industries often just to destroy them. Now though, her star is slowly falling as other nations and ideologies, far less benign, are rising. Helped ever since Chairman Mao's death by "The West", the People's Republic of China is likely to succeed in her long-term aim to overtake the United States of America as the World's Number One economy and political power.
''''
(In the UK system, you are still income-taxed even as a pensioner if the total of your State plus any private or employee pensions exceeds a certain level. You then pay Income-Tax on the extra. For most people the tax is paid by the pension administrators. Income from private sources like shares holdings is also taxed.
Just as employees' Income Tax and National Insurance - not "insurance" but a tax to support the welfare systems - are paid employers under the Pay As You Earn method.
Self-employed and private-income people are legally bound to pay the same taxes, too, and usually employ an accountant to do so because the system and laws are very complicated and HM Revenue & Customs pounce on the smallest mistake!)