Comments by "Curious Crow" (@CuriousCrow-mp4cx) on "How Rich are the TOP 1% Really?" video.

  1. Have you tried to live on £12,000 pa? You can't. So your example is not so useful. Rather look at two single people, with no children, both working 40 hrs a week. One is on the minimum wage - that's £11.44 an hour; the other is earning £57.20 an hour - 5 times the person on minimum wage in 2024. After tax, NI, pension deductions, and a student loan repayment, Person 1 will take home just over £18,748 per year or £360.55 a week. Person 2 will will take home under the same deductions as person 1 £57791.46 or £1111. 37 per week. Person 2 still takes home just over 3× the amount that person 1 does. And as far as benefits are concerned, even with benefits, which are of course tapered downwards if you do get it. If person 1 was supporting even 1 child on that money, he'd still be broke, as childcare is incredibly expensive, and benefits are limited as well. There's a lot of working full time families having to use food and getting universal credit and housing benefit. And they're the lucky ones. And the low pay problem is much more widespread than anyone imagines. All most people want is what the previous generation had. 1 job that could keep them and a family with a roof over their head, and that's becoming nigh impossible due to real wages having fallen so far behind inflation since 2008.
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  2. Actually have you calculated what would be the real return taking into account inflation. Don't get suckered in by the nominal value of your home, especially if you have to move, could afford a similar home in an area where you'd want to live? Probably not. You'd have to downsize. In that case, how wealthy are you really?
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  3. Utterly unrealistic. Going to work costs money. And doing that many hours also costs you more, financially, physically and mentally. In my former trade, those who tried that had to leave their money behind, because they usually ended up dying early, living on booze or speed, and being pretty useless parents. The name of the game is simple - choose your priorities carefully, and work smarter not harder, for yourself. Decide how much money you actually want, and then decide what you're going to do with it once you get it. Forget about consumerism. Live simply and quietly, and keep a low profile. Then execute your plan.
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  4. I think your plan is too simplistic. Capital Gains can be gained from unproductive speculation as well as productive investment. And unproductive speculation has little economic benefit for the country, such as jobs and infrastructure. I think such speculation should be discouraged. And taxation is one way to reward capital gains from productive investment by offering lower tax rates for capital gains from productive investments. Capital gains from unproductive financial speculation should be taxed at higher rates to discourage it. Rentier capitalism is wealth extraction, rather than building the nation's asset wealth, and it should be discouraged.
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