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Politics, politics, politics (so long and thanks for all the fish)

I think we really need to take a hard look at all the taxes

Employees PAYE
Employers Tax on Profits
Employees NI
Employers NI
Council Tax
VAT
Alcohol and Tobacco Duties
Fuel Duty
Capital Gains Tax
Inheritance Tax
Stamp Duty
Tax on Pension Contributions
(What have I missed?)

The government have only got so many dials to turn, and some of them have a much bigger impact on others. As an example, IHT only generates £7.5b whereas CGT raised £15b. Alcohol £13b, Tobacco £9b, Stamp Duty £15b.

The big sources of income for the government is VAT, Income Tax and NI which covers about £674b.

You can definitely see why these chancellors pull out some of these really small contributions and make a big deal of them. Quite honestly, changing stamp duty from the addition 3% to a new 5% limit on buy-to-lets won't make any difference (example). Same as increasing inheritance tax or capital gains tax. These are just rounding errors.

In the UK pie chart, they are just too insignificant and I saw nothing again that changes the status quo. I can definitely see why guys like Rishi who has intimate familiarity with these numbers as en ex chancellor lost the plot. You can't kid a kidder in life right?
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
Smartphones ain't the problem. Social media is the problem. Remove tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube shorts, Facebook etc from said phones and 95% of the problems/issues disappear. (Probably for adults as well)

But (as Steff states) the genie is out the bottle, and we are off to a terrible start.
That's because it's unregulated, untested, unmanaged and uncensored. It's nothing short of a unplanned experiment.

There are 4 problems we are facing.
1. Brain development. This 'tool' and this behavior have potential to cause multiple ongoing issues during the adolescent/teenage growth phase of the brain.
2. Addictive behavior. Its on their mind ALL the fudging time. It's no different to a hard drug...their mind has been hacked to chase it and consume it.
3. Externalization of everything. It doesn't allow for introspection, sitting doing nothing, looking out a window, pondering. There no off switch. The external world becomes your whole life..it's projected onto you, constantly. Your inner being is what make you, that needs attention and a little work from time to time:)...but in this world, there is no room for that:(
4. . Sadly the Internet being 'free' means it has to be paid for somehow. Advertising is the paymaster. Clicks/engagement rules. You are the product, those clicks/engagements need. So be it influencers/YouTube grifters/SM click bait/MSM click bait (if you can't beat them join them lol)...it's, in the main, driven by earning money. Very little care, sincerity, professionalism, skill or worrying about outcomes. No one really cares about what they've delivered/uploaded/posted, it's all about numbers.
And boy, are these channels giving a steroid boost to a load of worthless consumerism.
It's probably nigh on impossible to breakaway from this model now, and on many levels we are going to suffer the consequences.

Luckily? We adults have a trace, a line back to how things were, it's hard to gauge the mind of someone that doesn't have that comparable. They have no experience of a different way.
Click to expand...

Worked in tech a long time and we all knew that the factor that is bigger than your 4 is "innovation is much quicker than regulation". You can't even regulate consistently across geographies. In the western world we used to talk about FAANG = Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google owning 90% of our personal data between them. There was never informed consent in the way we allowed them to take that data. It was just hidden on page 17 of a T&Cs popup that nobody read when they signed up for these apps. Then "listening" started, again without informed consent and now controls all those marketing signals we experience. In fact, some of these apps wouldn't even allow you to use them without signing your digital life away.

For me, the single biggest thing to fix is regulation of tech. It's become a clear violation of human rights.

The other big theme for me is the medical side, especially the 4 big feel-good hormones - dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins. The modern tech and social media have just disrupted the human body in relation to these natural hormones. You don't get the cuddle drug (oxatocin) if you sit behind your ipad all day. You don't get any endorphins if you don't get any exercise and you certainly. Obviously, the current buzz word is dopamine. You didn't even hear that word a decade ago. The biggest one should be seratonin though. Serotonin plays a key role in such body functions as mood, sleep, digestion, nausea, wound healing, bone health, blood clotting and sexual desire. Then you wonder why you see patterns between poor mental health and tech.

I live in hope that this last phase has been the worst phase and that people are finally waking up to both areas. It would be great to think that we could think more positively about the future and the right control points in place.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
Smartphones ain't the problem. Social media is the problem. Remove tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube shorts, Facebook etc from said phones and 95% of the problems/issues disappear. (Probably for adults as well)

But (as Steff states) the genie is out the bottle, and we are off to a terrible start.
That's because it's unregulated, untested, unmanaged and uncensored. It's nothing short of a unplanned experiment.

There are 4 problems we are facing.
1. Brain development. This 'tool' and this behavior have potential to cause multiple ongoing issues during the adolescent/teenage growth phase of the brain.
2. Addictive behavior. Its on their mind ALL the fudging time. It's no different to a hard drug...their mind has been hacked to chase it and consume it.
3. Externalization of everything. It doesn't allow for introspection, sitting doing nothing, looking out a window, pondering. There no off switch. The external world becomes your whole life..it's projected onto you, constantly. Your inner being is what make you, that needs attention and a little work from time to time:)...but in this world, there is no room for that:(
4. . Sadly the Internet being 'free' means it has to be paid for somehow. Advertising is the paymaster. Clicks/engagement rules. You are the product, those clicks/engagements need. So be it influencers/YouTube grifters/SM click bait/MSM click bait (if you can't beat them join them lol)...it's, in the main, driven by earning money. Very little care, sincerity, professionalism, skill or worrying about outcomes. No one really cares about what they've delivered/uploaded/posted, it's all about numbers.
And boy, are these channels giving a steroid boost to a load of worthless consumerism.
It's probably nigh on impossible to breakaway from this model now, and on many levels we are going to suffer the consequences.

Luckily? We adults have a trace, a line back to how things were, it's hard to gauge the mind of someone that doesn't have that comparable. They have no experience of a different way.
Click to expand...
Excellent post.

I was about to say something similar about social media being the nexus of the problem. Nobody stares at google maps for hours (unless you are lost I guess) but the social media apps are setup to exploit our succeptability to the 'small rewards' model.
 
Muttley said:
Worked in tech a long time and we all knew that the factor that is bigger than your 4 is "innovation is much quicker than regulation". You can't even regulate consistently across geographies. In the western world we used to talk about FAANG = Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google owning 90% of our personal data between them. There was never informed consent in the way we allowed them to take that data. It was just hidden on page 17 of a T&Cs popup that nobody read when they signed up for these apps. Then "listening" started, again without informed consent and now controls all those marketing signals we experience. In fact, some of these apps wouldn't even allow you to use them without signing your digital life away.

For me, the single biggest thing to fix is regulation of tech. It's become a clear violation of human rights.

The other big theme for me is the medical side, especially the 4 big feel-good hormones - dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins. The modern tech and social media have just disrupted the human body in relation to these natural hormones. You don't get the cuddle drug (oxatocin) if you sit behind your ipad all day. You don't get any endorphins if you don't get any exercise and you certainly. Obviously, the current buzz word is dopamine. You didn't even hear that word a decade ago. The biggest one should be seratonin though. Serotonin plays a key role in such body functions as mood, sleep, digestion, nausea, wound healing, bone health, blood clotting and sexual desire. Then you wonder why you see patterns between poor mental health and tech.

I live in hope that this last phase has been the worst phase and that people are finally waking up to both areas. It would be great to think that we could think more positively about the future and the right control points in place.
Click to expand...
You're final paragraph reads as is we have worked thru this last phase? But, seriously, what has been done or are we doing about it? Beyond people, who can actually still critically think, speaking up about it.

Plus some damage has already been done. Is that engrained or reversible?. (Ie medical side for a certain age group)
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
You're final paragraph reads as is we have worked thru this last phase? But, seriously, what has been done or are we doing about it? Beyond people, who can actually still critically think, speaking up about it.

Plus some damage has already been done. Is that engrained or reversible?. (Ie medical side for a certain age group)
Click to expand...

My words were "live in hope".

Well an example is Zuckenberg in the Senate a few years back. It became very clear in that high profile exchange that retrospective action will be taken by governments on the big tech companies if they don't start taking a bigger moral and social responsibility. Another is GDPR, which has put "informed consent" as a big agenda item and moved some of it from "hidden consent". There's also been changes to use more age checks, biometrics and way greater content moderation on the socials. There is safe search filters, blurring etc and even pornography has gone through a process as being categories as "extreme", "revenge" or "ethical" etc That is a massive downward pressure from governments to implement all these initiatives and choose what is allowed within their control.

As for the medical side, I can only hope that the damage done to the Millenials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha will create a safer environment for what will be call Gen Beta (2025 to 2039) and Gen Gamma (thereafter). We now have decades of data and proof points of the negative side to tech, just in the same way we do the positive. That pendulum needs to revert and perhaps the human species may have normalised to technology so it won't perhaps be as damaging. That might be a leap of faith from me though.
 
SkipRat said:
So let me get this straight.

You and all those that agree with this post, complain all the time how the investors, financial sectors and everything associated with it, has screwed this country over, via banks, wealth funds etc etc

Now the economy is rebalancing after decades of an economy heavily reliant on service sector, only really benefiting those involved in banking and financial services, and investors.

Now you are complaining about we are not part of the very thing that has dragged this country down.

What do you want?

Make your minds up?

Either you want a balanced economy or you don't?

Either you want an economy the serves the people, or you want an economy that serves the banks, investors, and financial service, leaving the rest fo the country behind?
Click to expand...

I think you could learn a lot from this:


:D
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
Smartphones ain't the problem. Social media is the problem. Remove tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube shorts, Facebook etc from said phones and 95% of the problems/issues disappear. (Probably for adults as well)

But (as Steff states) the genie is out the bottle, and we are off to a terrible start.
That's because it's unregulated, untested, unmanaged and uncensored. It's nothing short of a unplanned experiment.

There are 4 problems we are facing.
1. Brain development. This 'tool' and this behavior have potential to cause multiple ongoing issues during the adolescent/teenage growth phase of the brain.
2. Addictive behavior. Its on their mind ALL the fudging time. It's no different to a hard drug...their mind has been hacked to chase it and consume it.
3. Externalization of everything (this one is for the adults as well). It doesn't allow for introspection, sitting doing nothing, looking out a window, pondering. There no off switch. The external world becomes your whole life..it's projected onto you, constantly. Your inner being is what make you, that needs attention and a little work from time to time:)...but in this world, there is no room for that:(
4. . Sadly the Internet being 'free' means it has to be paid for somehow. Advertising is the paymaster. Clicks/engagement rules. You are the product those clicks/engagements need. So be it influencers/YouTube grifters/SM click bait/MSM click bait (if you can't beat them join them lol)...it's, in the main, driven by earning money. Very little care, sincerity, professionalism, skill or worrying about outcomes. No one really cares about what they've delivered/uploaded/posted, it's all about numbers.
And boy, are these channels giving a steroid boost to a load of worthless consumerism.
It's probably nigh on impossible to breakaway from this model now, and on many levels we are going to suffer the consequences.

Luckily? We adults have a trace, a line back to how things were, it's hard to gauge the mind of someone that doesn't have that comparable. They have no experience of a different way.
Click to expand...

Agreed mate, albeit I would add the continual dovetailing of life with smartphones (banking, tickets, online purchasing of everything from groceries to meals to goods) means that society as a whole is hooked on them. Just look at Linkedin! What is really scary is that even the adults who do have a trace are largely compliant unless they have the fortitude to live off-grid or in small small towns. I find myself writing this on my iphone :-(...
 
Muttley said:
Worked in tech a long time and we all knew that the factor that is bigger than your 4 is "innovation is much quicker than regulation". You can't even regulate consistently across geographies. In the western world we used to talk about FAANG = Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google owning 90% of our personal data between them. There was never informed consent in the way we allowed them to take that data. It was just hidden on page 17 of a T&Cs popup that nobody read when they signed up for these apps. Then "listening" started, again without informed consent and now controls all those marketing signals we experience. In fact, some of these apps wouldn't even allow you to use them without signing your digital life away.

For me, the single biggest thing to fix is regulation of tech. It's become a clear violation of human rights.

The other big theme for me is the medical side, especially the 4 big feel-good hormones - dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins. The modern tech and social media have just disrupted the human body in relation to these natural hormones. You don't get the cuddle drug (oxatocin) if you sit behind your ipad all day. You don't get any endorphins if you don't get any exercise and you certainly. Obviously, the current buzz word is dopamine. You didn't even hear that word a decade ago. The biggest one should be seratonin though. Serotonin plays a key role in such body functions as mood, sleep, digestion, nausea, wound healing, bone health, blood clotting and sexual desire. Then you wonder why you see patterns between poor mental health and tech.

I live in hope that this last phase has been the worst phase and that people are finally waking up to both areas. It would be great to think that we could think more positively about the future and the right control points in place.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree. Sadly, we are in this weird zone where the 'r' word is seen as dictatorship, when evidence clearly shows we do not know how to handle such things if left to our own devices (bit of a pun at the end but you know what I mean).
Again, great point.
 
Rorschach said:
Excellent post.

I was about to say something similar about social media being the nexus of the problem. Nobody stares at google maps for hours (unless you are lost I guess) but the social media apps are setup to exploit our succeptability to the 'small rewards' model.
Click to expand...

They are the centrepiece of the issue, but the 'conveniences' our devices allow chip away at the raw fabric of society, whether that be communicating with others/seeing their iobs eliminated, losing touch with tangible cash (as opposed to just having a number in your life, having physical cash tends to keep you more immediately 'honest'), etc...
 
Interesting stuff here, and I just wanted to throw out there again how much the average person has been removed from physical currency. I think if you have a hundred quid in cash it 'feels more' than a hundred quid in a bank app. It makes you think a fraction more about the price you're paying versus using a smart phone. And when you deal with smaller amounts of money in your life -and throw in credit cards- I think it is easier to get people whirring the wheels of semi-mindless consumerism versus losing track of their money. I know I find it easier to buy a coffee when my 'app' is loaded rather than when I have cash. I have started to challenge myself again with cash by carrying a certain amount each week for 'small' purchases. What is bizarre is how many outlets no longer take cash...such as our stadium!!!!!

Anyway, I'll be in the corner of the Dog & Duck with a roll up, pint of bitter, a paper and some stubble; I'll look like Steptoe but ain't LOL😂😂😂
 
thfcsteff said:
Interesting stuff here, and I just wanted to throw out there again how much the average person has been removed from physical currency. I think if you have a hundred quid in cash it 'feels more' than a hundred quid in a bank app. It makes you think a fraction more about the price you're paying versus using a smart phone. And when you deal with smaller amounts of money in your life -and throw in credit cards- I think it is easier to get people whirring the wheels of semi-mindless consumerism versus losing track of their money. I know I find it easier to buy a coffee when my 'app' is loaded rather than when I have cash. I have started to challenge myself again with cash by carrying a certain amount each week for 'small' purchases. What is bizarre is how many outlets no longer take cash...such as our stadium!!!!!

Anyway, I'll be in the corner of the Dog & Duck with a roll up, pint of bitter, a paper and some stubble; I'll look like Steptoe but ain't LOL😂😂😂
Click to expand...
I feel naked without cash in the pocket, mentally i feel better too.

The banks hate cash, cost money to process, staff wages.

Thosr banks want a cash free world, where we have to pay them, so we can spend our money.

They won't pass their savings on to us, but their bonuses will go up, their investors will pile on the billions that will never get spent.

The modern world is insideous and its decades of social engineering that brought us here.

People just down know how brain washed they have been.
 
Last edited:
I guess the question I would ask is should an employee have a bank account, and should an employer be forced to pay that employee online? Should customers also pay companies (sole traders or limited) online rather than with cash?

In a world where we cannot impact too much on the big 3 - income tax, NI and VAT - you need to close the gaps in other areas.

Illegal tax evasion is prevalent where cash is being used between customer, companies and employees. My guess is that it is bigger than the £40b stated in the budget yesterday. That is just a guess though.

The problem is cash is legal tender. How do you close the evasion gaps, but maintain cash in our society?
 
Muttley said:
I guess the question I would ask is should an employee have a bank account, and should an employer be forced to pay that employee online? Should customers also pay companies (sole traders or limited) online rather than with cash?

In a world where we cannot impact too much on the big 3 - income tax, NI and VAT - you need to close the gaps in other areas.

Illegal tax evasion is prevalent where cash is being used between customer, companies and employees. My guess is that it is bigger than the £40b stated in the budget yesterday. That is just a guess though.

The problem is cash is legal tender. How do you close the evasion gaps, but maintain cash in our
Click to expand...
The entire tax system needs simplifying, too complicated, too many loop holes, to easy to abuse.

The fact we have so many sources tax. It's ludicrous.
 
thfcsteff said:
Agreed mate, albeit I would add the continual dovetailing of life with smartphones (banking, tickets, online purchasing of everything from groceries to meals to goods) means that society as a whole is hooked on them. Just look at Linkedin! What is really scary is that even the adults who do have a trace are largely compliant unless they have the fortitude to live off-grid or in small small towns. I find myself writing this on my iphone :-(...
Click to expand...
I'm generally ok with that, if it makes me more productive and life easier I can square that in my own head.

Conversely the problem I witness with youngsters endless hours on smartphones and SM is 95% of the time they are consuming mind numbing brick:) .

I've never engaged with social media (beyond this site and watching YouTube) but it's gravitational pull and disruptive affect on all areas of life is incessant, even to a non user.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
I'm generally ok with that, if it makes me more productive and life easier I can square that in my own head.

Conversely the problem I witness with youngsters endless hours on smartphones and SM is 95% of the time they are consuming mind numbing brick:) .

I've never engaged with social media (beyond this site and watching YouTube) but it's gravitational pull and disruptive affect on all areas of life is incessant, even to a non user.
Click to expand...

unlike us on here 8 hours a day ;)
 
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