In Episode 1229, The Load Eaters discuss the prospect of the UK being taxed into oblivion, the dangers of open borders, and how to spot a 'high social IQ' in a social IQ test. Plus, we explore the concept of the Fellaheen, the people at the end of history.
00:12:13.700No wonder the wholesaling, retailing and hotels and restaurants sector is going to boom.
00:12:22.580Also, if you have a government that has open borders and also opts for welfarism and says that lots of
00:12:31.840people who come here illegally need to be placed in hotels and they're paying hotels also with taxpayer
00:12:38.180money, obviously hotels are going to show regular annual growth.
00:12:42.960But of course, that's going to be disproportionately weighted towards the ones that have contracts
00:12:47.960with the state because there are many hotels and hotel chains that aren't going to do that. And because of the
00:12:54.700state of the economy, I imagine internal tourism is down. And so actually, it's going to be very much
00:12:59.940weighted to the hotels that have sold our country down the river and betrayed us. And that's kind of
00:13:06.780unfortunate. Right. Also, we see here that the public sector seems to show a high growth of salary.
00:13:17.780It says public sector pay grew by 5.7%, while private sector pay slipped from 4.9% to 4.8%, which I think is worrying.
00:13:29.440Mm hmm. Right. It shows a steady economic centralization tendency, which I consider to be particularly detrimental.
00:13:38.440I think it's also bad that they're getting such a significant pay cut at the expense of the private sector that has to prop it up. And, you know, I would like everyone to earn good money. So it's not necessarily jealousy. I mean, that's public sector also includes things like firefighters and ambulance staff. So, you know, obviously, I'm going to be grateful towards them, but also include civil servants to which I go, ugh.
00:14:02.920And policemen. But there is also the other issue, Josh, and I'm sure you will agree with this, is that when it comes to the public sector, lots of prices aren't determined spontaneously, as they would be in a relatively free market. They very likely they reflect the choice of bureaucrats to try and gather political support.
00:14:29.040Well, there's no profits or losses to determine values. Therefore, it's harder to allocate resources. That's the whole reason that the Soviet Union collapsed. You know, it's just in a much smaller, well, not so much smaller, but smaller scale.
00:14:46.220But also here we're talking about the per capita issue of how pay is distributed according to the population. It says total pay, which measures average wages, including bonuses, fell from 5% to 4.6% during the period. So less money per person.
00:15:04.820Right. Let's move onwards. Ministers target people not seeking work. This here is just complete gaslighting. Honestly, this is very frustrating.
00:15:19.940The government needs to bring more people out of economic activity and into work, a labor education minister has said.
00:15:26.740Now, pause for a minute. And let's, for instance, talk about, you know, welfarism. One of the negative aspects of welfarism is that you are creating a culture of dependency. The more you opt for this, the greater you go for a social benefit, the more you go for increased social benefits, the more some people are going to say, well, what's the purpose in working?
00:15:52.720I'm just going to sit and I'm going to receive benefits because if I start working, I'm going to lose the benefits.
00:15:59.520In psychology, it's referred to as learned helplessness in that what you actually do by making someone dependent on you is you remove their ability to act in a way in which they can be self-sufficient.
00:16:13.660And this is why some African countries have actually said, no, we don't want foreign aid because we need to build up our own industries.
00:16:22.020Some of the more savvy ones, in fact, like actually, no, our dependence on foreign aid is actually hobbling us and we need to be self-sufficient because in the long run we'll be much better off.
00:16:32.380And I think that's true of people as well.
00:16:33.780I think that to a certain extent, you have to be somewhat cruel, cruel, to be kind and allow people to suffer the consequences of their own actions.
00:16:45.780Obviously not, you know, to a ridiculous degree, but just enough that it motivates them to better themselves.
00:16:52.620Exactly. But this rhetoric that the Labour Education Minister is using isn't the traditional rhetoric of proponents of a massive welfare state.
00:17:04.400In fact, it's quite the opposite. But they are opting for this in combination with open borders.
00:17:10.360And there are, what is it, 20% of welfare recipients of foreign nationals.
00:17:19.500First, jobs slow down may be abetting. Payrolls dropped to the lowest level in nearly two years, but the pace of decline was the lowest since January.
00:17:28.940Let's move forward. That's about the...
00:17:32.600Right. Firms switch to contractors after Reeves' tax rate.
00:17:37.080Business owners are increasingly hiring contractors and virtual staff as they grapple with Rachel Reeves' tax rate.
00:17:43.620And we have here a chief executive at Moe Living saying,
00:17:47.940Since April's employers' national insurance hike, I've resisted taking on full-time staff.
00:17:54.420My property management business now runs entirely with 12 contractors and virtual assistants, both UK-based and overseas.
00:18:01.840The NI increase raised employment costs enough to tip the balance.
00:18:06.500Full-time hires mean fixed overheads, while contractors offer flexibility, scalability, and access to specialist skills without the commitment of salaries, holiday pay, or sick leave.
00:18:17.880This is precisely what the criticism of leftist economics is about.
00:18:25.140Stop thinking that your plans can't backfire.
00:18:28.340They constantly talk about the precariousness of the working class, and in their economic illiteracy, they're making people's lives, and especially the lives of members of the working class, more precarious.
00:18:44.780Because, of course, if you are a contractor, you don't have the guarantee of income you have if you're a full-time employee.
00:18:50.680And so it's riskier, you know, I'm a contractor, however, I don't have any dependents that I have to look after.
00:18:59.380And were I in that position, I would perhaps want something a bit more secure, because you want to be able to feed your own children, right?
00:19:06.060And moving to a contractor economy isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, but it doesn't suit everyone.
00:19:11.320And particularly if you're in that camp of having a family and wanting the security of regular income, you can't take the hit or the risks.
00:19:18.980Like I can, perhaps, then it's going to be awful for you.
00:19:23.480And also, you're going to need some of those benefits, things like, you know, national insurance and pension payments, all of that sort of stuff that you don't get when you're a contractor.
00:19:33.400And I will say this, the way I saw it in universities, universities have stopped hiring, more or less, they have stopped hiring regular staff, full-time staff, and they are opting for contractors.
00:19:47.460And there comes a time where they're saying, right, we either have to make you a full-time member, or we are going to stop our collaboration with you.
00:19:59.200And then you have to find another place.
00:20:01.340And yes, this doesn't particularly help people who want to settle down and have a family, because you need that kind of mobility.
00:20:07.520Right, the minister defends Reeves' tax rate on companies.
00:20:12.160Well, they're protecting and defending their own.