This is too true to be funny

donkey too

Guest
This was sent to me and I thought worth sharing with those of you who have no demented 24/7 computer sitters to send things like this to you.

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A.
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E.
A billion Pounds ago was only 13 hours and 12 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

Stamp Duty
Tobacco Tax
Corporate Income Tax Income Tax
Council Tax
Fishing License Tax
Petrol/Diesel Tax
Inheritance Tax
(tax on top of tax)
Alcohol Tax
VAT.
Marriage License Tax
Property Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation
was one of the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt.
We had the largest middle class in the world.
Mum stayed home to raise the kids,
Dad was allowed to discipline kids,
a criminals life was uncomfortable.

What happened? Can you spell 'Political Correctness' or ‘politicians?'
What the hell happened?????
 
Is that an American billion or an English one? There's a huge difference!

I can't see that any of it has anything to do with 'political correctness', which is a phrase that has been overused into meaninglessness by the right wing. They even confuse it with health and safety.

As George Carlin said: 'The upper class keeps all of the money and pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes and does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the **** out of the middle class.'
 
How many is a billion?

In British English, a billion used to be equivalent to a million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000,000), while in American English it has always equated to a thousand million (i.e. 1,000,000,000). British English has now adopted the American figure, though, so that a billion equals a thousand million in both varieties of English.

The same sort of change has taken place with the meaning of trillion. In British English, a trillion used to mean a million million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000). Nowadays, it's generally held to be equivalent to a million million (1,000,000,000,000), as it is in American English.

I looked it up LOL
 
A hundred years ago working men died twenty five years earlier than they do now. Thousands of men died in work-related accidents and, in the mines in particular, the death of hundreds of men at a time was not an unusual event. When they died their wages were stopped from the time that it was established they died and their widows got no compensation or pension.

Nowadays we live longer and healthier lives. Compared to our grandparents we are immensely rich and have things that they could only have dreamt of. We have motorhomes, they didn't even have holidays. Our streets, our rivers and beaches were filthy from industrial pollution. We died in thousands from bronchial diseases and other similar conditions. We could be sacked at will by a capricious employer or his foreman, with no compensation or notice.

Yes, things were lovely a hundred years ago.

And to whom do we owe this remarkable change in our fortunes over the last few generations? The simple truth is that we owe it to politicians. Their job is to run the country and to improve the lot of their constituents. If they don't we won't re-elect them! If it had been left to the uneducated masses to make decisions we'd still have slavery, as the population saw blacks as less than human. It took forward thinking men and parliament to outlaw it. I remember when the breathalyser was introduced and the outcry from those who saw it as an attack on their personal freedom, or in the words of today's unthinking masses 'health and safety gone mad.' Who now would question that politicians were right to try to reduce deaths by drink driving?

Some people don't seem to have worked out what politicians do. They enact laws. Laws that have made us safer, healthier and richer. We no longer die from food poisoning in dirty shops and cafes. We have protection against unscrupulous employers who would exploit us and have us work in unsafe and filthy factories. Our air and rivers are clean again. And we have longer holidays to use our motorhomes and, when we retire, we don't die within five years like my grandparents, but go on for much, much longer as we wander Europe in these amazing vehicles that those same grandparents could never imagine.

Yes, much of our improvement in health and wealth has also come about because of the free enterprise system, which has provided us with all the heath care, drugs, medical expertise and foods and consumer goods that we now take for granted, but that free enterprise system only thrives because of the systems put in place by government and politicians.

I get heartily sick of people who can do nothing but whinge. Stop to think just for a minute and you may realise how lucky you all are to have grown up in a western democracy with politicians who really do try to improve the lot of her Majesty's subjects, and have generally succeeded. Yes, they make mistakes but their successes far outweigh them.
 
The Victorians

School was made compulsary not to educate children but to get them off the streets where they out of control.
Many taxes were in place and certainly Tobacco and Alcohol Tax. There was old age pension first brought in by the Germans and closely followed by the Brits. Property and Inheritance Tax were all in place for many hundreds of years in some form or another!
 
I don't know where you get the idea that there were no taxes a hundred years ago - taxes and death are the only certainty in life! Throughout history, our rulers have taxed us until the pips squeaked - and in the days before we were much more than slaves and had no money, they took an ever-increasing proportion of our crops. I know that the character is a myth but the story of Robin Hood was based on the reality of the time - he got fed up with the King taking more and more from the peasants that he decided to do something about it. The merry men could be seen as the poll tax protestors of the time (and while you are at it google "poll tax" and I think you'll be surprised when this particular idea first came to fruition). I'd far rather live under our modern tax system than the medieval one (at least they don't kill you if you refuse to support the King's lavish lifestyle - and at least we do get benefits from those taxes as has been very well explained above). To turn your opening phrase against you - your post is too funny to be true!
 
As an inveterate whinger about politicians, it is good for me to be reminded of the positive things that could not have been achieved without them.

I was going to add a "but..." or "however..."....I changed my mind, though. It is good to let it stand as he posted it.
 
A hundred years ago we had an Empire which we exploited for cheap labour and pillaged it for its natural resources.

That's why we were comparatively wealthy. Nothing to do with mum staying at home or dad spanking the kids ;-)

Now, that same Empire wants its own modern standard of living .They are the ones consuming resources, lending us money, or taking over our corporations. Welcome to reality, and the 21st C!
 
The Libertarian Movement in the USA is quite a powerful force on the right wing of politics and one of their main aims is to abolish taxes. Sounds superficially attractive doesn't it? But what happens then? Who pays for the army? And if there isn't an army, how do you prevent some other country that does believe in taxes walking all over you? And after they walk all over you, they impose taxes on you. So the options are:

1. Have a tax system that pays for things your society wants and needs; or
2. Have a tax system that pays for things that somebody the other side of the world wants and needs.

On the other hand, none of this matters because we are already dependent on whether or not the Chinese decide to be nice to us - and soon the world will be run by Brazil, Russia, India and China - with the Brits left with nothing to do but write letters to the Daily Mail bemoaning the loss of Empire. We had our turn, cocked it up and now its up to someone else - so get over it. Hopefully our future masters won't tax wildcamping. :king:
 
Now, that same Empire wants its own modern standard of living .They are the ones consuming resources
Click to expand...

Actually not. In the Commonwealth, only Australia is proportionately consuming resources at a higher rate than the UK. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/living_planet_report.pdf

Apparently, if every country consumed resources at the same rate as the UK, we would need three planets. USA and Qatar lead the table at five planets. Currently, taken as a whole, the Earth is overspending resources by 50%.
 
donkey too said:
and our nation
was one of the most prosperous in the world.
?
Click to expand...

Reminds me of a true story from that time, the schoolmistress showed the children a map of the world, half of which was leander pink, and she said 'all this is ours'. But the half starved kids there with no shoes and clothes in holes couldn't understand how they could be so wealthy, yet so poor.
 
Pollik said:
Actually not. In the Commonwealth, only Australia is proportionately consuming resources at a higher rate than the UK. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/living_planet_report.pdf

Apparently, if every country consumed resources at the same rate as the UK, we would need three planets. USA and Qatar lead the table at five planets. Currently, taken as a whole, the Earth is overspending resources by 50%.
Click to expand...

Canada also part of the Commonwealth is also well ahead of us. But that chart in the report is kind of meaningless. It only shows per head consumption not total resource demand, it does not show trends or rate of of change, and is 8 years out of date to boot. In other words, about as much use as a snowball in hell.

I really mean places like India. Those are the places where demand is growing at an exponential rate. Add to that China and Brazil (not part of Empire apart from HK!). These are the economies which will shape our future and are shaping the present. The real point is it is nothing to do with political correctness in the UK or any actions on our part. Those places are enjoying their own industrial revolutions and will have their period of dominance just as we did.

There's no point trying to pin it all on politicians or UK taxes as the original article tries to ;)
 
james1508 said:
100 years ago, no iphone or Ipad , how did they cope ! :wacko:
Click to expand...

10 years ago, even! The mobile phone is responsible for one of the most profound changes in human social behaviour in such a short space of time. Most teenagers now, if you asked them, would probably say that they simply couldn't imagine life without their phone. I can happily imagine life without mine! When my contract expires in the spring, that's it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top