Lauryn Hill jailed for tax evasion

[estebanrey]

That's it. If you want rubbish pick up you pay a private company.

LOL.

Rubbish collections in my area work out about £1 a week (that includes two lost of waste being picked up as well).

Now, you go on Google and find a private company that can do it for the same.

Good luck!

 

[Woden]

LOL.

Rubbish collections in my area work out about £1 a week (that includes two lost of waste being picked up as well).

Now, you go on Google and find a private company that can do it for the same.

Good luck!

Competition! They will give a better service, cheaper!!! That £1 a week they are STEALING iis twice what it should be!

 

[estebanrey]

Competition! They will give a better service, cheaper!!! That £1 a week they are STEALING iis twice what it should be!

Flippancy noted

But in all seriousness I agree that 'competition = better' is such a simplistic overview as to be laughable.

To stick with waste disposal (as it's an area I know) competition would drive prices up and not down. That's because for every 'customer' you have, the cheaper the service costs per household. So one 'company' servicing the whole city can do it a lot more cheaply than 4 or 5 different ones doing sections of the city.

Then of course you have things like driving distances. Let's imagine I live next door to you and I choose to use company A and you prefer company B. That means two vans having to drive and service the same street, pretty much the opposite of efficiency.

Competition CAN drive down prices and drive up quality but it completely depends on what is being produced and anyone who thinks it's a hard and fast rule is misguided.

 

[Woden]

Yea, I am not pretending competition is never good.
Here in Oldham we have a LOT of indian take-aways, some are very very good at a pretty cheap price for large portions. Competition has done its thing here. But with some things it just wont.

 

[kwerk]

I have private competition for waste disposal where I am, a choice of 3 companies. Costs me $14 a month for for two 90 gallon bins, 1 bulky item (furniture) and up to 20 bags of yard clippings a week. And no council bin nazis coming round checking for closed lids!!!

ETA: Forgot I also get a 90 gallon recycling bin where I don't have to sort at all, I just throw it all in there!

 

[The Running Man]

Yea, I am not pretending competition is never good.
Here in Oldham we have a LOT of indian take-aways, some are very very good at a pretty cheap price for large portions. Competition has done its thing here. But with some things it just wont.

Where in Oldham? Taj Balti near me its not £6.30 for a chicken tikka jalfrezi and rise or nan etc is another £2 nearly on top!

that's not cheap for a takeaway!

 

[Woden]

Where in Oldham? Taj Balti near me its not £6.30 for a chicken tikka jalfrezi and rise or nan etc is another £2 nearly on top!

that's not cheap for a takeaway!

I like the Kismuth (though thats a restraunt that does take away), and the 3 chefs in Shaw.
See I would see £8-9 a decent price considering. Maybe I am just more upmarket than you

 

[kwerk]

Flippancy noted

But in all seriousness I agree that 'competition = better' is such a simplistic overview as to be laughable.

To stick with waste disposal (as it's an area I know) competition would drive prices up and not down. That's because for every 'customer' you have, the cheaper the service costs per household. So one 'company' servicing the whole city can do it a lot more cheaply than 4 or 5 different ones doing sections of the city.

Then of course you have things like driving distances. Let's imagine I live next door to you and I choose to use company A and you prefer company B. That means two vans having to drive and service the same street, pretty much the opposite of efficiency.

Competition CAN drive down prices and drive up quality but it completely depends on what is being produced and anyone who thinks it's a hard and fast rule is misguided.

If both vans get filled up it's no less efficient. And if one doesn't get filled up because they are too slow or expensive and dont have many customers, the company goes under and a more efficient one takes it's place.

 

[The Running Man]

I like the Kismuth (though thats a restraunt that does take away), and the 3 chefs in Shaw.
See I would see £8-9 a decent price considering. Maybe I am just more upmarket than you

for me £4.50 is a reasonable sum for a curry, from a take away! 8-9 quid is sit down restaurant prices.

 

[Woden]

for me £4.50 is a reasonable sum for a curry, from a take away! 8-9 quid is sit down restaurant prices.

The amount of meat in a 3 chefs mixed grill alone would be over a fiver.

 

[estebanrey]

If both vans get filled up it's no less efficient.

No it's not. Two vans driving down the same road, to perform the same task can never be efficient.

Part of my job is to design rounds, if I designed it so the vans all got filled up but kept having to drive to the same places I'd probably get fired.

Fuel is one of the biggest cost of a waste disposal company.

And if one doesn't get filled up because they are too slow or expensive and dont have many customers, the company goes under and a more efficient one takes it's place.

Thus diminishing the competition you so relish.

 

[Stretch]

Not really sure how anyone can truly justify not paying taxes on the basis that they do not get anything of value back. This article is over a year old now but it illustrates the point of where your tax money goes, summarised below.

Tax breakdown for £25,500 salary
£2,080 Pensions and Benefits
(including £212 on Housing Benefit and £296 on Incapacity Benefits)
£1,094 on the NHS
£824 on Education
£339 on Defence
£160 on the Police
£44 on Prisons
£92 on Roads
£71 on Railways

Of these, you could choose private pension, private healthcare and private education, but that would probably work out more expensive than the state funded alternatives. Difficult to avoid defence, police, prisons, roads and railways if you want to live in a safe society and be able to get places.

You can't understand why a low earner on £25k might begrudge handing over £2k a year in payments they get no benifit from?

A private pension will always be better than the stae alternative. The state in under no obligation to give you a penny when you retire and they don't invest the money. They just spend it on getting re-elected.

 

[estebanrey]

You can't understand why a low earner on £25k might begrudge handing over £2k a year in payments they get no benifit from?

So they didn't go to school or ever visit a doctors in their life? They've never been to A&E and were born at home too I suppose. They never use the roads, libraries, parks or have the British Army protecting them?

A private pension will always be better than the stae alternative. The state in under no obligation to give you a penny when you retire and they don't invest the money. They just spend it on getting re-elected.

Always? Maybe ask Robert Maxwell's victims if that is true.

 

[Stretch]

So they didn't go to school or ever visit a doctors in their life? They've never been to A&E and were born at home too I suppose. They never use the roads, libraries, parks or have the British Army protecting them?

They don't claim benifits, which from those figures forms the lions share (£2,080) of thier income tax contribution.

Always? Maybe ask Robert Maxwell's victims if that is true.

The government garautees they'll steal my money every month.

 

[Moothead2]

So one page about the topic in hand and three arguing the validity of taxes...

 

[Biohazard]

lol

If the government did not have a monopoly on the roads then the private sector would simply build them. Most of the roads initially were built before the government even existed. The argument that people use the roads so therefore they deserve half their money stolen at gun point is bit of a moot point because people have no choice but to use the roads because the government claims ownership over all of them. Anyway there is road tax and other licenses that (should) pay for the roads, the income tax and national insurance are not required in order to pay for the roads.

Sorry, who is stealing from you at gunpoint groen?

I think you've spent too much time aspiring to be just like Dolph, I'm afraid.

 

[estebanrey]

They don't claim benifits

...at the moment.

I don't like having to pay car insurance since I've never claimed but that doesn't mean I'll never have to.

Do I think the benefits systems needs changing? Sure I do but I wouldn't say the principle of paying tax for a social security system is a bad one.

 

[Stretch]

...at the moment.

I don't like having to pay car insurance since I've never claimed but that doesn't mean I'll never have to.

Do I think the benefits systems needs changing? Sure I do but I wouldn't say the principle of paying tax for a social security system is a bad one.

Only a fraction of benifit payments are made on a short term basis. Most are used to boost living standards for people who never have and never will be a net contributor. I have my own security system, as do many people in employment. It's called saving, which coincidentally excludes you from the benifits system.

 

[Bromhead]

I wish I could take the same stance and not pay my tax because of slavery??

 

[estebanrey]

Most are used to boost living standards for people who never have and never will be a net contributor.

Any data to support this assertion. And are you including people with life-long debilitating illnesses/disabilities in that figure?

I have my own security system, as do many people in employment. It's called saving, which coincidentally excludes you from the benifits system.

So if you had an accident tomorrow and were left brain damaged, you saved enough to cover you for the rest of your life including the costs of carers, home adjustments etc?