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One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

bbc.com

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Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#221

Post by vorticalbox »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #204
jameshush wrote: post #153

Visiting family in the UK for the first time in about five years. Costs here are _way_ higher than I remember. I bought three hamburgers, three drinks, and two large pops at a burger shop here, the total was 48 GBP (about $60 USD). This was at Five Guys. I couldn't believe it. I visited my co-worker in the UK, and over some beers, he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this. Also 20% VAT on regular shopp…

Can't believe prices are so high...goes to Five Guys which is at least 3x any other burger chain. I still can't believe how cheap the UK is. Big Mac meal near me is £6, cheeseburger is £1, 1kg of potatoes was 20p the other week, two-portion microwavable rice 20p, even a nice matured ribeye steak is only £5, it is genuinely incredible. In particular, the price of stuff that comes from farmers is really too low in the…

Child benefit incurres a fee once you hit 50k a year, once you get to 60 the fee means you have to pay it all back.

This is the point where you "claim" it but say you don't want to receive any payments.

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#222

Post by Shaanie »

wskinner wrote: post #207
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Five Guys is absolutely atypical and has always been very expensive. A burger and a soft drink in a Wetherspoons (love them or loathe them) will be between £5 and £7 depending on the burger. > he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this That's the higher rate for those who earn the most and, again, atypical. https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates

The top marginal rate of 45% in the UK starts at £125,140. Compare that to the US, where the top marginal rate of 37% starts at $578,125. - Edited to correct incorrect US top rate.

Top marginal rate in Sweden, 50%~ starts at $59k and our VAT is 25%. So eh, UK doesn't seem so bad.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#223

Post by gavin_gee »

gavin_gee wrote: post #212
jameshush wrote: post #153

Visiting family in the UK for the first time in about five years. Costs here are _way_ higher than I remember. I bought three hamburgers, three drinks, and two large pops at a burger shop here, the total was 48 GBP (about $60 USD). This was at Five Guys. I couldn't believe it. I visited my co-worker in the UK, and over some beers, he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this. Also 20% VAT on regular shopp…

My unscientific burger comparison I think calls BS on the UK prices. Everywhere is expensive now. The problem with the UK is Brexit and a country that went from being very supportive to small business and entrepreneurs to a high tax wasteland of averageness. The UK is the deepest into its decline of any western empire. They are shuffling deck chairs on the titanic. the coronation was the canary for living in the past…

what I dont think brits really understand about US food prices in restaurants though in recent years in places like seattle is there is a 40% tax on the prices on the menu.

sales tax 10% Living wage tax 10% 20%+ tip expectation

Everyone I talk to from earning $80K a year to $1M a year are not eating out as much as its absurdly expensive.

Just this week. 2 people. dinner at a reasonable seattle restuarant on a tuesday - not high end. 2 mains, shared appetizer and bread and 4 glasses of wine. $300.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#224

Post by skippyboxedhero »

koolba wrote: post #218
skippyboxedhero wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't believe prices are so high...goes to Five Guys which is at least 3x any other burger chain. I still can't believe how cheap the UK is. Big Mac meal near me is £6, cheeseburger is £1, 1kg of potatoes was 20p the other week, two-portion microwavable rice 20p, even a nice matured ribeye steak is only £5, it is genuinely incredible. In particular, the price of stuff that comes from farmers is really too low in the…

With a 45% tax rate and a 20% VAT, something that costs $1 would require an income of $2.18.

No, it wouldn't because when you pay tax your money isn't being flushed down the toilet. You don't understand at a fundamental level how the govt works in the UK.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#225

Post by vkou »

wskinner wrote: post #207
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Five Guys is absolutely atypical and has always been very expensive. A burger and a soft drink in a Wetherspoons (love them or loathe them) will be between £5 and £7 depending on the burger. > he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this That's the higher rate for those who earn the most and, again, atypical. https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates

The top marginal rate of 45% in the UK starts at £125,140. Compare that to the US, where the top marginal rate of 37% starts at $578,125. - Edited to correct incorrect US top rate.

In the US, someone earning $155,000 USD (Equivalent to 125k GBP) will also be paying 6.2% in social security taxes, 1.45% in medicare taxes, and then another 6.2% in social security taxes (employer's portion)[1], and 1.45% in medicare taxes (employer's portion). Added to the rest of their marginal tax rate, they'd be seeing a rate of 22 + 15.3 = 37.3%.

Of course, they won't actually get health insurance for it, which will cost a family ~$20,000/year. That's about 6-13% of your paycheck that could have been going into your wallet.

Also, don't forget your state income taxes, which will scrape another 0-7-12%.

All-in-all, Americans pay ~26% of their GDP in taxes. People in the UK pay... ~27% (Edit - it's actually closer to 33%) of their GDP in taxes. [2] 'Americans pay less taxes' is largely a meme with no basis in reality.

[1] Just because that gets subtracted from a different line item on your W-2 doesn't mean that you shouldn't count it.

[2] This is the only meaningful apples to apples comparison of overall tax burdens. And it makes the US look really bad, because that 26% won't even get you healthcare. Or cheap university tuition. It does get you 11 carrier fleet strike groups, and 5,500 nuclear weapons, though.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#227

Post by rcarr »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #211
rcarr wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Unlimited” data is not comparable because different subscriber’s data gets assigned different priorities at times of congestion. > In the US, you can get “unlimited” data for as low as $25 per month, or as high as $90 per month, depending on what level priority you want (which you assume might make a difference at peak times). Yeah I don't think this happens in the UK/EU. The US system seems really weird and compl…

“QCI” was the industry term I was looking for. Here is some unsubstantiated, but true sounding information about the US mobile networks: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_pri... I would be surprised if UK/EU did not also have it. Surely, it exists for certain levels of politicians/government/emergency services. Seems like a short throw to then extending that implementation to capture as much re…

Yeah its illegal to offer plans based on throttling/prioritisation in the EU.

> Under these rules, blocking, throttling and discrimination of internet traffic by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is not allowed in the EU. There are 3 exceptions: compliance with legal obligations; integrity of the network; congestion management in exceptional and temporary situations.

> All traffic has to be treated equally. For example, there can be no prioritisation of traffic in the Internet access service. Equal treatment still allows reasonable day-to-day traffic management according to objectively justified technical requirements, which must be independent of the origin or destination of the traffic and of any commercial considerations.

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/open-inter...

For the time being the UK is still aligned with EU law on this but there's lobbying to make things more like the US:

https://cei.org/blog/how-the-uk-can-reform-can-improve-inter...

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#228

Post by bilekas »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #224
koolba wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a 45% tax rate and a 20% VAT, something that costs $1 would require an income of $2.18.

No, it wouldn't because when you pay tax your money isn't being flushed down the toilet. You don't understand at a fundamental level how the govt works in the UK.

This has nothing to do with the government policies.. it's simple math.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#229

Post by JimDabell »

jameshush wrote: post #153

Visiting family in the UK for the first time in about five years. Costs here are _way_ higher than I remember. I bought three hamburgers, three drinks, and two large pops at a burger shop here, the total was 48 GBP (about $60 USD). This was at Five Guys. I couldn't believe it. I visited my co-worker in the UK, and over some beers, he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this. Also 20% VAT on regular shopp…

> he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this.

The highest income tax bracket is 45%, and you only pay that rate of tax on the money you earn past £125k – you don’t pay that rate on your entire income.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#230

Post by dragonwriter »

vkou wrote: post #225
wskinner wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top marginal rate of 45% in the UK starts at £125,140. Compare that to the US, where the top marginal rate of 37% starts at $578,125. - Edited to correct incorrect US top rate.

In the US, someone earning $155,000 USD (Equivalent to 125k GBP) will also be paying 6.2% in social security taxes, 1.45% in medicare taxes, and then another 6.2% in social security taxes (employer's portion)[1], and 1.45% in medicare taxes (employer's portion). Added to the rest of their marginal tax rate, they'd be seeing a rate of 22 + 15.3 = 37.3%. Of course, they won't actually get health insurance for it, which…

> In the US, someone earning $155,000 USD (Equivalent to 125 GBP) will also be paying 6.2% in social security taxes, 1.45% in medicare taxes, and then another 6.2% in social security taxes (employer’s portion), and 1.45% in medicare taxes (employer’s portion).

In the UK, there is also National Insurance tax on top of income tax, which works similarly (but is a bit more complicated.) The employer share is 13.8%, which is a hair below the combined employee + employer share US federal payroll tax.

And there is also a 20% VAT impacting the cost of pretty much anything you might use your after-tax income to buy.

> All-in-all, Americans pay ~26% of their GDP in taxes.

Close: 26.6% (2021, provisional), 25.8% (2020) [0]

> People in the UK pay… ~27% of their GDP in taxes.

Not so close: 33.5% (2021, provisional), 32.1% (2020) [0]

> ‘Americans pay less taxes’ is largely a meme with no basis in reality.

No, the UK has a much higher tax burden; the US is significantly below OECD average, the UK a bit above.

[0] https://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/revenue-statistics-highl...

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