Tax breaks, handouts, benefits all for the rich.
The people in power are rich therefore they look after the rich. There’s no middle class any more, just people who own houses and the poor.
There’s ostensibly two political parties but in fact they both represent the rich.
I’m talking Australia here but wouldn’t be surprised if the trend was the same around the world.
1. High taxes. The marginal tax rate from 37k onwards is 40%, and that's just the income tax. On top of this there's national insurance (another couple of %). 2. Poor services and infrastructure. The roads are crumbling, massive potholes even in the richets towns and cities. Public transport is falling apart. There have been near constant strikes or disruptions in the past couple of years. 3. High concentration of wealth and a significant "housing as an investment" culture.
Unless you are born into wealth or happen to luck your way into finance in London - the only high paying industry and location - you'll earn fairly little money. The government then takes a large portion of this money and gives you very little in return. Both the infrastructure and the living standards of former Eastern Bloc countries are now better than the average in the UK.
A friend of mine summed it up neatly: the UK acts as if it was a first world country, whereas in reality it is a developing country. It needs to start thinking like a developing country, the policies it adops need to be that of a developing country.
I'm an expat, but I like it here and I really like the people. It breaks my heart how much of a shitshow the country has become and how much each day the hope of a better tomorrow slips away.
If you show too much enthusiasm for not being a sheep you're gently reminded that the exit is always open: before it was the colonies (either by choice or by transportation!) today it's Australia/NZ or America - the door is always open and it's trivial to get into either one of those countries (by marriage)
Thatcher fought the system and tried to free people (please don't laugh) and set a lot of people on an upward trajectory, being able to own their first home which is key to building wealth and a hugely powerful black PR network set about demonising her the moment she left office. She's now utterly reviled despite winning a gigantic share of the vote on several occasions and doing a huge amount to set the working classes free of rentiers. The 'public housing selloff' in the UK wouldn't have been a scandal if new public housing had been built but the idea of building that stuff just to sell it to the 'proles' really didn't go over well with those who hold the purse strings so they basically vetoed any more ever being built from that point on. Now it's even worse, many new housing developments are shared ownership, even with cash you can't buy outright, you have to accept owning only a share and paying rent forever.
Also it's virtually impossible to build your own house or even have anything constructed that has any sort of interesting architecture. The difference between UK small towns and French/German small towns is ludicrous - in Europe the architecture has long since adapted to modern living patterns and styles, in the UK the houses still need to be built with a certain 'look' because 'that's the UK look' and it's so tedious.
Vested interests in the UK have simply been there too long to accept any challenge to their power. They just point to the door.
The housing stock (even newly built) in the UK is atrocious. The quality is really poor, unless you pay a massive premium. And I agree with you: it all looks the same dreary brown. Everything has to be identical baby diarrhea brown and the same design.
And somehow nobody seems to be keen to demolish and replace the terrible 60s-70s houses either. Why is that? It costs too much? Or someone, somewhere actually enforces that the design must remain as it is?
I have yet to see a new development where I can say: oh this looks nice and positive. I don't know who to blame for this, whether it's some funky conservation societies who wield way too much power, or whether it is self inflicted dreariness that people somehow like.
There's no positivity left. All the positive people, as I said, were encouraged to leave.
What's left is hugely corrupt local councils (that control planning) all staffed by the most bitter venal types you've ever met who all have the same mentality - 'I can't fix it myself but if I let someone else fix it for me that means they're better than me, and I can't accept that' so they choose to rule over ruins than step aside. Usually combined with lots of racism and alcoholism.
It all shows through in the television. The cynicism and sarcasm that pervades British television is so telling once you see it from a distance.
> whether it is self inflicted dreariness that people somehow like
They do seem to like it, unfortunately.
I don't think that's true. I have friends who did shared ownership, and pretty universally you can ratchet up how much you own after the first year (assuming you can get the mortgage for it). So just, like, buy the rest and you won't pay rent.
That's a lovely theory but shared ownership allows prices to rise astronomically because it allows what's basically double-mortgaging - you get a mortgage on the part you own and pay rent on the rest (which of course is you paying the developer's loan) which is accepted because the risk is shared between the developer and the mortgage issuer, who of course have an 'arrangement' because only some banks will issue mortgages to some shared ownership properties - there's an 'approved lender' list for each development.
So 'just buy the rest' becomes almost comically impossible, which is the idea. It's intrinsically gross. I honestly don't think it should be allowed, it's masking a problem which is insane real estate values which have no tie to reality.
Genuinely, where did you get that idea?
>High taxes
Compared to where? Taxes in the UK are pretty middle of the road when compared to other Western democracies. A bit higher than in some, a bit lower than in others. That's not to say that the tax system is particularly fair, but the overall tax burden is not unusually high.
There’s no empathy or desire for everyone in society to do well, just unbridled greed.