House prices 'pick up in January'

[expat]

Relax, expat, it was a joke.

When I say "OK, not to be totally boneheaded," I mean of course that I'm about to be totally boneheaded.

And as for when I've got my antlers in. No, antlers ON.

[Lucifer Box]

Relax, expat, it was a joke.

[expat]

Au contraire, expat, my taxes are paid for by a number of direct clients who have the freedom to take their business elsewhere if they are not happy with paying them. Not sure there is that option with state employees.

OK, not to be totally boneheaded, you can say that anyone's taxes are paid by whoever pays their income, but what does that really mean?

We the taxpayers pay the government, the government pays its employees, and by then it's no longer taxpayers' money.

[Lucifer Box]

Logically true and not very helpful.

In the same vein, your taxes are paid by your agent. And yet you expect to have a vote??

Au contraire, expat, my taxes are paid for by a number of direct clients who have the freedom to take their business elsewhere if they are not happy with paying them. Not sure there is that option with state employees.

[expat]

That's the thing with public sector employees. Even the feckers' taxes are paid for by the taxpayer.

Logically true and not very helpful.

In the same vein, your taxes are paid by your agent. And yet you expect to have a vote??

[stackpole]

Price inflation is UP, the tax burden is UP, yet wage inflation is STATIC. Under Thatcher there was significant price inflation but was offset by wage inflation and a lower tax burden. Thus all debts where not created equal.

Didn't personal saving and share-holding increase rapidly under Thatcher, what with selling off nationalised indistries, PEPs and stuff?

[Lucifer Box]

Good. Another one like you, and with your combined taxes HMG could afford a third. It's a bit like a perpetual motion machine.

That's the thing with public sector employees. Even the feckers' taxes are paid for by the taxpayer.

[stackpole]

Too right. I'm angling for a job as a 5-a-day outreach consultant. If you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em.

Good. Another one like you, and with your combined taxes HMG could afford a third. It's a bit like a perpetual motion machine.

[NoddY]

So what jobs are going to be left for UK house owners to pay off all that debt?

Price inflation is UP, the tax burden is UP, yet wage inflation is STATIC. Under Thatcher there was significant price inflation but was offset by wage inflation and a lower tax burden. Thus all debts where not created equal.

[Lucifer Box]

Phew. Good old New Labour. Gawd bless 'em.

Too right. I'm angling for a job as a 5-a-day outreach consultant. If you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em.

[Fungus]

Don't worry, the state will employ anyone out of work and give them a gold plated pension as well.

Phew. Good old New Labour. Gawd bless 'em.

[Lucifer Box]

Don't worry, the state will employ anyone out of work and give them a gold plated pension as well.

[stackpole]

Hmm. I'm a bit worried by this. The house price data means that increases in personal borrowing are outstripping wage rises again.

That won't help the levels of personal debt, which is already 1.2 trillion and rising.

However, tekkie jobs are moving to India, China and other low-cost countries, while manual jobs are increasingly going to "visitors" from eastern Europe.

So what jobs are going to be left for UK house owners to pay off all that debt?

[Lucifer Box]

The UK housing market made a "strong start" in 2006, with prices rising 1.4% in January, the Nationwide has said. The increase - the biggest monthly rise since July 2004 - took the annual rate of house price growth to 4.4%. Over the November to January period, prices were up 1.8% compared with the previous three-month period. Nationwide said the rise was helped by increased confidence amongst buyers. However, it added that strong price rises were unlikely to persist in 2006.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4664598.stm

Remember, folks, equity release schemes are your friends so spend, spend, spend like there's no tomorrow [you may as well because by the time you come to retire all pension schemes will have been nationalised in the interests of "fairness" anyway].

Gordon Brown.