GloomMonger

Do you have kids?

Have been in Madrid the past 2 weeks and it's business as usual here. There's more graffiti than last year and I have seen the occasional demonstration mostly against privatizing hospitals. But, went to las rozas last night, an out of town high end shopping complex and I have never seen so many shoppers. Queuing up at Ralph Lauren. Couldn't park the car. And people buying not browsing. Tried to eat out, all the restaurants full and queuing for tables. I know it's Christmas but doesn't feel like Spain is on the brink or not how I imagined it would be from reading this thread.

That's what I don't get. I suppose once you're into 6 figures the multiples of income climb to 2 figures.

Same here in Madrid, some stations you pay first and the pumps stop on the money. No messing about going 2p over.

We had twins in May, my wife breastfed but needed to top up with formula.

The tesco's near me started putting the boxes of baby formula in plastic security boxes about 5 months ago. The checkout girl told me there had been a big rise in formula theft.

Never ever give them details of your finances. Decide how much you want/can afford to pay and stick to it.

No, largely thanks to a pre-existing condition made the premiums too expensive.

That was before the internet. Not so easy to rewrite history now. Possible, but not easy.

In years to come, history will reflect kindly on Ron Paul. A great man, trying to expose the truth to a decaying society.

Are you suggesting voting will reduce your income tax?

Good answer and I agree with you. I guess I'm in the all for one, one for all camp.

Again, what relevance do 7 billion other people have to being rich in the UK. Using your argument, the average person on the dole is rich compared to the $ a day worker in third world countries. Everyone earning £50k used to earn less earlier in their careers. Why would someone earning £20k and receiving CB begrudge someone earning £50k receiving CB? A single child family earning £20k could well be better off than a two child family earning £50k.

I wish. 4 * earnings + £50k deposit buys a well below average house in a rough area in London. But I take your point :angry:

Can I ask why you don't believe you should receive it? You work hard, you are heavily taxed, you are not rich, the CB helps provide for your children. What's your reasoning?

I doubt anyone earning £50k considers themselves poor and it's irrelevant what the system thinks. If the systems takes 70% of your income and loans it back to you, doesn't make you rich.

Looking at the http://www.revenuebenefits.org.uk/child-benefit/policy/policy-changes/ website it says this: Am I being stupid, but net income is after tax. What does it mean?

Of course, you're right, but as we all know, housing is the biggest cost.

Not in this country.

I've looked. Without lying, we don't qualify.

It all comes down to living costs. £50k in Newcastle is not the same as £50k in London. I'm approaching 40 and now have a wife and two 5 month old babies at home. Having kids is expensive and we never factored CB into our budget, but what we do get is of great help. I earn just over the threashold in London, my wife looks after the babies, and after paying rent, bills, travel costs, food etc £50k doesn't go very far. Sure, we could survive without CB, and will, but to all those that say "why should I pay for other peoples kids", well other people paid for your CB when you were growing up. All our taxes are used to pay for people/services we don't all use, that's how its always been. We obviously have to make cuts somewhere and CB is probably the easiest place to start, doesn't mean I have to pleased that after 40 years it's now cut when I have kids.

You're right. $700,000,000,000 won't buy you a bag of peanuts next year!

Wouldn't call it peanuts!

Merv becoming more honest as he approaches retirement. Not sure this conscience clearing will make many forget how we got to this sorry state and who was in charge of the BOE throughout. In other news: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mervyn-king-signals-bank-of-england-is-preparing-for-new-round-of-qe-8223572.html