mightytharg

Really? Which European countries are spending less than they collect in taxes?

So there it is taxpayers. Commies whining because the spongers can't afford a nice BMW. And why would they need a holiday? Every day is a holiday if you are too lazy to work.

Inequality is a good thing though. We urgently need more of it. Otherwise the threads here fill up with smug scroungers boasting about how they get a full time wage for "working" sixteen hours a week. Raising the poorest paid out if income tax will just destroy the economy by encouraging them to vote for even more handouts.

Much better, thank you.

I think you're agreeing with me, but it's not 100% clear. What language is that written in?

The "austerity" plan is to do nothing about the debt for five years and hope something turns up. Hardly what austerity meant in the past.

I'm not a minority or long-term unemployed, two of the favoured groups for public sector employment - so the process wouldn't be fair for me. Anyway, saying to a victim of theft, "Why don't you become a robber yourself?" is missing the point . You are trying to defend the indefensible. We need at least a 50% tax on public sector pensions.

Seems bad to me. If the average Londoner pays 135% of the UK average in taxes and the average Welshman pays only 86% of the average tax, doesn't that still make you scrounging sheep-bothering scum?

Your maths is terrible. Using your own figures, the private sector worker is paying 15.5% towards the pensions while the local authority worker pays only 6.3%. Despite this, the public sector worker gets a bigger pension! Now you can see how unfair it is.

If you are lucky enough to be earning £150,000 you won't be able to buy a house at 2.5 x salary - so, effectively you're worse off than a Northern council-worker. Anyway you socialists only have yourselves to blame. Attacking the bonuses forces salaries up. What were you thinking?

Bonds (their prices) are going down if the yields are rising. Confusing title unless I've got it mixed up.

A question for the shameless scroungers... How much extra money do you get if you pretend to do sixteen hours work?

Barry stands to gain up to $4,300 in fines for each barrel spilt. He's refusing offers of help and denying work permits to people who could stop the leak. Moral hazard?

Who was Tecumseh? One of my ancestors who betrayed our family and sided with the bad guys in the civil war called his kid Tecumseh. Just curious who he was.

Hmmm, rent-free houses for the blacks, don't you love Obama?

They haven't so much "been allowed" to reduce the value of private sector pensions. Rather, they have had them stolen by the public sector through increased taxation . Yes it's unfair.

Glad you agree. 23% corporation tax and 18% Capital gains should just about cover it. Did you remember to sign the petition?

We can just resell some the things we purchased - Louisiana and Alaska would cover most of the debt.

I'm the last person to take an unnecessary pop at our public sector workers, but residents parking is a serious problem. Like the 18th century enclosures, our modern-day lords have seized our common property (the roadsides) for their own purposes. In the same way as the commoners could no longer meet on common land or make their living on it, nowadays I can't stop and visit a friend's house when I happen to be passing. Equally, repairmen and other tradesmen have lost their businesses because they can no longer travel from home to home to ply their trades. Places become less friendly and cities and towns become less successful and are often flooded. Where's the anger? They didn't even drop the road tax when they stopped us from parking? The public sector don't care about the harm they do to our communities as long as there is profit for them.

Could it be because you are an uncouth pleb? Perhaps they are friendly to one another, but you don't fit in? Instead of "hi", try saying these three rhyming words: AIR HAIR LAIR Let us know how you get on...

How much of this is because grasping public sector workers have seized the parking near many homes? The charges and fines go towards their huge salaries and bloated pensions, but your friends can't drive round and visit.

Please could you explain this a bit more? If the 6% of pupils who attended private schools have more merit than the 94% hoi polloi then it's a meritocracy. Do you actually believe that the people in state schools have as much merit as their more talented, harder working peers?

You're so twisted - now someone who is too honest to suck from the taxpayers teat (a landlord who won't accept housing benefit) is criticised instead of being applauded?!

If you're talking about the Mafia, I couldn't tell you. If you're asking about Goldman, what about these 680,000 acres of wilderness? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7853076.stm I like guanacos, carpentero birds and the landscape there. So I'm grateful to them - as a shareholder I suppose technically some of this land was mine and Hank stole it from me to give to the Wildlife Conservation Society - but I'm still glad he did. Sorry to go all soft on you, but deep down I'm a philanthropist.

Unfortunately it's set to the median level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Housing_Allowance A number chosen through pure spite to ensure that no matter how hard the private sector renters work around half of them will always have worse accommodation than the scroungers.