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Comment by TimPC | Hacker News Reader

It's not obvious governments have more money than ever, at least not relative to costs. The age of the population is going up and that makes some services like healthcare far more expensive. If governments really wanted to they could find the money to keep quality constant, but it would actually involve both making a choice and getting more money than the government previously had.

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Governments are powerless because the rich are becoming increasingly adept at not paying taxes. Same goes for companies.

I suppose it's not really new. Many English kings had to beg their robber barons for money.

If the UK seized the entire wealth of every billionaire it would not even cover one years deficit. The issue is bigger than just the rich.

The trick people are learning is to not give their money to the billionaires, people are shunning combustion engined vehicles in droves enough to force opec to look at the books and futures and it's only going to increase from now on.

Conservatives are anti-taxation and pro self-reliance, the only groups who are geting their taxes increased are the Labour voting public sector workers who love a sytm of taxation because it has benefitted them and put them up the ladder.

Money is never something governments "have." They collect and spend, not necessarily in that order.

Accordingly, "their" costs inevitably exceed revenue. It is obvious they're spending more than ever.

Correct, and the Conservative governemnt have done a stellar job of taxing, cutting, and stealth-taxing the public sector who all voted Labour 1997-2010 for their own benefit to get annual 15% pay increases. Just look at Leeds area who were predominantly Labour hotbed who were clearly punished by the Tories and had their HS2 train route cancelled, and have been cut more than most areas. If you are a Labour borough 1997-2010+ you are going to receive the biggest cuts and least support from the Tories, likewise under Labour 1997-2010 Tory boroughs were slammed too.

people don't mind about healthcare in england, they are gambling on the probable likelyhood of staying healthy, whereas housing prices, and unemployment was out of their control under labour.

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