Cameron and Clegg worse than Thatcher.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

our health system is far from the best, dont know whos making those claims.

Factor in that uk workers also work the longest hours in the developed world.

We don't work close to the longest hours in the developed world.

I thought our health system must be the best given we're the only ones who do it this way, everyone employed by the government, free at point of delivery and funded progressively from general taxation.

I mean people talk about the beloved NHS and how it must not be changed, I thought they would be doing so because it's so good, surely?

If you are concerned about NHS funding the obvious solution is to advocate a change in its funding method from the current progressive system to a social insurance based system in common with everywhere else.

The downside to this is, of course, that it means more people paying more for their healthcare and would ruin arguments over progressiveness of taxation when general taxation is no longer funding healthcare. The upside obviously is that it gives the NHS wider access to funding and allows for the 'risk' involved in insuring the health of the population to be effectively spread more rather than having the costs largely borne by those who not only make less use of it but also pay tax on employer provided healthcare schemes, thus paying for reducing load on the health service further.

In summary if you want the NHS funded better write to your MP asking them why we have health care provided and funded as it was in communist eastern Europe rather than the social insurance found universally elsewhere.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I will put it this way, l don't give a damn who runs this country, but l want is a government is not going to give me hell, worry about my job, worry that the benefit that my wife gets, doesn't get halfed, the cost of living will go up, we will get hit very hard by this government and they have started already, no one seems to understand how bad it will get under this coalition.

So you want the government to guarantee your job, your wife's welfare and abolish inflation.

In short you want government to totally insulate you from the real world.

Yep, North Korea does seem more suited than the UK.

I alluded to this earlier so I'll ask directly - Mr Arthurgray50@blu is there any reason why you haven't developed your career more and increased your income, along with this also ensuring greater job security through being harder to replace?

You are extremely good at complaining about your lot in life, I'd love to know what you've done to improve it? This is the part that seems to be absent here. Plenty of 'What about me' however you're soon to retire having made no provision at all for your retirement, we will be paying your pension and topping it up through means tested benefits, and due to your historical income your actual net contribution towards your pension in the past is debatable given you have been a consumer of both welfare and public services.

Putting it another way I draw pretty much nothing from society, paid £30k in direct tax last year and just got a bill saying I underpaid by £2k, due to them forgetting to charge me 40% for the privilege of using the NHS less by having employer provided health insurance - reading your incessant complaining is getting pretty old, especially given how much worse off you would have been in most other places either through receiving less welfare or paying more in social insurances.

Your generation lived well, spent freely, mine and Generation Y will be picking up the tab as yours failed to put away the necessary cash and continue, through weight of numbers at the ballot box, to ensure wealth transfer from us to you.

I politely suggest, again, that you read The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future - And How They Can Give it Back - it may give you a better sense of perspective next time you want to complain about not getting what you think you're entitled to. It gives me a nice sense of perspective as it reminds me of the legacy I don't want to leave my daughter and makes it slightly more palatable paying the higher taxes and receiving less services in the hope that my generation do it right and leave the generations after with something more than overpriced housing and big social bills.