flogged_horse Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Snappy title eh! Something to do while we wait for the houseprice crash to get going! Lately you may have heard that our government has been borrowing a little bit of money.. £140 billion for bank bailout. Source £150 billion for Source Total £290 Billion smackeroonies!!! Following on from the pub last night, assuming the powers that be had just let the banks go pop! And walked in the day after, snapping them up for a bargain (call it a national emergency) writing of all that debt. You now have £250 Billion left Just what could we do with the money and what benefit would it have had on the UK? My budget would be..... - Build 20 nuclear (20 billion) power stations , securing jobs, industrial technology growth, tax revenue and economy growth and the supply of power for the next 40 years - Turned every major rail route into a VERY high speed line (30 billion), power stations, securing jobs, industrial technology growth, tax revenue and economy growth and a world class rail network for the next 80 years - Given big incentives to people buying new cars - £4000 off (5 billion) if they are VERY energy efficient / electric (use the above power stations), securing jobs, industrial technology growth, tax revenue and economy growth. - Given grants to homes to make them more energy efficient (10 billion) securing jobs, industrial technology growth, tax revenue and economy growth and savings for the next 100 years - Invested in a fibre optic nationwide broadband network (10 billion) securing jobs, industrial technology growth, tax revenue and economy growth and savings for the next 100 years - Given large grants to universities, colleges for cutting edge science research (10 billion) securing jobs, industrial technology growth, tax revenue and economy growth and savings for the next 100 years I'm struggling now having only spent £85 Billion! (Mind you every item would automatically over run/spend by at 50% so its realy £127 Billion. - One last thing because we, as a government had done so well with our wise investments we give ourselves a pay rise (1 billion) How would you spend it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Send that to your local paper/maintstream press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashologist Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 I would invest it in rare 20p pieces! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spark Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 All your suggestions seem to make sense. If I was in charge I would maybe scale back on the nuclear power plants slightly and look to invest in wind or wave power. Power generation is a tricky subject, due to the populations NIMBY attitude. Lots of people would like nuclear power or wind-farms to generate sustainable electricity, but nobody wants them right on their doorstep! If you put these electricity generating places in the middle of nowhere then you have the infrastructure nightmare of running pylons all over the countryside. It does make more sense to super-insulate houses and encourage people to reduce their usage of grid electricity. There are loads of ways to supplement grid energy - the most efficient probably being having solar thermal panels if you have a South facing roof. Solar PV is still much more expensive - currently won't give a payback within 15 years (unless either energy prices skyrocket or the Government give generous grants). Individual wind power isn't that good for the majority of the UK population (turbines need to be mounted well away from buildings, are noisy etc). Heat pumps are useful to top up solar hot water and provide underfloor heating for housing. The problem is most UK houses have radiators that need to run at high temperatures. Heat pump U/F heating is more expensive initially and very disruptive to retrofit, but is more efficient and should pay for itself in 10 years or less if Government grants were offered. All resources on the planet are finite and I would also give grants to encourage people to fit rainwater harvesting devices to their houses. This could be used for the washing machine/to flush the loo/irrigate the garden etc. This could also reduce the risk of flash flooding if say 25% of houses were actually storing the water falling on their roof rather than letting it go into the storm-drains! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 All resources on the planet are finite and I would also give grants to encourage people to fit rainwater harvesting devices to their houses. This could be used for the washing machine/to flush the loo/irrigate the garden etc. This could also reduce the risk of flash flooding if say 25% of houses were actually storing the water falling on their roof rather than letting it go into the storm-drains! Do average rainfall by average roof size and work out how big a container you need... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpewLabour Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Alternatively you could pay back most of the debt that we accrued from borrowing it in the first place !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr ray Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 How about giving it back to the people it was taken off for them to spend it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
interestrateripoff Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Alternatively you could pay back most of the debt that we accrued from borrowing it in the first place !! Whoa you clearly don't get how debt is wealth. You never pay back what you owe as you'd never have any money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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