Well house of lords get up to £300 a day attendance allowance for going to work which means a short walk for all the ones who live in London. Go every day and youve got a nice income...thats just for starters.
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Well house of lords get up to £300 a day attendance allowance for going to work which means a short walk for all the ones who live in London. Go every day and youve got a nice income...thats just for starters.
There are only 100 hereditary peers in the HoL.
Queen is independently wealthy plus they get income from the Duchys of Lancaster and Cornwall.
Upkeep of Royal palaces is paid for from taxes, but you could argue they belong to the nation.
The great wealth of the aristocracy was wiped out (along with many of its sons) by WWI and the huge death duties they had to pay. WWII finished off the job. Many of them are relatively poor; a lot of 'stately homes' belong to the National Trust, and the aristocrats are there only as tenants. Others opened their estates to the public, and have safari parks and other visitor attractions to help pay for the running of the estate. Some have made money by selling off land, or have become wealthy through their occupations, but very few of the aristocracy are anywhere near 'super-rich'.
If we're going to be all Marxist-Leninist, then why not go the whole hog? Confiscate all second homes, BTL properties, savings above a certain relatively modest level, expensive gizmos, raise the top rate of tax to 99%. and impose it on all income above £50,000 a year.
Nope, not necessary. The best/most successful solutions for anything generally exist in the middle of all extremes. Hi-fi's like that, too.
There are good and bad points about all political 'solutions'. Even communism has its place. The key, if it were possible, is to marry all the best bits and create the fairest and most equal division of wealth for all.
However, as I said before, that doesn't mean 'standardising' everything. There will always legitimately be some with rather more than others. The key, though, is to ensure that the current 'have nots', have something, and get a fairer share of the pie, worthy of them living a life fit for a human being :)
Marco.
Nah, confiscate the BTL homes I say!
Another 'doing well' sector of society is the local Government people in upper echelons, who with evident lack of ability rake in high pay and very luxurious pensions, just by 'being there'.
A very large Telecoms company which we all know, also has immense numbers of mediocre people in highly paid management positions, way above the salaries of many who have studied for years and who work hard.
We cannot say that much is justly apportioned, let alone meritocratic.
I'm sure that an agreement could be arrived at with regard to a new paradigm of politics, but we are all polarised into a position of self protection because of the predatory nature of society as it is.
BTW one Lord left his taxi engine running whilst he signed in for the day, and immediately after signing left in it.
All that may be true, but a) none of the people you describe come anywhere near super-rich and b) they are all within the PAYE system, so will not be able to evade/avoid paying tax. Unpaid tax is mostly a problem related to large multinational corporations who play the system so that they pay minimal tax in countries in which they have a major presence. Wrt to individuals, it is mostly about people in the banking/finance sector, who make huge amounts of money, and who are adept at shifting it about to ensure taxation is minimal. Getting all het up about the aristocracy, or local government officials, however highly paid, is swallowing a camel whilst straining at a gnat.
The trouble is, addressing these problems is complex. Force the tax-avoiding large companies to pay their 'fair share' of taxes risks them moving their operations elsewhere, with consequent job losses here. The super-rich can live anywhere in the world; they probably own properties in several countries. You could force them out of the UK by, for example, scrutinising their wealth ever more closely, but how would that benefit the UK economy?