Britain deluded?
Discussion
I was talking to someone today and he made the remark:
"Not everyone lives off their platinum card"
When I had said £100 a year was not a lot of money.
Am I being crazy.....or are people being utterly....delusional about income these days (recession etc!)? In my head, £100 a year is nothing. You can spend that on a night out if you're keen.
Am I the spoilt guy "living off a platinum card", or is he just delusional, and someone who should be working harder rather than moaning about being broke?
"Not everyone lives off their platinum card"
When I had said £100 a year was not a lot of money.
Am I being crazy.....or are people being utterly....delusional about income these days (recession etc!)? In my head, £100 a year is nothing. You can spend that on a night out if you're keen.
Am I the spoilt guy "living off a platinum card", or is he just delusional, and someone who should be working harder rather than moaning about being broke?
Edited by kbf1981 on Wednesday 15th April 16:46
Average salary = £21,900 (although this is skewed heavily by a fairly small number of much higher ones).
After tax, that'll get you £323.71 a week.
On a normal 37.5 hour week, that's £8.63 an hour.
So to the "average" person, that £100 is about a day and a half of work. Not exactly insignificant.
I had a similar conversation with a friend over the fact I put most of my expenses through my credit card in order to get 1% cashback - it works out at around £100 a year. He couldn't see why I bothered; I see it as a not insubstantial amount that I don't have to work for, despite it being a pretty small number next to my monthly/yearly pay.
edit: running that for minimum wage (over 22s), they'll get £181.38 a week or about £4.83 an hour after tax and NI. £100 to someone on minimum wage is nearly three days of work.
How much would you care if you were asked to work three extra days a year (or lose it from your holiday) for free?
After tax, that'll get you £323.71 a week.
On a normal 37.5 hour week, that's £8.63 an hour.
So to the "average" person, that £100 is about a day and a half of work. Not exactly insignificant.
I had a similar conversation with a friend over the fact I put most of my expenses through my credit card in order to get 1% cashback - it works out at around £100 a year. He couldn't see why I bothered; I see it as a not insubstantial amount that I don't have to work for, despite it being a pretty small number next to my monthly/yearly pay.
edit: running that for minimum wage (over 22s), they'll get £181.38 a week or about £4.83 an hour after tax and NI. £100 to someone on minimum wage is nearly three days of work.
How much would you care if you were asked to work three extra days a year (or lose it from your holiday) for free?
Edited by sjg on Wednesday 15th April 18:04
Edited by sjg on Wednesday 15th April 18:04
sjg said:
Average salary = £21,900 (although this is skewed heavily by a fairly small number of much higher ones).
After tax, that'll get you £323.71 a week.
On a normal 37.5 hour week, that's £8.63 an hour.
So to the "average" person, that £100 is about a day and a half of work. Not exactly insignificant.
I had a similar conversation with a friend over the fact I put most of my expenses through my credit card in order to get 1% cashback - it works out at around £100 a year. He couldn't see why I bothered; I see it as a not insubstantial amount that I don't have to work for, despite it being a pretty small number next to my monthly/yearly pay.
edit: running that for minimum wage (over 22s), they'll get £181.38 a week or about £4.83 an hour after tax and NI. £100 to someone on minimum wage is nearly three days of work.
How much would you care if you were asked to work three extra days a year (or lose it from your holiday) for free?
I get asked to work for nearly 6 months of the year for free by the tax man!After tax, that'll get you £323.71 a week.
On a normal 37.5 hour week, that's £8.63 an hour.
So to the "average" person, that £100 is about a day and a half of work. Not exactly insignificant.
I had a similar conversation with a friend over the fact I put most of my expenses through my credit card in order to get 1% cashback - it works out at around £100 a year. He couldn't see why I bothered; I see it as a not insubstantial amount that I don't have to work for, despite it being a pretty small number next to my monthly/yearly pay.
edit: running that for minimum wage (over 22s), they'll get £181.38 a week or about £4.83 an hour after tax and NI. £100 to someone on minimum wage is nearly three days of work.
How much would you care if you were asked to work three extra days a year (or lose it from your holiday) for free?
Edited by sjg on Wednesday 15th April 18:04
Edited by sjg on Wednesday 15th April 18:04
£100 works out to £1.92 a week - if you CANT afford £1.92 per week, surely the problem is you're not working hard enough to get a decent job / career / income source. £1.92 is about the price of a McDonalds coffee.
I agree with you on the cash back credit cards - I do that too. I do it because I like earning money, and it's a very easy way of earning a little more. On the other hand though, if I like a particular restaurant, I'll go there - even if it is expensive, and there are cheaper places you could go. My thinking is that if you can't afford little luxuries like that.....the problem isn't that company over-charging, it's you not earning enough (and hence, should be looking for a job / better job).
If £2 is a lot of money for you, there must be huge amounts of things you can't enjoy - in which case, surely the answer is to go out, work harder, get a better income? Not being able to afford £2 a week makes you poor.
In isolation it isn't a lot to most people (although try saying that to someone on SSP), but combined with many other outgoings that may "only" be £100/yr it can soon add up. £10 here, £10 there per month soon adds up (Yes, I know that's £120/yr, but for ease). Also PH isn't the most balanced place to be asking, as there's a large percentage of high earners on here.
It's not a lot to me as one single item, but I'd be very, very worried if I'd managed to get so out of touch with reality that I could no longer see that for many people it is an enormous amount of money.
Take someone on the average wage. Then start deducting for rent, food, clothing, bills and everything else they need to cover. Then take a look at how much they have left. I certainly wouldn't be able to survive like that, so £100 would represent an enormous amount of money to me if I was in that situation.
As for the "why don't they just go out and get a better job" angle, I'm all for applying that to benefit scroungers with no job at all, but the reality is that in society we will always have a need for people to do the lower paid jobs. Just look at the state of the manufacturing industry in this country today. Lots of people in that thought they should earn more for what they did, and where did that get them when the Chinese decided they'd do the work for a lot less? People like you and me, who in theory should've been saying "I'll buy British to keep the jobs local" in reality said screw that, and bought the imports. The net result of all these people going out to find these fictional high paying jobs would simply be more people trying to get more money for jobs which really don't justify it, and you then get the hump when all the prices go up, and all of a sudden, that £100 would come in pretty handy!
Take someone on the average wage. Then start deducting for rent, food, clothing, bills and everything else they need to cover. Then take a look at how much they have left. I certainly wouldn't be able to survive like that, so £100 would represent an enormous amount of money to me if I was in that situation.
As for the "why don't they just go out and get a better job" angle, I'm all for applying that to benefit scroungers with no job at all, but the reality is that in society we will always have a need for people to do the lower paid jobs. Just look at the state of the manufacturing industry in this country today. Lots of people in that thought they should earn more for what they did, and where did that get them when the Chinese decided they'd do the work for a lot less? People like you and me, who in theory should've been saying "I'll buy British to keep the jobs local" in reality said screw that, and bought the imports. The net result of all these people going out to find these fictional high paying jobs would simply be more people trying to get more money for jobs which really don't justify it, and you then get the hump when all the prices go up, and all of a sudden, that £100 would come in pretty handy!
fade2grey said:
surely it depends on what benifit that 100 quid gives you. If it paid your rent for a year, you'd be laughing. If it was a box of chocolates once a year you'd think twice.
The context of the conversation was someone buying a consumable product worth £30-40, several times a year.There was a minor difference in cost between the two (5%?), and the slightly more expensive one was a much better product.
The other guys held that this difference was too much, and that you'd have to be rich to afford the extra 5%, even though he agreed it was a better product. Worth pointing out the other guy was a student....who despite spending vast fortunes on clothes and beer, always claim to be impoverished.
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