Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Is British society more selfish today?
Today this article on the BBC website tells us about a man who died in Essex when his dog pulled him out suddenly onto a road causing a collision with a car. The driver was more concerned it appears to get the mans details after his pet's lead caused damage to her vehicle. The man, in his 60s, went home but began feeling unwell and died later in hospital from a head injury.
Separately Bill Bryson is bringing out his new book about UK life called the Road to Little Dribbling. This is 20 years after his last book on the UK, Notes from a Small Island. In a recent interview Bryson said;
''The UK had become a greedier and sometimes less polite place - a more ''screw you Jack'' society. If you went into a bar 20 years ago everyone would know who was next to be served. No one would dream of being served before the guy next to you if he was first. Now, it's very much every man for himself ''.
Here on HOL we have a new discussion about a homeless person where the person posting said, I am a compassionate person (or at least I'd like to think so) but I do not want to have to encounter this supposedly homeless petson's little encampment on my journey to and from work every day.
Is the UK a more selfish society in general than say 20 years ago? If so what has caused this change?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Yes it's that quicker demonization & categorization of more & more people into spongers off the state that seems to have become more acceptable, even a mainstream attitude, not helped by media such as Channel 4's Benefits Street.
The benefits system was set up to help anyone falling on hard times or help towards finances, an insurance system that we all pay into, aimed at keeping a more harmonious & ordered society. Whittle it down and we get more chaos within our communities ... such as people having to sleep on our pavements. I guess people wonder why when they pay into this system the services are deteriorating, it makes them angry, then they blame the people using them!
The tax intake obviously pays for these services. They need to be well funded including schools & the NHS. What has changed as we all know now is that the global companies aren't paying a share of their global income to each country they gain income from. We need a government that deals with that problem.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The taxes mostly go to pay pensions now.
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It does spend a large chunk on pensions which state employees pay into along with their state employer, a system which many private employers are struggling with or, have largely given up doing properly, which has made many private employees angry & so they'll now have a pop at state employees - race to the bottom, such a UK approach/attitude these days.
The BBC looks at how the government categorizes it's spending here. Never straight forward :)
Corporations spent their employees pension savings (leaving large black holes in their pension budgets) after past governments sanctioned this practice for share market investment. Now global pension fund investors such as that one from Canada happily buy up previously state run organisations here in the UK, cream off the profits & do nowhere near enough infrastructure investment. The energy & water sectors are a classic case of this, the former being in a complete mess if you look towards future energy supply. Energy bills are another thing people get frustrated with!
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PS. What's possibly a better approach to running some national assets is the stakeholder system where the state has majority ownership but allows it to be run as if in the private sector. Air New Zealand is an example of this and has just announced a massive profit increase with further investment. The government has 51% ownership.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Matt, we should all carry enlarged copies of that annual tax wheel (or pie) about our persons, if only to demonstrate to any bellyaching passerby just how miniscule our Overseas Aid 0.7, or our contributions to EU or Housing budgets actually are.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Wouldn't it be something if the welfare portion of the pie went down because employers were paying a decent wage rather than letting the state subsidise them through in work benefits.
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I don't see "Housing" in that chart so I presume it's in the "Welfare" section. It's cruel and wrong to lump housing benefit in with "welfare". The BBC are very Naughtie sometimes.
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Third tiny one down from the top, lumped in with utilities?
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Duh! But how is it that I've seen this before and Housing has been huge and actual benefits paid out to people to exist is small?
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Depends how the accountants put it together John. You can either put housing benefit into general welfare or into the housing segment. Comes down to what you want to look good/bad. Anyway, direct spending by government on housing is minuscule. Most house building is either private sector or through housing associations.
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Islington spend £30 million a year just maintaining their housing. That's not minuscule.
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BBC? That chart is from HMRC; and when it was first published it was noted that the whopping great orange slice for 'Welfare' includes occupational pensions of retired public service employees - debatably not Welfare as usually understood.
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