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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

#291

Post by akiselev »

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…

> Little woody's is a $7.50 burger but has no sides. add fries for 3.5 and you are at $11.

Or better yet, how much is a burger at Dick's now?

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#292

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#293

Post by AnthonyMouse »

HeavyFeather wrote: post #260
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised more people aren't doing the opposite. There are pay as you go phone plans that cost hardly anything. Meanwhile there is free WiFi almost everywhere, including at home. If you have broadband. So pay the cable company for fast internet and pay half that or less for mobile service, then connect your mobile to WiFi 97% of the time so you hardly use any mobile data. The math gets even more dramatic if you h…

> there is free WiFi almost everywhere Unless you're one of those people who don't need internet to survive, then this is nonsense. Wifi is far from everywhere and I'm not going to manually connect to wifi just to check if my date is running late. Is this the 90s?

But you still have a cellular connection, it's just metered. Which doesn't matter because checking if your date is running late uses a trivial amount of cellular data. Whereas if it turns out that they are late and now you've got an hour to kill and want to watch Netflix on your phone, you connect to the local WiFi.

Which it will have done automatically at home and at work and anywhere else that you actually frequent, so having to do that is rare.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#294

Post by EddieEngineers »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #287
EddieEngineers wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I know, it was just so crazy I wanted to mention it somewhere and this post worked lol. Fwiw it was from https://www.draegers.com .

Draegers is probably the most expensive grocery store I have ever set foot in. The one near San Mateo has a crazy wine selection sometimes but I literally cannot fathom buying a week's groceries there. Beautiful produce, but you can get beautiful produce at a farm stand for a couple bucks too. Not sure how to feel about the existence of luxury grocery stores. I'm sure the people who shop there are happy.

It's the only place that has guanciale and decent pancetta near me, plus they sell pasta from my in-laws village in Italy, which is fun to cook carbonara with from time to time. They also sell wagyu which is hard to find in the Bay Area! I absolutely would never ever do my actual weekly shopping from there!

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#295

Post by idontpost »

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…

[dead]

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#296

Post by 0zemp2c »

dukeyukey wrote: post #268
massysett wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

huh? even the official UK Forces News youtube channel dedicated an entire episode to how hollowed out UK defense spending is at present

when Queen Liz set out to sea, half of the planes on her deck were F35s from (and staffed by) the US Marines...afaik the UK cannot provide full air wings for their own carriers

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#297

Post by Applejinx »

truckerbill wrote: post #182
Applejinx wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harsh but fair. It's not significantly different in the US. You know, it's not different in ANY of the empires, past or present. Look at Russia and it's just a couple decades of further decline, but the same thing. If hackers and nerd idealists are worth anything, it's for trying to solve all this against a background of constant push-back. I sometimes wonder if the most important thing I could possibly do is try to…

You should absolutely. How would you do it?

Closest I've got is a game concept where it's your job to manipulate populations's attitudes. However, this assumes that gamifying something and having people able to do it themselves, would give them insight into seeing it on a grand scale around them… and it assumes they'd be able to do anything useful about it if they did get that insight.

Might be like trying to guide chaos. Get beyond the Dunbar number and you're in trouble.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#298

Post by dukeyukey »

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.

Although you gotta add state taxes too, especially property taxes, which don't exist anywhere near as much as they do in the US.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#299

Post by monkeynotes »

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.

Isn't this basically how all economies work? You get taxed on your paycheck and then on purchases too. It's not unique to the UK to recognize taxes diminish your purchasing power.

In Canada tax rates are similar, although we do have lower VAT. In other EU countries income tax is more aggressive but they have more social benefits.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#300

Post by supportengineer »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #232
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…

California's tax rate is much higher than the rest of the country. The bay area's brocoli prices are much higher than anywhere except times square. The vast majority of the country is not facing prices like these.

I'm sorry, I have to ask. Do people often shop for broccoli in Times Square?

I am aware of many events and activities that go on in Times Square, however broccoli consumption was not at the top of my list.

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