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Urgh! Fuck!: A thread for untamed hate and anger [PICS]

  
  

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Quantum
10:48 / 29.11.05
Gordon fucking Brown is the culprit, he's trying to force everyone to move to TEH NORTH by funnelling funding to help the frozen counties full of empty houses (Thanks to Thatcher) and away from the South East.

Here I am the next day, STILL FUCKING FURIOUS at those fucking unhelpful bastards who seem to delight in making mistakes and intimidating people unnecessarily. They're jailing Grannys and Vicars and sending bailiffs round to collect a tax which is TOTALLY UNJUSTIFIED, fucking shitbuckets.
I realised the other day that I pay nearly half my money in tax, and receive almost no services in return. Not to get all Leaptopian but INCOME TAX and National Insurance accounts for about a third off my wages, which goes on Wars I protest against, a failing NHS and a pension I'll never get, then about ten percent of my net goes on Councilfuckingtax (over a thousand pounds a year!) for which I get a rubbish rubbish-collection service (the gulls could do better) Police who harass me because Labour's having a conference nearby and a council that is frankly a pointless cesspool of mismanagement.
So out of the remaining money I buy things and pay 17.5% Value Added Tax (much more than that on booze or fags), if I drove (not fucking likely) I'd have to pay Road Tax and petrol duty, if I bought a house (*collapses in hysterical screeching laughter at the thought of blowing hundreds of thousands of pounds on a hovel, the AVERAGE house price has risen from £73,000 in 1991 to £190,000 now*) there would be Stamp duty, the list goes on and on... and when was the last time they ABOLISHED a tax? Hmm? NEVER! Once there's a tax no govt. will voluntarily reduce their income by dropping it, no matter how unpopular.

Average councilfuckingtax is £778 a year, in Brighton it's £974. The tax bands are based on the value of your property and house prices in Brighton have increased 247% since 1991. Wages have not increased by 250%.

HOW IS THAT FUCKING FAIR?!?! HMMM?! C'MERE BROWN YOU FAT EVIL FUCKER! *POW! splat*
 
 
Mon Oncle Ignatius
11:04 / 29.11.05
Interesting your point about Brighton being a commuter dormitory, Tango.

Boboss, GGM: Sorry, I should have put %sarcasm% delimiters around my post...
 
 
Tryphena Absent
11:46 / 29.11.05
I don't normally do this (defend the government) but I really don't like people criticising tax so here I go:

I notice you're complaining a lot about the things you don't have. Why don't you think about the things you do. I'm curious so why don't you tell me how often your rubbish is collected, whether you have recycling facilities in your area, how often the street lamps in your area go and are not replaced. What the wages for your local public service workers are like?

Taxes should be allocated for the specific things they are related to, they should be that high on both roads and petrol because petrol is a fossil fuel and you should be taxed for the damage you're causing to the environment, roads need to be maintained and if you don't need a car you should not own one.

As a smoker you're footing the bill for your future health problems and you should be. You're hurting yourself by choice. Despite this it's a misconception to think that you're paying for the future. You're paying for the comfort of your life now: a police force to protect you (yes, they do that a little bit), a living environment that doesn't threaten you, the wages of thousands of people who for the most part do valuable work.

Would you be happier if you only paid income tax? I notice you're happy to criticise it and also complain about all of that other tax as well- what kind of tax would you prefer? Your council tax is going directly into services that make your area nicer, happier and more wealthy and frankly I think (though could be wrong) allow you a vaguely middle class area to live in (as the majority of Brighton is). The one thing that the government has done is increase spending on the NHS by a large amount. The health system has improved marginally but the price of all of the things it needs has of course increased in the last 8 years as well.

In short our taxes are not spent as well as they could be but we should be glad to pay them and when it all seems so terribly wrong you should literally stop on the bloody road outside your house and think about the amount of things that your money is actually spent on. One lampost requires an electrician to maintain it, to change the lightbulb, to make sure the street is wired up properly. Parts are required for maintenance not least lightbulbs. Your road requires people to clean it, take residential rubbish away, possibly recycle what you put into a bag or box, possibly gritters if it gets icy (and someone to drive them)... that's off the top of my head.

If you prefer privatisation than fair enough. I'm with the state.
 
 
Quantum
12:07 / 29.11.05
Have those things improved 57% in the last few years? No they fucking haven't.
Nina I'm with you in principle but the massive inefficiency involved in spending the money hacks me off. I favour a *higher income tax* with an allowance of ten grand instead of 6, a graded increase with income, keeping current business taxes, council tax of a quarter what it is now (if at all) and most importantly DECREASED SPENDING. Tax the shit out of roads cars booze fags and antisocial behaviour (eg polluting the environment) to discourage them, and while we're about it let's scrap the Nuclear missile program and spend the money on public transport.
 
 
Quantum
12:16 / 29.11.05
Tony Blair!! Git!! He said

"What we need is an open discussion, where people can express their views freely. Not a discussion disrupted by protesters."

GRAAAARGH!! KILLKILLKILL! FACEKNIFEPATROLGO!
 
 
Shrug
21:15 / 29.11.05
Well Sunday night a friend uttered a comment while not casually racist would be considered highly unpc, this eventually and inadvertently sparked a conversation about racism. I talked about it with some vigour seemingly (not the comment which was long forgotten but how generally prevailent it has become in Ireland*).
This resulted in said friend not talking to me for 2 days, the old coventry (in a very childish manner mind). I had previously assured him that the conversation was in no way even related to his comment (other than it being the sparking of a general debate). I apologised for making him uncomfortable (for he seems to have the problem with me alone) but the debate had alot of back and forth between various peoples. He was not at any time labelled a racist. He called my views Fucking ARROGANT!

It is a topic that may arouse passion in people however. He asked me if he would have to continue to walk on eggshells around me? Bloody hell this wasn't about you! AT ALL! It's something that may not effect you and doesn't effect me personally (except in relation to extended family [and in that way it all is very much about me]). You don't have to walk on eggshells you fucking prick just use your common sense.


*Apparently a friend of a friend working as a receptionist for (an unnamed newspaper) given out freely at train stations in Dublin has been recieving calls in nature to the ethnicity of the (Un-named paper) distributors. There should be more Irish handing them out apparently. Obviously she said that the employees represent those that had applied for the job and decisions like this were not made on the basis of race.
A certain regular caller commented that he wouldn't mind Europeans even Eastern Europeans handing them out and told her to pass on the msg. She asked if he meant Africans. He asked what she was insinuating. Eventually the call ended to her relief. The next day he rang back and asked why there had been nothing done.

One mad weirdo you might say but god there's just so much of it. Scrawled into bog walls in college (along side homophobia, misogyny, incest jokes etc) on buses. Just fucking everywhere.

Just Urgh Fucking Fuckety Fuck Fuck.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
23:44 / 29.11.05
Boboss: yr quite right. I tried to type a retraction and my lousy capatalist net connectin died.

Nina: I don't think any of the complainants above are complaining about taxation per se. Speaking personally, and a someone for whom this stuff has much more minimal impact than for most now but as someone who briefly was in a higher tax bracket, I have no objection to higher taxation to benefit greater spends on state services. Never have, and at points where I was more active in a political party, exercised what little influence I had to further that aim.

What I do object to is a council tax that, given its link to house prices, raises rates with very little raise incrementally/revenue benefit to council services that benefit. In Brighton at least, it's about the house prices, not about the benefit to users of state/local govt services.

Get off yr high horse. You are not the only person who cares about these issues, and wants to contribute to a workable welfare state. Point is, we don't have one, and we're still contributing.
 
 
Spaniel
09:00 / 30.11.05
I agree with everything you've just said, GGM.

the AVERAGE house price has risen from £73,000 in 1991 to £190,000 now

Don't even get me started on this.

Alright, do.

After almost buying a tiny shitty flat in Hove we decided that it really wasn't worth the bother. In Brighton and environs (including Lewes) the average price for a one bedroom flat (almost always a cramped conversion) was around £150,000. If you were looking for a half decent two bedroom space you could expect to spend £175,000. A house? We saw a few two bed places for about £210,000 (you can get cheaper, but it means moving to rough areas, and nasty architecture. Oh, and when I say cheaper, I still mean around the £180,000 mark). Three bed houses? Over £255,000 for a fairly crappy buy. I'd expect to get something nice for around £280,000. Who the fucking Christ has £280,000?

Arrrggggghhhfucccckkkk. Is a small three bedroom house with a garden really too much to ask?

Yes it is, Boboss. Yes it is.
 
 
Spaniel
09:05 / 30.11.05
Another thing. Those key workers that we all care so much about* almost certainly can't afford a bloody thing around here. I'd imagine that most of them have trouble paying their Council Tax, too.


*I am not being sarcastic.
 
 
pointless & uncalled for
09:08 / 30.11.05
Times have changed Boboss. You can no longer go and just buy a house, you need to get on the property ladder and play the property game.

It's like playing Monopoly with your psychotic uncle but less fun and may induce chronic estate agent beating. Usually passes in a couple of days but do contact your doctor if symptoms persist.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
09:24 / 30.11.05
I don't think any of the complainants above are complaining about taxation per se.

Really? Because the word tax indicates that someone is talking about tax to me, when I read it on a screen. Funny that, isn't it?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
09:54 / 30.11.05
Average councilfuckingtax is £778 a year, in Brighton it's £974

Well, as said above, Council Tax is based on house prices, house prices are high in Brighton because it's an affluent area where lots of rich people want to live. The assumption is that if you can afford to own or rent a house worth £300,000, you can also afford to pay council tax on it proportional to that value. That banjaxes people who for some reason or other want to live in Brighton but are not wealthy, certainly, but then what doesn't?

I dunno. I'd like to see Council Tax being more sensitive to circumstances, but it sort of is to an extent anyway, isn't it? I mean, as far as I understand it students and people on income support or other benefits don't have the same relationship to council tax as people not on income support or other benefits, right? Therefore, their notional council tax is in fact being paid by other people's council tax. You can certainly complain that there is no comparable mechanism to increase the council tax load on people in higher income brackets, but that is de facto done by pegging council tax to house prices. That doesn't reflect every situation, of course - what does? - but it does at least to some degree link tax levels to spending power.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
10:02 / 30.11.05
Double shrug: Dude, you have nothing to be ashamed of. The answer to "Do I have to walk on eggshells around you?" is "Yes, if by that you mean that if you say something which I think is racist I will ask you to explain what you meant by it, you should walk on eggshells around me, please, and I very much hope that the habit will rub off on you in the company of other people as well. If you are reserving the right to say things that make me feel upset and unhappy but deny me the right to tell you that that is the effect they are having, then it doesn't seem like you like me very much".
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
10:58 / 30.11.05
Really? Because the word tax indicates that someone is talking about tax to me, when I read it on a screen. Funny that, isn't it?

Key term here per se - GGM is right to say that what is being talked about is not tax entier, you are right to say that what is being discussed is a form of taxation. Specifically, Quantum is complaining about council tax (which for some crack-addled reason I capitalised throughout my last post - god knows what is happening in my head sometimes), and yet more specifically about council tax in Brighton, which he feels does nt reflect value, in that what he gets is not equivalent to what he pays. There's intangibles in that, obviously - like, his specific experience of the police is being hassled at the Labour Party Conference, but he benefits more generally from the existence of law and of law enforcement - but it's not necessarily a complaint about taxation in and of itself, only a specific form of taxation.
 
 
Spaniel
14:25 / 30.11.05
Well, as said above, Council Tax is based on house prices, house prices are high in Brighton because it's an affluent area where lots of rich people want to live.

Basically I'm worried that the house prices in Brighton are artificially high: bouyed up by over borrowing by buyers, risky investment by greedy developers (see my comment about flats not filling up up-thread), and estate agent and seller greed. On top of that, according to the estate agents I've spoken to, Brighton has a two, or maybe three, tier property market, in that properties at the lower end don't move as fast as properties at the higher end, this means that the housing market looks healthier than it is.
On the bright side, it looks as if prices have come down since the summer (more than they usually do), so maybe things are getting better.

Seldom, thanks for the advice, bud, but it might surprise you to know that I have in fact heard of the property ladder, it's just that down here a combined wage of £45,000 won't get you on it. Also, when you've got a kid on the way, moving around thirty bazillion ties isn't too attractive.
 
 
Loomis
14:29 / 30.11.05
Not the property ladder boboss. The Property Ladder.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
17:10 / 30.11.05
Yeah. Haus has defined the distinction above between complaining about a specific system and complaining about taxation.

And I'm not complaining about the amount of my council tax, which is miniscule, as I qualify for benefit relief. What I am complaning about is the ludicrous beauracracy and inefficiency that surrounds the service, as Quantum describes.

Not least the fact that if payments don't appear on schedule, it makes it very difficult to manage tight budgets/leads to unncessary stress/demands that I simply cannot meet.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
17:15 / 30.11.05
As well as, above, the shortcomings of the overall system. There have to be better ways to do this, not least for the sake of the key workers that Boboss mentions.
 
 
matthew.
23:11 / 30.11.05
I can't seem to save any money because I have no self-discipline. Here's the story, and I ask everybody to chime in with practical suggestions:

I've been working at the same restaurant for six years (since I was but a wee chubby high schooler) and I have gone as far up the job-ladder as possible without buying the place from the owner. I now make a sizable wage that isn't great (but I stay because I love the people), and it's direct deposit. Ever since I got a paycheque, I spent it on CDs, books, DVDs, food and the theatre. I want to enjoy my money, and I enjoy all those items.

But even when I've bought three CDs on one paycheque, I still buy more. I say to myself, "You don't need them. Download them instead." But I don't. I inevitably buy CDs then regret them. It's the addiction guilt, I guess.

So now it's been six years, and I've made almost 100,000 dollars. What do I have to show for it? 1,000 books, 700 CDs, 500 DVDs, and enough movie ticket stubs to wallpaper my room. I haven't saved any money for a "rainy day" or an emergency. I also have not traveled at all, and I want to.

Right now, my parents are in charge of my assets. Every two weeks, they give me a measly 100 dollars (or 49.59 pounds, or 72.74 Euros). I'm budgeting a little bit better with this. I'm only buying, say, one CD a week and one book a week, but that's 60% of my spending money right there. I'm also trying to focus more on used CDs and used books, but sometimes you have to get that book from my local Chapters store.

How can I build some self-discipline so that when I move out I can actually pay my fucking rent?
URGH FUCK! Help me, Barbelith! I can't save the coin of the realm! FUCK!
 
 
Char Aina
23:24 / 30.11.05
its annoying, but you can only learn discipline by forcing yourself to be disciplined.
starting small and having external responsibilities relying on your discipline helps, but ultimately its a battle you have to win. unless you join the army, i guess.

try swapping books with your friends rather than buying them. also, you really should go bit torrent crazy. get movies and albums, and maybe even TV shows.

oh, and sell off all your old crap on ebay.
 
 
Shrug
23:35 / 30.11.05
Haus: Thanks for the advice, I did do just that and it worked. Some kind of temporary resolution to the tension has been realised.
 
 
Shrug
00:23 / 01.12.05
The fact that you'll probably be able to fall back on your parents and eat at the restaurant where you work makes attaining discipline an even more extravagant goal Matt. Hopefully you'll like your new apartment and the independence it gives you so much that you will be forced to consider the negative* results of your actions**.

If, however, this fails make a table of weekly expenditures. One which includes rent, food and any other necessary weekly expenses. If you feel you can include some luxuries in there do it. Write it clearly and neatly in a small booklet or copy. (Having it all clearly and exactly written down sometimes helps people with problems like this).
Upon recieving your paycheck extract the necessary amount of money and immediately pay your rent and buy your weekly food. Thus leaving you with the necessaries and eliminating the option of shopping for anything else(much).

Also:
I personally find that the guilt of being percieved as a failure works as a great incentive. But really what you have before you is a very simple equation. And in general when people are put in certain situations they just adapt. When the time comes, Matt, do so.

*Being kicked out of your accommodation.
**Buying books/c.ds/dvds.
 
 
matthew.
00:56 / 01.12.05
Thanks, Double-Shrug. Very practical.
 
 
Jub
10:00 / 01.12.05
IPod headphones are shite.

I don't have an Ipod, but I don't need one to know that their headphones are shite. Everytime I get on a bus or train I can hear someone's Ipod. I remember having a chunky old cassette walkman whose headphones worked by playing the music into my ear, and not simultaneously to my locale as well. Why, oh why they bother to make such a gadget (and I think as music storage and design goes, they're ace!) and then equip them with shite headphones is beyond me.
 
 
Spaniel
10:38 / 01.12.05
Thanks, Loomis. I'm such a fool.
 
 
GogMickGog
10:43 / 01.12.05
Bluetooth headsets are shit too. No concrete, genuine reason they fill me with such misanthropic rage, they just look stupid and I have an uncontrollable urge to snap them off and stick em' in the nearest bin.

Wrong?
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
10:44 / 01.12.05
Jub, you surely cannot hear other people's iPod earphones? I wear iPod earphones and often I can't hear the music on them, when I'm on tube, train or bus.

Can anyone recommend a better brand I can use with my Pod?
 
 
Eloi Tsabaoth
10:47 / 01.12.05
The cheap ones break too easily and the expensive ones are too expensive. I advise just, you know, remembering the songs you like.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
10:49 / 01.12.05
Sennheiser - cost about 20 quid, and much better. Also make you look far less muggable. Otherwise, for a bit more than that you can start getting onto proper noise-cancelling headphones. Mind you, what's the use of them?
 
 
Smoothly
10:52 / 01.12.05
I've got some of those in-ear ones (Sony EX71s) that solve both your and Firecracker's problems.
 
 
Spaniel
10:54 / 01.12.05
Also make you look far less muggable.

A very important point.
 
 
pointless & uncalled for
11:10 / 01.12.05
Boboss, my apologies for not being clear on this.

The implication was that the culture of property purchasing is as such now that the model is to buy something you don't want with the intention of using as an investment towards something that you do want. House prices are now artificially high because of this and getting away from this model will actual penalise you.

My advice is buy a shithole, let it out to someone less picky than you and do it up off your own back.
 
 
Spaniel
11:36 / 01.12.05
Seldom, if my post was a little snarky it was because I spent fucking months, every bastard weekend looking for an affordable, investment property. My partner and I invested a great deal of emotion and thought into getting a deal that would work for us. To no bloody avail.

I appreciate that you're just trying to helpful, but this is a very touchy subject for me, and you're *really* not telling me anything I don't know, mate.
 
 
matthew.
04:50 / 02.12.05
and it's me again.

I just got home from fucking twelve hours of a hot kitchen in a busy restaurant and I just realized that I forgot my fucking wallet on the bus, which includes the 60 dollar buspass I just bought today, my license, which expires yesterday, my debit card, my birth certificate, my healthcare card, my five dollar bill, my discount card at a bookstore, the picture of my friend, and did I mention my birth certificate?

And more URGH FUCK because here's a little irony, on top of everything. I just gave one of my friends the lecture on why they shouldn't laminate their birth certificate because it makes it null and void. I told her that she should photo-copy it and keep the original at home. This was two days ago. FUUUUUUUUCK!
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
22:42 / 05.12.05
In the last two days...

someone burgled mono's house

someone did the whole "heavy breathing" pervert call to my mum's house (bless her... she phoned me first cos she thought I might be really sick and phoned but wasn't able to speak...) which is ESPECIALLY fucked cos she only told me a couple of years ago about the really nasty threatening calls she got just after my dad died...

LOOK. Forces of darkness, wherever you may be. You're REALLY pissing me off now. I'm not entirely sure how yet, but if you keep fucking with the people I care about, I'll... I'll... well, it won't be nice, anyway. Fuckers.
 
  

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