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+--- Thread: Fixing the deficit. (/showthread.php?tid=10340)
RE: Fixing the deficit. - Babel - 05-16-2020
(05-15-2020, 07:32 AM)Protheroe Wrote:(05-15-2020, 06:11 AM)Pneumann Wrote: Invest in infrastructure, doesn’t matter how. UK is literally a generation behind on this.
Who are we a generation behind?
Have you been to Germany or the States? German infrastructure in particular is in a shocking state.
Yes, and yes. I’ll concede the US and its hopelessness at accepting that public goods can be funded by the public purse. Germany? Ahead of the UK. Scandinavia? A generation ahead. Take off those Blighty Blinkers, Proth.
RE: Fixing the deficit. - Protheroe - 05-16-2020
(05-16-2020, 09:59 AM)Pneumann Wrote:(05-15-2020, 07:32 AM)Protheroe Wrote:(05-15-2020, 06:11 AM)Pneumann Wrote: Invest in infrastructure, doesn’t matter how. UK is literally a generation behind on this.
Who are we a generation behind?
Have you been to Germany or the States? German infrastructure in particular is in a shocking state.
Yes, and yes. I’ll concede the US and its hopelessness at accepting that public goods can be funded by the public purse. Germany? Ahead of the UK. Scandinavia? A generation ahead. Take off those Blighty Blinkers, Proth.
It's generally accepted (even by the Germans) that their investment in infrastructure is hugely behind the rest of the developed world - largely due to the costs of reunification.
When's the last time a UK airport closed becuase one of its runways was being relaid whilst the other cracked in unseasonbly warm weather?
It's not blinkers pal, it's FACTS.
RE: Fixing the deficit. - FenlandBoing - 05-22-2020
(05-14-2020, 02:24 PM)The liquidator Wrote: As I said try not to bring in political bias not even one post ffs
Keep corporation tax at current rate or lower, have govt buy up land / unused industrial space and incentivise foreign firms to bring higher paid/skilled jobs in to tackle the new unemployment rate - especially focused on poorer areas of England and Wales. Raise 40% tax rate to those only earning more than £60k a year. Allow councils to raise council taxes on the top 1-5% of residential houses in their areas to better support social care and high street. Re the high street, govt to encourage councils to buy up small shop properties and lease out to independent traders (not the trotters) at reasonable rate with no business rates. This will encourage life back into our towns, promote social cohesion and enable small traders to thrive offering us all a more diverse shopping experience.
RE: Fixing the deficit. - Fido - 05-22-2020
(05-22-2020, 07:53 PM)FenlandBoing Wrote:(05-14-2020, 02:24 PM)The liquidator Wrote: As I said try not to bring in political bias not even one post ffs
Keep corporation tax at current rate or lower, have govt buy up land / unused industrial space and incentivise foreign firms to bring higher paid/skilled jobs in to tackle the new unemployment rate - especially focused on poorer areas of England and Wales. Raise 40% tax rate to those only earning more than £60k a year. Allow councils to raise council taxes on the top 1-5% of residential houses in their areas to better support social care and high street. Re the high street, govt to encourage councils to buy up small shop properties and lease out to independent traders (not the trotters) at reasonable rate with no business rates. This will encourage life back into our towns, promote social cohesion and enable small traders to thrive offering us all a more diverse shopping experience.
+1. And make it more possible for independent restaurants to pick these up and not shit chains.
RE: Fixing the deficit. - Babel - 05-23-2020
(05-16-2020, 07:26 PM)Protheroe Wrote:True, reunification costs were huge--not least in infrastructure, not least in the East. Which, by the way, is in Germany.(05-16-2020, 09:59 AM)Pneumann Wrote:(05-15-2020, 07:32 AM)Protheroe Wrote:(05-15-2020, 06:11 AM)Pneumann Wrote: Invest in infrastructure, doesn’t matter how. UK is literally a generation behind on this.
Who are we a generation behind?
Have you been to Germany or the States? German infrastructure in particular is in a shocking state.
Yes, and yes. I’ll concede the US and its hopelessness at accepting that public goods can be funded by the public purse. Germany? Ahead of the UK. Scandinavia? A generation ahead. Take off those Blighty Blinkers, Proth.
It's generally accepted (even by the Germans) that their investment in infrastructure is hugely behind the rest of the developed world - largely due to the costs of reunification.
When's the last time a UK airport closed because one of its runways was being relaid whilst the other cracked in unseasonably warm weather?
It's not blinkers pal, it's FACTS.
But moving from the general, to your illustrative "example", when's the last time a German motorway had to systematically and chronically use the emergency lanes for traffic--with deaths a result? Or had to close The World's Leading International Airport for want of snow moving equipment (to misuse specific "FACTS" examples in the same way)? Tit-for-tat "facting," like farting in a lift, gets us nowhere.
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The point remains, invest in infrastructure, and drive the UK into the mid-21 century by the mid C21. That remains a cost effective mode of investment and stimulus for the overall economy.
Financing that prioritization can be done at low interest rates, though borrowed cash will have to be paid back.
As someone else wrote, some method of actually taxing corporations rather than the current laying out of saucers of cream should be one way. That would have to be done internationally, and, as was written further up, unlikely given cut-price Britain's strategy of a pared down tax and regulatory environment. For want of other methods of financing that suggests personal tax hikes (for the financially immobile) and service cuts: Austerity 2.0.
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The problem with raising marginal tax rates is that they hit people best able to avoid paying them, which can lead to the greasy pole of higher tax rates sliding down to those who can't "manage" their tax liability.