GDP per head falling

[DoctorStrangelove]

You are aware, I assume, that there's been inflation since I started working in 1972?

10p in 1972 corresponds to £1 or so now.

I suppose I could dig out half a century of P60s & add it all up but I can't be arsed.

[Fraidycat]

10p in 1972 corresponds to £1 or so now.

Just 10x, house prices have probably gone up closer to 100x since 1972..

[willendure]

They have, but (on average) they’ll take out a lot more than they paid in unlike the generations after them who will simply not have that luxury.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240214...-in-a-dark-age

I’ve nothing against boomers and one day I’ll be old too. But, the principles of equity dictate that the tax burden must be shared more fairly unlike the current setup where the burden of taxes is overly weighted towards earned income and the ever shrinking % of the population that works and keeps getting squeezed for more taxes to make up for the rising dependency ratio.

Interesting, but I note that it says "forecast" to receive state benefits of 1.2 million. What happens when the state realizes it cannot actually affort those forecast benefits? A state pension is just an IOU on the next generation for example, its not like your National Insurance payments went into some kind of investment fund.

The IOU is going to fall on gen X, a smaller generation, that simply cannot afford it. Of course our retirement age will get pushed up, and I think with falling life expetency in the UK, eventually retirement age will overtake life expectency! Work until we die.

The triple lock will probably be broken some time over the next few years. Even if it is not, the only way to pay for it will be to print the money. Argentina here we come!

[willendure]

Just 10x, house prices have probably gone up closer to 100x since 1972..

Yes. Why does inflation not take house prices into account? It is just about the definition of inflation.

[willendure]

Listening to higlights of Bidens state of the union, he seems to think $400,000 a year is considered the threshold for high pay, and he promises not to raise taxes for lower paid workers who earn less than that.

Here in the UK if you earn 50K you are considered a high earner and you start to get taxed to death, 42% + loss of child benefits if you get it leads to 62% tax bands. And another 62% tax band for those earning between 100K and 120K. This reduces the incentive to do overtime for those near the thresholds of 50K and 100K. And those thresholds are not keeping up with inflation.. Both should have moved up 20% since 2021.
And Instead of moving the 45% threshold from 150K to 180K to keep up with inflation, they moved it down 20% instead.

Table shows Federal income Tax bands in the US, and states like Florida and Texas have no additional state income taxes:

10%	$11,600 or less
12%	$11,601 to $47,150
22%	$47,151 to $100,525
24%	$100,526 to $191,950
32%	$191,951 to $243,725
35%	$243,726 to $609,350
37%	Over $609,350

With the minimum wage nearing 25K a year, the UK will operate an almost communist equal pay for all after tax system, in a few years 95% of full time workers will all earn between 2000 and 4000 a month after tax.

Depressing isn't it? You are not allowed to accumulate wealth in this country any more. That is reserved for Tory party donors with dodgy Covid contracts and off-shore accounts. Social mobility is utterly dead in this country. None of this has anything to do with immigration.

[willendure]

Work until we die.

I should add, I would quite happily work until I die, so long as the work is meaningful and so long as the proceeds benefit me and my family. My current boss is 85 years old and still running his business day-to-day, like a boss and a legend.

But seriously, no way am I opening a British ISA, all my investments are outside of the UK into the only economies where some kind of real return seems possible. Which mostly means the USA.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Strangelove Grandfather worked until he was 78 when his dementia meant he had to stop, and no pension so he was on National Assistance for the next 3 years until he popped his clogs.

The other Grandfather died at 64 from cancer of the oesophagus, so he never had any return on contributions at all.

[xoggoth]

eventually retirement age will overtake life expectency! Work until we die

Keep working after we die. Zombies are the solution!

[edison]

Yes. Why does inflation not take house prices into account? It is just about the definition of inflation.

There are some good videos on YouTube explaining how inflation is calculated and how the ONS massages the statistics. I've never been completely convinced that the published rates of UK inflation really match what the average person experiences.

[NotAllThere]

...immigration is THE top issue for Tory voters..

What? Both of them?