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This whole fiscal 'black hole' is complete rubbish. It reminds me of Osbourne's 'household budget' lie back in 2011.

We are running a budget deficit. And we can continue running a budget deficit as long as people are willing to buy Treasury bonds. And if the government wanted to spend more and incur more debt, we can do that as long as we have a long term plan to invest in and grow the economy, which will reduce the deficit over the long term.

Austerity is a political decision, not an economic one.

Ah shame. What's the reason?

Yeah, bad choice of words. I meant incredible, and not in a good way

Yeah, I'm dreading it if it happens, but it would be absolutely amazing if we were watching the US descend into an authoritarian state.

So looks like Republicans are going to take control of Congress. Biden is going to be even more of a lame duck for the next two years. And guess who is going to announce a run for 2024 in the next few weeks. What a thoroughly depressing state of affairs.

Yep, was going to write that France still has a wealth tax.

I also think that the current climate is much changed since 1998 when France introduced it (to much criticism). And since 2018 when Macron reduced its scope. Apparently 68% of people in the UK agree and only 7% disagree with a wealth tax.

Completely agree about inheritance tax as well.

Just coming out of covid and we are about to get hit with Austerity part 2, surely the time is right for raising taxes on the wealthy?

Two of the suggestions from Tax Justice UK (including Patriotic Millionaires):
Raising capital gains tax to be in line with income tax
1% wealth tax on those with over £10million

This seems like a no brainer, right? This will raise ~£37billion and be borne by a small section of the population.

*Come at me with arguments about those poor people with no income but large houses in Kensington who will be forced to sell up.

Yep, this is terrifying. It's like they have absolutely no recollection of the past 12 years of Tory government and with each change of PM it's like it's a fresh start.

Oh, saw andyp already posted that.

West Suffolk Conservative Association, Andy Drummond, who said: “I’m looking forward to him eating a kangaroo’s penis. You can quote me that."

Are you just arguing for the sake of it now?

According to this guy, Decentraland has 978 daily active users (as of April 22)

Ha!

Second Life is still going strong! Around 200,000 daily active users.

This NYT article about Horizon is pretty good. Sounds like there are a load of kids in there, even though it's meant to be 18+
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/technology/metaverse-facebook-horizon-worlds.html

Yep, exactly. That would be the ideal. And maybe all the other metaverse competitors will die off and we will all have to pay £1500 for a headset and congregate in Meta's Horizon Worlds so we can be targeted with massive 3D VR ads all day long

That's the problem with the current crop of companies creating the 'metaverse'. They are all silo-ed off. So someone in Horizon Worlds will have no interaction with someone in Decentraland. They will be kind of like different social networks, but with VR.

Try Second Life if you want a non-VR taste of the metaverse

This guy doesn't even think it exists (yet)
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12WhHZ2K13SHPySU1OhDECiceCeHV9aXDOeSdwUeQ95E/edit#slide=id.g13aed3992dc_2_417

tldr: Whenever anyone refers to the metaverse, they are really talking about gaming.

Not sure I totally agree, as Horizon Worlds is closer to a true 'metaverse', even though it's a walled garden, but it's an interesting take

• A massive state led programme to build onshore and offshore wind farms

• Windfall tax on the energy sector

• Accelerating the home insulation programme

These seem perfectly reasonable suggestions, indeed they seem like the bare minimum we should be doing.

His other proposal to force gas from British fields to be sold to the UK at cost+ is a bit more radical, but is something we should have had in place when we sold the licenses to our fields in the first place. Sell x amount to the UK at cost+, everything else to everyone else at market rate. Nothing wrong with correcting that error now.

Cheers, will check them out

Anyone got a tip for good places to drink in Amsterdam? Going to be there by myself for 1 night, so nowhere too crazy busy

Anyone got a tip for a good place to eat in Amsterdam?

I guess taxing dead people is bad but it sure beats taxing living people

Now there's a slogan Labour should adopt

Death taxes!! WTF!

This is so fucking archaic. Can't believe we are discussing who inherits who's title and estates in 2022.

But then I am foreign