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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

#471

Post by fomine3 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #48
nologic01 wrote: post #42

Exactly the opposite of what should be happening. Homes should be connected with permanent, reliable, high capacity fiber optic networks. Mobile connectivity plays an important role but it should be complementary, an add-on to the backbone not a substitute. Given how the costs of digital technology are generally on a collapsing trend this suggests significant dysfunction. Reducing the computing experience of the enti…

> Homes should be connected with permanent, reliable, high capacity fiber optic networks. UK solved that problem by allowing DSL to be sold as "fiber".

I'd take 4G than DSL

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#472

Post by asdff »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #409
Kaijo wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Five Guys is not "3x any other burger chain", that is lunacy. I live in London and eat burgers a lot. Chains like GBK ("Gourmet" Burger Kitchen, of course just another mid-market chain, not gourmet in a classical sense), Honest Burger, Byron Burger, Black Bear Burger, Burger & Beyond, Patty & Bun, other imported USA chains like Shake Shack, and others. They're all popular places to go for a burger, and they're as or…

We don't all live in London big man.

How much do you even pay in the UK for a 5 guys hamburger? the previous comment had a complicated order. For reference, in southern california, the regular hamburger is $10.79 from five guys. A lot higher than in n out, a double double is less than $5, but probably $2-3 cheaper than what you'd pay at a low key sit down restaurant like a brewery or whatever.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#473

Post by scott_w »

armitron wrote: post #375
dragonwriter wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Really? I have top of the line healthcare through my employer in the US, which also covers my wife and teenage daughters, which costs me essentially nothing. NHS in the UK is collapsing, but even if it didn't, qualitatively it's orders of magnitude worse than what one would receive in the US through one's employer: Months to years for an appointment, incompetent doctors and a bureaucracy that puts Kafka to shame. htt…

That’s a specific issue caused by the Tories deliberately running it down. Pre-2010, the situation was very different. You didn’t have things like the Annual Winter Crisis (which now extends through to autumn).

Luckily, Labour will win the next GE, so they can start to turn this around.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#474

Post by scott_w »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #430
armitron wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I have top of the line healthcare through my employer in the US, which also covers my wife and teenage daughters, which costs me essentially nothing. NHS in the UK is collapsing, but even if it didn't, qualitatively it's orders of magnitude worse than what one would receive in the US through one's employer: Months to years for an appointment, incompetent doctors and a bureaucracy that puts Kafka to shame. htt…

So you have an employer paying tens of thousands a year to get you health insurance, leading to a situation where only the most well off can have access to healthcare. The NHS is struggling because there's a shit load of people to treat with very little means. The US healthcare system is doing well because it leeches money off of the most well off and lets the poorest die.

The NHS is struggling because the Tory government is deliberately running it down. You didn’t see the many crises it faces under Labour.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#475

Post by ohgodplsno »

scott_w wrote: post #474
ohgodplsno wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you have an employer paying tens of thousands a year to get you health insurance, leading to a situation where only the most well off can have access to healthcare. The NHS is struggling because there's a shit load of people to treat with very little means. The US healthcare system is doing well because it leeches money off of the most well off and lets the poorest die.

The NHS is struggling because the Tory government is deliberately running it down. You didn’t see the many crises it faces under Labour.

Also yes, starving the beast is their favourite activity.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#476

Post by ohgodplsno »

dragonwriter wrote: post #454
ohgodplsno wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretending that the employer is paying taxes for the employees is doublespeak popularized by large companies to justify why they want to stop paying it. It is not taxes. It's a contribution to a functioning society. Otherwise, employers would get access to employees with NHS without putting a penny in.

> It is not taxes. It's a contribution to a functioning society That’s what taxes in general are, so the second half does not support the first. > Otherwise, employers would get access to employees with NHS without putting a penny in. The idea that payroll taxes are a fee that employers pay the State for “access” to workers and that this is a defense rather than a criticism of the scheme is... interesting.

Nope. Words have a meaning. Contributions are dedicated to a specific thing. Nobody can take the money of the Build-Hospitals contribution and use it to Build-Death-Star. Taxes however can go anywhere.

Once again, "payroll tax" is language invented by employers to make it feel like they're being unjustly taxed. Additionally, in the case of Europe, most of these contributions were set up after WW2 because employers were happy enough to collaborate with the occupiers and kept wanting cheap labour without participating in rebuilding nations. So, sorry, I won't cry about them having to pay their fair share.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#477

Post by abawany »

omginternets wrote: post #339
abawany wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verizon 5G Home Internet is also typically $50/mo - were you ordering through the building, which might be taking a cut?

Nope! This is straight through Verizon's main website.

I just double checked as a new customer - you're right that it's 60 usd/m but it goes down to 50/m if you autopay using a debit card (strange Verizon artifact - but annoying). Edit: I've been a customer for a year and while the early months were rough wrt. reliability (1), it is now pretty rock solid in my area and I typically get close to 300mb/s though I don't game so I'm not sure how it is with that.

1: so rough that I wrote a script that power cycled the modem every time it disconnected, since that was faster than waiting for it to recover. I haven't used that scheme for months now though since it was no longer necessary.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#478

Post by therealdrag0 »

gavin_gee wrote: post #223
gavin_gee wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I’ve had multiple sit down meals with 5 people this week for <200$ in Seattle.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#479

Post by blitzar »

c7THEC2DDFVV2V wrote: post #311
JimDabell wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

thats incorrect. you lose your tax free allowance, which is a furtger 12,500 tax paid. Plus you need to consider graduate tax and the interest on those 'loans' which currently sits at 4.5%

Its an even higher tax rate if you buy 50,000 of drugs with your money and call it a heroin tax.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#480

Post by leoedin »

ilikerashers wrote: post #275
Shaanie wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Can we have your childcare, your healthcare and your housing market please in exchange? Childcare alone in Zone 4 London is £2000 per month.

For one child? My nursery in zone 3 is £1500 a month.
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