Recent content by spinoza

Poor Liam Miller. Get well soon. He was the subject of many posts back in the day, especially from a certain Plechazunga.

No, the MARGINAL tax rate at £150k is not 50%. You're ignoring NI and the way the bands shift as you earn more. And tax on interest and dividend income. And the tax on your savings in the bank (although strictly speaking that's a wealth tax, not an income tax). And taxable benefits. And salary...

Yep, as I said, daft. Osborne is something of a fool in many ways. And yet, theory isn't borne out by the data... I do think that some of you should be a bit more grateful to the people who are still picking up the tab. And no, those people aren't necessarily the "rich". People who are...

Might do. I'm sick of working to pay tax. Ignorant gobshite. It's subtle only if you don't look after your money You're probably right, given how few people here actually know what I'm talking about. You lot rant on and on about unfairness and how other people get ahead, but can't be...

Raise VAT yes, cut corporation tax no, cut the highest income tax bracket not necessarily, cut inheritance tax no. Cutting or raising all of them would clearly be daft. Listen to yourself. This table shows that the majority of the income tax burden still falls on the richest 25% of tax...

In case you didn't notice we're all making a number of generalisations. Mine at least is borne out in part by personal observation and participation in organisational design of a fair number of organisations. I even have a policy prescription - fire the right 30% of people and costs fall with no...

No, if the problem is overreliance of the economy on consumption raising VAT is actually a good idea. But you have to raise it by a large amount to matter. The recent fluctuations between 15% and 20% were too small to make a significant difference in behaviour.

...except that there are opportunity costs to earning above £35k, and once the tax is deducted maybe it's not worthwhile to incur those costs for the take home pay. Christ, do you people not pay tax? I thought everyone knew their marginal tax rate. It's like knowing your mortgage payment...

It's a generalisation, but hardly sweeping. From observation around 30% of people employed in every company I've ever worked for don't really need to be there. I've not seen or heard anything that says its any different or better in the public sector, or in other bits of the private sector. I...

No, I meant people who turn up and are ostensibly employed but don't really make a difference. Crude example - I went off on 2 weeks holiday and came back to more than 1,000 emails, even though I did an hour or so of email checking every day. It's just a guess, but maybe I'm needed for...

Heh. We're certainly not going to bail them out, so hiding behind a brick wall and hoping it gets better is probably the least bad strategy - to a spineless Tory.

The money is an incentive to create employment, among several other incentives. Right now the government seems to have declared war on working, so there are actual disincentives to create employment. What are rich people going to do with the money? Yes, stash it somewhere else, and follow it...

Poor people are also less poor. Some (or even a great deal) of anger at inequality is jealousy, righteously disguised as concern about fairness. Agreed, although it's not that simple. For example, UK Rail has been renationalised in effect, it's still shit, and will get shitter. The...

:eek: Contador will fancy that one...

Winning a Grand Tour is physically the hardest sporting achievement to do. Even Ironman triathlons are over in a day. This is half an ironman ever day, day after day for 3 weeks. It's not the biggest British sporting achievement, particularly given the amount of money thrown at it, but it's...