Anyone else sick of rich/privileged people moaning

This is true. No one has 'divine right' to be handed money. You can't have everything on a silver platter. Whatever happened to the attitude of 'if you want something, you gotta work for it?'

Lots of people from the upper social strata and particularly those in line for large inheritances, or in receipt of unearned income, do in fact firmly believe they have such a right. The sense of 'entitlement' amongst heirs is probably the most widely noted social phenomenon in relation to the wealthy.

Lots of people from the upper social strata and particularly those in line for large inheritances, or in receipt of unearned income, do in fact firmly believe they have such a right. The sense of 'entitlement' amongst heirs is probably the most widely noted social phenomenon in relation to the wealthy.

The difference being that, although the money was left to them by a loved one and wasn't necessarily earned by the person receiving it, it isn't given to them at the expense of the tax payer and therefore doesn't really have an impact on either society or the overall financial position of the country.

Nope.

Lets be honest, being poor is ****. One wants as much money as possible and generally the more money you have, the easier life gets.

Nothing seems more mad than the 'get what you need attitude'. If you work a full time job, you should be able to eat what food you want, live somewhere with ample space and light, have fun at weekends, and get boozy and have hobbies.

Its the 21st century FFS, there is more than enough for everyone. There is no reason for anyone to get up, work all day, tick a box that says ample nutrients, go to bed and repeat 5 days a week. Aspire for more than that in life!

Lots of people from the upper social strata and particularly those in line for large inheritances, or in receipt of unearned income, do in fact firmly believe they have such a right. The sense of 'entitlement' amongst heirs is probably the most widely noted social phenomenon in relation to the wealthy.

Lots of people get rich at the expense of the taxpayer. People like the shareholders of G4S and Virgin (they get huge public subsidies to fund their profits) and Atos and the banks and the weapons industries... I could go on.

Well, they shouldn't. I don't see what this proves.

This is highly relevant on the banks:

Maybe in your perfect Hannanite world of incredibly open free markets [...] they wouldn't, but the truth is that rich and powerful people have always profited from and manipulated the state, to ensure that they and their heirs remain rich and powerful. In this country, that includes helping themselves to substantial sums of public money at regular intervals. Imposing high taxes on it is just a way of getting some of it back.

Edited to remove childish asides.

The problem with the line of reasoning that jumps from 'some rich people wrongly profit from the state' to 'let's recoup that money by taxing all rich people into the ground' is that it treats rich people as a class each member of which is responsible for all the others' acts. It's the same sort of silly reasoning that leads to 'let's punish all bankers because some bankers were involved in starting the financial crisis'.

The Hannan video was there to a large degree for the quote at 3 "I can't believe that I'm having to come to the Oxford Union and explain that subsidies and nationalisation are not capitalism". I find it remarkably apposite. You can't challenge capitalism on principle by pointing to subsidies.

This one's even better: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226615/SHOULD-better-child-benefit-Heres-sides-debate-.html

Apparently they struggle to clothe and feed their kids on over 7k a month...

Lots of people get rich at the expense of the taxpayer. People like the shareholders of G4S and Virgin (they get huge public subsidies to fund their profits) and Atos and the banks and the weapons industries... I could go on.

To be fair, I think that's scraping the barrel slightly. You don't know how they got their money; anybody can spend or invest their money (that's THEIR money, not TAXPAYER'S money) however they wish- if people make wise investments that's up to them.

Investing and receiving a return on that investment just isn't the same as getting given benefits or a student loan for doing nothing at all.

You might as well mention the fact that nurses working for the NHS are paid for by the taxpayer. Or people working for the council.

This one's even better: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226615/SHOULD-better-child-benefit-Heres-sides-debate-.html

Apparently they struggle to clothe and feed their kids on over 7k a month...

I must stop reading those articles. Apparently, they "deserve the money because children are expensive to bring up". Aren't they a choice? You're not forced to have children. And why should a childless person earning £10k per year fund your child benefit?

I've come across people moaning that because of the changes, they won't have enough to put the money into their child's trust fund. My heart bleeds. Meanwhile, there are people on £71 a week, who from April, are going to have pay some of their council tax out of that money.

Can I just point out, that some people in the UK do live on the streets? And there are some who have lost their benefits / job and are now at risk of losing their home.

Duly noted. As I pointed out earlier in the thread, those with access to shelters and food given to them are still in enormously better positions than their counterparts in Africa. By OP's logic, they should stfu and 'be grateful'. The reasoning that no-one should complain just because other people have it worse is stupid.

Possibly... but to be honest I've met her family and I don't think they've really spoiled her intentionally. It's just that they can all afford to be comfortable all of the time, and so being away at uni and on a [slight] budget she is having to adjust and isn't dealing with it very well.

I used to live with someone like this. She'd used to moan because she now has to do her own washing.

She'd used to run to daddy when her money ran out. A lot of her money went on nights out.

Oh dear.

Her parents did her no favours.