Cape Blue

A one person increase in 200 people is tiny regardless of the size of the UK.

The UK is:

50% rough grass & grazing
23% agriculture
12% forest/woodland
1% inland water

only 14% of the UK is developed land

BAY

'This is the same as a room of 200 people with one more person joining each year - it is actually quite small.' ...no this is actually quite large :scared: .

'Those coming into the country are also paying tax and contributing to society so they are not relying on your tax to fund their services, they are funding it themselves' ... some are but a huge number of those coming into this country are making NO contribution to this country

LMUK

I'm pretty sure this is another misconception. I think I remember reading on the BBC about the number of immigrants from new EU countries - about 350,000. Of them only about 500 had made and income support type claims - that's about 0.15% of those that immigrated - not exactly a huge number compared to the rest paying taxes is it?

Cape Blue

[QUOTE=martinw01908]
You may want to look at this page from Nationmaster

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ta...-single-worker

shows the total tax take for a single person by country - the UK is 22nd paying less than most of Europe, Canada & the US.

Why is it that all the people who continuously whinge about tax are convinced that they are very hard working and that half the rest of the country is full of layabouts scrounging - Daily Mail/Express or Sun/Star I imagine.

You will change you mind on tax and UK services when you live abroad - most people do.

ladyofthelake

You reckon a 0.5% increase is quite large??

BAY

'A one person increase in 200 people is tiny regardless of the size of the UK' ... I should think the size of the UK plays a very important role in whether a one person increase in 200 people is small or big , along with how the infrastructure, resources like water, available housing , etc etc can cope.

BAY

Yes I do.

Cape Blue

As the post indicated, we have 60 million people living on 14% of the land, an extra 0.5% per year is tiny.

Taffyles

[QUOTE=martinw01908]
Well that wasn't the point- the point was you do have benefits for your taxes in UK.
I know how much you pay over there for private dentists- and how much more we pay :scared: It's still cheaper fro me to get my teeth fixed back in UK when on holiday than to pay the extortionate prices here.
As for prescriptions - don't even go there- we have retirees(old age pensioners) here selling their homes and moving into mobile homes (caravans) in order to pay for their prescriptions.
Do you think private health insurance would be so cheap if everyone had to purchase it? We had Bupa too when in UK, it was only so cheap because its was SUPPLEMENTAL.
As someone else has pointed out- we have the same helathcare problems over here. It's all about profit here matey- wards are closed down because they don't make enough profit. Waiting times in ER are just as long as UK. The incidence of hospital infection is very, very high here- many people are afraid to stay in hospital. I recently had a day stay operation and was extremely glad not to have to stay overnight. Medical malpractice is huge- paying for treatment doesn't eliminate human error! Depending on your health insurance, you may have to get second opinions and fight with your insurance company to be able to get the treatment you need.
Read some of the threads by nurses who have worked in the NHS and are now over here as to where the better CARE is.
I was lucky I had my babies in UK- I was shocked at the lack of care my daughter recieved giving birth over here(and paid dearly for- she had insurance but her bill still came to over $7,000).

You like having no social saftey net? Good for you- America has an I'm alright Jack attitude or 'let them eat cake", you should fit right in. Unfortunately it won't save you anything in taxes- you'll more than likely be paying more taxes out here, and certainly higher insurances and good old extortionate health insurance. And I wish you the best of health and luck if you ever do move out here- because with no social safety net, pal, you need both, no matter how hard a worker you are. As the saying goes here one sick kid (insert major accident, illness, insurance claim etc) can bankrupt you and put you out on the street.

martinw01908

For LMUK: I'm not saying that private healthcare is faultless, but the reason we think it is so great is because over here, the priority is given to those who are private. They get the quickest treatment, and the best surgeons do private work. My mother got an excellent private hip replacement and they used a new type of hip joint that lasts much longer which isn't available on the NHS due to cost. She got the treatment within 1 month whereas had she stayed on the NHS waiting list she would have waited 2 years. This is why we think private healthcare is so much better. Likewise my father who also cut his cataract op time from 1 year to a month by going private. If he had not he would have had to give up work for a year, thus costing the state more money in benefits and losing his job.

Its amazing how we all have the grass in greener syndrome. I'm not saying you are wrong and I am right - I'm sure these comparisons are useful for thinking about it all. They make me think.

Re: Taxes. I pay PAYE tax at approx 22% (less £5,035 allowance), National insurance (this is the same as your social security?) rates hard to work out but I've paid £232 just this month, Council tax (is this the same as your propery tax?) of £70 per month, 17.5% VAT compared with your 6-12% sales tax. We have 5% insurance premium tax for any insurances now, Inheritance tax, stamp duty on home sales. That adds up. Your health insurance may sound a lot but $300 is only about £165 here and thats for two of you. I've just paid £232.54 national insurance. I don't know what proportion of it goes to the NHS, but its a hell of a lot of money. We also have Gordon Brown taxing our pensions at 1% a year raking in billions. The worlds most expensive petrol (gas) at £4.50 a gallon = $8.54. Try paying that much for gas! What with speed (greed) cameras and congestion charges, sneaky bus lane cameras, this is a very expensive place to live in.

Mally Lass

As I said before, I HAVE lived somewhere else and therefore able to compare what I have here !

I don't read daily newspapers, full of crap !

Could you please provide a link to that information, and also a link that tells you who owns the 50% grass/grazing land, because contrary to popular belief about there being no wealth/class divide here, most of this land is either owned by private 'wealthy' aristocrats or the Duchy and therefore neither can be developed, therefore the 14 % (if it is that ?) is tiny to try and cram everyone into ? Can you not see the problem ?

BAY

I wouldn't trust anything Blair's Broadcasting Corporation says

BAY

No its not

BAY

0.5% (an under estimate !) of 60 million = 300,000. This is not small.

Mally Lass

Well if only 500 people out of 350,000 immigrants claimed a type of benefit, they must have all been in my jurisdiction last year at the Charity, because I dealt with more claims than that in 3 months, so not sure where you get your information, but it's way off the mark !