Double your salary or better society?

Obviously with Thatcher dying there has been a lot of talk about her policies and the effect they had on society in this country. The general consensus seems to be that her policies were bad and that a more socialist approach is desirable.

Is this all talk though?


Here's the situation..................

Scenario 1 - You can earn a yearly salary of £35,000 while working normal full-time hours at a job you are satisfied with and live in a home that is appropriate to that salary. Public services will be good, the poorest people in society will get more help from the government and taxes will be a bit higher.

Scenario 2 - You can earn a yearly salary of £70,000 while working normal full-time hours at a job you are satisfied with and live in a home that is appropriate to that salary. Public services will be cut back and not of a particularly good standard, the poorest people in society will receive very little help from the government and taxes will be low.


Answer honestly. If you were given the choice to live in one of these two worlds, which one would you choose?

It's very easy for people to say that they hate the culture of greed that Margaret Thatcher created but would people really give up the chance to have more money in their pocket in order to help create a fairer, more cohesive society?

 

Who's Margaret Thatcher? never heard of her

 

Never been in the position of earning £12,000 p/a never mind £35,000 so my opinion is obviously biased. But I would much prefer to be earning less, knowing that people were getting along better than earning more and having it on my conscience.

Of course I, like most of us on here more than likely have lived in communities with high unemployment, drug misuse etc and have seen how * life is. Probably different for those who have been brought up in middle class suburbia.

 

It would be very easy to just lie and say 35k, lets be honest we are relatively anonymous on here.

But I can say with total honesty that 35k and better life for all, would be an easy choice.

Maybe if it was 10k a year it might be a bit more difficult a choice but I suppose 10k would leave you relatively poor yourself.

 

I would honestly choose scenario 1.. I would be satisfied with an extra 10 grand and living in a better society..
I'm not a greedy person when it comes to material things..as long as I have a roof over my head and
my kids are ok and i can have a few little luxuries I'm happy

Sent from my GT-S5360 using Tapatalk 2

 

I had a hard time deciding where to pitch the figures. £25,000 a year is apparently the average salary so I thought I would pitch it just a bit above that. The basic point remains the same if you use £25,000 or £35,000 I suppose.

I am like you, I truly believe I would opt for the £35,000. That would be enough money to have a decent life with and if the public services were good then that would make giving up the extra money seem more worthwhile. Imagine a Scotland with a great public transport network that included high speed rail links and stuff? That would be fantastic.

 

Since 35k a year is still a good wage I'd take that. But if it was down to 15k I'd take more money. Also if I could get more than 100k for scenario 2 I would be very tempted.

 

That's quite strange. You would be happy with 35k but if you were getting 50k you would opt for double?

What's the thinking behind that, is it just so you could say you had a six figure salary?

 

I wouldn't trust the government to use the extra 35k I'd given them appropriately to be honest.

If it's a scenario where life is perfect and society would benefit I'd go with option a, if it was the current torie * government I'd take option b.

 

I meant that if I could go from 35k to 100k

 

Aye I get that.

but you say 35k is more than enough, but if doubling it took you over 100k you would be tempted by option 2.

If 35k is enough then why not 50k? Why would you double in that scenario?

edit.

aha, no quick enough with yer edit. :icon_mrgreen:

 

35k would be a * good salary for anybody..

 

If it was 50k i was already getting then u wouldn't double but if I could go from 35k to 100k I would be very tempted.

 

I know I misread you're question. I do think that though.

 

Regardless of salary, I would be happy to contribute to a better overall society. When people are poverty stricken they tend to resort to crime to help pay the way. This leads to a more dangerous place to live for everyone involved.

We need to improve the lot of the poorest in society to give a more secure future for us all, even if you earn a lot.

 

35 grand ..., who exactly do i have to kill for that ?

 

True. It's no coincidence that crimes like shoplifting and burglary increase when there is a recession on.

 

I am 25 and earn just over 50k a year offshore.

I would settle for less and pay extra taxes if it meant society was better

 

The problem with threads like this is no one is going to say they'd take the money, but in reality 99% of people would.

 

I think the honest answer depends on a lot of assumptions and the degree of improvement we are talking about. It also depends on how much opportunity has been given to people at the bottom compared to myself and people at the top.

Being honest in the UK I would double my salary without a doubt based on our current society. In a global sense I would rather see inequality addressed. But that would be dependent on me believing I have made an actual difference