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Stephen Hawking and the UK government-run health service

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  • #46
    Originally posted by Dimbulb View Post
    Yes. This result is well-known. The Commonwealth-fund releases regular analyses of the topic, and you can look that up on Google and have a read.
    Is that anything like the reports put out by our Congressional Budget Office that aren't worth the paper they're printed on?

    Sorry, but I have an inherent distrust of any government report that basically says:

    "Trust us. "
    Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
    But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
    Than a fool in the eyes of God


    From "Fools Gold" by Petra

    Comment


    • #47
      Proving you know nothing about the Commonwealth.
      "Obama is not a brown-skinned, anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. You are thinking of Jesus." Episcopal Bishop of Arizona

      I remember WinAce. Gone but not forgotten.

      Comment


      • #48
        Originally posted by kiwimac View Post
        Proving you know nothing about the Commonwealth.
        I'm willing to listen if you're willing to explain. If all you have is snark then don't waste your time. Or mine.
        Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
        But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
        Than a fool in the eyes of God


        From "Fools Gold" by Petra

        Comment


        • #49
          Originally posted by demi-conservative View Post
          Was it of general policy, or because exception cos' he was already big physics guy at Cambridge?
          General policy. Also, he wasn't a big physics guy when the treatment started.
          Jorge: Functional Complex Information is INFORMATION that is complex and functional.

          MM: First of all, the Bible is a fixed document.
          MM on covid-19: We're talking about an illness with a better than 99.9% rate of survival.

          seer: I believe that so called 'compassion' [for starving Palestinian kids] maybe a cover for anti Semitism, ...

          Comment


          • #50
            Originally posted by lilpixieofterror View Post
            How many people are actually aware of the amount of taxes they pay?


            Everyone I know is.
            Jorge: Functional Complex Information is INFORMATION that is complex and functional.

            MM: First of all, the Bible is a fixed document.
            MM on covid-19: We're talking about an illness with a better than 99.9% rate of survival.

            seer: I believe that so called 'compassion' [for starving Palestinian kids] maybe a cover for anti Semitism, ...

            Comment


            • #51
              Originally posted by Roy View Post


              Everyone I know is.
              You must not interact much with regular people.
              "The man from the yacht thought he was the first to find England; I thought I was the first to find Europe. I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."
              GK Chesterton; Orthodoxy

              Comment


              • #52
                Originally posted by lilpixieofterror View Post
                You must not interact much with regular people.
                Because....???
                "Yes. President Trump is a huge embarrassment. And it’s an embarrassment to evangelical Christianity that there appear to be so many who will celebrate precisely the aspects that I see Biblically as most lamentable and embarrassing." Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler Jr.

                Comment


                • #53
                  Originally posted by lilpixieofterror View Post
                  You must not interact much with regular people.
                  So you’re saying regular people have no idea how much taxes they pay? Or are you saying regular people don’t know what percentage of their taxes goes to which government department, etc?

                  The latter seems more fair, the former is... an odd claim.

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    Originally posted by Roy View Post


                    Everyone I know is.
                    Presumably awareness of taxation levels varies by country, and heavily depends on the extent to what type of taxes they are and how consciously a person has to pay them.

                    For example if a country requires a person to fill out a yearly tax return and write at the end of it "I have paid/owe: $X", then the person is going to be pretty aware of their taxes. Whereas here, most of the time the taxes are just taken out of the person's paycheck automatically and they never need to fill out any tax returns, so they may not be directly aware of how much they are paying in tax - although anyone who wants to know can easily look up the rates (e.g. I know that here progressive income taxes scale from ~10% to ~33%, and there's a 15% sales tax).

                    While if there are taxes built into the prices of particular items, e.g. gas/petrol or alcohol etc the person may not have much of an idea of how much they are paying in taxes. e.g. I know there is a road user tax built into the petrol price here, but I have zero clue what it is.
                    "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
                    "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
                    "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

                    Comment


                    • #55
                      More than slightly off topic, but I read an interesting commentary that it could be that the diagnosis of ALS could have been incorrect and that it could have been a nasty variant of Polio. (is there a form of polio we would not call nasty?) The reasoning is that if it was ALS he shouldn't have survived much past two years after diagnosis, let alone 55, and Polio would result in similar symptoms.

                      https://www.ft.com/content/a9a11108-...e-cc62a39d57a0
                      Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
                      1 Corinthians 16:13

                      "...he [Doherty] is no historian and he is not even conversant with the historical discussions of the very matters he wants to pontificate on."
                      -Ben Witherington III

                      Comment


                      • #56
                        Originally posted by lilpixieofterror View Post
                        How many people are actually aware of the amount of taxes they pay?
                        My fortnightly payslip has the exact portion of my salary that goes to the IRD (PAYE) on it. Everyones does.

                        The Annual Budget from the government includes the previous year's tax take and the breakdown of where and how that was spent. I can pull all of that off in spreadsheet form off the Treasury's website.

                        There is a simple calculation of how much tax people pay (I have the calcs in a spread sheet, it took be a few minutes to put together.)

                        If you go to the IRD website there are also easy to use calculators to see exactly how much money you either owe, or are able to get in terms of benefits (for example, we qualify for Working For Families benefits).

                        All items/services for purchase include 15% GST so we can easily work out how much is on each item.

                        I may not agree with how our government chooses to spend that money (especially our current government) it's pretty clear about how much money is being paid in tax and how and where it is going
                        Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
                        1 Corinthians 16:13

                        "...he [Doherty] is no historian and he is not even conversant with the historical discussions of the very matters he wants to pontificate on."
                        -Ben Witherington III

                        Comment


                        • #57
                          Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                          Presumably awareness of taxation levels varies by country, and heavily depends on the extent to what type of taxes they are and how consciously a person has to pay them.

                          For example if a country requires a person to fill out a yearly tax return and write at the end of it "I have paid/owe: $X", then the person is going to be pretty aware of their taxes. Whereas here, most of the time the taxes are just taken out of the person's paycheck automatically and they never need to fill out any tax returns, so they may not be directly aware of how much they are paying in tax - although anyone who wants to know can easily look up the rates (e.g. I know that here progressive income taxes scale from ~10% to ~33%, and there's a 15% sales tax).

                          While if there are taxes built into the prices of particular items, e.g. gas/petrol or alcohol etc the person may not have much of an idea of how much they are paying in taxes. e.g. I know there is a road user tax built into the petrol price here, but I have zero clue what it is.
                          There are also what are known as "hidden taxes." Taxes that companies pay all down the line that are passed on to the consumer in the way of higher prices. So when you buy something the sales tax is hardly the only tax you are paying.

                          I'm always still in trouble again

                          "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                          "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                          "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                          Comment


                          • #58
                            Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                            Presumably awareness of taxation levels varies by country, and heavily depends on the extent to what type of taxes they are and how consciously a person has to pay them.

                            For example if a country requires a person to fill out a yearly tax return and write at the end of it "I have paid/owe: $X", then the person is going to be pretty aware of their taxes. Whereas here, most of the time the taxes are just taken out of the person's paycheck automatically and they never need to fill out any tax returns, so they may not be directly aware of how much they are paying in tax - although anyone who wants to know can easily look up the rates (e.g. I know that here progressive income taxes scale from ~10% to ~33%, and there's a 15% sales tax).

                            While if there are taxes built into the prices of particular items, e.g. gas/petrol or alcohol etc the person may not have much of an idea of how much they are paying in taxes. e.g. I know there is a road user tax built into the petrol price here, but I have zero clue what it is.
                            It's pretty similar over here. Anyone who needs to fill out a tax return will know how much tax they paid. Anyone who doesn't need to fill out a tax return who because they are in regular employment will have details of their tax on their payslip. People working for cash-in-hand either fill out tax returns or don't pay taxes. Sales tax on non-essentials is a well-known fixed rate and is shown on receipts. Road tax varies based on car size, and is paid separately. As in NZ, there is additional tax on tobacco/petrol/alcohol, which is the only case where the exact amount of tax being paid is not readily available - but most people know how much they spend on those items, so can set upper/lower bounds on the amount of tax they pay.
                            Jorge: Functional Complex Information is INFORMATION that is complex and functional.

                            MM: First of all, the Bible is a fixed document.
                            MM on covid-19: We're talking about an illness with a better than 99.9% rate of survival.

                            seer: I believe that so called 'compassion' [for starving Palestinian kids] maybe a cover for anti Semitism, ...

                            Comment


                            • #59
                              Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
                              There are also what are known as "hidden taxes." Taxes that companies pay all down the line that are passed on to the consumer in the way of higher prices. So when you buy something the sales tax is hardly the only tax you are paying.
                              I'm very skeptical of this claim. Companies almost always only pay tax on profits not their income/sales. So there isn't actually a cascade of taxes.
                              "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
                              "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
                              "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

                              Comment


                              • #60
                                Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                                I'm very skeptical of this claim. Companies almost always only pay tax on profits not their income/sales. So there isn't actually a cascade of taxes.
                                I think rogue means that companies also pay tax on material they purchase, which may be passed on as higher prices. But I wouldn't consider this as being tax paid by their customers.
                                Jorge: Functional Complex Information is INFORMATION that is complex and functional.

                                MM: First of all, the Bible is a fixed document.
                                MM on covid-19: We're talking about an illness with a better than 99.9% rate of survival.

                                seer: I believe that so called 'compassion' [for starving Palestinian kids] maybe a cover for anti Semitism, ...

                                Comment

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