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£10 MILLION publically funded funeral for Thatcher?!?!!??!

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Original post by Habibul Bashar
Yeah but what if this funeral actually generated >£10m in additional spending?


Not sure how that is relevant or even possible.
Original post by MattKneale
They don't just turn up, they were invited as friends of hers. Would you not ask for any friends at your funeral, then?



Don't be so ridiculous.

My funeral isn't going to cost the taxpayer £ 10million so the two are not directly comparable.
Original post by Scumbaggio
Not sure how that is relevant or even possible.


Read my post on the last page. We won't actually be spending £10m on this funeral when you think about it and stop being an emotional wreck.

We'll spend £10m, but then as a result of staging this event we'll get >£10m back.

Calm the **** down and whine about something else more worthwhile.
Original post by gateshipone
OK so I did some quick maths and the cost per person is about 15p so isn't going to empty people's pockets. 2nd, the public sector pay freeze - sure 10 mil could be spread over the civil service, but lets say there's 200k civil servants currently with a pay freeze, that's only £50 quid each per year extra. As much as I'd love to give civil servants with a pay freeze more money, the fact is it would take way more than 10 million to have a measurable increase on their pay.


I don't care whether it's only 15p. I don't see why the millions of people who actively hated Thatcher should have to pay anything for her funeral.
Original post by Scumbaggio
Don't be so ridiculous.

My funeral isn't going to cost the taxpayer £ 10million so the two are not directly comparable.


You're funeral will generate maybe £1-2k in additional spending as you are presumably a fairly irrelevant person.

A church (or wherever) will get an extra customer, the caterers for the wake will make some money, the hall your relatives hire out will make a little, maybe sell some beer. Some relatives will travel far and buy petrol and train tickets etc.
Original post by Scumbaggio
I'm not sure you have the right to attend someone's funeral just because you feel you should be able to pay your respects.

You don't feel that the government should spend money to help it's citizens express their views on an issue that many, many people in the country feel strongly about? In my opinion this is a good use of government money as it allows people to practice their freedom of speech on a grander scale.
Am actually I reading this?

You're saying it's ok to spend £10 million on the funeral because the economy is going to benefit as a result?

Completely insane reasoning.
Original post by ArtGoblin
I don't care whether it's only 15p. I don't see why the millions of people who actively hated Thatcher should have to pay anything for her funeral.


How does that even work in reality though?

You will end up paying your 15p for this and others will end up paying their 15p for things they don't like but you do like.

Enough people want this to happen, just because you're against it doesn't give you the right to overrule.

Try and not think emotionally about this. This funeral is a good investment for the economy if you stop and think about it logically.
Original post by Scumbaggio
Am actually I reading this?

You're saying it's ok to spend £10 million on the funeral because the economy is going to benefit as a result?

Completely insane reasoning.


Am I actually reading what you're writing? How is it insane? Are you stupid?

Yes I am saying its ok to spend £10million on something that you are confident that will give you a return greater than £10million.

Perhaps I should have made myself clearer. Government spending on this event is £10m. This will (IMO) cause an increase in Consumer spending (inc spending from foreign tourists), which is greater than £10m. Hence by investing £10m into this, the government will cause a net benefit to the economy.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by Scumbaggio
Am actually I reading this?

You're saying it's ok to spend £10 million on the funeral because the economy is going to benefit as a result?

Completely insane reasoning.

Do you study economics? Government spending, regardless of what it is on can have positive economic effects, otherwise why would we be spending on infrastructure.
Original post by Habibul Bashar
Am I actually reading what you're writing? How is it insane? Are you stupid?

Yes I am saying its ok to spend £10million on something that you are confident that will give you a return greater than £10million.


An old woman's funeral isn't going to generate £10 million pounds of revenue.
Original post by Thriftworks
Do you study economics? Government spending, regardless of what it is on can have positive economic effects, otherwise why would we be spending on infrastructure.


Of course, I forgot about that well known fiscal policy of spending £10 million on a old woman's funeral to stimulate the economy.

:confused:
Original post by Scumbaggio
An old woman's funeral isn't going to generate £10 million pounds of revenue.


Maybe, maybe not you have no grounds to make such claim ( nor does he ). However it will definitely create extra spending in the economy and will circulate round the economy creating more output.
Original post by Scumbaggio
Of course, I forgot about that well known fiscal policy of spending £10 million on a old woman's funeral to stimulate the economy.

:confused:

Above ^, spending on events will obviously generate more spending elsewhere in the economy as stated in his previous posts ( people traveling spending on petrol etc)
Original post by Scumbaggio
Of course, I forgot about that well known fiscal policy of spending £10 million on a old woman's funeral to stimulate the economy.

:confused:


it doesn't have to be a policy to be economically viable...
Original post by ArtGoblin
I don't care whether it's only 15p. I don't see why the millions of people who actively hated Thatcher should have to pay anything for her funeral.


I've paid far more than 15p on a lot of things I don't agree with. That's the nature of tax, you don't get to decide what specific things your specific taxes go on.
Original post by Habibul Bashar
How does that even work in reality though?

You will end up paying your 15p for this and others will end up paying their 15p for things they don't like but you do like.

Enough people want this to happen, just because you're against it doesn't give you the right to overrule.

Try and not think emotionally about this. This funeral is a good investment for the economy if you stop and think about it logically.


Even if the funeral does cause an extra £10 million worth of spending, it's not really generating money in the economy. That £10 million would probably only be spent on other things so it's not an investment at all.
Reply 137
£10 million on a funeral. It's called austerity.
Original post by Scumbaggio
Of course, I forgot about that well known fiscal policy of spending £10 million on a old woman's funeral to stimulate the economy.

:confused:


Ah finally we're getting somewhere.

Well it's not just an old woman's funeral is it. The average old woman's funeral is going to generate £1k-£2k in extra spending and only has a very short term benefit.

If 100k people went to London on Wednesday specifically for this event and spent £50 on average (transport, food, memorabilia, tourism etc), we've already made £5million back.

This event will essentially be a big advert for Britain and will appear on many international news networks. The extra tourist revenue that could generate alone is worth millions. It doesn't take that many random Americans seeing it on the news and thinking 'hey lets go to England this summer!' before you're getting millions extra pumped into the British economy.

There are many other smaller benefits I could go into, my main point being that we're not really paying £10m for this and I'd estimate there is a good chance we as a country end up making a few million from this.

So, calm down, let people pay their respects if they want to. Let others protest if they want to. It's all good my friends.
Original post by ArtGoblin
Even if the funeral does cause an extra £10 million worth of spending, it's not really generating money in the economy. That £10 million would probably only be spent on other things so it's not an investment at all.


Sure, you're right people would indeed just spend their money on other things.

But this would help them to spend their disposable income faster and play a small part in getting the economy moving.

Imagine all the old 60-year old middle class Tories with 6-figures in the bank. They're just sitting on their money. Maybe they'll come down to London for a few days and spend £300. That £300 will circulate around the economy and play a tiny role to achieve growth.

But yes, you make a good point. Still, I think there's a good chance we make our £10m back.

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