Hi
Just some thoughts
1. There seems to be a notion that corporations and bankers and the government etc are at solely at fault for financial woes of the country. That has some truth of course, but also please do include the other segment which has a very substantial amount of blame as well. The general UK population.
Don't forget, theres many individuals who took out loans and mortgages way beyond their means. The only issue is we cannot really see who they are individually so human nature is then going to blame those who are visible - ie bankers and government. If the general UK population wasn't as downright abysmal with their money and their mindset we as a country perhaps wouldn't be in such a massive hole as we find ourselves in.
2. There's also a notion that corporations etc are deliberately avoiding paying tax and that they're also doing it illegally. I have news for those who think that - it's called Legal Tax reduction using the laws of the tax system. Corporations 99.95% of the time do tax reduction legally. When it's illegal, many a time it's down to a rogue individual within the company. There's legal ways of avoiding or reducing your tax burden as a private individual - it's NOT illegal to do so. Implying that corporations are lying and illegally tax avoiding is far fetched as best.
3. The 'system' has to 'TRY' to be great to as much of the population, as much of the time, as possible. Part of that is everyone pays via Taxes into the system, which then provides services and infrastructure to benefit everyone as and when they need or want it. Those who choose to ignore that and not pay taxes or their dues shouldn't be eligible when they want to use it. It's of course very difficult to police and control, without getting draconian about it. In this topic, it's the people who had purposely built on land they know they shouldn't have and the law is being upheld - it's quite simple really. The taxpayer has paid a large amount to do things by the books for 10 years even offered them accomodation which was refused. Just when are those who do pay taxes and into the system going to decide enough is enough and move them on? -
4. Related to the above, it's well known, and part of general knowledge to an extent there are various groups who do indeed decide to play the system, look for loopholes to take advantage of, perhaps do illegal things etc etc. They want to live by what they think they can do. I agree with the recent post, fine, go live as you wish, just don't take anything from those who are in the current system. Work out a way of living the way you want - if that involves stealing from others, then when you are caught, expect to be judged on the practices/laws of the people you took from i.e pay them back for what you stole. If you find you cannot live the way you wish, then compromises will need to be done.
5. It's those compromises which are difficult, because as ever, everyone believes and thinks they are right or their community is right, or their 'race' is right or their 'religion' is right.
6. No one has the answers, the 'governments' have to be there to try and juggle what is going to try and keep most of the population happy for as long as possible. The last government decided to borrow amounts way beyond it's means in order to try and keep it's population as happy as could be,that included laws which allowed bizarre levels of debt from individuals to businesses alike - we are now in the situation where that money needs to be paid back, an element that many of those individuals, businesses, bankers, politicians chose to ignore.
7. Wouldn't it be great if the ordinary individual of the population could choose where their tax money went?! it'll never happen of course, but if it could, I'm pretty sure the residents of Dale farm wouldn't get a penny. Those who do feel sorry for them, thats fine if that's how you feel of course, but would you perhaps feel the same way if it was your land they'd decided to build on? would you be as sympathetic to them if it was your street their residents sat on causing issues? would you then divert some of your taxes in order to help them?
8. Now something you generally don't really hear - a previous business I was involved with, an industrial area and our unit was quite large for the business sector we were involved in. The local area had it's population of course and we employed some local people in our offices and warehouse. Business operations allowed us to expand and take on more etc over time. Felt good and nice. Recruitment time, and about 100 yards away was a small side road and an area of land which was very similar to Dale Farm. The community there was 'travellers' - we'd often see the adults and kids come rifling through our bins to try and salvage what they could to sell on - metal (which we had plenty of!) etc would be taken by them. Over some time, I got to know the usual faces and after it kind of got a bit more accepting - i'd talk with them. In short, they do indeed have 'good people' in their community, however they are also very aware that theres a large section of thier community who aren't good people and they, the good ones don't like it. The ones who want to work, feel as though they're held back by their less nicer counterparts as many people who aren't in the community don't trust them. One very important aspect was when it came to jobs, and I was told to be double or triple vigilant if it was indeed one of their community that applied for the job. In reality no one from that community even applied, but I wonder what I'd have done/thought if I had interviewed one etc. The general gist is that I'd 'probably' have not got such a good worker, potential of 'issues' later as well. That fear or route of thinking whichever way you see it, is how many other employers also feel and it's caused by the community themselves. It's that element which prevents good progression and as soon as communities like that realize they need to change themselves from within is when they'll become more trusted and accepted in society. (the same sort of thought for when the recent riots happened - as an employer, I genuinely fear for myself if I was to employ someone from that community in case of any issues/fights outside of work affecting the employee which in turn could affect me or my business) - Lastly, out of all that, some of the staff we did employ, you could well catagorize in the 'chav' way thats often mentioned. Myself and partners were indeed 'edgy' with the fact we'd potentially have to deal with all sorts of excuses - it turned out out of perhaps 8/9 people like that, just 2/3 were approaching being kind of bad with timekeeping and skiving and poor productivity. Those staff lasted perhaps a few months longer than we should've kept them as we tried sitting down and talking with them to try and understand the bigger picture. A few times too many excuses for not being on time, skiving a day off and we'd simply fire them.
There's many facets into each point above, and other points that stem out of it all. The UK will only continue to be successful by reducing it's vast overspend, moving towards changing the mindset of the general population. Other countries which are much more willing to do those sorts of things, are moving ahead of the UK quite quickly indeed.
Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!
