Overheard at the LFGSS golf club bar

Are you a parasitic rent-seeking landlord if you don’t charge any rent?

Are you a parasitic rent-seeking landlord if you don’t charge any rent?

An old family friend of ours, who lives in Lewisham, lost her army officer husband to an IRA assassination. She received a large payout from the MoD and also her husband's pension as a lump sum.

She decided to use that money for good and bought up some Lewisham property that she has been using for means tested sheltered housing for the most vulnerable for the last 25 years. Most don't pay anything at all.

I know this is irrelevant but I felt that it was an interesting csb. The only scenario that I would own residential property other than my main residence, would be to do something like this.

And before any of you cnuts who know me in real life point out the hipocracy in this. Yes, my views have changed.

I agree with this thread, tax anything that does not affect me currently.

You're still taking away housing from those that need it and are probably still sitting on it as an "investment" and therefore perpetuating the downward spiral of unaffordable housing. If that house was to be worth £0 tomorrow would you keep it?

Edit - this is in the hypothecical situation of someone having a second house they aren't using but "rent" it out for free.

tax anything that does not affect me currently.

Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie

Yeah.
It was nice but shit, because it's not available to all and the ethos of the school (preparing people for adult life) is applicable to all.
However, meals and play space are the same at this and state schools.

Fortunately, I've only been to single sex schools so far. Otherwise it would be awkward.
"are you here as a prospective student?"

The split between ‘middle’ and ‘working’ classes is a strange UK thing. Everyone in both groups is ‘working’ class; ‘middle’ class is just a forged identifier to break up class awareness.

sad-karl-marx.jpg

Guy might’ve been onto something, all I’m saying.

You misunderstand me. Marx would be strongly disagreeing with you about most of that. Sure, he thought the middle class was a creation of capitalism, but he didn't think the class division was an illusion.

It isn't a British peculiarity, either. Bourgeois isn't an English word or an English invention.

Hmm, you seem to misunderstand me. Marx distinguished 2 classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat (ed.: I’m including the lumpenproletariat) . If someone depends on their labour to survive they’re part of the proletariat, whether they’re white collar doctors with two houses and a mortgage or blue collar factory workers scraping to get by.

Distinguishing strongly between ‘middle’ and ‘working’ class is, in my limited experience, peculiarly British. Lawyers and doctors are generally middle class, manual labourers are generally working class, and neither appreciates being told they’re the opposite. Thing is they’re both proletariat i.e., working class, but the white collar workers or ‘middle’ class are thrown a feel-good bone by not being bundled together with the ‘working’ class. Ed.: this is what I meant by breaking class awareness.

Hmm, you seem to misunderstand me. Marx distinguished 2 classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat (ed.: I’m including the lumpenproletariat) . If someone depends on their labour to survive they’re part of the proletariat, whether they’re white collar doctors with two houses and a mortgage or blue collar factory workers scraping to get by.

You seem to have missed the whole bit where he talked about the petite bourgeoisie as a transitional class (and not in a temporal sense).

Distinguishing strongly between ‘middle’ and ‘working’ class is, in my limited experience, peculiarly British.

You're right; your experience is limited.

the hipocracy

It's OK, every argument on here is a hippocracy.

I’d hoped you’d mention that, as the transitional nature of the petty bourgeoisie in the UK seems to refer mainly to their value system, which they align with the upper class’. Their chances of actually transitioning from middle to upper class in the UK appears to be significantly (laughably) smaller than in other countries.

You're right; your experience is limited.

Then enlighten me, which other countries have this distinction? I don’t doubt they exist, but having lived across most of the Americas I’m unaware of them. There’s certainly an upper-middle class that includes micro capitalists and white collar workers, and they also delude themselves into thinking they’re different from the middle class.

There were even free grants to go to UNI

There was a time you could get housing benefit and unemployment benefit out of term time.

Maybe we need a new thread but I sat next to two little shits in the pub tonight who had a lot of money spent on their education but completely embarrassed themselves with zero understanding of today's society.

Private school gives people this unfounded confidence but is an inefficient use of money.

My new idea is to ban private schools, tax all parent per child they have and put it all towards education.

#votegoat

My new idea is to ban private schools and tax all parent per child they have.

The tax revenue will presumably fund the reestablishment of Orphanages?

Will middle class parents give up their less able child?

It's OK, every argument on here is a hippocracy

votegoat

Nice theme, I'm all for horses and goats forming a ruling class

Perhaps those who didn't thrive within the education system, and likely had quite a challenging upbringing away from school in a low income household with lots of siblings.

Maybe your idea will allow that they could legally avoid the tax by sending their kids either to the workhouse, to go bring the crops in, or drive HGV's instead of attending school.

Do we now need an lfgss class war thread?

Means tested child tax, just at the right level to take the average private school fees from the squeezed middle?

Rep.

#votegoat

Administration of a new means tested tax will be costly. There'll be many rich folks find creative ways to avoid it too.

Would have to go into higher rate income tax, no?

Either way, it'll be remembered at the ballot box.

Is the idea bad?

Feasibility comes after.

Is the idea bad?

I guess there's probably a "no such thing as a bad idea" rule when the governments special advisers have a brainstorming session...