[Off-topic] xaccers:
How are they always crapping on their staff?

I've worked for some of the richest people in the world and they've genuinely cared about their staff. George Blumenthal for instance bought us an xbox to be used by anyone working late, which could also be taken home at weekends, and paid for the department and families to go to a local theme park to say thank you for all our hard work.

You're on over £14K a year, in a country with a lower cost of living than the UK and you don't think that's enough to feed/clothe/house you?

Our minimum wage is about $9 an hour if your over 21.

Dividends/capital gains are liable to tax, dividends being:

income at or below the £37,400 basic rate tax limit 10%

income at or below the £150,000 higher rate tax limit 32.5%

income above the higher rate tax limit 42.5%

So if you're earning over £38K then any dividend income is taxed at 32.5%

Capital gains tax is 18% or 28% depending on your income band too.

With tax bands, you're only taxed at that rate on the earnings in that band.

So someone on £37,401 will only pay 40p more tax than someone on £37,400.

Therefore despite being taxed more, earning over £37,400, or £150,000 (50% rate) is still worth while, because you will still be earning more.

The tax, despite the different names, goes to the treasury into one big pot of dosh. So VAT (sales tax on non-essentials/luxuries), NI (initially brought in to pay for welfare), stamp duty (sales tax on houses above a certain value), fuel duty, tobacco duty, alcohol duty, import duty, income tax (brought in to pay for the Napoleonic wars in 1798 and was supposed to be temporary), corporation tax, etc is used to pay for welfare, government, roads, trains, tax credits to bring incomes up to a more reasonable level without bankrupting businesses, defence, research, international aid, debt interest (a lot of that at the moment thanks to Gordon), basically running the country.

While the NHS/Welfare isn't perfect, from what has come out from the recent discussions about it over the pond (Steven Hawkings' nationality gaff included), we're a damn sight better at running these things than allegedly the US civil service would be.

Our biggest problem with welfare is people recieving benefits when they should not, such as where someone has the ability to work but chooses not to. I've met many people like that unfortunately, some who have risked their own life by drinking while taking epilepsy medication to continue having siezures so that they won't have to work.

As an ex-contractor, between contracts I have also been on the recieving end of benefits, Job Seekers Allowance and Housing Benefit, so that I could pay my bills and keep a roof over my head until I found my next job.

When it was introduced, the attitude of much of those who would require it was that they wanted to work and would do anything to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, peoples attitudes have changed, from a "I'm responsible for my self" view to "society owes me" which is true across a lot of western nations.

The NHS is fantastic, I need a wisdom tooth extracted, it's going to be done for free. My mother is diabetic, her insulin is free, her eyetests and other prescriptions are free, she had an over active thyroid gland, treated for free.

My grandad fell over last week and broke his hip, replaced for free.

Private healthcare isn't banned, it's still an option and many people use it, either paying themselves or via health insurance, so if there is a treatment the NHS won't fund, it doesn't mean you can't have it.