[steamship]

A very interesting topic of discussion, with some excellent comments and some things that I can relate to.

Originally Posted by tintin

It's rare these days - almost unheard of - for people to publicly talk about the value of supporting others or of society in general.

I've noticed this lack of support through instances with my nephew. Since he was a teenager, he's been working on building sites. Just over a year ago, he decided he would go out on his own, and the reaction from his peers was... hatred. He was clearing a large farm site and one of the building had asbestos roofing. He had gone through all the proper training and got the qualifications for removing it. Literally a day after completing it, someone reported him for dumping asbestos. The site was sealed off while a detailed inspection of all the land was carried out.

Another less serious incident, but still shows the mentality of people. His cousin also works on a building site, driving a teleporter. Most of drive around in battered old cars full of tools and all the crap of the day in them. He meanwhile scrimped and saved, and bought himself a fairly new Merc. Nothing flash, but still a significant change. All he got from his 'friends' has been nothing but criticism.

As tintin said, no one seems to care about anyone but themselves anymore.

Originally Posted by 1781cc

As for the comments about getting clean water. All of us could be more charitable and help the poor more. Who needs more than one car? several of us have more than one car, what about selling a car and donating that money to a clean water charity?

Thought as much

So far as being more charitable, I think it's the multi-national companies raking in billions that need to be more charitable. I reckon the man in the street, or the man with two cars already does enough for charities, except they don't do it for the advertising or the tax deductions they can get. Most of us on here have worked our nuts off to buy the cars we drive, even if they are 10 or more years old. I know I'd like a D4 S8, but chances are that I won't be able to afford one for another 10 years.

The drinking water is a good example. There have many ads on TV asking for donations to provide clean drinking waters to people in developing countries, and it's the man in the street that does the donating. Contrast that to what the chairman of Nestle said when he proposed that all water should be privatised. A basic human right that everyone needs to survive, and we have a company with a turnover of 65 billion dollars that wants to privatise water, so they can sell it to you in a bottle.

Originally Posted by Dezzy

I just couldn't work out then why they were so willing to bankrupt my little business when Google, Amazon, Starbucks, Vision Express, Mcdonalds and the likes are ok not to pay theirs.

Exactly, the same government that hunts you down for every penny you owe them, no matter what the outcome to you, whilst at the same time allowing companies like Google, Amazon, Starbucks and the like to make billions, and not pay any tax at all. I've even read somewhere of some of these companies receiving tax refunds.

An example I just read about last night, which I've heard of similar circumstances before, and also one that I've been at the wrong end of, the thorny issue of child support. In this instance, we had a father who was paying child support, but for whatever reason, he fell behind in his payment. The result, he received a letter demanding immediate payment... of 5cents. That's roughly 2p for us.

We live in a society controlled by greed. Greed whereby governments impose tax after tax on those less able to afford it, whilst grovelling to the multi-nationals and offering them incentives to set up shop here. And when questioned about it, they talk about how much revenue comes into the country as a result and how much better off the country is as a result. I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't seen any prosperity brought about by not taxing those who can afford it.

Apologies if my response is a little 'heated', but it's one of those things that gets to me.