Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 528 posts

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#241

Post by Retric »

bilekas wrote: post #228
skippyboxedhero wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you’re making 50k, paying or not paying health insurance matters.

The US suffers from both a high tax burden and poor services. We just tend to nickel and dime our taxes more but it doesn’t really matter if you’re paying 1$ to the feds in income taxes, pay 1$ to use a state’s toll road, or 1$ to a “fee” your town tacks on the water bill.

Looking at total government spending as a percentage of GDP doesn’t show differences in services but it does show just what it all costs.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#242

Post by dragonwriter »

vkou wrote: post #239
dragonwriter wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

The overwhelming majority of a person's expenditures (Housing, education, medical, most of the food you buy at the grocery, many forms of transportation) are not covered by VAT. Many forms of energy (residential electricity, gas) are covered at a vastly reduced VAT. And, again, the giant bugbear that is health insurance rears its ugly head on the US side. See the overall 'Taxes as a % of GDP' comparisons. Edit: I sta…

> And, again, the giant bugbear that is health insurance rears its ugly head on the US side

Sure, yes, that's a bigger non-tax expense for individuals in the US. The US having by far the least efficient healthcare system in the world is a huge problem.

> See the overall ‘Taxes as a % of GDP’ comparisons.

Yes, I’ve updated my post to address your wildly inaccurate “Taxes as a % of GDP” comparison, using the most recently published OECD data which shows that you were close for the US, and way low for the UK.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#243

Post by massysett »

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…

> It does get you 11 carrier fleet strike groups, and 5,500 nuclear weapons, though.

Which protect the blanket of freedom under which the UK sleeps.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#244

Post by mym1990 »

omginternets wrote: post #117

Just yesterday I was trying to sign up with Verizon for my new address. Fiber is not available in my building, so they offer "5G Home Internet" for $60-$80/mo, which is crazy expensive for what it is. I asked whether there were ADSL lines available, since these were recently available for as cheap as $15/mo. It seems this is no longer the case. Maybe there's a market here? EDIT: I am in the US, and I've just realized…

I just got Verizon home internet for 25$ a month, and they offer 200$ back if you stay on the service for 6 months(I am also on their phone service so that may be why the price is cheaper?).

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#245

Post by clnq »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #214
clnq wrote: post #172

> Watchdog Ofcom has warned 4.3 million eligible people are missing the deals. > These were available in 99% of the UK and started from £10 per month, it added. This language sounds a bit more like advertisement than what I'd expect from a national regulator. Also, almost of the social tariff plans (plans for people receiving significant poverty-related benefits in the UK) are at £10 per month - https://www.ofcom.org…

They aren't "significant poverty-related benefits", a lot of the benefits that make you eligible are in-work benefits or from having children. That is why most people don't claim, most of these people have jobs and have no problem paying another £10/month and don't want to go through the admin (or restrictions, I think some of the plans have restrictions). You are bang on about property costs. You notice how instant…

Yes, I oversimplified the significant poverty-related benefits part.

Also, when I said “significant”, I meant “not insubstantial”. I don’t mean benefits for those severely affected by poverty. And “poverty-related” to my mind includes “poverty-reducing”.

Probably it could have been phrased better seeing that it wasn’t clear what I wanted to say.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#246

Post by was_a_dev »

CydeWeys wrote: post #198
EddieEngineers wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Five Guys has always been that price, but I agree with your point. As a Brit, the US is pretty crazy too though. I just saw a single broccoli for $7 at a grocery store in Palo Alto. On my $172k salary I pay $59k in taxes which is roughly $1k more than I'd pay in the UK but in the UK that includes national insurance while in the US I pay health insurance on top. So while taxes sound crazy in the UK it's not actually d…

You wouldn't be making nearly that much in the UK though.

Would you be making that much outside of CA?

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#247

Post by weaksauce »

EddieEngineers wrote: post #190
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…

Five Guys has always been that price, but I agree with your point. As a Brit, the US is pretty crazy too though. I just saw a single broccoli for $7 at a grocery store in Palo Alto. On my $172k salary I pay $59k in taxes which is roughly $1k more than I'd pay in the UK but in the UK that includes national insurance while in the US I pay health insurance on top. So while taxes sound crazy in the UK it's not actually d…

broccoli in socal hovers around 1-2 dollars a pound. that's just an outlier

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#248

Post by vkou »

dragonwriter wrote: post #242
vkou wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The overwhelming majority of a person's expenditures (Housing, education, medical, most of the food you buy at the grocery, many forms of transportation) are not covered by VAT. Many forms of energy (residential electricity, gas) are covered at a vastly reduced VAT. And, again, the giant bugbear that is health insurance rears its ugly head on the US side. See the overall 'Taxes as a % of GDP' comparisons. Edit: I sta…

> And, again, the giant bugbear that is health insurance rears its ugly head on the US side Sure, yes, that's a bigger non-tax expense for individuals in the US. The US having by far the least efficient healthcare system in the world is a huge problem. > See the overall ‘Taxes as a % of GDP’ comparisons. Yes, I’ve updated my post to address your wildly inaccurate “Taxes as a % of GDP” comparison, using the most recen…

And I've updated my post to point out the mountain of US post-tax healthcare spending, that in the UK, largely comes out of pre-tax pounds.

At the end of the day, Americans still pay, and pay more. 26% in taxes, and then another ~11% in non-government-covered (non-Medicare/Medicaid) healthcare spending.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#249

Post by popinman322 »

spir wrote: post #168
yazzku wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Things are getting tough for lots of people and that's with extremely high levels of employment. Capitalism has succeeded then.

[flagged]

> That rising inequality is leading to poverty is a failure of government, not corporations or capitalism. Why introduce a layer of indirection by blaming the rich or corporations, when the rules are made by government? Blame the government directly.

This implies that capitalism is not capable of self-regulation and therefore requires government intervention. It follows that this is a joint failure of capitalism and governments to reduce negative externalities that lead to high wealth inequality.

> Let reddit handle the economic ignorance.

Please don't include implicit ad hominem jabs at other posters. You could have omitted your first sentence with no loss to your argument.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#250

Post by dragonwriter »

vkou wrote: post #248
dragonwriter wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And, again, the giant bugbear that is health insurance rears its ugly head on the US side Sure, yes, that's a bigger non-tax expense for individuals in the US. The US having by far the least efficient healthcare system in the world is a huge problem. > See the overall ‘Taxes as a % of GDP’ comparisons. Yes, I’ve updated my post to address your wildly inaccurate “Taxes as a % of GDP” comparison, using the most recen…

And I've updated my post to point out the mountain of US post-tax healthcare spending, that in the UK, largely comes out of pre-tax pounds. At the end of the day, Americans still pay, and pay more . 26% in taxes, and then another ~11% in non-government-covered (non-Medicare/Medicaid) healthcare spending.

> At the end of the day, Americans still pay, and pay more

They pay less in taxes, by a wide margin.

They also get less for them, by a wide margin, particularly (but not exclusively) in healthcare.

Post reply on HN