UK Politics: Picking Your Career

[karaddin]

Ty - are you taking into account the currency conversion and generally lower income in the UK compared to the US? Genuine question as I have NFI on relative child care costs.

[maarsen]

15 hours ago, karaddin said:

The issue with childcare is that the only way to make it affordable is to either do it at scale, or exploit the shit out of the workers. There needs to be enough of a gap between what the parent earns by working and how much the child care costs to make it actually worthwhile which just isn't possible ethically with a low ratio of kids to workers.

I expect that the government has more capacity to operate at scale, which is an argument against simply giving parents the money for it. That approach is very often the best though, so I understand going there - just think that child care may be one of the exceptions.

Canada is working to make child care affordable. One election pledge was to make a program for $10 a day childcare across the country, and which is coming in now. This was after a very instructive lesson from Quebec which introduced it a few years ago. Within Canada Quebec was always a bit of a have-not province, but after introducing $10 a day childcare, their economy started to boom as women went back to work.

[BigFatCoward]

3 hours ago, maarsen said:

after introducing $10 a day childcare, their economy started to boom as women went back to work.

Imagine that. 

[Spockydog]

25 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Imagine that. 

We Brits pay through the nose for everything.

I have just discovered that legal, medical weed is every bit as expensive as black market stuff. WTF is up with that?

 

[Varysblackfyre321]

10 hours ago, Spockydog said:

Haven't we heard this somewhere before... 

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple years there was some serious expressed worry promoted by cons on how concerning it is minors could get an abortion, a potentially altering medical procedure that could irreparable damage especially if they come to regret, and get birth controls which include drugs which alter hormone levels.

 

If they truly aren’t privy to strip reproductive rights in the future or don’t recognize a large part of their supporters are anti-choice slime  these fucks would scrap the archaic law now. Any talk of “it’s settled” is just an attempt for their opposition to lower their guard.

[Varysblackfyre321]

6 hours ago, Spockydog said:

We Brits pay through the nose for everything.

I have just discovered that legal, medical weed is every bit as expensive as black market stuff. WTF is up with that?

 

Is medical weed good?

[Spockydog]

5 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Is medical weed good?

For the price, no.

I could grow much better stuff myself, at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Zorral]

34 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Is medical weed good?

In the US, the medical cannabis I take isn't weed at all.  It's a compound made into tablets, capsules, drops and gels.  Not anything like 'weed.'  And it is very expensive, too expensive like so many things are, but it works.  Without getting me high, gaga or even noticing I have taken it, except for that blissful pain relief.

[Varysblackfyre321]

3 hours ago, Spockydog said:

For the price, no.

I could grow much better stuff myself, at a fraction of the cost.

 

My instinct is to think that’s good because we don’t people reselling or getting addicted on what is supposed to be medicine.

Like it’d be bad if cough syrup tasted like strawberry milkshake.

[Week]

5 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

My instinct is to think that’s good because we don’t people reselling or getting addicted on what is supposed to be medicine.

Like it’d be bad if cough syrup tasted like strawberry milkshake.

Addicted to...pot? A famously not addictive substance?

[Spockydog]

With all eyes on the Tories, Keir Starmer is riding roughshod over Labour’s values

Starmer’s previous persona promised much to the electorate. Under him, Labour would nationalise essential industries, end tuition fees, make the rich pay more taxes. He was going to unite the party. Remember all that? Where has that Keir Starmer gone? Did aliens abduct him?

 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

3 hours ago, Spockydog said:

With all eyes on the Tories, Keir Starmer is riding roughshod over Labour’s values

Starmer’s previous persona promised much to the electorate. Under him, Labour would nationalise essential industries, end tuition fees, make the rich pay more taxes. He was going to unite the party. Remember all that? Where has that Keir Starmer gone? Did aliens abduct him?

 

No Aleins did not abduct Starmer, the Torries have trashed the ecconomy so much more than Starmer thought they would that he can no longer afford to do what he once thought he could do.  and because the "Torries are better with the ecomomy" Labour have to prove everything they promise in plans are always fully costed.  Labour's eccomonic plans are always scuitanised.  Torries get a free pass and can say whatever they like.

[Spockydog]

I mean, yeah, but no. 

After WW2, national debt was three times what it is now. Imagine the state we'd be in today if, instead of embarking on a massive national investment program, and, let's not forget, creating the NHS, our leaders had decided on twenty years of austerity. The fucking 70s were bad enough as it was.

And as bad as things are for us plebs today, one thing has remained constant during this cost of living crisis. Corporate profits and shareholder dividends. They should call it a Cost of Greed crisis. 

In this post-Covid world, the rich just keep getting richer and richer and richer. It's time they were made to pay their share. 

Not quite sure why Starmer is rowing away from this idea.

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Spockydog

[horangi]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

Not quite sure why Starmer is rowing away from this idea.

 

I am pretty sure its because Labour dragged Clause IV behind the barn and shot it decades ago. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 6/15/2023 at 9:51 AM, karaddin said:

Ty - are you taking into account the currency conversion and generally lower income in the UK compared to the US? Genuine question as I have NFI on relative child care costs.

Yes, I did the conversion. I have friends who pay way more monthly for daycare than they do for their mortgages and it's considerably higher than what BFC mentioned. It's just another messed up feature of the US. When I was a kid in the 90's my mom just gave a little bit of money to a stay at home mom to watch me (and she watched every kid on the block until we aged out). It's tricker today because we expect higher standards and in turn higher pay is a necessity. But I think in general governments should do more to help. The US is far worse than the UK, but nobody should have to spend that much on childcare. We can be better. It's only a choice. 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

11 hours ago, Spockydog said:

I mean, yeah, but no. 

After WW2, national debt was three times what it is now. Imagine the state we'd be in today if, instead of embarking on a massive national investment program, and, let's not forget, creating the NHS, our leaders had decided on twenty years of austerity. The fucking 70s were bad enough as it was.

And as bad as things are for us plebs today, one thing has remained constant during this cost of living crisis. Corporate profits and shareholder dividends. They should call it a Cost of Greed crisis. 

In this post-Covid world, the rich just keep getting richer and richer and richer. It's time they were made to pay their share. 

Not quite sure why Starmer is rowing away from this idea.

 

Its not you Labour need to convince actually investing money in the country will increase all of our prosperity.  Spending money on that scale unfortunately is seen as being irresponsible.  You have to state exactly where the money is coming from.  and yes taxing the rich is something we should be doing.  Unfortunately they Tories and their client media have convinced too many people that Taxing the rich means taxing them, since the rich will just leave or pass the costs on or find loopholes).   then you have the "I remember what labour where like in the 70's"  "three day week"  "strikes all the time"  "17% base rate of interest"

[Raja]

Yeah, the investment into this country doesn't look great

 

[Derfel Cadarn]

 

[williamjm]

There's going to be yet another by-election with suspended Tory MP David Warburton resigning.

Quote

 

He told the Mail on Sunday he is quitting because he feels he was denied a fair hearing by the watchdog over the claims that he made unwanted advances to two women.

The outgoing MP for Somerton and Frome told the newspaper that he admitted taking cocaine after drinking “incredibly potent” Japanese whisky with a third woman, who secretly photographed and recorded him after he visited her flat.

 

Warburton denies the harassment claims.

 

 

[Raja]

4 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

 

Compare this to us in hospitals - I've never seen anything like the winter of 2020 in hospitals & like these people were doing stuff like this when