Our Economy is Fucked: Even the Middle Class Are Struggling.

The best indicator of an economy is how well the fairly well-off are coping. I'm talking about the people with enough spare income to be able to have a comfortable life.

Well, not any more. A sure-fire indicator that this year is when all the chickens come home to roost is the fact that the middle class and the upper-middle class are struggling.

As you may know, I work selling parts for sports cars. Cars that are generally not primary vehicles, but are sunny Sunday indulgences. Cars that are generally owned by the pretty well-off.

Well, sadly for the economy, we've had a number of calls since Christmas asking us if we would buy cars off customers. Sadly we don't deal in cars, just parts. But the number of calls is shocking.

And a pretty good indicator that even the well-off are feeling the pinch. 

I don't know if it's a lack of disposable income, or the doubling of car insurance costs that is the factor. But it seems that the middle class cannot indulge themselves as much as they used to.

By that metric, I declare the economy Royally Fucked. 

Good luck to anyone getting into power this year in the general election, because you'll need it to sort out the shit-show we have at the moment.

First cull on my list would be removing unnecessary legislation like "hate crimes" and offence laws. We're tying up untold Police resources looking for hurty words. We can't afford the indulgence and government is not your parent. If you can't stand being offended, then tough, grow up or grow a thick skin. If your parents failed to show you how life works, that's not government's problem.

Net zero needs to be abandoned. Why are we bankrupting millions of people to signal how virtuous we are to the world? Why are we spending billions to affect less than 0.1 percent of the worlds CO2 production?

There's a lot more that needs to be culled.

The Barton formula giving Scotland more tax revenue than people South of the border needs review. English and Welsh taxpayers should not be paying for the indulgences of the Scottish Parliament and their Marxist culture. We should not be funding an existential threat to democracy. 

The same goes for any "Woke" or Marxist ideology. It should be defunded, so any charities receiving state funding should have it stopped if they espouse Marxist ideology.

We should not be funding immigrants inside the UK. If they want funding for community centres then they should fund it themselves from their own community. It's not Government's job.

The boat people should be returned directly back to France if they have no ID on them. Again, let's cut the crap and the cost and say that anyone presenting in the UK as a refugee without proof of identity (deliberate or otherwise) will be immediately returned back to whence they came. I'd also add that if the lawyers continue to thwart the government, then out only option would be to protect our borders with machine guns. 

Kids? Women? I don't care. They will get a warning and then I'd be tasking the Navy to stand on the sea border. 

I'd also be using the Navy to board any French vessel that aids and abets the trafficking of migrants across the channel. Captains will be prosecuted under UK people trafficking laws.

If we've created an absolute offense to prosecute truck drivers for landing in the UK for having migrants on their truck unknowingly, then the same applies to Captains on the sea doing the same or providing aid and shadowing dinghies rather than overtly stopping them from crossing.

Anyhow, off my high horse now.

 

Unfettered Capitalism Isn't a Good Thing.

I used to believe in the markets. I thought capitalism was good, it has brought many benefits and has brought the poor out of poverty over the ages.

But there is now a breed of capitalism in place that is damaging the West. 

I call it Criminal Capitalism, mainly because it seeks to maximise profits any way it can, including illegal activity.

Most publicly represented by John DeLorean trying to save his car business by dealing in drugs, Criminal Capitalism is now hell bent on maximising profits by bullying government agencies into not paying tax.

Global Corporations have gutted the high street and replaced most of the shops. They now utilise expensive lawyers and offshore offices to pay zero corporation tax in the UK.

They exploit a loophole that government should plug, but of course these global corporations have powerful lobby organisations to keep MPs sweet and to not rock the boat.

These are part of the parasitical elite. They pay back into society an infinitesimal amount of what they take. A tiny fraction of what would be returned in taxes if the products and services had been transacted on the high street.

A prime example are the Water Companies in the UK. Almost exclusively owned by foreign parent companies, they maximise profits by not investing in the necessary repair work or in work to prevent sewage spills.

The problem of raw sewage being released is getting increasingly common. Only last weekend there was a lot of publicity about e.coli on the Thames whilst the Oxford-Cambridge boat races were being run. But of course there was, because the water companies do not re-invest, because there is no financial benefit for them to do so. To invest in new plant would dent the profits of shareholders, the parent company and the board.

Their lobby group was so strong it appears, they got the Government to relax the regulations regarding sewage release. Instead of it being a criminal offense, which it should be, the Government relaxed the rules and made it easier for water companies to release more sewage without penalty, therefore once again maximising profit over the health of the nation.

Google and eBay have offshore offices that allow them to pay corporation tax outside the UK. They argue that the transaction was done outside the UK because their office and their servers are not inside the UK. Yet the person they transact with and the bank account they receive funds from is inside the UK. Tax legislation needs to change to claw back some of that money in tax. It should be treated as a transaction on the high street with a foreign company based here. The location of the company should be immaterial. 

Or the government could just double the VAT on online transactions with entities that continue to maintain they are outside the UK and outside of UK tax laws. I assume VAT is already being paid at the standard rate on any transactions, of course, so changing the rules to double it in these circumstances should not be a problem. If the online companies start to change their systems and use systems located within the UK then of course corporation tax will be liable on the profits.

This will also affect the City of London. The money-making machine of the mega-rich. Good.

UPDATE:

This report today emphasises my point: Thames water is facing administration as it is close to defaulting on it's debt liabilities. How can a company take on huge debts and at the same time service shareholder dividends and huge executive bonuses?

Taking on debt whilst simultaneously announcing "profits" should be outlawed.

If a company takes out debt, surely that impacts profit. "Profit" should be just that: the amount left over after operating costs and liabilities are met. 

I know debt repayments are included in the liabilities, but surely there should be no bonuses or dividends while the company has any debt. The debt should be repaid and the company should return to ACTUAL profit without debt before any bonuses or dividends are paid surely? Or at least the debt/asset ratio should factor in any payouts?

Is Beyonce's New Country Album a Case of Cultural Appropriation?

 Just asking the above for a friend.

If dreadlocks on white people, dressing up in Red Indian headdress and all the other things that white people have been castigated for is cultural appropriation.

Why isn't a black person playing white music?

Again, double standards.