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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

#501

Post by IshKebab »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #422
IshKebab wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 t…

Our state pension is paid out of contributions made over a lifetime, it isn't remotely close to a good deal...if it is so good, would you have all your contributions paid into the state pension? No. Brexit? Zero cost. Corruption? Zero cost. It is amazing that the state is giving massive handouts to people in work, and they still complain that things are terrible. We are giving thousands of pounds per year to people o…

> Our state pension is paid out of contributions made over a lifetime, it isn't remotely close to a good deal

It's a great deal for the people receiving pensions now because they massively underpaid contributions compared to the total pension they'll receive.

> ...if it is so good, would you have all your contributions paid into the state pension? No.

Of course not, because our contributions now are really going to pay the pensions of current pensioners. We are paying for the previous generation.

> Brexit? Zero cost. Corruption? Zero cost.

What? Ok this is some weird humour!

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#502

Post by justinclift »

asdff wrote: post #472
skippyboxedhero wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As a point of comparison (here in East Coast Australia) decent (mid-range) hamburgers are commonly around AUS$18-20.

According to xe.com, that's about US$12-13.30.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#503

Post by scott_w »

ztrww wrote: post #485
scott_w wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Pre 2010 (well pre 2008 to be fair) UK had a higher or similar per capita GDP as the US, now it’s not even close. If the current trend continues it will be almost double in a few years.. Other European countries have been doing a bit better but it has clearly been a ‘lost decade’ in most of Western Europe and you can’t really blame the tortes for that.

> Other European countries have been doing a bit better

The UK has had the worst pandemic recovery almost anywhere in the developed world. How many other countries have an annual "Winter Crisis" in their healthcare that's extending into autumn and summer?

The Tories have been in power since 2010. They're the common factor in the many issues the UK is currently facing.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#504

Post by scott_w »

ztrww wrote: post #487
scott_w wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location... combined with ever increasing inequality offers a much better explanation. Inequality is high in the US too but at least they have a lot of growth which means that the bottom 80% or so are at least not getting poorer.

And who's been in power since 2010 in the UK, overseeing all of the growing issues?

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#505

Post by trgdr »

As an American expat in London, I think the thing that consistently shocks me is how neither Brits nor Americans understand how much poorer Brits are than Americans. The median London wage is something like 30k GBP / 40k US. In New York (where I lived before London) that number is ~70k, and the costs of living are pretty comparable.

And as much as I love that the NHS is a thing, it's not a reasonable comparison. No one I know who has a choice uses NHS services apart from emergency medicine or surgery. Everyone I know who can afford it has private health insurance anyway.

In general, everyone I know in this country either has serious family money or is downright poor by American standards. There really isn't much in between.

TO BE FAIR: it's generally much more pleasant to be poor in the UK than it is in the US. NHS is miles better than nothing, which is what many Americans have to deal with.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#506

Post by b3kart »

trgdr wrote: post #505

As an American expat in London, I think the thing that consistently shocks me is how neither Brits nor Americans understand how much poorer Brits are than Americans. The median London wage is something like 30k GBP / 40k US. In New York (where I lived before London) that number is ~70k, and the costs of living are pretty comparable. And as much as I love that the NHS is a thing, it's not a reasonable comparison. No o…

Dubious evidence for rather strong claims.

> The median London wage is something like 30k GBP / 40k US. In New York (where I lived before London) that number is ~70k, and the costs of living are pretty comparable.

Couldn't be bothered to verify the numbers, but even if they're true: you've compared London to New York. The vast majority of Brits and Americans don't live in these two cities. I'd argue that these two cities are not representative of the rest of the two countries.

> Everyone I know who can afford it has private health insurance anyway.

Have you considered that your sample is biased? It's akin to looking at the top 1% of earners in the UK and concluding that nobody uses the NHS.

> It's generally much more pleasant to be poor in the UK than it is in the US.

For some definition of "poor" this means that it's much more pleasant for the _majority_ of people to live in the UK than in the US. This seems to contradict your prior claims.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#507

Post by _0w8t »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #366
tristor wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like it makes sense to get fiber as soon as 2+ people are sharing it, since it's faster and less than 70 EUR/mo.

You still want a cheap mobile plan, so it's not technically cheaper until you have 4 people. But that's comparing fiber to 10Mbps cellular, and even with 2 people the fiber is dramatically faster and only €20 more expensive. If you can live with 10Mbps then there is presumably some broadband option at no worse than that speed for less than €30 and then you're already ahead with 2 people. And most people aren't going…

In Norway there is no realistic option to have fiber cheaper than 45-50 Euro per month.

Based on personal experience 10 MBit/s is enough for video including full HD options. In fact it worked better than 100 MBit/s that was shared with several users and when somebody was downloading big gaming files.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#508

Post by trgdr »

zamnos wrote: post #345
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.

California's state income tax is 12.3% starting at $677,276, so the top rate is 49.3%, and actually surpasses 50% once other taxes are taken into account, and then you have to factor in healthcare costs on top of that. Which as you get older and later into your career (which is when you'd make that much money anyway) can't be ignored either.

The healthcare thing is really a moot point. Everyone who can afford private medical care in the UK goes private for anything they can. The NHS is good (and I _do_ mean just 'good' -- the quality of US healthcare is very uneven across the country, but the best care possible, by a substantial margin, is undeniably in the US) for emergency medicine and surgery, but the general consensus is that it just-barely-kind-of-works-sometimes for everything else.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#509

Post by dorkwood »

drumhead wrote: post #16

If you only ever use your phone then there's no point in paying for broadband. I think a lot of people have been taking a look at their subscriptions and cancelling things which they seldom use. Do you really need a sub for a 500mbit connection when you use you phone? You can always cancel it and switch to a much cheaper slower connection or just use you allowance. I had a Disney+ sub which I hardly used so I cancell…

I had that plan when I moved to the US, until I found out that T-Mobile blocks you from tethering to your phone.

Re: One million cancel broadband as living costs rise

#510

Post by jablala »

toyg wrote: post #450
jablala wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the red tories.

Still better than the blue ones, who have been in power for 13 years and have only rubbles to show for it.

100% but when the alternative seems just so bleak it's hard to be positive.
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