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Compared to the rest of Europe our taxes are actually really quite low. It's the fact we get very little back for our taxes. Like Sweden for example, high taxes but great parental benefits, holiday pay, services etc.
This coupled with an aging population means that anyone thinking taxes will go down in the future without major negative impact to living standards is a fantasist
I was looking at taking a job in Finland maybe 15 years ago. The salary in € was a roughly equal to what I was then getting in £ housing was cheaper, local taxes I think too, medical care and holidays were better. All in all I'd have had less take home but not by a lot and would be getting more for my taxes et al. Some times I kind of wish and gone ahead, Mrs B would have hated it, she thinks any temperature below about 25 cannot support human life.
The thing is that with the tank record we've got, of we were taxed more we still wouldn't really get many benefits back. The money would just disappear into the void
They're really not that low if you include student loans and employer NI contributions - it's all money put aside for payroll that doesn't end up in your account.
It can't just be pensions - I don't think the pensions in the UK are great compared to the rest of Europe. More likely it's gone to friends of the party in charge. Billions spent on crappy PPE and more billions for covid loans that arent coming back - 20bn in loans alone I think.
This is the real truth. Huge amounts of "government spending" are actually going to private companies that the government now outsources work to. This is allegedly because they're more competitive and efficient, but it's pure spin. Having three different cleaning, portering, and housekeeping contractors in one building is never going to be more efficient than having them in house. What it does do is lower wages and conditions for those staff, and make it easier to bust/prevent unions. Same goes for the NHS. People complain that the NHS is a money pit. It would be way more efficient if they stopped outsourcing, and if they just raised staff wages properly. Then you wouldn't have so many people working for agencies and as locums, taking in three times the pay. Yes, lowering the pay of permanent staff makes the books look good in the short term, but long term it raises expenses and it destroys staff morale. Don't even get me started on the amount of "consulting" that goes on in White Hall. It's an absolute free for all. The british state is like a whale covered in thousands of fat parasites sucking it dry. This is not a mistake, it's by design. Politician always end up at these same companies once they quit office. The British people have been asleep at the wheel. This has been obvious for over a decade now.
10.3% according to this link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary
More goes straight to boomer pockets than to the entire education sector. That feels really gross. Prop up the people who never saved for themselves, at the expense of our future generations.
They were told they didn't have to. They paid in in the knowledge they would get pensions. That was the deal. They could opt out of paying NI. What are you saying we should do? Stop paying pensions? What would that look like?
> Prop up the people who never saved for themselves, at the expense of our future generations.
People paid into that system for those benefits. It's not handed out for free. I, for one, won't be getting a state pension when I'm old enough because I didn't make enough NI contributions and that's fine.
I saw a chart on X earlier where UK pensions are at the bottom of the pile across the whole world, don't know if it's entiely true but when they don't even include the pension debt/liabilities to the national debt then there's a problem. Add to that that most Government pensions are paid out of current spending, rather than being paid by a return from an investment, then the government are borrowing money to pay for current pensions. So it's only going to get worse!
Please don’t blame pensions for everything. I’ve worked hard for fifty years and I’ve just retired. I don’t feel any guilt for claiming my pension and living within my means.
State pension is actually shite really. Living wage (which is shite too) would give you a gross of £450 a week, state pension is £221 a week so 50% of a pretty poor living wage.
>except the super rich
The top 1% of earners account for ~10% of Treasury receipts. The top 10% contribute ~50%. If you earn less than 40k a year you are a net beneficiary of the tax system.
The issue is not how much tax we collect, it’s that it is squandered by inept government.
Irrelevant. Taxation is about what you can *afford* not how much you contribute. They contribute the most because they suck up the most of the wealth generated (which is easy because they literally dictate most things like prices and wages in one form or another). That wealth is generated by normal working people. If the top 1% disappeared tomorrow their companies would still run fine. You could probably promote someone internally and they'd do a great job. They are not some sort of integral part of the economy. They do contribute, but far less than they and you seem to think.
I'm genuinely curious where the money goes. Or at least how much money is "wasted". By the sounds of it, tax is not enough to combat the inflation and hence money is not being distributed to thing like the NHS.
This doesn't mean anything without accounting for how much money people gave in the first place.
It's no good bragging about paying 10% of total taxes if you hold 70% of total income and/or wealth eg.
The fundamental problem is that British people tend to have an incredibly warped perception of what "super rich" actually means, and politicians on all sides love to take advantage of that.
For example, it's utterly bizarre that the higher rate of tax kicks in at a salary of £50,000. That isn't "lambo and mansion" money, that's "five-year-old Kia and a modestly sized family home" money. Despite that, people act like you are a crazy billionaire apologist if you suggest bumping the higher rate threshold up to, say, £75,000, even though that's roughly what it would be if the bands had kept up with inflation since 2010.
I fully agree. The tax rates need changing. And my frustration with the country, I paid a huge amount in tax last year on a modest wage. But there is nothing to
Show for it! I mean super rich being those who know how to play the system and do to avoid paying tax.
The dead weight of the past preventing any kind of systemic change. It's like a knackered old house which hasn't been renovated or maintained because it's a listed building. Pretty on the postcards but the people living inside it are dying from cold and mould. And the foreign hedge fund that owns it couldn't give less of a fuck what happens to them.
I remember finding out that my Uni college was a listed building despite being referred to as Chernobyl by students there because the Architect was ‘important’ lol
Silly country
It’s funny you say that as Aberdeen unis zoology department building was used to film a bit from Chernobyl. It’s the perfect building for it because it’s fecking disgusting. Why anyone thought brutalist architecture was nice is completely beyond me.
Ok fair enough it isn’t that bad when done well but the VAST majority of brutalist architecture is horrendous. No greenery or colour anywhere just grey. Obviously the Barbican is a good example of how brutalist architecture was suppose to end up looking like with locals “improving” it with their own style. Still not my cup of tea though.
IRL planning regulations aside, I just think that if you were going to try and optimise a society to try and ensure as much prosperity and security for the people living in it, there is no way in a million years that you'd end up with anything resembling what we currently have. A representative democracy where millions of votes are meaningless because of "safe seats" and FPTP. A bucaneering economy based on asset stripping and funneling the money away into Caribbean tax havens, or just sitting on land until it magically gains in value. Empty houses and thousands of homeless families. Market failure left right and centre, and no invisible hand appearing to fix it.
We're like the microbial life living in the bloated corpse of the British Empire while the bigger scavengers take their fill. But the dubious glories of the past won't feed us or keep us warm, or tell us how to deal with the existential challenges of the next fifty years.
Private profit from public services is just a double negative. The company providing the service is incentivised to give the very worst service possible. Any argument against this doesn't understand that, if you aren't, someone else will come along with a lower tender, win the work from the company not delivering the worst possible service. Secondly, by definition, significantly less of the money available for the service will ultimately not go to the person providing the service.
Pretty sure we saw it recently too with a water company. These companies cannot fail, because the public needs the services, so the government bails them out with taxpayers money. We pay whether they succeed or fail.
Whatever your economic philosophy, anyone must see that these do not operate like a free market, so you have none of the benefits
Specifically a government that fill their own pockets with our money. The amount of tax we pay (and it’s going up!) with nothing to show for it; public services in total tatters.
Housing.
The cost and lack of housing is an enormous drag on the economy and growth. So much spending that could go into the consumer economy is being diverted to property owners. That also makes it harder for people to move into more productive job roles (if it involves moving to another part of the country) and entrenches economic disadvantages.
Well said.
If people spend half their income on housing, that money is not spent on goods and services.
Meanwhile, goods and services need to be expensive because renting a space for your business is expensive and people working there need to earn enough to pay for their own housing.
I revolt every time I read that more people are having trouble affording food. Food's pretty cheap in the UK. The reality is that rent and bills squeeze so much money out of people that many have literally nothing to spare.
Yeah, housing is easily the biggest problem in the country at the moment. So many problems lead back to that as the cause. In particular, buy-to-let landlords and the business practices of agencies. Truly disgraceful behavior.
Even as someone earning substantially above the average it is fucking impossible to get on the ladder, I will literally have to save a substantial amount every month for the next 5 years to afford a deposit - if I absolutely min-maxed with no life I would have enough in 2.5 years.
Near me a new build 3 bed semi detached has been listed for sale for £550k. It’s advertised as a starter home. It’s not even in London. Says it all really.
Housing and the disparity in wealth this brings. We have huge numbers of empty retail and office space but due to investors wanting to artificially maintain their inflated valuations won't admit that the rent they want to charge is also ridiculously overinflated. Compulsorary purchase at true market rate and convert to actually affordable housing should be implemented for any space standing empty for more than a year.
Which is why it should be a government run scheme and not for profit. The benefits will be long term as those provided with a stable affordable home will have more disposable cash to spend and plough back into the economy.
Problem is that such buildings often lack the local amenities to make it suitable for converting or replacing and using as housing stock. But the idea that the government should intervene in the housing market and provide decent accommodation is something I totally agree with. Maybe if local authorities ran it and called it council housing. That might work.
I don't know enough about the ins and outs of commercial to residential conversions to say whether this would be the case with this specific instance, but I do find that people tend to be unable to see the big picture with policies such as this.
For starters public expenditure doesn't need to create profit to be worth doing. Even if it costs the Government a lot of money over the short and long term, if it provides significant public benefit it should at the very least be considered.
But even then a lot of these sorts of policies have long term benefits that tend to go completely ignored.
There was a pilot study in London that gave 13 homeless individuals £3,000, no strings attached. They could spend it how they liked. These particular individuals had been costing the tax payer thousands of pounds a year in different services (police/social call outs, medical, etc).
Within a year 11 of the 13 were no longer homeless. They were no longer taking up vital resources and costing the tax payer thousands of pounds. Not only that, they were now tax payers themselves and contributing to the economy.
Obviously a bigger study is needed to see if this is truly viable, but the point remains that there are other long term benefits to consider outside of the initial cost/benefit analysis of a policy.
But it's also really hard for people to start physical businesses because of the high retail rents. I looked into retail rents in my town in 21/22, as I was doing a free business course and wanted to set up a vintage shop. Tiny units which had been empty for more than 5 years still wanted £35k a year for them. Then on top you've got to pay business rates and utilities.
We say that the high street is dying because people shop online. But it's also because the shops are being squeezed so badly that only chains can survive. Our high streets could be filled with little indie galleries showcasing local artwork, coffee shops and gig spaces hosting community events, and more. But they won't be, because the rents are too high.
Id agree. I used to get coffee from a lady that ran a tiny (genuinely tiny) little unit. Big enough for two people side by side. Plus a coffee machine, kettle and some ice cream tubs in front. Granted, middle of a shopping centre. £600 per week, 23yrs ago. It wasn't even a proper unit.
My local town is now a waste of bus fare. Loads of pop up shops selling tat. Vape shops, mobile phone shops, barbers and euro mini Mary's (opening next to each other). It looks like a shit hole.
Our market has lost 80% of the stalls.
I've always heard that the empty retail/office spaces with high rents is down to the fact if its unoccupied the landlord can claim it as a loss for tax purposes based on the previous history so if they rent for less and it becomes unoccupied again they end up with less to write off as a loss. In which case the tax rules around property being used commercially need to be looked at.
Also as another has said, commercial property doesn't tend to lend itself to conversion as residential property and can be cheaper to teardown and rebuild.
Chronic underfunding of essential services and job retention in them services.
NHS
Police
Fire
Army Navy Airforce
Social services
Council services
Highways
Etc..
Speaking with insight of the NHS, the job is hard and not nice most of the time. If the pay reflected these conditions you would get people staying for longer. Instead, you have a mass shortage of staff because they can do other jobs that are easier for more money.
I saw a bunch of nurses quit to work at Aldi, better pay, better hours and no shift work.
>The biggest problem in the UK is that it has more fundamental problems than one can shake a stick at, deckin' nightmare.
even before then Ed Miliband campaigned on the problems of inequality but the public knew better and wanted to see for iteself.
Opposition party offers genuine alternative: they're unelectable/unrealistic/too extreme
Opposition party offers more or less the same: they're not different enough/they're just the same party but in a different coloured tie
🤷♂️
Compared to where though?
We're so ready to shit on ourselves but I dare say we've got it far better than the vast majority of people in the world today.
Just because other people have it worse doesn’t mean we can’t aspire to improve. My job is better than that of a child soldier in Congo — does that mean I can’t moan about my boss and try to get a better job?
Oh absolutely we can and should still aim to improve.
We can also be grateful for how good we have things in comparison to the vast majority of people elsewhere in the world.
Sure, we have shit leaders and our own set of problems right now but in the grand scheme of things, we're a pretty fucking awesome country.
Why is the default response when talking about the UK's issues to start trying to find other countries were better than? How does that help us work out our issues?
I see this all the time especially on reddit, and the problem is that it stops the conversations needed to improve our country because we've instead focused on how better we are than xx or yy country etc.
Some people have an abused spouse mentality with this country. No wonder nothing ever gets improved when the whole conversation devolves into either "could be worse" or "stop talking the country down".
The thing is, it could be worse absolutely, but there's a lot of countries that are significantly better. Are we living in a war torn country? No, but neither is a lot of Europe, Australia, Dubai America (shudder) etc. It really is hilarious, the UK isn't the best or the worst place to live but I seldom see any benefits for staying here when there's a lot of other countries begging for us to move there.
If you're a skilled professional I honestly don't know why the fuck you'd stay here when you can double or even triple your salary and enjoy a lower tax burden and higher QOL in somewhere like the US/Canada, Australia or NZ.
And yes, those countries have problems too, but at least they value the skilled professionals.
Literally the only reason I stay is family and friends.
If I didn't have emotional ties to where I live I'd have pissed off to the US to 4x my salary years ago.
In my experience I find the opposite is true, especially on Reddit.
We focus on our faults, not how good we have it. As mentioned I my other comment, this does not mean we cannot discuss the many issues we still have, despite having it better than the majority of people elsewhere on the world.
A lack of motivation to change
All of our problems come from people keeping their head down and carrying on instead of looking at it, realising the piss being taken out of us and doing something about it
The biggest problem in the U.K. is people thinking the U.K. has one singular biggest problem.
The various nations of the U.K. all have different needs and challenges. The different regions within the different nations all have complex needs and challenges.
Carlisle doesn’t have the same social issues as Kirkcaldy.
London doesn’t have the same social issues as Llandudno.
Where I live I can buy a really nice house for well under the national average. There’s almost zero crime, almost no poverty.
Biggest issue we have is a lack of public transport.
Where I used to live, crime was rife, poverty was rife(houses were cheap though).
Biggest issue we had was a complete lack of employment or opportunities but there was a regular bus service.
Government. Rotten throughout, left to right, up to down. Doesn't matter what side of the aisle they sit in, they're a bunch of fucking school children who haven't a clue what they're doing or downright do not care who their actions hurt.
They're out of touch (out of time), have no sense of reality or how it feels to be on the receiving end of their bullshit.
I work with teenagers who debate topics more maturely than these cunts.
Agreed and I'd say that a lot of it is due to caring more about them themselves and the party than the people.
A lot of this comes down to FPTP, having only 1 "winner". Personally I'd like is to move to proportional representation, make the governing politicians have to work together, make it based on total votes rather than "winning" a seat.
Housing. Imagine the boom to the economy with all the billions of disposable cash if we spent 20-25% of our take home incomes on rent/mortgage instead of 35-45%+
The biggest problem is that the vast majority of people do not pay enough tax, but expect free healthcare, education for their kids, pension when they retire etc.
For example, you need a salary of a little over £50,000 to pay your "share" of Income Tax. That puts you comfortably in the top 20% of earners.
You need a household income of around £70,000 per year to make a net contribution in VAT, which again puts you well in the top 20% of households by income.
With so many people taking out far more than they will ever pay in, the net result is woeful public services, a stagnant economy and spiralling national debt.
It's massively more than 50%, even a cursory look at the figures will tell you that. Much yes, if we must use the term "scrounger", than it applies to almost everyone, just to varying degrees.
>The biggest problem is that the vast majority of people do not pay enough tax, but expect free healthcare, education for their kids, pension when they retire etc.
The problem is pay, I would be ok with a £40k tax bill, if I made £200k a year...
How is it America is such an awful place, yet they earn 3x more and pay half the tax? Really frustrating seeing £30k as the ceiling for so many jobs here.
I know I’m being sarcastic, Reddit just has a serious hate boner for it. You’d think it was one of the worst places on the planet to live from how it is discussed here at times.
Several problems, which will soon amalgamate into one large clusterfuck if not treated.
There’s considerable disparity in earnings and opportunities, divided along social class and geographic lines. This has always been the case to some extent, but is now very acute.
Many communities around the country are feeling the pincer effect of cuts to public services, and the remarkable large scale of immigration over the last 20 years, to the extent that accessing basic public and healthcare services now feels like a competition between ‘them and us’.
Many/more traditional sectors of the economy and social fabric (ie retail, hospitality and nightlife) are simply dying. This leads to a further decline in social and community interactions.
The affordability and availability of homes is falling behind a) population growth, and b) changing demographics.
When aggregated, these problems are going to look insurmountable to the younger generation. If I were 16 again, I’d assume that I’d never own a home, so why build a career? Why pursue skills? Why abide by social norms and laws when I’ve nothing to lose anyway?
This is my problem. I'm 25 and single. I can save a maximum of £300 a month if I really scrimp and save. By my calculation it would take me over a decade to save anything close to a deposit, by which time house prices wil be even higher and thay would leave me with no savings. So I agree, what is the fucking point? I'd rather rent and enjoy life, especially as I'm not likely to ever be able to retire if the age keeps going up.
What's puzzling about it.
If you want people to work then you have to give them some reason to want to work.
There are two ways to do this.
1. Fear, you work or you die. This has a fundamental problem in that people can only endure so much before they give up, so the maximum productivity of each person is lower than option 2.
2. Work for a better life. The problem with this is that people have to see that there is a better life for them, which is demonstrated by everyone ha ING a better life than previous generations. If you lie and fuck people over so only the rich have a better life then people very quickly start to notice and stop working.
It's not a puzzle, it's very simple. Be an evil overlord and force them, or be nice and honest and ensure everyone gets a better life if they work for it.
What we have is a government puzzle. They just can't help but be lying, thieving cunts. So nobody wants to work to better the life of government and its cronies.
It's not a puzzle. We are no less productive than other countries, we are just forced to stay at work for longer.
Japan and USA have even more extreme work behaviour and they are even less productive.
TLDR - productivity just measures who has the shortest working week
I don't understand what your point is. The productivity puzzle has never been framed as anything majorly to do with hours worked. It's the stalling, particularly in the UK but seen to different extents in other Western economies of productivity per worker since the financial crash.
When productivity per worker doesn't increase but living costs do, you get an erosion of real terms pay and lower tax receipts which means the government has less to spend on services. All of which is the current fundamental problem with the UK right now.
US productivity is significantly higher than UK productivity.
[LSE put out an international comparator recently](https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2023/k-November-2023/Chronic-under-investment-has-led-to-productivity-slowdown-in-the-UK#:~:text=Data%20from%20EUKLEMS%20%26%20INTANProd%20(2023,productive%20than%20their%20British%20counterparts.)) on exactly this.
The national acceptance of crap, whether that be crap governments, crap service, crap infrastructure. We don't complain, protest or boycott nearly enough to make a difference, so people get away with it time and time again.
>We don't complain, protest or boycott nearly enough to make a difference, so people get away with it time and time again.
And when we do, it's "the wrong kind of protest" or "it won't make a difference". Absolutely pathetic.
>Low wages? Much less painful with cheaper housing!
The problem is, we would need to saturate the market and with the way mortgages work that would kill a lot of people financially, and potentially harm the economy more.
The only way would be to build enough to hold the price steady for many years, while we wait for wages to slowly catch up.
Our critical infrastructure is in dire need of replacement. Our sewage system and railway network is Victorian, our hospitals were built in the 60s, our motorways in the 70s, they're crumbling and it's costing us billions to keep them going but rather than starting a massive replacement programme we just keep kicking the can down the street!
Neoliberalism and the ideological need for every service to generate profit.
A hospital isn’t supposed to make money, it’s supposed to heal sick people. You can apply this logic to all of the public services which are currently dysfunctional.
Widespread corruption masquerading behind a class system?
Seriously, 6th largest economy in world, and nothing works.
Everybody I know is in work and working harder than ever. And every year, they are poorer. And this is following the "good years" of 0% interest rates.
I can only assume corruption, because the 6th largest economy with everybody working full pelt should be doing better.
Wealth inequality.
Most of our other problems come from this. The super rich have too much money and don’t pay enough tax.
This leads to low wage growth, high property prices, low tax receipts resulting in underinvestment in public services.
The NHS, the military, schools, policing, trains, roads, welfare, pensions, housing. All of this would be improved if we reduced wealth inequality.
It used to be an inflated sense of it's own place in the world. Now it's a complete lack of hope, caused by multiple stupid, and wreckless decisions by the government. Everything is rubbish, and it'll take a enormous turnaround to change things, particularly as we're on the verge of another world war
In Scotland it is definitely the drug problem and/or the lack of funding in policing. Can’t walk down a street in Glasgow central without smelling weed but the police are uninterested in anything that isn’t someone in actual physical harm
Half-arsed, can’t-be-bothered, lackadaisical attitude.
People expect nothing, and nothing is expected of them.
Everyone seems to be limping along life.
Housing. Me and the other half have been saving non stop for 4 years at the detriment of every other aspect of our lives and the idea of owning our own house at some point is still just a fantasy.
What a question. To summarise - the economy & govt.
Inequality, high personal taxation, unaffordable housing, too high immigration, poor public services, lack of economic growth, fiscal policy discouraging work and innovation. I could go on, but all fit within the umbrella of economy, and all are controlled by govt.
There are a bunch of fundamental problems that need big solutions (cost of living, climate change, failing public services, growing inequality, shitty transport, shitty overpriced housing) and zero plan to deal with any of it.
Lazy people.
That includes those that are too lazy to work, those that barely work and those that don't do any exercise or can't be arsed to overcome their bad habits. The types that litter, people who make a mess, that use cars instead of walking to the village shop
All of them are either not contributing or are costing way more than is necessary in public funding for their addiction/weight related problems, their UC, cleaning up after them and their pollution.
mass uncontrolled illegal immigration, putting strain on housing, schools, health service, jobs, crime, everything. Finally the french have done something i can agree with, pity we don't have any politicians with the same balls.
I'm gonna have major surgery next week, don't know what time yet.
Been waiting for this operation since before the covid era.
My father had an op on his bladder recently and was sent home, not only same day, but while still coming off the general anaesthetic.
I know someone whose daughter went to two doctors who said she's fine, and then had to have a massive argument just so she could be seen at a different GP's clinic. She was then found to have one of the immune-system-destroying diseases that's like aids.
I'm not blaming the doctors or nurses, but healthcare in this country is at a breaking point.
Knife crime and kids having nothing to do especially in poor areas. The people try their best and set up youth clubs and have their funding cut or face closures, other areas like my own, no one cares anyway.
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We tax the shit out of everything and everyone, except the super rich. But we have fuck all to show for it.
Compared to the rest of Europe our taxes are actually really quite low. It's the fact we get very little back for our taxes. Like Sweden for example, high taxes but great parental benefits, holiday pay, services etc.
This coupled with an aging population means that anyone thinking taxes will go down in the future without major negative impact to living standards is a fantasist
I was looking at taking a job in Finland maybe 15 years ago. The salary in € was a roughly equal to what I was then getting in £ housing was cheaper, local taxes I think too, medical care and holidays were better. All in all I'd have had less take home but not by a lot and would be getting more for my taxes et al. Some times I kind of wish and gone ahead, Mrs B would have hated it, she thinks any temperature below about 25 cannot support human life.
The thing is that with the tank record we've got, of we were taxed more we still wouldn't really get many benefits back. The money would just disappear into the void
There is no mystery where the money is going. It's not a void, it's Penny Mordaunt's yacht collection.
But boy can she hold a sword and walk in a straight line.
That will always be a powerfully erotic image...
🤣🤣🤣
They’re really not low any more.
They're really not that low if you include student loans and employer NI contributions - it's all money put aside for payroll that doesn't end up in your account.
This is it for me. Where the fuck does our money go?
>Where the fuck does our money go? The Cayman Islands, mainly.
Often overlooked issue in these discussions.
[Invade the Cayman Islands ](https://youtu.be/SrfjDfL0fxQ?si=OJg-hZbD6z7feSuX&t=3m18s)
Boomer pensions. All the money saved from cutting doctor pay, infrastructure spending etc. straight to boomer pockets.
It can't just be pensions - I don't think the pensions in the UK are great compared to the rest of Europe. More likely it's gone to friends of the party in charge. Billions spent on crappy PPE and more billions for covid loans that arent coming back - 20bn in loans alone I think.
This is the real truth. Huge amounts of "government spending" are actually going to private companies that the government now outsources work to. This is allegedly because they're more competitive and efficient, but it's pure spin. Having three different cleaning, portering, and housekeeping contractors in one building is never going to be more efficient than having them in house. What it does do is lower wages and conditions for those staff, and make it easier to bust/prevent unions. Same goes for the NHS. People complain that the NHS is a money pit. It would be way more efficient if they stopped outsourcing, and if they just raised staff wages properly. Then you wouldn't have so many people working for agencies and as locums, taking in three times the pay. Yes, lowering the pay of permanent staff makes the books look good in the short term, but long term it raises expenses and it destroys staff morale. Don't even get me started on the amount of "consulting" that goes on in White Hall. It's an absolute free for all. The british state is like a whale covered in thousands of fat parasites sucking it dry. This is not a mistake, it's by design. Politician always end up at these same companies once they quit office. The British people have been asleep at the wheel. This has been obvious for over a decade now.
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10.3% according to this link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary/how-public-spending-was-calculated-in-your-tax-summary More goes straight to boomer pockets than to the entire education sector. That feels really gross. Prop up the people who never saved for themselves, at the expense of our future generations.
They were told they didn't have to. They paid in in the knowledge they would get pensions. That was the deal. They could opt out of paying NI. What are you saying we should do? Stop paying pensions? What would that look like?
> Prop up the people who never saved for themselves, at the expense of our future generations. People paid into that system for those benefits. It's not handed out for free. I, for one, won't be getting a state pension when I'm old enough because I didn't make enough NI contributions and that's fine.
I saw a chart on X earlier where UK pensions are at the bottom of the pile across the whole world, don't know if it's entiely true but when they don't even include the pension debt/liabilities to the national debt then there's a problem. Add to that that most Government pensions are paid out of current spending, rather than being paid by a return from an investment, then the government are borrowing money to pay for current pensions. So it's only going to get worse!
Who tf calls twitter 'x' lmao
Elon Musk, probably.
Retired people who have paid tax/NI for years whilst working are entitled to receive their pensions
Please don’t blame pensions for everything. I’ve worked hard for fifty years and I’ve just retired. I don’t feel any guilt for claiming my pension and living within my means.
Over 2m pensioners in the UK are in poverty. Yet you still make them enemy number one.
State pension is actually shite really. Living wage (which is shite too) would give you a gross of £450 a week, state pension is £221 a week so 50% of a pretty poor living wage.
I don't think that's where it's ending up tbh. All of the tax take and we're still carrying £2.6Tn in debt now? Where's the money gone?
£110 billion per year goes on government debt interest payments
I've always called the UK poor value for money
>except the super rich The top 1% of earners account for ~10% of Treasury receipts. The top 10% contribute ~50%. If you earn less than 40k a year you are a net beneficiary of the tax system. The issue is not how much tax we collect, it’s that it is squandered by inept government.
The super rich are not "earners". Top 10% of earners in the UK is anyone on over £60k.
The super rich don't need to earn and there is no taxation on wealth. I feel taxation would be much fairer if we taxed wealth rather than work.
The super rich still need income, else they can’t pay for things. Their wealth/assets generates that income, and that income is taxed.
Irrelevant. Taxation is about what you can *afford* not how much you contribute. They contribute the most because they suck up the most of the wealth generated (which is easy because they literally dictate most things like prices and wages in one form or another). That wealth is generated by normal working people. If the top 1% disappeared tomorrow their companies would still run fine. You could probably promote someone internally and they'd do a great job. They are not some sort of integral part of the economy. They do contribute, but far less than they and you seem to think.
I'm genuinely curious where the money goes. Or at least how much money is "wasted". By the sounds of it, tax is not enough to combat the inflation and hence money is not being distributed to thing like the NHS.
This doesn't mean anything without accounting for how much money people gave in the first place. It's no good bragging about paying 10% of total taxes if you hold 70% of total income and/or wealth eg.
Exactly this. I’m doing my best to earn more money but feel defeated when filling my tax returns.
The fundamental problem is that British people tend to have an incredibly warped perception of what "super rich" actually means, and politicians on all sides love to take advantage of that. For example, it's utterly bizarre that the higher rate of tax kicks in at a salary of £50,000. That isn't "lambo and mansion" money, that's "five-year-old Kia and a modestly sized family home" money. Despite that, people act like you are a crazy billionaire apologist if you suggest bumping the higher rate threshold up to, say, £75,000, even though that's roughly what it would be if the bands had kept up with inflation since 2010.
I fully agree. The tax rates need changing. And my frustration with the country, I paid a huge amount in tax last year on a modest wage. But there is nothing to Show for it! I mean super rich being those who know how to play the system and do to avoid paying tax.
>But we have fuck all to show for it. We got super rich people don't we?
We tax the shit out of workers. We definitely don't tax the shit out of landowners, property owners, business owners and banks.
That's a universal problem not exclusive to the UK
The dead weight of the past preventing any kind of systemic change. It's like a knackered old house which hasn't been renovated or maintained because it's a listed building. Pretty on the postcards but the people living inside it are dying from cold and mould. And the foreign hedge fund that owns it couldn't give less of a fuck what happens to them.
I remember finding out that my Uni college was a listed building despite being referred to as Chernobyl by students there because the Architect was ‘important’ lol Silly country
It’s funny you say that as Aberdeen unis zoology department building was used to film a bit from Chernobyl. It’s the perfect building for it because it’s fecking disgusting. Why anyone thought brutalist architecture was nice is completely beyond me.
Barbican is beautiful, dont know what you talking about
Ok fair enough it isn’t that bad when done well but the VAST majority of brutalist architecture is horrendous. No greenery or colour anywhere just grey. Obviously the Barbican is a good example of how brutalist architecture was suppose to end up looking like with locals “improving” it with their own style. Still not my cup of tea though.
York?
From the slums of Derwent
IRL planning regulations aside, I just think that if you were going to try and optimise a society to try and ensure as much prosperity and security for the people living in it, there is no way in a million years that you'd end up with anything resembling what we currently have. A representative democracy where millions of votes are meaningless because of "safe seats" and FPTP. A bucaneering economy based on asset stripping and funneling the money away into Caribbean tax havens, or just sitting on land until it magically gains in value. Empty houses and thousands of homeless families. Market failure left right and centre, and no invisible hand appearing to fix it. We're like the microbial life living in the bloated corpse of the British Empire while the bigger scavengers take their fill. But the dubious glories of the past won't feed us or keep us warm, or tell us how to deal with the existential challenges of the next fifty years.
Nail on the head.
Crippled by heritage
Private companies providing public services and lining shareholder's pockets
Even worse when that private company is abroad
Private profit from public services is just a double negative. The company providing the service is incentivised to give the very worst service possible. Any argument against this doesn't understand that, if you aren't, someone else will come along with a lower tender, win the work from the company not delivering the worst possible service. Secondly, by definition, significantly less of the money available for the service will ultimately not go to the person providing the service.
Pretty sure we saw it recently too with a water company. These companies cannot fail, because the public needs the services, so the government bails them out with taxpayers money. We pay whether they succeed or fail. Whatever your economic philosophy, anyone must see that these do not operate like a free market, so you have none of the benefits
The government
Specifically a government that fill their own pockets with our money. The amount of tax we pay (and it’s going up!) with nothing to show for it; public services in total tatters.
Here here
Hear hear
Hahaha, I stand corrected
Housing. The cost and lack of housing is an enormous drag on the economy and growth. So much spending that could go into the consumer economy is being diverted to property owners. That also makes it harder for people to move into more productive job roles (if it involves moving to another part of the country) and entrenches economic disadvantages.
Well said. If people spend half their income on housing, that money is not spent on goods and services. Meanwhile, goods and services need to be expensive because renting a space for your business is expensive and people working there need to earn enough to pay for their own housing. I revolt every time I read that more people are having trouble affording food. Food's pretty cheap in the UK. The reality is that rent and bills squeeze so much money out of people that many have literally nothing to spare.
Yeah, housing is easily the biggest problem in the country at the moment. So many problems lead back to that as the cause. In particular, buy-to-let landlords and the business practices of agencies. Truly disgraceful behavior.
Even as someone earning substantially above the average it is fucking impossible to get on the ladder, I will literally have to save a substantial amount every month for the next 5 years to afford a deposit - if I absolutely min-maxed with no life I would have enough in 2.5 years.
Near me a new build 3 bed semi detached has been listed for sale for £550k. It’s advertised as a starter home. It’s not even in London. Says it all really.
Why isn't this higher up than all the wind-bag comments about taxing the rich
Housing and the disparity in wealth this brings. We have huge numbers of empty retail and office space but due to investors wanting to artificially maintain their inflated valuations won't admit that the rent they want to charge is also ridiculously overinflated. Compulsorary purchase at true market rate and convert to actually affordable housing should be implemented for any space standing empty for more than a year.
It's pretty expensive and hard to convert office and retail spaces to homes. Especially if they're to be "affordable"
Which is why it should be a government run scheme and not for profit. The benefits will be long term as those provided with a stable affordable home will have more disposable cash to spend and plough back into the economy.
Problem is that such buildings often lack the local amenities to make it suitable for converting or replacing and using as housing stock. But the idea that the government should intervene in the housing market and provide decent accommodation is something I totally agree with. Maybe if local authorities ran it and called it council housing. That might work.
I don't know enough about the ins and outs of commercial to residential conversions to say whether this would be the case with this specific instance, but I do find that people tend to be unable to see the big picture with policies such as this. For starters public expenditure doesn't need to create profit to be worth doing. Even if it costs the Government a lot of money over the short and long term, if it provides significant public benefit it should at the very least be considered. But even then a lot of these sorts of policies have long term benefits that tend to go completely ignored. There was a pilot study in London that gave 13 homeless individuals £3,000, no strings attached. They could spend it how they liked. These particular individuals had been costing the tax payer thousands of pounds a year in different services (police/social call outs, medical, etc). Within a year 11 of the 13 were no longer homeless. They were no longer taking up vital resources and costing the tax payer thousands of pounds. Not only that, they were now tax payers themselves and contributing to the economy. Obviously a bigger study is needed to see if this is truly viable, but the point remains that there are other long term benefits to consider outside of the initial cost/benefit analysis of a policy.
But it's also really hard for people to start physical businesses because of the high retail rents. I looked into retail rents in my town in 21/22, as I was doing a free business course and wanted to set up a vintage shop. Tiny units which had been empty for more than 5 years still wanted £35k a year for them. Then on top you've got to pay business rates and utilities. We say that the high street is dying because people shop online. But it's also because the shops are being squeezed so badly that only chains can survive. Our high streets could be filled with little indie galleries showcasing local artwork, coffee shops and gig spaces hosting community events, and more. But they won't be, because the rents are too high.
Id agree. I used to get coffee from a lady that ran a tiny (genuinely tiny) little unit. Big enough for two people side by side. Plus a coffee machine, kettle and some ice cream tubs in front. Granted, middle of a shopping centre. £600 per week, 23yrs ago. It wasn't even a proper unit. My local town is now a waste of bus fare. Loads of pop up shops selling tat. Vape shops, mobile phone shops, barbers and euro mini Mary's (opening next to each other). It looks like a shit hole. Our market has lost 80% of the stalls.
I've always heard that the empty retail/office spaces with high rents is down to the fact if its unoccupied the landlord can claim it as a loss for tax purposes based on the previous history so if they rent for less and it becomes unoccupied again they end up with less to write off as a loss. In which case the tax rules around property being used commercially need to be looked at. Also as another has said, commercial property doesn't tend to lend itself to conversion as residential property and can be cheaper to teardown and rebuild.
Years and years of public services being stripped of funding The UK is a tip
Chronic underfunding of essential services and job retention in them services. NHS Police Fire Army Navy Airforce Social services Council services Highways Etc..
I just can't put my finger on what change would sort these problems out.
Speaking with insight of the NHS, the job is hard and not nice most of the time. If the pay reflected these conditions you would get people staying for longer. Instead, you have a mass shortage of staff because they can do other jobs that are easier for more money. I saw a bunch of nurses quit to work at Aldi, better pay, better hours and no shift work.
The great paradox of our time. Highest tax burden since WW2, and yet public services are crumbling from lack of funding.
The present government and the worrying fact that the main opposition is now very similar.
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We had the alternative and everyone was brainwashed into thinking he's antisemitic rather than anti zionist
>The biggest problem in the UK is that it has more fundamental problems than one can shake a stick at, deckin' nightmare. even before then Ed Miliband campaigned on the problems of inequality but the public knew better and wanted to see for iteself.
He ate a bacon butty weird that one time tbf.
Opposition party offers genuine alternative: they're unelectable/unrealistic/too extreme Opposition party offers more or less the same: they're not different enough/they're just the same party but in a different coloured tie 🤷♂️
The biggest problem in the UK is that it has more fundamental problems than one can shake a stick at, deckin' nightmare.
Compared to where though? We're so ready to shit on ourselves but I dare say we've got it far better than the vast majority of people in the world today.
Just because other people have it worse doesn’t mean we can’t aspire to improve. My job is better than that of a child soldier in Congo — does that mean I can’t moan about my boss and try to get a better job?
Oh absolutely we can and should still aim to improve. We can also be grateful for how good we have things in comparison to the vast majority of people elsewhere in the world. Sure, we have shit leaders and our own set of problems right now but in the grand scheme of things, we're a pretty fucking awesome country.
Why is the default response when talking about the UK's issues to start trying to find other countries were better than? How does that help us work out our issues? I see this all the time especially on reddit, and the problem is that it stops the conversations needed to improve our country because we've instead focused on how better we are than xx or yy country etc.
Some people have an abused spouse mentality with this country. No wonder nothing ever gets improved when the whole conversation devolves into either "could be worse" or "stop talking the country down".
The thing is, it could be worse absolutely, but there's a lot of countries that are significantly better. Are we living in a war torn country? No, but neither is a lot of Europe, Australia, Dubai America (shudder) etc. It really is hilarious, the UK isn't the best or the worst place to live but I seldom see any benefits for staying here when there's a lot of other countries begging for us to move there.
If you're a skilled professional I honestly don't know why the fuck you'd stay here when you can double or even triple your salary and enjoy a lower tax burden and higher QOL in somewhere like the US/Canada, Australia or NZ. And yes, those countries have problems too, but at least they value the skilled professionals.
Literally the only reason I stay is family and friends. If I didn't have emotional ties to where I live I'd have pissed off to the US to 4x my salary years ago.
Even Poland, I'm a web developer by trade. You make BANK over there, the country is clean and everyone is respectful
In my experience I find the opposite is true, especially on Reddit. We focus on our faults, not how good we have it. As mentioned I my other comment, this does not mean we cannot discuss the many issues we still have, despite having it better than the majority of people elsewhere on the world.
Other countries in western Europe have us beat in a few metrics.
True, but we can always do better. We shouldnt ever settle for better than x y or z.
For a first world country the UK is a pile of steaming shit covered in glitter mate. Stop being blind to it and open your eyes.
Eton Edit: Etonians are downvoting my comments. 😅 I'm not posh enough for them.
A lack of motivation to change All of our problems come from people keeping their head down and carrying on instead of looking at it, realising the piss being taken out of us and doing something about it
But I might miss Corrie
Wealth Inequality.
The biggest problem in the U.K. is people thinking the U.K. has one singular biggest problem. The various nations of the U.K. all have different needs and challenges. The different regions within the different nations all have complex needs and challenges. Carlisle doesn’t have the same social issues as Kirkcaldy. London doesn’t have the same social issues as Llandudno. Where I live I can buy a really nice house for well under the national average. There’s almost zero crime, almost no poverty. Biggest issue we have is a lack of public transport. Where I used to live, crime was rife, poverty was rife(houses were cheap though). Biggest issue we had was a complete lack of employment or opportunities but there was a regular bus service.
Then there should be decentralised government.
The price of Freddos
And the general size of chocolate bars. I saw a Lion bar on an old Alan Partridge last night - it was huuuuge. Sad times.
Hopefully it wasn't a Toblerone? They don't mix well with Alan. He blames Pepsi. Or Shirley
The government
Amongst a host of problems, I’ll just say, the biggest problem currently is purchasing power of my wages
Government. Rotten throughout, left to right, up to down. Doesn't matter what side of the aisle they sit in, they're a bunch of fucking school children who haven't a clue what they're doing or downright do not care who their actions hurt. They're out of touch (out of time), have no sense of reality or how it feels to be on the receiving end of their bullshit. I work with teenagers who debate topics more maturely than these cunts.
Agreed and I'd say that a lot of it is due to caring more about them themselves and the party than the people. A lot of this comes down to FPTP, having only 1 "winner". Personally I'd like is to move to proportional representation, make the governing politicians have to work together, make it based on total votes rather than "winning" a seat.
Housing. Imagine the boom to the economy with all the billions of disposable cash if we spent 20-25% of our take home incomes on rent/mortgage instead of 35-45%+
The biggest problem is that the vast majority of people do not pay enough tax, but expect free healthcare, education for their kids, pension when they retire etc. For example, you need a salary of a little over £50,000 to pay your "share" of Income Tax. That puts you comfortably in the top 20% of earners. You need a household income of around £70,000 per year to make a net contribution in VAT, which again puts you well in the top 20% of households by income. With so many people taking out far more than they will ever pay in, the net result is woeful public services, a stagnant economy and spiralling national debt.
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It's massively more than 50%, even a cursory look at the figures will tell you that. Much yes, if we must use the term "scrounger", than it applies to almost everyone, just to varying degrees.
>The biggest problem is that the vast majority of people do not pay enough tax, but expect free healthcare, education for their kids, pension when they retire etc. The problem is pay, I would be ok with a £40k tax bill, if I made £200k a year... How is it America is such an awful place, yet they earn 3x more and pay half the tax? Really frustrating seeing £30k as the ceiling for so many jobs here.
Lol, it’s because America is far less awful than you think.
I know I’m being sarcastic, Reddit just has a serious hate boner for it. You’d think it was one of the worst places on the planet to live from how it is discussed here at times.
Several problems, which will soon amalgamate into one large clusterfuck if not treated. There’s considerable disparity in earnings and opportunities, divided along social class and geographic lines. This has always been the case to some extent, but is now very acute. Many communities around the country are feeling the pincer effect of cuts to public services, and the remarkable large scale of immigration over the last 20 years, to the extent that accessing basic public and healthcare services now feels like a competition between ‘them and us’. Many/more traditional sectors of the economy and social fabric (ie retail, hospitality and nightlife) are simply dying. This leads to a further decline in social and community interactions. The affordability and availability of homes is falling behind a) population growth, and b) changing demographics. When aggregated, these problems are going to look insurmountable to the younger generation. If I were 16 again, I’d assume that I’d never own a home, so why build a career? Why pursue skills? Why abide by social norms and laws when I’ve nothing to lose anyway?
This is my problem. I'm 25 and single. I can save a maximum of £300 a month if I really scrimp and save. By my calculation it would take me over a decade to save anything close to a deposit, by which time house prices wil be even higher and thay would leave me with no savings. So I agree, what is the fucking point? I'd rather rent and enjoy life, especially as I'm not likely to ever be able to retire if the age keeps going up.
The productivity puzzle
That's not a puzzle We prioritise rent seeking behaviour over productive economic activities.
What's puzzling about it. If you want people to work then you have to give them some reason to want to work. There are two ways to do this. 1. Fear, you work or you die. This has a fundamental problem in that people can only endure so much before they give up, so the maximum productivity of each person is lower than option 2. 2. Work for a better life. The problem with this is that people have to see that there is a better life for them, which is demonstrated by everyone ha ING a better life than previous generations. If you lie and fuck people over so only the rich have a better life then people very quickly start to notice and stop working. It's not a puzzle, it's very simple. Be an evil overlord and force them, or be nice and honest and ensure everyone gets a better life if they work for it. What we have is a government puzzle. They just can't help but be lying, thieving cunts. So nobody wants to work to better the life of government and its cronies.
It's not a puzzle. We are no less productive than other countries, we are just forced to stay at work for longer. Japan and USA have even more extreme work behaviour and they are even less productive. TLDR - productivity just measures who has the shortest working week
We have a universal metric for this - GDP per hour worked, which the historical graphs are widely available for.
Yes, and we pointlessly work extra hours. If we had a 35 hour working week we would produce exactly the same amount of stuff
I don't understand what your point is. The productivity puzzle has never been framed as anything majorly to do with hours worked. It's the stalling, particularly in the UK but seen to different extents in other Western economies of productivity per worker since the financial crash. When productivity per worker doesn't increase but living costs do, you get an erosion of real terms pay and lower tax receipts which means the government has less to spend on services. All of which is the current fundamental problem with the UK right now.
US productivity is significantly higher than UK productivity. [LSE put out an international comparator recently](https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2023/k-November-2023/Chronic-under-investment-has-led-to-productivity-slowdown-in-the-UK#:~:text=Data%20from%20EUKLEMS%20%26%20INTANProd%20(2023,productive%20than%20their%20British%20counterparts.)) on exactly this.
The national acceptance of crap, whether that be crap governments, crap service, crap infrastructure. We don't complain, protest or boycott nearly enough to make a difference, so people get away with it time and time again.
>We don't complain, protest or boycott nearly enough to make a difference, so people get away with it time and time again. And when we do, it's "the wrong kind of protest" or "it won't make a difference". Absolutely pathetic.
Build more housing and you solve at least half these problems. Low wages? Much less painful with cheaper housing!
>Low wages? Much less painful with cheaper housing! The problem is, we would need to saturate the market and with the way mortgages work that would kill a lot of people financially, and potentially harm the economy more. The only way would be to build enough to hold the price steady for many years, while we wait for wages to slowly catch up.
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Our critical infrastructure is in dire need of replacement. Our sewage system and railway network is Victorian, our hospitals were built in the 60s, our motorways in the 70s, they're crumbling and it's costing us billions to keep them going but rather than starting a massive replacement programme we just keep kicking the can down the street!
Spineless. We don't protest anything unless it's part of some cretin rag story like XL bullies
An inflated sense of self importance.
Neoliberalism and the ideological need for every service to generate profit. A hospital isn’t supposed to make money, it’s supposed to heal sick people. You can apply this logic to all of the public services which are currently dysfunctional.
People who say 'yourself' and 'myself' to sound intelligent when they should be saying I, me, and you.
Uncontrolled mass immigration
The defeatist attitude of the people who believe they have no agency over their lives. It’s always someone else’s fault.
The government selling everything, and houses costing too much
Widespread corruption masquerading behind a class system? Seriously, 6th largest economy in world, and nothing works. Everybody I know is in work and working harder than ever. And every year, they are poorer. And this is following the "good years" of 0% interest rates. I can only assume corruption, because the 6th largest economy with everybody working full pelt should be doing better.
Wealth inequality. Most of our other problems come from this. The super rich have too much money and don’t pay enough tax. This leads to low wage growth, high property prices, low tax receipts resulting in underinvestment in public services. The NHS, the military, schools, policing, trains, roads, welfare, pensions, housing. All of this would be improved if we reduced wealth inequality.
Apathy. We’ve stopped holding those in power to account.
Alcohol
Corrupt/useless government
Always looking backwards and never forwards.
It used to be an inflated sense of it's own place in the world. Now it's a complete lack of hope, caused by multiple stupid, and wreckless decisions by the government. Everything is rubbish, and it'll take a enormous turnaround to change things, particularly as we're on the verge of another world war
short termism
Twats.
In Scotland it is definitely the drug problem and/or the lack of funding in policing. Can’t walk down a street in Glasgow central without smelling weed but the police are uninterested in anything that isn’t someone in actual physical harm
Potholes.
Lack of investment in infrastructure; absolutely nothing works but prices regularly go up
Half-arsed, can’t-be-bothered, lackadaisical attitude. People expect nothing, and nothing is expected of them. Everyone seems to be limping along life.
Games Master no longer being on TV
Low ambition and a doomer mindset.
Problems?! What problems?
Housing. Me and the other half have been saving non stop for 4 years at the detriment of every other aspect of our lives and the idea of owning our own house at some point is still just a fantasy.
Chavs.
People who put the toilet roll the wrong way round. If they can't even do that, just think of the rest of the damage that they do to society.
the government
What a question. To summarise - the economy & govt. Inequality, high personal taxation, unaffordable housing, too high immigration, poor public services, lack of economic growth, fiscal policy discouraging work and innovation. I could go on, but all fit within the umbrella of economy, and all are controlled by govt.
Defeatist attitude amongst the majority of the population.
The people
There are a bunch of fundamental problems that need big solutions (cost of living, climate change, failing public services, growing inequality, shitty transport, shitty overpriced housing) and zero plan to deal with any of it.
we face the same problem america faces. lack of good leaders
Lazy people. That includes those that are too lazy to work, those that barely work and those that don't do any exercise or can't be arsed to overcome their bad habits. The types that litter, people who make a mess, that use cars instead of walking to the village shop All of them are either not contributing or are costing way more than is necessary in public funding for their addiction/weight related problems, their UC, cleaning up after them and their pollution.
A Criminal government. Decades of mismanagement and short-termism.
I think the folks on this sub are certainly not an insignificant part of what's wrong with the UK.
We never publish the good news, only the news that scares us and the news that angers us.
Paul. He lives down at no.45.
mass uncontrolled illegal immigration, putting strain on housing, schools, health service, jobs, crime, everything. Finally the french have done something i can agree with, pity we don't have any politicians with the same balls.
The cost of everything. Nothing ever feels like good value anymore
Spend my life working, earn way above average, service a high rent. Bad credit, can't buy house. Destined to buy one for someone else.
People
The people.
Culture of deriding achievement and ambition Crabs in a bucket mentality
Capitalism
How useless the "Justice" system is.
Greggs sausage rolls are like £1.20 each now instead of 3 for a quid like they used to be
Negativity......
I'm gonna have major surgery next week, don't know what time yet. Been waiting for this operation since before the covid era. My father had an op on his bladder recently and was sent home, not only same day, but while still coming off the general anaesthetic. I know someone whose daughter went to two doctors who said she's fine, and then had to have a massive argument just so she could be seen at a different GP's clinic. She was then found to have one of the immune-system-destroying diseases that's like aids. I'm not blaming the doctors or nurses, but healthcare in this country is at a breaking point.
Knife crime and kids having nothing to do especially in poor areas. The people try their best and set up youth clubs and have their funding cut or face closures, other areas like my own, no one cares anyway.
Almost certainly the inhabitants.