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so what would you do with £50billion
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
rather than spend it on nationalising the risks on a failing stupid bank but sod all of the profits......
i would:
increase the tax free limit up to £20,000 and any income after that gets a standard 35%, whilst removing NI ensuring all long term british nationals get a state pension
i'd increase state pension on the RPI inflation scale
i'd fund the building of the severn tidal power station (would supply aout 8% of UK electricity by itself) and fund more research into fusion
i'd up the student top up fees to £5000, but match the living costs grant to that too (so no real net increase it just makes it more of a cost-benefits exercise) whilst funding more free training in vocational jobs, which includes adults
all of which would come to under £50billion total, wih which the change could be used to pay of some of the national debt
what would you do?
i would:
increase the tax free limit up to £20,000 and any income after that gets a standard 35%, whilst removing NI ensuring all long term british nationals get a state pension
i'd increase state pension on the RPI inflation scale
i'd fund the building of the severn tidal power station (would supply aout 8% of UK electricity by itself) and fund more research into fusion
i'd up the student top up fees to £5000, but match the living costs grant to that too (so no real net increase it just makes it more of a cost-benefits exercise) whilst funding more free training in vocational jobs, which includes adults
all of which would come to under £50billion total, wih which the change could be used to pay of some of the national debt
what would you do?
0
Comments
Rebuild British industry, become a major exporter, not importer.
Elliminate our reliance on global oil.
Strengthen the military, eliminating our reliance on the USA for mutual defence.
Build more housing
Increase student nurses pay from about £4k per year to about £12k per year. (£320m). Increase nurses pay by £6k a year giving them a starting salary of about £26k (£2.4bn).
Increase the pay of armed forces by about £5k a year during periods when they're on operations (up to £950m if all staff were permanently on operations). That would mean a starting salary of about £22k rising to £27k when in a warzone.
So what's that? £6.07bn? Oh for god's sake, this is gonna take ages.
I dunno, I suppose the farmers could do with a few quid, the NHS and army could do with some new equipment, and how much would it cost to replace the entire rail network? And there are a few schemes that I would support giving a much bigger budget (proper sex education in schools, enough drugs rehabilitation centres to fit every drug-addicted person in the country in and free up the prisons for proper criminals, increased accesiblity to further education, etc). And then I oppose trident and ID cards, so I've got more money that I know what to do with. £50bn is the entire education budget. You just can't spend that sort of money.
Alternatively, I might just wait a couple more years until the exchange rate means that we could actually buy America.
Just nuke the federal reserve and the Financial centres and it wouldn't be too hard. Although if you get rid of Trident you can't.
I'd also use some money to renationalise the railways and build a high speed line between London and Scotland (a pet project of mine
On a serious note, it amuses me how the Government couldn't find £5 million to help out the Farepak families but can find £50 billion to prop up a failed bank which got into the mess because of management incompetence.
The managers there should have to repay every penny of salary or bonus for the last ten years.
Seriously though the renationalisation of public transport would be a strong priority.
If you give £833 pounds to every man, woman and child in Britain, the vast majority will waste it. Much better to do something useful with the entire £50 billion than giving it to people who will spend it on bugger all.
imho.
If I was going to spend money on railways, it would go into Mag-lev or at least more electric lines. No point spending money on an existing technology when you can throw it at something new
You cant really waste money, as long as you're not burning it. Even if everyone went out and just spent it on booze it wouldnt really be wasted, the companies selling it would have a lot more money to employ people, invest etc. and it would continue round.
As for me, more money for the NHS, a general increase in public sector wages (except perhaps GP's who seem to be doing nicely), drug rehab, proper rehabilitation programmes in prisons and a bit on the national debt.
I guesas that all depends on how important you think that the banking industry is to the national economy when compared to farepack.
This arrangement doesn't "give" money to Northern Rock, it effectively mortgages their entire assets - another difference between this case an Farepak
mortgaged and secured by government funds, so if they can't pay it back the government fills the shortfall
it's like a bank lending me money and then in case i cant pay it back, paying it back to themselves for me
whilst richard branson pockets the difference
it's things like this that show how incompetant government ministers are, and then only beaten by the tory party
By waste, I don't mean it'll vanish and be of no use. I mean people will spend it on things that will benefit themselves or the economy only temporarily. In that respect, spending your £833 on booze or frivilous things is a waste. Far better to give it all to me so I can shape the nation into something meaningful
No it isn't. If they fail to pay it back then the Govt has the assets to sell off, if they want to. This would raise funds.
At the moment the bank is heading towards administration at least this way the sale of the bonds can happen over time as the market stabilises. Administration is basically the financial services equivalent of a Boot Sale.
Incompetant?
They stopped the financial services sector going into meltdown, saved thousands of jobs, ensured that people with mortgages (or loans) with Northern Rock didn't lose their houses and then will get the money back.
Seriously, what is incompetant about that?
Those with mortgaged wouldn't have lost their homes (if anything they'd have got them free), but in reality any administrator would have sold the mortgages off to another bank to whom the borrower would pay.
It was Government incompetence which caused the run, by announcing that Northern Rock has asked the bank of England for an emergency loan (which it didn't have to use until the Government caused panic). and then for the next few months Ministers ran around like headless chickens wrecking any chance that a buyer could be found.
it's the biggest fiasco since ERM. And in both cases a potential minor loss was made worse by dithering and incompetence.
Frankly if Darling doesn't resign over this you wonder what would make him.
northern rock up to a week or 2 ago was still selling 125% mortgages, the sort of thing tha got it into these troubles, since it automatically places the security on their mortgage into negative equity
the bank should of had it's saving guranteed to stop a run - but the emergency loan is unlikely to be paid back, the taxpayer will have fund any shortfall in these bonds issued yet at the same time any company who takes over northern rock will be able to make a nice level of profit still
so the gains will be kept private and all the risks, which banks use to justify their profit making, will be nationalised, including all their dodgy mortgages, and if the mortgages go behind, everyone loses out, but not northern rock
it's a situation where decisive action, would of in the long run been more effective than the dithering other what to do, the bank isn't solvent as the government's loan keeps it alive
if the government antd to waste £50billion, the point is, there's far better ways of doing it
and probably earn less than £50billion
More subsidies on public transport, or at least a freeze on rising fares for a few years. Every single year, the bus fares in the West Midlands have gone up 10p.
I'd scrap free travel for pensioners, or at least change it somehow, so those pensioners who have cars or are millionaires aren't eligible.
More scholarships and funding for bright pupils on low incomes to go to university.
Introduce more night buses/trains.
What good would this do?
Free travel should be given to those who need it, not those who are over or under a certain age. Why should the bloke on £10,000 a year have to pay for his bus when the OAP with £300,000 in savings doesn't?
As for the Northern Rock, well the Government has effectively privatised the profit and nationalised the risk. Which means the thieving management at the Rock keep their expensive houses and huge bonuses whilst the low-level workers who saved under the shares scheme lose everything and the taxpayer foots the bill.
And when the Rock is sold a new company will cream off a huge profit and the taxpayer will foot the bill for bailing the Rock out.
The savings were protected- the rest of the Rock should have been allowed to sink. As it is, we'll still have a recession but now its the taxpayer- not the Rock management- who will pick up the bill. We're in it to the tune of £50bn and I don't think we'll see a tenth of that back.
Still, we should all be glad that our money's been used to prop up incompetent bankers disgusting bonuses. The management of the Rock should be in jail.
I mean my Mum, who is in her 60s, but works, is entitled to a free travel pass. I don't begrudge her that by any means, but she has a car and can actually afford to pay the fare. I mean it's everyone else who pays for this scheme.
I do recognise that for *some* pensioners, a free bus pass is a life line for them to get out and about, to do their shopping, etc.
Travel costs are often the difference between staying on benefit or returning to work. If the Government are serious about getting people off benefit then discounted or free travel will encourage people to start work.
- university
- training
- professional qualifications
- etc.
or maybe just a more robust student loan system. I.e. if you are doing training or qualifications then you can get a student loan to cover the tuition fees.
ATM I don't see why when you give back so much more to society by getting good skills, becoming internationally competitive and making the UK a centre of financial and legal services in the world, you have to foot the often massive bill yourself. With the likes of China growing if we don't want to be drowned out we need to invest in people and give them good skills and capabilities to command parts of the market where we are the best.
The UK will become a nation of office workers, soon enough - with the rest of the population supporting the main services. It's going to be one big London.
Does this include the people who, by law, aren't allowed to drive?
One thing I would do, would be to give student grants/loans to people who are doing further education courses but have to pay for them.