Re: is the EU beginning to fall apart?
Originally Posted by
The Artful Todger
->
We have moved into an era where rightly or wrongly we TAX PAYERS are paying for a number of hand outs to people in need of them. The state age related benefit is outdated. Better by far that support is focused on people who need it, not on what they did in the past.
At this point I reiterate THERE IS NO POT.
In addition The State HAS NO MONEY.
The State has tax receipts each year that get spent in that year. THAT is where the money has to come from. That and loans that are made to the government that have to be serviced (interest paid) and repaid when they mature.
So all that you and others have paid in the various taxes over the years was spent during that year. Apart from a very small contingency fund to provide for national emergencies there is nothing left.
For all the years that you and others have been working and paying taxes - it means nothing today. All that money has been spent.
Now it's today's tax payers who are paying for our "Benefits".
That's as may be.
Throughout my working life, I made compulsory payments under the guise of National Insurance in the belief that I was paying for my forthcoming state pension, any need I might have of the National Health Service and possibly state unemployment benefits.
That was completely understandable and acceptable.
Now, things have changed.
National Insurance 'contributions' is just another compulsory tax. Whatever I pay in, the money is spent on anything the government may wish to support.
I don't complain about necessities for our own people, but when a very large proportion of the government's income is spent on the workshy, the illegal immigrants and the leaders of foreign countries (who seem to be the ones who actually benefit from our money), I feel cheated. India, for example, receives generous handouts from our government and can, as a result, afford to run a space agency (which we cannot afford) and stock up on nuclear weapons.
People complain that the NHS is under threat of underfunding. Many take out their own health insurance in order to benefit from a better funded private health organisation. Even so, they are obliged to pay for the NHS through their taxes (which includes National Insurance, of course).
If we could stop attempting to 'feed the world', and if we could stop wasting government money on hare-brained schemes and handouts to the workshy and illegals, we could afford a much better state health service and could afford to pay higher pensions to those who deserve them: those who have worked all their lives and contributed to the state coffers.
That's how the country used to be run in the past.