Why doesn't the UK have a wealth fund?

inferno

inferno

inferno

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Why don't we have a sovereign wealth fund? We are all told to save and invest our money so why doesn't our country do it?

I read that Norway owns 1.3% of every listed company.


Cheers!
 
Because the reasoning for some time has been that Governments are very bad at managing investments, resources and assets and the less the Government gets involved in these things, the better.

I think they're wrong but that's why.
 
Because we're not small and rich like Norway, Singapore etc. Other countries without wealth funds: USA, Russia, Germany, France. See a pattern here.

The last 10 years of austerity has been because the UK takes in less in taxation than it spends. Where is the money to save going to come from ? What do we spend less on and/or who do we tax more ?
 
Well, we are a small and rich country but we're one that wastes a tremendous amount of money on complete rubbish and feathering the pockets of a very select group of people.
 
The only way you can create a valid wealth fund is to have a tangible physical asset, our only asset (North Sea Oil) is practically dead. The rest of the country runs on shifting money from one invisible place to another, you can't tell the world you have a wealth fund based on the frivolity of markets.

Plus the government is worthless ping-pong match between disaster capitalists (Tories looking out for their ****** home ownership, buy-to-let rent seeker worthless anti-productive economy) and idiots (Labour), so a wealth fund would just be misused anyway.
 
Because when Norway invested their oil money and made a wealth fun, we spunked oura ok various governments with stupid expensive policies and lower taxes to win votes.

Short termism is why.
 
peterwalkley said:
The last 10 years of austerity has been because the UK takes in less in taxation than it spends. Where is the money to save going to come from ? What do we spend less on and/or who do we tax more ?
Click to expand...

And because of the interest (bond maturity?) on what we borrow this is unlikely to change. The interest of course goes to the bankers and private sector investors who have significant influence over government. So we can never repay the debts, not without a fundamental economical change.
 
PaulCa said:
And because of the interest (bond maturity?) on what we borrow this is unlikely to change. The interest of course goes to the bankers and private sector investors who have significant influence over government. So we can never repay the debts, not without a fundamental economical change.
Click to expand...

Nothing a good rampant 'flu with high mortality through the elderly population wouldn't sort ;)
I truly think some in the higher echelons actually are awaiting such as part of an economic plan.
 
peterwalkley said:
Because we're not small and rich like Norway, Singapore etc. Other countries without wealth funds: USA, Russia, Germany, France. See a pattern here.

The last 10 years of austerity has been because the UK takes in less in taxation than it spends. Where is the money to save going to come from ? What do we spend less on and/or who do we tax more ?
Click to expand...

That was what was claimed but "austerity" hasn't worked, we still have a huge deficit. The only long-term way is to grow an economy, so the deficit as a percentage of GDP shrinks. But this involves long-term investment, something Governments are unwilling to do. Still, I am amazed so many people vote for a system which makes people homeless and victimises those who claim benefits.
 
Destination said:
Nothing a good rampant 'flu with high mortality through the elderly population wouldn't sort ;)
I truly think some in the higher echelons actually are awaiting such as part of an economic plan.
Click to expand...

That might sort it out. The largest public welfare expense is pensions after all.

I have read some economists who controversially believe the government printing money is the better option. Rather than the public going into debt with private banks and investors which they can never repay the government instead issue money to the bottom end of society and let it trickle up. Sure it screws your inflation, devalues your money etc., but the reason they don't do that is because the private bankers and investors will lose money and they are in all the back pockets of the government and can whine louder. So they demand, austerity, public debt and trickle down economics which works very well for them.

Take a look around your own area and ask how much public infrastructure was created after WWI and WWII with government pay outs to "public works projects". Around here it's quite a lot.
 
peterwalkley said:
Because we're not small and rich like Norway, Singapore etc. Other countries without wealth funds: USA, Russia, Germany, France. See a pattern here.

The last 10 years of austerity has been because the UK takes in less in taxation than it spends. Where is the money to save going to come from ? What do we spend less on and/or who do we tax more ?
Click to expand...

This is nonsense, we're the fifth largest economy in the world. Germany may not have a wealth fund but they have a national investment bank which is similar.
 
StriderX said:
Plus the government is worthless ping-pong match between disaster capitalists (Tories looking out for their ****** home ownership, buy-to-let rent seeker worthless anti-productive economy) and idiots (Labour), so a wealth fund would just be misused anyway.
Click to expand...
Which is why we need voting reform (but will never, ever get it).

The clever trick of giving voters a useless AV system to choose (and it was rejected), now means we will have FPTP from now until forever.

And forevermore swing between the idiots in Labour and the bar stewards in the Tories.
 
arknor said:
because we like to be in debt instead and print loads of money to lower the value our currency
Click to expand...
edb381e0e81b151cb44a63fbe885ccc5--gordon-brown-the-whale.jpg
 
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