Election Year or Fear!

[Andy_Faber]

it might be interesting to see if we can reach a consensus on what forum members regard as the priorities for any new government.
.

My ‘priorities’ would be

Stop picking on responsible private landlords

Police to do more policing

NHS to be more (consistently) efficient

Those who can’t help themselves to be prioritised over those who won’t help themselves

Public body executive pay to be limited to (let’s say) £250k per year and vacancies advertised on pleb-visible job sites

I doubt there’ll be much concensus there but hey ho

[MadAmster]

My ‘priorities’ would be

1. Stop picking on responsible private landlords

2. Police to do more policing

3. NHS to be more (consistently) efficient

4. Those who can’t help themselves to be prioritised over those who won’t help themselves

5. Public body executive pay to be limited to (let’s say) £250k per year and vacancies advertised on pleb-visible job sites

I doubt there’ll be much concensus there but hey ho

1. but really harass the irresponsible ones

2. by investing in getting police numbers back up to where they were 15 years ago or better

3. Rejig the NHS so it's less "manager" top heavy. Increase investment to attract new staff and help keep the ones already there

4. Absolutely

5. Totally agree. In NL such jobs may not pay salaries above those of (I forget which) either a government minister or the Prime Minister. Same goes for "celebrities" employed by the NOS which is akin to the BBC with the main difference being they have ads and no licence fee but do get some government funding

I'd add that over here, income generated through work gets taxed at a higher rate than income generated through shares or renting out property. Income tax is 0% over the first €13K. The next 54K (up to 67K) is taxed at 24.5% and everything over 67K is taxed at 33%. You can add roughly another 15% in social premiums on top of all of those to reach actual stoppages. Company profits are taxed at 20% and dividend payments are taxed at 15%. From this year profit from renting out property is finally being taxed, at 20%. I find this discriminatory. Why should one type of income be taxed at a lower rate than income from a different source?

[Andy_Faber]

1. but really harass the irresponsible ones

2. by investing in getting police numbers back up to where they were 15 years ago or better

3. Rejig the NHS so it's less "manager" top heavy. Increase investment to attract new staff and help keep the ones already there

4. Absolutely

5. Totally agree. In NL such jobs may not pay salaries above those of (I forget which) either a government minister or the Prime Minister. Same goes for "celebrities" employed by the NOS which is akin to the BBC with the main difference being they have ads and no licence fee but do get some government funding

I'd add that over here, income generated through work gets taxed at a higher rate than income generated through shares or renting out property. Income tax is 0% over the first €13K. The next 54K (up to 67K) is taxed at 24.5% and everything over 67K is taxed at 33%. You can add roughly another 15% in social premiums on top of all of those to reach actual stoppages. Company profits are taxed at 20% and dividend payments are taxed at 15%. From this year profit from renting out property is finally being taxed, at 20%. I find this discriminatory. Why should one type of income be taxed at a lower rate than income from a different source?

Seems like we have a bit of concensus

On the unearned (property) income thing, some of my income is 'unearned' by this definition, BUT

We've already paid vast amounts of tax out of 'earned' income to get in the position we have, AND

Whilst our friends have chosen to spend their 'earned' income on living the high life (cruises, flash cars, blah blah) we have invested more of our income (and sometimes ******* busting levels of effort) in building for our later years.