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BBC: Corbyn suggests max limit to what people can earn, "somewhat higher than £138K"

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Chittagong

Gold Member
BBC said:
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he would like to see a cap on the maximum amount people can earn.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was "not wedded" to a particular limit but the idea should be looked at.
The UK's levels of income disparity were getting worse, he said, suggesting this cannot go on "if we want to live in a more egalitarian society".

The idea of a maximum earnings cap was first raised by Mr Corbyn during Labour's 2015 leadership contest.
He told Today that he now wanted Labour to consider the idea, as levels of income disparity were getting worse.
"I would like there to be some kind of high earnings cap, quite honestly because I think it would be a fairer thing to do," he said. "I can't put a figure on it and I don't want to."
He added: "We cannot set ourselves as being a sort of grossly unequal bargain basement economy on the shores of Europe. If we want to live in a more egalitarian society and fund our public services, we cannot go on creating worse levels of inequality.
Speaking later on Sky News, Mr Corbyn said a wage cap would be "somewhat higher" than his salary of approximately £138,000, adding that the salaries some footballers receive are "simply ridiculous".
He said: "Why would someone need to earn more than £50m a year?"

https://apple.news/AkSG7VYodSBitiHElc_6K0wf

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Moosichu

Member
nononononono that's not how this works.

This is where progressive tax systems come in, an arbitrary cap will just cause the econom y to stagnate massively.
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
His ideas were outdated in 1985, can he please just fuck off already.
 

Prototype

Member
I like the idea of a potential wage cap. I e thought about this for years. How rich is too rich? If money equals power, how much power should people (the very wealthy) have?
 

Alienous

Member
He really is a dummy, isn't he?

Speaking later on Sky News, Mr Corbyn said a wage cap would be "somewhat higher" than his salary of approximately £138,000, adding that the salaries some footballers receive are "simply ridiculous".

How does he even have the balls to say that?
 

StayDead

Member
I don't see a problem with this.

Tax the rich so much that their salary works out to 138k. 138k is more than reasonable, it's more money than the vast majority of the population will make over 3-4 years.
 

liquidtmd

Banned
If I was in High School I'd expect this to float around as a hypothetical 'why not' question to help develop argumentative and political thought

Coming from the Leader of the Labour Party? Fuck me.
 
Of course he suggests something "somewhat" higher than his current salary. Who wouldn't want to make more money than they currently do? Goofball...
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
*smashes head into desk until there is blood*

HEY LOOK AT ALL THIS LABOUR PARTY THAT IS LEAKING OUT OF ME.
 

nubbe

Member
You tax more so people still have the illusion and hope the will see more of the money some day.

Pay limit is stupid and extremely regressive
 

Zaph

Member
un-fucking-real

Even if I thought something as arbitrary as a salary cap would work, we're targeting people earning just £100k-£200k? They're not the problem.
 
Or you know, you tax the profits they make with their companies, close loopholes, up taxes on very high amounts, and give people proper welfare, education, healthcare and housing, so they can move upwards in society instead of being stuck.
 

kavanf1

Member
I like the idea of a potential wage cap. I e thought about this for years. How rich is too rich? If money equals power, how much power should people (the very wealthy) have?

I don't see a problem with this.

Tax the rich so much that their salary works out to 138k. 138k is more than reasonable, it's more money than the vast majority of the population will make over 3-4 years.

Explain how it would work in practice. It's ludicrous.
 

JoeM86

Member
Maybe it's just me but that's bordering on communism, is it not?

I'd be pissed if my earnings grew to a nice high amount but then I was told "lol nope, we're taking the rest of it".

The percentage of what you're taxed on any part of your income should never be more than 50%. You should never pay more in tax than you take home in my view.
 

Lagamorph

Member
The richest minority already pay a huge amount of taxes, about a quarter of all UK tax comes from a relatively small minority of high earners.
If you cap their earnings all you'll do is encourage them to leave the country and take their tax payments with them.

Corbyn is only proving that he's totally out of touch with the modern world and that he has no grasp of economics.
 

Dougald

Member
Eh, it shows he is thinking about the ridiculous pay gap between executives and employees, but I don't think this is the right way. Rich people just avoid tax anyway

We do need to determine a way to limit the pay gap between CEOs and their employees, though this should be done by forcing companies to actually raise bloody salaries rather than continue to let them stagnate as they have done for most of this century. Median pay of FTSE 100 directors increased by 47% between 2010 and 2015, while the rest of us were counting ourselves lucky to even get 1% a year.
 
...I'm confused, does he think that capping pay will cause bosses to redistribute the money to their workers instead? Instead of say... hiring more workers or just tucking it away in the bank as profit? Like, in a vacuum without further efforts it would just be circumvented.
 
I am less concerned that he believes this than I am that he thought it was a perfectly fine thing to state publicly. It's flabbergasting.
 
Because there is no reason to limit earnings in a capitalist society. And because of you have kids, that money doesn't go that far.
In this hypothetical scenario that money would stretch more, because the context of what he's saying is a fairer partition of earnings and a leveling of wages.
Not that a blunt upper cap would work now though, and not at that mark.
 

Saganator

Member
I like the idea of a max income, but not some ridiculous cap like that. Something more along the lines of no higher than 200% more than the lowest paid employees. Still allows for ridiculous wealth while incentivising paying your employees more.
 
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