Comments on: Freedom Today

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:35:18 +0000

What is so worrying is that this government seems to be completely unable to learn from its mistakes. It is, as you say, heaping up debt. It is flatly refusing to cut back in any way. Even things like the Olympics are being allowed to balloon. It is flatly refusing, too, to undo the terrible mistakes of dividing the responsibility for the banking system among three incompatible bodies, each with a different aim.
You are so right – bring back the Governor of the Bank of England and put him, personally, in charge of growth and failing banks.
It was all right in 1997 before New Labour fiddled.
If a thing ain't broke…..

By: John Moss

John Moss — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:51:30 +0000

Nick,

The state pension is not a liability per se. It is covered by income from taxation so is a revenue expense and as such would be on the "profit and loss" side of the Government accounts, not its "balance sheet".

You are part right in that it is a liability, but the Government could, in extremis not pay it, or reduce it as tax revenue falls. That is why it is and always was a con-trick.

Had Labour in 1945 folowed Beveridge, rather than Bevan, as in so many things, we would have had a proper, contributory, funded system of pensions (and healthcare).

I ran some numbers for somebody who started work in 1948 at 18 retiring in 1998 at 68, assuming they paid 25% of their NI contributions into a Prudential FTSE type fund, rather than in tax. They would have had a pension of £100 a week in 1998 when the state pension was around £65 a week.

We could still start the process of change and difficult economic times might be just the time to do that. Pitt suceeded in solving the financial, debt driven crisis we faced after the war with America in the late 18th Century by being radical and inventive.

Time for another William to step forward??

By: prziloczek

prziloczek — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:07:22 +0000

Please will you tell me why I have been slung off the site?
I really would like to know.

By: prziloczek

prziloczek — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:05:51 +0000

Please will you tell me why I have been slung off the site?
I really do want to know.
This is the second time.
Why?

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:22:23 +0000

The government owes somewhere between half and more than 100% of National Income depending on whether you include pension debts in the government total.

No it doesn't. It owes vastly more.

The state employee pension bill is around 1 trillion, or 100% of national income.

Gilts are another 600 billion odd.

That ignores the elephant in the room, the state pension, and the state second pension.

An IOU to yourself is not an asset. There are no assets to back up the state pension.

It is a liability, unless you are prepared to stand up and say we aren't going to pay it, even though you have contributed for all your working life.

Nick