Is It Right To Say Rip Off Britain?

russellsnr

russellsnr

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Russell
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When I find something is more expensive here than somewhere else I rant and rave about robbing bastards ripping us all off.

When I find something cheaper here than elsewhere I congratulate myself foe being very clever and astute despite the robbing bastards ripping us all off.

I.O.W. - selective memory and confirmation bias.

So no, probably not.
 
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I have said for a long time "ripoff Britain".

Now the fun starts ?.
 
Yes.
Rail ticket prices.
bus ticket prices.
Petrol /diesel prices.
Gas/Electirc prices
Any ferry fares where there is no competition.
Quality street/celebrations tin sizes getting smaller every year and always the same price.

Thats just for starters.
 
If we are getting ripped off someone is making loads of money and most of the things mentioned above are from publicly quoted companies, so if they are ripping us off and making loads of money, why not go an buy shares in those companies and then you get back a share of the profits they make from ripping you off?
 
DorsetDude said:
Yes.

Quality street/celebrations tin sizes getting smaller every year and always the same price.
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This is my big bugbear - papers often report on this, or Mars bars getting smaller etc...

Have people not heard of inflation? Generally, prices go up over the years (ok, there are exceptions like technology) - A tub of Quality St should go up in price each year, the price of raw materials like cocoa products has I believe increased. I assume that the staff there get a pay rise each year and that needs to come from somewhere. So the option is either to reduce the size or increase the price.

Sure, things like rail fares are a rip off when you look at the cost and quality of service but there are things that are not a rip off in Britain.
 
I all ways used to think that we are rip off Britain but after pricing an iPad in the USA and adding there tax the price difference wasn’t as bad as it first seems. Again after driving from Spain to uk I found diesel was cheaper in Spain dearer in France.
 
A few things for me:

  • Fuel duty annoys me considering we are an oil producing nation, even if we do run a deficit now - although I doubt if Scotland alone would.
  • Landfill tax is ridiculous (related to next point) and it's criminal that VAT is charged on it in addition to the net. A tax on a tax should be a big no-no.
  • Waste to Energy needs to be far more accessible, especially in Scotland. Sturgeon keeps banging on about her love of the Nordic models - well stop crippling the waste industry with landfill tax (one of the first taxes to be devolved to Scotland).
  • Inheritance Tax is disgusting and really needs to end. Times have changed from when it was required.
  • Income Tax. It's a percentage, the more you earn the more you will pay by design. The percentage should be fixed. You shouldn't be disproportionately penalised for earning more. (Perhaps VAT should be reworked instead to help reduce tax for lower earners buying essentials and increase tax for higher earners buying non-essentials).
  • The insane imbalance between how much revenue is raised from motorists compared to the state of our roads.
  • How long it takes us to do repairs and construction. A simple job seems to take months in the UK whereas a huge task in say Japan takes days. It's an embarrassment.

Ahhhh, that's better....
 
The proportion of income that has to be spent on accommodation nowadays in the UK is surely the real 'rip off' with other costs and living expenses paling by comparison.
 
Cartus said:
The proportion of income that has to be spent on accommodation nowadays in the UK is surely the real 'rip off' with other costs and living expenses paling by comparison.
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Supply and demand - a number of factors here like: Lack of new housing to accommodate rising population or people living alone, smaller families (more divorces, more people living alone rather than with parents or married), older people living separately rather than with family, cost of land, buy to lets pushing prices up, not enough basic family houses - many seem to be flats or 4/5 beds, net migration (at 300k a year you need at a guess 50k homes just for that), people living longer...
 
I remember having a chat with a friend in the mid-1990s about the cost of Photoshop and how it was cheaper there even accounting for sales tax and currency exchange rate.

cambsno said:
So the option is either to reduce the size or increase the price.
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I’d rather they maintained the quality and increased the price to match. Better than having cheap crap.
 
cambsno said:
Supply and demand - a number of factors here like: Lack of new housing to accommodate rising population or people living alone, smaller families (more divorces, more people living alone rather than with parents or married), older people living separately rather than with family, cost of land, buy to lets pushing prices up, not enough basic family houses - many seem to be flats or 4/5 beds, net migration (at 300k a year you need at a guess 50k homes just for that), people living longer...
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It is of course largely due to supply and demand but I think the OP was referring to 'Rip off Britain' in the context of the TV programme and the cost of consumer goods...

With regard to the cost of UK property there are additional economic and political factors at work as well but I feel overall we are 'ripped off' in many respects these days least by our politicians who largely appear to work to serve their own interests and create a society where the unwary or less able will indeed be ripped off.
 
wave01 said:
I all ways used to think that we are rip off Britain but after pricing an iPad in the USA and adding there tax the price difference wasn’t as bad as it first seems.
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There are other things that are way more expensive in the US than here. My brother in law lives in Florida; his broadband/tv package is almost $200 a month. He can’t believe we get a similar service over here for under £40.
 
boogie man said:
There are other things that are way more expensive in the US than here. My brother in law lives in Florida; his broadband/tv package is almost $200 a month. He can’t believe we get a similar service over here for under £40.
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Same everywhere. My dad used to boast about how cheap council tax is in Cyprus, but food is much more generally.
 
And vehicle insurance is amazingly expensive in both US and Canada. In the mid 2000s guys I knew in Houston were paying around $300/month for an ordinary car. Our 30YO son's minivan is currently costing 3000CAD/year to insure in Whistler BC. Canada is generally a LOT more expensive than the UK for almost everything except fuel for day-to-day living.
 
I wonder if the salaries and tax deducted in other others will be similar, more or less for equivalent jobs to allow for the differences in cost of living?
 
I think our taxation levels have an overbearing effect on ALL prices.
 
Denmark is rated as one of the happiest countries and is one of the highest taxed.
 
boogie man said:
There are other things that are way more expensive in the US than here. My brother in law lives in Florida; his broadband/tv package is almost $200 a month. He can’t believe we get a similar service over here for under £40.
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Full whack for Sky TV plus BT broadband here are close to $200 pm.
 
viv1969 said:
Full whack for Sky TV plus BT broadband here are close to $200 pm.
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Ok maybe if you get the full fat version of Sky with every bell and whistle, but I’m just talking about a basic tv plus broadband package here. He doesn’t have masses of extra movie or sports channels.

We’re on a fairly basic virgin fibre deal with 100meg broadband, landline, tv box and about 80 odd tv channels (if you count all the assorted telesales and babestation crap). That’s £40 a month. He’s not getting much more than us, (if anything he’s probably getting a load more useless channels like more telesales and public broadcast channels) but pays $200.
 
I don't see any point in comparing the UK with the US unless you factor in salaries/wages and taxes too. AFAIK, these are levied at Federal and state level, with some local jurisdictions imposing further sales tax? Other states have no sales tax.
 
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You have to look at the systems holistically - somethings cost more here, some less. It's the same everywhere. You can get your printer for less than a tenth of the cost in the US, but let's hope you don't put your back out when unloading it, as that's going to cost you a whole heap more :)

That said, in a global market, with border controls so easily evaded, importing means you could choose to pick 'n mix to a certain extent, but that's a whole other debate.
 
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