End of Feb/all of March UK politics thread

well then they already feel shame and all is good

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I wouldn’t suggest shame is a requirement. But, yeah, anyone with that income should at least acknowledge their privilege.

There was an n+1 mag article a while back advocating a 100% tax on income over a certain level (can’t remember the exact figure that was picked, but that’s irrelevant, it’s the principle we’re on about here). I think I’m still into that concept. It’s surely undeniable that, at the top end, there’s a point at which your income starts to become less and less truly ‘earned’ (and ultimately at the very top, a point where every single additional penny is just part of a financial game rather than bearing any actual relation to what’s been ‘earned’). Wouldn’t stop people working. Or getting paid megabucks. So it’s not a pay cap. You can work as much as you like and be paid as much as you can wangle. But don’t expect to be able to keep vat chunks of that for yourself. Surely that’s the logical conclusion of progressive taxation? 20-something% rate, 40-something% rate, why not keep going, right up to that 100% rate? Anyone basing their argument against it around something to do with retaining and encouraging entrepreneurs can see themselves out.

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Yeah, I’m a big fan of this - have been since I first heard it was a thing. No idea why it shouldn’t be a default approach across the world tbqh.

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Even if you subscribe to capitalism whole-heartedly there’s an argument to be made that this money isn’t doing enough work in the economy and needs to be put in motion.

like a lot of people feel or at least outwardly say “I earnt my money, I’m paid fairly” how far up do you think this goes in people’s minds before they know it’s a con? People on £100k probably feel this way “well I go to a lot of stressful meetings and don’t see my family often so I deserve this money!”

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Never mind that, won’t someone think of the £100k earners?

BBC News really has been very shit for a very long while, huh?

like I’m sure moderately rich to very rich (excluding superduper rich) people hang around with their peer group and all bitch and moan about their stresses and problems as humans always will, and so their sense is that they are just ordinary like everybody else

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Many many people would NEVER reach such a limit.

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OK so this debate is going in the usual direction. So I want to try to divert it.

If you believe that an effective earnings cap is a good idea then what undesirable consequences do you believe might appear as side-effects and how would you mitigate them?

We should make efforts to find out if that’s true sometimes. I know I’m not the norm, office worker in a city seems like the norm to me but I really have no idea outside of DiS if this is true or not

not sure there would be any honestly

There would, there always are. Think harder.

Woah there. Let’s not fall into a trap here. Like I say. You could still get earnings as high as the sky, to boost your ego, or maintain your social standing, or whatever, but, over a certain level, it all gets taxed. There’d be no earnings ceiling, though. No cap. Which means all complaints about it necessarily have to provide a reason why the opposition to it is something other than outright greed. Which is harder to do than to cry foul over an ‘ambition stifling’ wages cap.

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Also I guess a fair number of brain surgeons.

OK I’m not fussy about the terminology, that’s why I said “effective”, although you make a good point about there being differences in the method of application.

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I’d like to earn enough to pay my rent and maybe buy my mum some flowers each month and enter some bike races and eat beans on toast each day.

and can that be solved? I’ve just googled and it looks like Cuba and Egypt are the current case studies.

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Agreed! I follow some accounts devoted entirely to forts in Ireland and I really enjoy them.

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think I’ve thought of everything, not seeing any

No I’ve not got beyond Wikipedia.

I guess even if you implement it you still run into the problem of capital accumulation. It’s just a bit slower, but probably more entrenched.

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