One way to cut the debt - raise the minimum wage
- 4 February 2013 19:14213640Best way to cut debt is to scrap the climate change act. Will save us billions. Demolish wind farms and imprison anyone who, from now on, blames Mankind for changing the climate.
T'was a good start with Huhne. - Brian Dixon
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4 February 2013 19:17213641but such that he pleaded gulty on all accounts.what do points get yah a short prison sentace locked with pleabs and no nothings.
- 4 February 2013 19:27213643Barry
When is a business not a business?
I think you will agree when it needs to be subsidised by the taxpayers
Theirs lots of businesses employing minimum wage employees,
There living expenses propped up by the UK government
Many farms and factories are employing East European workers, these workers are living in rented accommodation paid for mostly buy the UK taxpayers
They can get this from day one of entering the country and seeking work
They can receive tax credits housing benefits and uk benefits for kids back in there own countries.
A business should not survive just because it's a business providing jobs for the poor of Eastern Europe - 4 February 2013 19:39213645agree keith businesses should not rely on the taxpayer to top up the earnings of their employees.
- 4 February 2013 19:56213647Then we can agree - tax credits and in work benefits should stop.
The market is the best arbiter of wages. It is also the only real route to a better standard of living. - 4 February 2013 21:35213669Barry, it won't happen.
Many work part-time, so they need in-work benefits, else they could not live or look after their children.
The only way to cut the debt considering the present circumstances is to do a bout of QE money-printing, and a part of this money-printing should go to increase benefits to UK citizens too.
It would also stimulate the economy.Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
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Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ - 4 February 2013 22:31213674And cause severe inflation a couple of years down the line, putting us all back to square one.I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
- 4 February 2013 22:56213678always seems to be the poor that cause economic problems for the country, maybe priorities need to be addressed?
- Ross Miller
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4 February 2013 23:32213683The problem here is not small business paying its employees what it can reasonably afford to do, even if that is minimum wage,
The problem surely is the huge subsidy taxpayers, via tax credits etc, are giving to huge corporations like G4S or Initial or many others of this ilk that pay their staff minimum wage yet report significant profits etc."Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi - 5 February 2013 07:33213699Howard - the poor do not cause economic problems, governments do that. Irresponsible government tax, spending and borrowing damages the economy keeping them poor with benefits and tax credits part of that problem. Attempts by government intervention to help them are counter-productive when they drive public spending to a level that is unsupportable and unsustainable.
Ross - without those profits the jobs would not be there in the first place. End the tax credits and let the market do its job.
An end to mass immigration will help as well to drive up wages. Supply and demand. - 5 February 2013 08:32213706The poor don't cause economic problems, a succession of useless govts have done that.
Nobody has yet addressed my question, if raising the minimum wage is the solution, why not make it £20ph - what's the possible downside? - 5 February 2013 09:14213714Same as my answer to Alex's cunning scheme (post27).I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
- Brian Dixon
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5 February 2013 09:52213721didnt know that baldrick posted on here.
- 5 February 2013 13:10213764Peter, the reason for my post is that there is no plan to reduce unemployment (significantly), nor to stop jobs going to EU citizens from elsewhere on a massive scale, nor to find other ways to garner money to curb the Public Debt, such as from the super-rich.
The only plans are continuous indiscriminate taxation, spending cuts, cuts to council budgets, cuts to benefits, pay-rise-freezes, pay reductions, NHS cuts, reductions of Police numbers and so forth.
Therefore, at this point, QE is the best option available. Otherwise we will be dried out of finances.
So QE does, yes, imply some negative consequences (not necessarily inflation though), but it is the next-best solution when all else fails. Otherwise the negative consequences will be much worse.Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
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Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ - 5 February 2013 13:23213766All else has not failed Alexander. QE, incidentally, has ended but the consequences are yet to be paid for through inflation. There may be a further tranche of QE but I hope not as it is most damaging to those who are most vulnerable, pensioners particularly those on fixed incomes. A write down of debt owed by HMG to the Bank of England should not be ruled out as the damage has been done and it would make the headline figures look better...
The only way to deal with the debt problem is first of all by the government getting its spending under control and cutting it to a level that is sustainable. Only once the deficit is eliminated can new borrowing stop and debt get repaid. Economic growth needs to take up some of that slack of course but that needs to be achieved through supply side reforms and tax cuts.
We are paying for the years under Brown when the economy was only sustained by borrowing to fund his irresponsible spending sprees while encouraging everyone else to borrow as well. - 5 February 2013 19:31213855Barry, I agree with you that QE is not normally an optimal solution, and I've outlined some possible negative consequences of it in the past.
But if administered as a medicine to the economy, in correct doses, it can be taken as a benevolent medicine.
Inflation from QE could affect imported goods, but not necessarily home-made products, providing the Government were to impose a strict inflation-control while administering QE, for example a maximum of 5% inflation a year (but even 2-3% is acceptable and preferable).
So there would be an inflation average between home-made and imported products (for example metal).
Currently we still have some North Sea oil and gas so this should ease inflation on essential imported commodities.
As a result, there would be more incentive to produce in Britain and to import less of that which we can manufacture here at Home.
Meaning: more jobs, lower trade deficit - or even a trade surplus, less benefits being paid owing to increased employment.
However, as all this cannot come about in 3 days, it is essential that the next QE be dedicated in part to incentives towards more employment, such as state-funded apprenticeships and training courses where the participants (local Brits thank you
) get at least a tenner an hour during their training courses, including on-site induction in factories.
The State could also use some of the QE to top up the minimum wage to a tenner an hour without the difference having to be paid by the employers.
Result, enormous stimulus to the economy as spending power increases.
A signing-off premium of £1,000 pounds to all who manage to get employment would also help, with a further £1,000 after 1 month of successful demonstrated employment (even part-time).
All this, Barry, is as an alternative to my previous solution, which would have been a modest Wealth Redistribution Act towards the super-rich. But evidently the Gov. is not up to such a move, hence my next-best plan: QE (as described here).
You saw it here first, right!
Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
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Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ - 5 February 2013 20:33213882Alexander - that is just total bunkum. Please try to join the real world and find out about how the economy and economics work. Totally delusional.
- 5 February 2013 20:56213889No Barry, your usual responses are an attempt to try to keep artificially going the same failed system which has no future, a failed system as ever more people have come to realise the world over.
Your usual proposals of stopping benefits and abolishing the minimum wage, and doing away with the working tax credit, and desperately trying to (intellectually) protect the super-rich from any financial responsibility in a Public Debt, have and will lead no-where.
So it is either one or the other: either the existing financial wealth is reorganised, or the Government has to introduce new money-printing. Otherwise our economy will just rot away as people are excluded from basic rights of financial income.
The Government does not have an employment scheme, but cannot follow up on a recent proposal from Ed Miliband to take away benefits from people who do not find work after being offered a job.
The reason being, it would lead to social mayhem.
Another reason being, these outbursts against people who supposedly "don't want to work" always deviate from the other problem: how to create employment for those who DO WANT to work.
So rest assured, Barry, that your proposals of abolishing benefits and working tax credit and the minimum wage are, for the Government, an unacceptable proposal.
It will simply never happen!
If it did, our Society would explode. But the Government will not take the weird advice of the kind that you are offering.
Please believe me, they won't!Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
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Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ - 5 February 2013 20:56213890(All the above said without one insult)Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
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Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ - Keith Sansum1
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5 February 2013 21:07213892barryw i agree with you on,,,,,,,,,,,, no more printing new money
alexander i agree with you on,,,,,,, tax credits have helped so many and maybe reformed, but should stayALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS