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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

#261

Post by ghaff »

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…

I'm not sure you'd be much different in the US. I find, among "fast casual" (i.e. step up from real fast food chains) burger chains, Five Guys is one of the more expensive.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#262

Post by esaym »

rcme wrote: post #121
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…

ADSL is too slow for most modern internet usage.

"Too slow" is most always the wrong word. Too much buffer bloat is what causes most of the problems. I survived fine on a 6/.5kbs dsl connection from ATT for years. I had set up a few QOS rules on my router using fq_codel. Night and day difference. I was regularly on voip calls for work while netflix was showing on two different TVs with no issues. It is really depressing that bloat is still an issue.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#263

Post by IshKebab »

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…

> the govt recently introduced free childcare for a certain number of hours

I'm guessing you don't have children because they actually promised to do it in a year. Nothing has changed yet. Also the extra funding for free hours works out at like 20p/hour which is way below what is needed for nurseries to break even on free hours.

I think you're massively overstating how good things are. Are taxes aren't high because they're paying for great services; they're high because they're paying for great fuckups. Brexit, corruption, too-good pensions deals, etc.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#264

Post by penguin_booze »

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…

Try commuting by train. You'll cry twice: once when you hear the fare (the lolz), then again when you've to pay that fare (the real).

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#265

Post by wskinner »

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…

I'm not sure where you're getting the $20,000/year healthcare spending number, but that looks like it is too high by an order of magnitude. See e.g. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2..., which puts median annual household spending on healthcare between $1,500 and $5,540 in 2019. If you're talking about total annual healthcare spending, that is largely paid by employers so should be accounted for as increased gross earnings for employees, which translates to lower effective tax rates.

And yes, the effective federal rate is not the total blended rate paid in the US, but it's not in the UK, either. For example, far as I know, no US region has a sales tax close to the UK's 20% VAT - sales tax is set locally but in most places is around 5-10%.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#266

Post by dukeyukey »

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.

Although the 45% is only applied to income above £120,000 and VAT either doesn't apply or is reduced to 5% on stuff like (most) food, rent, utilities, children's clothes, and loads more.

So what you're saying is pretty wrong.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#267

Post by Goz3rr »

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.

listed prices include VAT pretty much everywhere I've been to in the world, other than the US. If something says it costs €1 or £1 then you're paying €1 or £1 for it at the checkout.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#268

Post by dukeyukey »

massysett wrote: post #243
vkou wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Although the UK is one of those countries that:

1. Consistently maintains a >2% of GDP military budget, and

2. Is capable of acting independently (albeit less effectively than part of NATO).

It's also one of those countries reasonably able to defend itself without the US.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#269

Post by pb7 »

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…

Extremely disingenuous to include employer taxes in personal income taxes to make whatever point you're making. Might as well toss in the costs of accounting in there while you're at it.

Edit: I'm being throttled from posting but response below:

There are a lot of factors that go into deciding the gross pay that an employee receives. What you are doing is muddying the waters to make a point but it just makes it trickier to compare. If you are an employee that is deciding where to live and work, the specific employer taxes make no difference to you -- what matters is your net pay and the services you get for the taxes paid. The rest of the costs, including things like parental leave, time off, and healthcare have already played into deciding your wage.

I'm also not sure why you included health insurance costs for the US total but not the 12-14% regressive UK national insurance tax or the regressive 20% VAT for the UK total unless you're deliberately trying to argue in bad faith. I'm suggesting comparing apples to apples. There's enough to criticize as is.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#270

Post by raydev »

Seems like both the article and many commenters here are overlooking the fact that most people have cheap mobile data plans. For most people's use cases (read: not readers here) that's enough.

Most people living in cities and even most suburban areas have great coverage, so why bother paying for a landline?

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