| Topic: | Re:Re:Re: Not propaganda - just fact! | |
| Posted by: | Andrew Jones | |
| Date/Time: | 05/05/26 18:11:00 |
| Long reply follows, apologies. Jayne, you did ask me that, but you also asked me (immediately before) "so what do you mean by wealth?" Now, I pointed out that I never used the word "wealth" so you were actually asking me to say what I meant about something I didn't in fact mention. Hopefully you'll acknowledge that. Hence my initial reply to you focussed on income rather than wealth. For what it's worth, I consider wealth to include things like assets (including property, collectables, jewellery), shares, savings and pension pots. There are other things that could be added to this list. There isn’t to my mind a direct correlation between wealth and income though the two tend to be connected. Having a significant income can contribute to one being able to accumulate wealth, but obviously lifestyle and how you choose to spend the money that ends up in your bank account can mean you aren't actually getting wealthier, even on a 100k salary. Someone who is wealthy may have a lot of wealth, not very much wealth, or a moderate amount of wealth. I don't believe there are any strict boundaries as to when you transition from one category of wealth to another one. I’m not fussed about motivated, wealth creators earning a lot of money. Like you said, they pay a lot of tax. Personally I wouldn’t call the amount they are taxed disproportionate, as that word suggests a degree of unfairness. They pay a higher proportion of tax on what they get paid ( if we are talking about income tax) and that’s entirely ok as far as I’m concerned. I’m fortunate enough to be paying some of my tax at the higher 40% rate, and if I earned more and went into a higher rate, I wouldn’t feel hard done by. It sounds like you consider 45% tax to be huge, and I doubt anything I say will change your mind about that, and similarly I don’t consider 45% tax to be a huge amount, and I doubt anything you say will change my mind. Finally (!) In answer to your “Andrew, I asked how much do you think you consider someone to be wealthy?” I honestly can’t really answer that question! I earn what I consider to be a very good wage, but I don’t consider myself to be wealthy, but I do consider myself to be fortunate, and that I had a much easier time getting to where I am than people who are starting out now will have. I live somewhere that I have a mortgage on, but it’s somewhere that I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy if I wanted to do so now. If your main asset is the property you live in, it makes you wealthy on paper. I've got what I consider a reasonable state pension to look forward to, and I don't imagine that the date I will start receiving it is going to change by too much between now and when I start receiving it - something that people in their 20s, 30s and 40s aren't able to say. |