Since the spending is debt-financed, we haven't been fleeced yet. And the more resourceful among us are no doubt taking steps to avoid doing so. There is no way I will be in the UK by the time the higher tax bands take force in 2011, for example. I am quite looking forward to a risk-free 67% increase in income due to no longer having to subsidize thick layabouts and spongers via the tax system. As for the government not getting paid back, who are you kidding? The man always gets his cash - and you and other residents of G20 high-tax welfare-state nations are the ones who will foot the bill. Either by inflation, taxation, or stagnation, you will pay. If you are broke, you don't become a "winner" because you managed to fleece someone out of a bit of cash during your downward spiral to poverty. You just become a thieving loser as opposed to an honest loser. The jails and welfare housing projects of the west are full of people who thought otherwise. Also, you should be careful when bragging about crime, it is one of the most common ways criminals get caught. Your IP address is almost certainly registered on here, for example, and if the site-owner frowns on theft, what is to stop him tracking you down, finding your home address, and giving the local police a call? Take some advice from me - there is a reason why there are very few rich and/or happy middle-aged criminals, and that is because crime is a poorly paying, risky, dangerous choice. If you live that way consistently, you are highly likely to fuck up your life. If you only do it on occasion, make sure to keep it quiet rather than announcing it to a message board read by hundreds of thousands of people.
Staying legit is far more profitable on average than going criminal. The best "hustle" is not to be a hustler - only dumb uneducated slum boys think otherwise.
Mate your forgetting that trading in the UK is tax free... So i seriously cant wait for huge huge 50%+ tax to hit the nation, as i will be even more smug then as my income is exempt for any sort of tax. And dont you know anything abvout economics mate?? :eek: Inflation hurts cautious savers, usually middleaged and old people, who have worked hard for all their life and been cautious instead of reckless, and so hold property and assesets, not people who took out thousands of quid on creditcards and never paid it back. Its the people who took out the thousands on CCs and never paid it back that would actually celebrate hyper inflation!! HAHA
Oh and i just read the 2nd bit of your post about tracking my ip address and ''the police getting me for confessing my crime''.... But it looks like you either didnt read my previous post, or you just arent very educated about the law. So il help you out- In the UK not paying back CCs, even if its 100% intentional and planned, IS NOT a crime. It falls under 'Civil law', not 'Criminal law', and so you CANNOT be arrested or imprisoned for no-repayment of debt. Furthermore, the only sort of enforceable debt is 'non payment of council tax'. If you dont pay that the baliffs can go into your house and take your stuff. But for creditcard debt theres nothing anything or anyone can do. (Just how the law is)
Morality is an instinct that happens to be critical for group survival. Since the group is not the self, and there are numerous examples of self-sacrificing activity motivated by the interests of others *contrary* to the individual involved, your first claim is proven wrong. The categorical imperative is common to all major moral systems and instinctively subscribed to by most human beings, so your second claim is wrong too. You cite an example where moral duty is used as justification to abrogate moral duty, which you said does not exist. That's rather contradictory. No one said self-interest always meshes with morality or group interest. At the times where it clashes, each person must make their own decision. Bear in mind that other people may not agree with you, and will do things like enforce laws or social penalties designed to discourage such self-serving behaviour committed at the expense of others. In any case, I think it is safe to say that no one posting on this thread is at a point where they are facing a choice between immorality or death.
Trading isn't tax-free. Spread-betting is, but then you pay a lot more in spreads to the dealer - usually a lot more than you would pay in tax with competitive commissions and spreads. And seriously, how long do you think that little speculator-friendly tax loophole is going to last, given the current "hang the financiers" mood in the country? Wouldn't surprise me if it's gone in a year or two. Inflation hurts savers, something you will probably become if you manage to accumulate any capital via trading or other work. The only people it really benefits are those who borrow a lot and then invest it into inflation-hedges. But that strategy requires credit-worthiness - something you will not have if you build up a record of debt-defaults. If you think high inflation is good for the poor and the casually indebted individual, I invite you to look at what happened to those groups in high inflation periods from the past and present. Generally they don't benefit from it, as they possess no assets which might have gone up, and their employment prospects are lower because owners of capital are too busy sending money out of the country to spend it on building up companies and creating jobs. The poor in Zimbabwe are not exactly prospering, whereas in Switzerland they do pretty well. In any case, the most likely outcome is higher tax and stagnant growth, neither of which will be good for you when you go job-hunting. Regarding your other post, maybe you are right that intentional CC default is not a crime. Still, as a general principle it is not a good idea to brag about it. There's no upside to you doing it, and there could be a downside. With the internet nowadays it's quite easy for your reputation to get damaged if you do something that lots of people disapprove of, and employers do check online for this kind of thing. But if you don't wish to take that advice, hey it's no skin off my nose.
Spanish89, You surprised me in this thread a bit as you seemed like an OK person and a decent trader in your other trading related thread. However your complete disregard for personal responsibility and integrity has lost that respect. Just because a law doesn't make it illegal to do what you have done does not make it right. A man has his word and integrity and a real man values and respects that. Some believe that that is all we truly have in this life. You have sold yours out for a few extra bucks because it's legal. You should rethink the way you approach life or one day you may really regret this. Not to mention it is not just yourself that you are hurting but everyone in society. These types of actions make it harder for everyone to get loans. Unsecured, stated, credit loans are very useful for the responsible person and it's actions like the ones you have taken that can ruin it for everyone.
If there's only a few, then they're not normal, they would be exceptional. We're all animals and most of us are capable of anything. To deny this is extremely naive.
The big difference is one of consent. No one consents to pay 90% tax, no one consents to a draft. EVERY customer of credit card companies consented to get into debt and agreed to the terms and conditions. Doing something harmful against someone's consent is generally considered immoral. Whereas the consent of a counterparty is generally a pretty good justification for doing the activity in question. To use your analogy correctly, you would have to apply it to someone who *voluntarily moved* to a country which had 90% tax...and then later complained about paying it. Or someone who volunteered for the army, then wanted to quit as soon as a war broke out. What would you think of such a person? I'd think they were pretty fucking dumb, to be honest. I don't see any problem with calling them a loser, deadbeat, hypocrite, yellow-belly etc.