If I ruled the world...

[MarJay]

https://taxjustice.uk/blog/how-would-a-wealth-tax-work-in-practice/

I would also put in an exemption for farmers, and I'd look at the largest farm by value versus productivity in the UK, and set that as the threshold for the payment. Farmers are a unique group where they primarily inherit the tools of their trade (land) and don't earn enough cash to purchase that land via other methods, i.e. they can ONLY inherit it, and without that inheritance mechanism, there would be a lot less farms and farmers.

Nobody is saying 'don't achieve, don't be successful'. Not one bit of it. However, can Elon Musk spend his wealth? No. Will he die with billions of net worth? Certainly. Is that fair? Not for the amount of work he's done. Same with JK Rowling, same with Warren Buffet etc etc.

I don't see what difference it makes if Jeff Bezos only has one yacht rather than five. Nobody, not one single person can see the material benefit of having two billion dollars in net worth versus one. The amount you need to live the most lavish lifestyle anyone has ever had is the same, and it's less than a billion dollars in cash. It's not a material difference versus a single mother on minimum wage who has to choose between eating and her child eating.

Personally? I've never fiddled my taxes. I've never worried about 'paying too much'. If there were a scheme that I could do that was legal but iffy where I could pay less tax I would not take it. I am not Jimmy Carr.

Fair is that everyone should have a roof over their head and enough food to eat. That's the minimum. If you want more, you work for it. Nobody is questioning that.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Easy-X]

[MarJay]

[Easy-X]

[MarJay]

and yet, it depends on the ends, and the means. Anything other than that is sociopathy, especially letting the poor die on the streets, or at best struggle to survive.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Easy-X]

[Polarbear]

[Easy-X]

[MarJay]

[Easy-X]

[MarJay]

I think you should perhaps look into what life was like before the government took over welfare safety nets. How some 'lords of the manor' cared about their serfs and peasants and some absolutely did not. How people often just died. How the lord of the manor or whoever could execute someone from a lower class because they looked at them funny.

The past is invariably worse than people believe it to be.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Easy-X]

Someone somewhere got a bad deal in the past therefore we must hand it all over to the State to manage I'm unconvinced by that argument. I prefer to deal with the real rather than a fantasy utopia.

From the late 19^th Century, great advances were made in water purity, sewage systems, food production and healthcare. Life expectancy rose sharply, people were happier...

But where are we now? In the US, half the population are obese with Europe not far behind. A mental health crisis brought on by Climate Change and Covid alarmism. A rising tax burden but dwindling public services. Articulate your frustration in the wrong way and you face a prison sentence... I could go on. No wonder the birth rates are dropping like a stone, people are fucking miserable: the sort of deep-seated despair that eats into the soul.

If you beat a dog every day how can you feign surprise when it eventually bites you?
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[MarJay]

[Easy-X]

[MarJay]

So your solution is just to bury our heads and ignore it?

Climate change is a fact, it's human caused, and we do need to take action. Mental health is vastly more affected by social media usage than it is by climate change specifically.

In the US the opiate epidemic is caused by poor quality health insurance that WILL stretch for extraordinarily strong painkillers, but won't stretch to surgery, physiotherapy or other treatments that may resolve chronic pain causing disorders. Do you know what we don't have in the UK? An opiate epidemic. We have other issues, but not that, not in the way the US does. Similarly people put up with crappy jobs with terrible managers in the US because they need their health insurance for themselves or their relatives. They can often not move because then the condition becomes 'pre existing' and the insurance won't cover them.

The fact I can quit my job tomorrow and live off of my savings is a huge thing that people don't appreciate. The ability to do that would give an overall improvement in employment conditions even without any direct economic (i.e. salary) benefit.

Your assertion is that somehow rich people will look after the poor if we remove the welfare state is patently incorrect, and is playing itself out right now with Jeff Bezos for example having a multi million pound wedding in Venice whilst avoiding tax and giving very little to charity. Forcing people like that to pay their fair share (not even *more* than I pay as a percentage of my net worth/income) would fund an awful lot of help for poorer people and the vulnerable. Any argument to the opposite is disingenuous, cruel and actually must come from some sense of worship for the type of people who would pay someone to scrape you off of their boot before helping you.

It seems that being given a boatload of money turns most people into complete d*ckheads, or perhaps most people are just d*ckheads, and they need someone to make them pay their share so that everyone in society can meet a minimum lifestyle.

This smug 'I'm going to lean right because it's my personality' schtick is shudder inducing, and it's pessimistic and nihilistic aspects are not the positive you think they are. I'm not even left of centre for pity's sake, I'm just saying that the super rich should pay their share and that money should be used to help the poor and vulnerable. I'm not suggesting funding lavish lifestyles for the poor, I'm not suggesting seizing the means of production, I'm not suggesting preventing people from becoming rich. I'm suggesting that the rich have too much power and influence, and are able to use that to then not pay the same proportion of tax that you or I pay. You will never be a billionaire, I will never be a billionaire, but I do know that a billionaire doesn't *need* to be a billionaire, and should not be avoiding tax. Passive income should be taxed the same as active income.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Easy-X]

[A100man]

Well done boys - I think you 'out-brained' the OP anyway.
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Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600