Astonishing how much of that is used fishing gear, isn't it? Not, in fact, plastic straws?
Another crate catch from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
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Tim Worstall
79.4K posts
Tim Worstall
@worstall
Freelance classical liberal around and about. Substack at substack.com/@timworstall
- Standard idiocy. Adam Smith explained it 245 years ago. If Jeff's spent $800 million on a yacht then the other people now have the $800 million and Jeff has the yacht. So, the money has already gone to the other people who have the $800 million.Remember the universal truth
- 16 million disabled? That's like 21, 22% of the entire population. I'd suggest, gently at first, that the problem is too wide a definition of disabled.16M disabled people in the UK, but only 3.7M get PIP – that’s under 1 in 4. Now, Labour's planning to slash benefits for 1M people. This isn’t about job creation; it’s a calculated attack on our most vulnerable. Enough is enough. independent.co.uk/politics/disab…
- We are not a serious nation. Not if we're getting our Middle East policy from a chef.Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, "It's concerning that we're sending jets out to the middle east when all the talk should be of de-escalation" "If Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour government really wanted to show they were serious about de-escalating, they should stop
00:00 - Replying to @almostneonukI recall a survey from a few years back. More than 50% of the plastic in the oceans is indeed fishing waste and scrap.
- This is the level of economic understanding that a First in PPE at Oxford gets you folks. Much of our economic and political establishment did PPE at Oxford. Aren't we the lucky ones?
- Because, you abject cretin, it's more expensive to make.Plant-based milk is better for our health, better for the planet — and no animals get hurt in the making of it. So why are we still paying more for it? Gail’s Bakery! It’s 2025 — time to stop ripping off people making sustainable choices. theguardian.com/environment/20…
- Lammy's slavery reparations. ICJ judge (same court as Chagos) says £18 trillion. More than UK household wealth. All pensions, all housing, all shares, bonds, cash and the furniture too. For being made better off than in West Africa. I have an Anglo Saxon phrase for you here....
- Apparently the judge doesn't like Phoebe very much. Poor, poor, Phoebe.
- Well misstated. The Laffer Curve says "sometimes" the best way to gain more revenue is to raise tax rates. Also, sometimes the best way to gain more revenue is to lower tax rates. "Sometimes" is the vital word in the contention.The 'Laffer Curve' is a fancy way of saying that the best way to help the poor is to cut taxes for the rich. That proposition has proven to be flat-out wrong every time a rightwing government has tried it.
- No, he's not right. Switzerland has no capital gains tax and inheritance T starts at 0.1% and rises all the way to 7%. You can't have all three taxes - wealth, CGT and IHT - at high levels because the rich people will leave. Wealthy people will only sit still for so much pluckingVictoria Derbyshire says Switzerland's wealth tax raises £9.5 billion. Switzerland has GDP of c. £693 billion. The UK has GDP of c. £2.8 trillion. @ZackPolanski is right to say a UK wealth tax could raise *much* more than in Switzerland. #bbclaurak
- Fascinating. So, Germany uses paid for insurance, competitive markets. UK tax and NHS. Germany spends a little more than UK. But gains 3x the beds and 2x the doctors? So, err, it's the tax and NHS structure that is inefficient then?The NHS is deliberately underfunded and understaffed Germany has 8 hospital beds and 4.53 Doctors per 1000 people France has 5.9 beds and 3.24 Doctors per 1000 people UK has 2.5 Beds and 2.3 Doctors per 1000 people Population Economies and demographics are comparable
- How stupid is Starmer? "“The school doesn’t have to pass this on to the parents in fees." - VAT on private schools. Does he think there's a 20% profit margin that can take the strain? Or wages drop by 20%? Or what? Where's that 20% to come from if not parents? He's that stupid?
- Your regular reminder. Attlee/Bevan didn't "build" the NHS. They stole every piece of extant healthcare infrastructure. The first NHS built hospital didn't open until 1963.Greater government spending on healthcare will always cost us less overall. If we could build the NHS in the wake of WWII, we can fund staff pay, in-housing and preventative healthcare in 2025
