Maybe instead of creating all powerful state backed organisations any right thinking psycopath will make a bee line for, we should accept that bad things are going to happen, and focus on damage limitation?
If the government cant extract taxation by force, it cannot use forcibly seized money to bail out banks.
Simples.
British public turns conservative since recession...
Moderator: Peak Moderation
I could well be unemployed tomorrow.
I can't see the welfare state lasting much longer, a lot more old people will die of the cold in the coming years. We have left it far too late to prevent that.
I will not be claiming benefits - I have done well enough out of the state already in my life (and my family more so). I have, however, managed my income with a view to the future so we will not be suffering either. I would much rather that the inequality of wealth was addressed. I know that taxing the 1% back into line would not raise enough to prevent extreme poverty at the bottom, but it will prevent the worst of the riots.
Own of our (rented) houses was burgled this week, our well funded European academics left their high end laptops in full view of the uncurtained windows when they went home for the weekend. The excess on their insurance was probably less than the excess on ours to get the mangled double glazing replaced. Probably cost us more than the burglars got for the laptops. Still, it all adds to the GDP.
I can't see the welfare state lasting much longer, a lot more old people will die of the cold in the coming years. We have left it far too late to prevent that.
I will not be claiming benefits - I have done well enough out of the state already in my life (and my family more so). I have, however, managed my income with a view to the future so we will not be suffering either. I would much rather that the inequality of wealth was addressed. I know that taxing the 1% back into line would not raise enough to prevent extreme poverty at the bottom, but it will prevent the worst of the riots.
Own of our (rented) houses was burgled this week, our well funded European academics left their high end laptops in full view of the uncurtained windows when they went home for the weekend. The excess on their insurance was probably less than the excess on ours to get the mangled double glazing replaced. Probably cost us more than the burglars got for the laptops. Still, it all adds to the GDP.
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emordnilap
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Give the staggering amount spent on the attack/defence industry and the gambling/banking bastards back to ordinary people before even thinking about privatising the health service.
No sane, non-schizophrenic person can hold the waste of cash on the first two and the thought of the latter in their mind at the same time without weeping.
No sane, non-schizophrenic person can hold the waste of cash on the first two and the thought of the latter in their mind at the same time without weeping.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Yes, and I know from friends working in the health service that the moment the lowest fee payers have complications in surgery, or require complex treatments, they're dumped back on the doorstep of the local hospital.DominicJ wrote:The cheapest BUPA cover is £350 per year
BUPA/other private providers couldn't function so cheaply in the UK without the NHS effectively underwriting its treatment services.
As for what the solution is, I think that's fairly straightforward -- redistribute land and wealth equitably, but of the two access to the land is far more important.
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emordnilap
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You mean make so much profit, shurely?mobbsey wrote:BUPA/other private providers couldn't function so cheaply in the UK without the NHS effectively underwriting its treatment services.
Ireland has a crazy, mixed-up system of health care, neither one thing nor the other, with so many revenue streams and profit taking points that it would seriously upset thousands of people to re-organise it on equitable and sensible lines.
One principle should suffice: health is not for profit.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
No, but illness is a source of profit -- although if you want to make the biggest money you make healthy people believe they have a problem so that they consume unnecessary "treatments"emordnilap wrote: health is not for profit.
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kenneal - lagger
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kenneal - lagger
- Site Admin
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There is an absolute difference in scale but it is relative to the sums available. One side is no better than the other. Theft is theft but the sentencing should relate to the scale of the theft.
*ankers, en mass, get away with no punishment at the moment although a couple of individuals have recieved long sentences as in the Barings Bank case, but Social Security fraudsters get quite heavy sentences.
*ankers, en mass, get away with no punishment at the moment although a couple of individuals have recieved long sentences as in the Barings Bank case, but Social Security fraudsters get quite heavy sentences.
Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez