Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[Phil Silvers]

1 minute ago, Paddywhack said:

If this was on topic;

And then there’d be a random star wars gif

[Designer1]

49 minutes ago, maqroll said:

I saw him in Valkyrie and there was nothing about his acting that suggested high ranking Nazi officer. It annoyed me.

I mean, Valkyrie is one of the shittest films ever made tbh 

As for Bill Nighy - he's made some really good movies and been excellent in most of them and always comes across as a thoroughly nice chap.

Also from what I've read he doesn't like the limelight and shuns as many award ceremonies as he can get away with. He also never watches any of his films (presumably apart from when he's forced to a Premiere)

I've always thought he would look his happiest pottering around in his garden or visiting some Nation Trust building.

[rodders0223]

If one more dick says I got "pinged" I'm going to punch them.

You got a message you need to isolate

[Stevo985]

3 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

If one more dick says I got "pinged" I'm going to punch them.

You got a message you need to isolate

I used to work next to a guy once who called instant messages "tweets".

"Yeah tweet me when you're ready and I'll do that"

"Drop me a tweet"

 

It always really **** confused anyone with a brain who knew what a tweet actually was

[Mozzavfc]

5 hours ago, Sid4ever said:

For you youngsters, you will have to wait to be 58 in 2028 to access your pension pot.

I'm 30 and I don't even think the state pension will exist by the time I get to it

Feel like my only option is become a slumlord and leech rent payments off younger people

[HanoiVillan]

11 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said:

I'm 30 and I don't even think the state pension will exist by the time I get to it

Feel like my only option is become a slumlord and leech rent payments off younger people

It will. 

[stuart_75]

15 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said:

I'm 30 and I don't even think the state pension will exist by the time I get to it

Feel like my only option is become a slumlord and leech rent payments off younger people

 

3 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

It will. 

You'll just have to wait till you're 90 until you get your hands on some cash.

[HanoiVillan]

1 minute ago, stuart_75 said:

 

You'll just have to wait till you're 90 until you get your hands on some cash.

I'm sure the age of eligibility will increase somewhat, but if life expectancy does not increase rapidly (and it looks like it won't) then there is a limit of political popularity to how far it can be raised. 

People just need to ask themselves some questions about this topic:

Are pensions now quite generous? Yes, the triple lock makes pensioners relatively better off each year. 

Why are pensions generous? Because pensioners are *by far* the most important voting bloc, and will only become more so as the population ages. 

Would this very powerful voting bloc ever want the government to ditch the state pension? Hell no. 

So what would happen if a government did that? They would obviously lose the next election; it would be political suicide. 

Could you instead raise the age at which people receive the benefit? Yes, and that will continue to happen periodically. But most older voters are not 90+; see the second answer about political popularity. And clearly as many people get into their seventies, their physical and mental capacities, not to mention their overall health, are likely to start going downhill. People can't be milked forever, there are hard limits here. 

But won't the system run out of money? No, that's not how it works; the pension system is not some completely separate thing to the rest of government finances. Its growing costs can be financed in one of the four ways you can finance anything - taxes could be raised, spending could be diverted from elsewhere, borrowing can be increased, or the economy could grow faster. 

So is there any way in which the state pension could disappear? Not really, no. In theory, you could have a political party that only catered to the young who were determined to do it, but 1) political parties don't win elections if their voters skew too young (see Labour 2019 for example), and 2) that would be completely stupid as said young people are the future beneficiaries of the pension. Another possibility is that British democracy could end and we could fall into dictatorship, and the dictator could order it. Or thirdly, the British economy could completely and utterly collapse, but then frankly we'll have bigger issues to worry about.

I'm an optimist, I don't think we're heading into a dictatorship or a dystopia any time soon. 

[blandy]

4 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Are pensions now quite generous? Yes, the triple lock makes pensioners relatively better off each year. 

Why are pensions generous? Because pensioners are *by far* the most important voting bloc, and will only become more so as the population ages. 

Would this very powerful voting bloc ever want the government to ditch the state pension? Hell no. 

State Pensions are not generous. They are some of the lowest in certainly Europe, if not the developed world (in terms of relative to cost of living etc.). 
The triple lock benefits the young the most as it maintains the level and even inches it up each year, so their pensions will be larger. 
 

Quote

It’s pointless attacking Britain’s pension increase. Ultimately we’ll all benefit from it

The 8% rise and the triple lock may seem an intergenerational unfairness. But almost 2 million OAPs are living in poverty

….Indeed, our state pension remains almost the lowest in the developed world. According to the Trade Union Congress, if Britain scrapped the triple lock in favour of an earnings link, £700 a year would be cut by 2050, driving 700,000 pensioners into poverty. The reason the triple lock benefits the young the most is that every year it accrues more in value: so in 20 years’ time, for example, it will be worth far more to someone in their 40s today. With so many younger people not saving for private pensions until middle age – worsened by the current national emergency – they will come to depend on the state pension all the more. Given private pensions impose thousands of pounds worth of costs on individuals over their lifetime, is it not better to rely on progressive taxation to fund a generous state entitlement instead?

Owen Jones, by no means a Tory

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/08/britain-pension-increase-triple-lock-oaps-poverty

[chrisp65]

How much money, in theory, could a murderous tory government save, if it prematurely killed off 120,000 people a few years early?

I’d make it over a billion a year.

The stato’s on ‘more or less’ and ‘fact checker’ yesterday estimated that whilst the average age of people dying with covid was over 80, the fact they were already over 80 suggests that statistically they were likely to live another 9 years.

Government might have culled £9 Billion of payments out of the system.

We’d be a cruel bunch if we begrudged them a few million in dodgy PPE contracts after that sort of saving.

[HanoiVillan]

4 minutes ago, blandy said:

State Pensions are not generous. They are some of the lowest in certainly Europe, if not the developed world (in terms of relative to cost of living etc.). 
The triple lock benefits the young the most as it maintains the level and even inches it up each year, so their pensions will be larger. 

Yes, sorry, that was my poor wording, what I meant was that the triple lock is 'generous', as it must definitionally improve the finances of recipients relative to the rest of the public. I should have been clearer that I was talking about trend not level there. 

6 minutes ago, blandy said:

Owen Jones, by no means a Tory

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/08/britain-pension-increase-triple-lock-oaps-poverty

Yes, Owen Jones is exactly right about this. 

[stuart_75]

Also ask yourself if you'd be happy working into your 70's or even 80's before the state pension pays out (this assumes you have no private pension to fall back on)

[mjmooney]

4 minutes ago, stuart_75 said:

Also ask yourself if you'd be happy working into your 70's or even 80's before the state pension pays out (this assumes you have no private pension to fall back on)

If you have no private pension, good luck with living on the state one, regardless of age. 

[Davkaus]

I am reassured that most of humanity will have been wiped out in the climate wars preceding the complete collapse of global infrastructure and capitalism before I' have theoretically had to worry about my state pension in 35 years. 

Edited July 21, 2021 by Davkaus

[Xela]

7 hours ago, Sid4ever said:

For you youngsters, you will have to wait to be 58 in 2028 to access your pension pot.

Just had a quick look and its 57 in 2028... with the plan to push it up to 58 at a later date. 

[Xela]

1 hour ago, Mozzavfc said:

I'm 30 and I don't even think the state pension will exist by the time I get to it

Feel like my only option is become a slumlord and leech rent payments off younger people

It will, they won't get rid of it. The elderly are the most important voting demographic!

They may push the age up further or means test it, but it'll exist. 

[Xela]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

Government might have culled £9 Billion of payments out of the system.

Whats that... about 20% of the Test and Trace costs?

[Xela]

56 minutes ago, stuart_75 said:

Also ask yourself if you'd be happy working into your 70's or even 80's before the state pension pays out (this assumes you have no private pension to fall back on)

I'm not keen on working into my 40's

I'll class the state pension as a bonus... I'm not factoring it into my calculations, as its so far away for me. 

[roonst83]

When people say "lush".

 

[chrisp65]

23 minutes ago, Xela said:

Whats that... about 20% of the Test and Trace costs?

20% of England’s test and trace costs. The other nations just took it on as an additional duty for existing NHS and GP admin staff.