UK Spending Review 2010: cuts leave middle class £10,000 worse off

[Scataphagos]

Quote from MKTrader:

I wonder if they'll even be missed. Other than law enforcement, firefighters and a few other core services, they may just be losing bureaucrats, pencil pushers and other busybodies who are better off staying at home and collecting "benefits."

But isn't society harmed by "permanent benefit collectors"? They don't produce, just suck from the government tit... eaters, with no redeeming virtues?

Is the Western world consigned to the notion that there will be a "permanently unemployed faction... that needs to be supported with government subsides FOREVER?"

 

[MohdSalleh]

There are going to be riots soon I think maybe ethnic pogroms and lootings, the world will be watching, UK is the guinea pig as the first major economy to enact such drastic cuts.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from MohdSalleh:

There are going to be riots soon I think maybe ethnic pogroms and lootings, the world will be watching, UK is the guinea pig as the first major economy to enact such drastic cuts.

Don't you think all countries will be the same? Greece, France, UK... then USA?

The public sector always wants more.... even when they have already been promised more than can possibly be delivered.

 

[zdreg]

Quote from the1:

Europoe is slowly moving away from Socialism and Obama can't get the US toward it fast enough. I'm gonna see a huge increase in my taxes next year. You know, the primary reason I work so hard is so I can buy expense -- and I do mean expensive -- health care. Hmmm....isn't free health care coming in a few years? Maybe I don't have to work so hard for much longer?

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slowly. how about a glacial pace.
free means UK style health care. anyone who can afford it has private health insurance.
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"Quote from MohdSalleh:

There are going to be riots soon I think maybe ethnic pogroms and lootings, the world will be watching, UK is the guinea pig as the first major economy to enact such drastic cuts. "

whatever happened to the british stiff upper lip? after world war II decades of socialism weakened the national character.

 

[Visaria]

whatever happened to the british stiff upper lip? [/B]

France wants to raise its retirement age (i.e. the age at which people receive their pensions from the govt) from 60 to 62. Doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Yet the French public has gone mental!

The govt here will raise the retirement age from 65 to 66 (starting in 2020). There's been a few grumbles and that's it! I'm not seeing the outbreak of WWIII in London which is going on in France.

 

[Debaser82]

Apparantly in Britain 1 out of 11 citizens work for the government.

Is that high according to international standards?

 

[benwm]

Quote from MohdSalleh:

There are going to be riots soon I think maybe ethnic pogroms and lootings, the world will be watching, UK is the guinea pig as the first major economy to enact such drastic cuts.

Not drastic cuts at all - I read that this brings the UK debt burden in real terms back to 2008 levels. So what? We've had decades of excess spending, leading to ridiculously high taxes in the UK for someone earning a modest wage. It's not about saving the middle class or rich it's about giving those on the breadline some hope and aspiration, not taxing them to death.

Ok, so 500k public sector jobs are lost over the next 5 years or 100k average per year, less than 10k jobs lost per month. In the last three months around 120k new jobs were created in the private sector. People lose their jobs in the private sector all the time, so some of the soon to be former public sector workers will have to learn how to put a resume together or actually use their invaluable work skills to do something worthwhile in the real world.

In the UK the average public sector salary is higher than the average private sector salary! And these public workers want jobs for life as well? Who picks up the tab for these jokers?

 

[benwm]

Quote from zdreg:

.
slowly. how about a glacial pace.
free means UK style health care. anyone who can afford it has private health insurance.

Most of Europe is very much wedded to socialism
The new UK coalition is creeping away in baby steps, thank goodness, but everything I'm seeing out of France, Germany, Spain and Italy looks anti capitalistic. Where are the tax cuts to help business?

And what is it with the French rioting for one week because they have to work until age 62 instead of age 60? Maybe they should look for work they actually enjoy, there's a thought...

Obama at first seemed like a ray of light after Bush from this side of the pond, but I don't think he'll survive another term...socialism isn't really in the American DNA ...