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C19 | The silver spooner's silver linings...

Found this interesting - obv infowars is both an easy and justified target and of course there is a sea of bullshit out there, but the use of this crisis by the BBC media editor to reinforce that you can trust the established media like the BBC and CNN, not like the rest

BBC News - Coronavirus and a fake news pandemic
 
I also think we will see a sharp increase in the comfortably off taking PMI, long term care insurances and so on, although that is more accelerating an existing trend
 
3. Popping the housing bubble and releasing property onto the market for "Generation Rent" ensuring their "buy in" to the system for the coming decades.

That's not likely to be a benefit, even if you're an evil capitalist. Too many things are leveraged against house prices in this country. Getting generation rent on side is less important than keeping property-owning boomers on side, and any meaningful fall in property values could kick off a chain reaction of buy-to-let types being put out of business and selling up, flooding the market further etc etc. Banks, insurance companies etc then take a hit, and then everything else goes down the drain in short order.
 
Most buy to let portfolios are under ten houses and if existing landlords pull out and sell up that is easily remedied by govt reintroducing the tax benefits that have been chipped away to encourage a new cohort of amateur property investors, so doubt they are concerned about that. Even at govt level there is an understanding house prices have to fall in real terms (ie house price inflation below actual inflation)
 
That's not likely to be a benefit, even if you're an evil capitalist. Too many things are leveraged against house prices in this country. Getting generation rent on side is less important than keeping property-owning boomers on side, and any meaningful fall in property values could kick off a chain reaction of buy-to-let types being put out of business and selling up, flooding the market further etc etc. Banks, insurance companies etc then take a hit, and then everything else goes down the drain in short order.

Sure, they can't pop it themselves, but if it gets popped by the boomer remover then it releases a lot of currently unproductive capital back into circulation and secures the acquiesce of the next generation.
 
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Spending on old age pensions is around £120 billion, and around 12% of Government spending. Then there's disability benefits, housing benefits, tax credits etc. There is a crisis in social care and housing, both would be alleviated by a large drop in numbers of older people or those with serious health conditions . In addition I think all those inheritences freeing up stagnant money, and the potential tax take from that would override any Government concern about a temporary drop in house prices. Then there's savings to the NHS from some of the most vulnerable and expensive patients disappearing, the same applies to social services. Even before you get to political opportunism, the fiscal savings of a large outbreak in the long term could be enormous, I find it hard to believe that someone behind the scenes at the Treasury isn't totting all this up and salivating.

I don't actually believe this is the key thing driving Government policy though. I think it's more like a family with a very rich and very old relative. It's not that anyone actually wants them to die, it's just perhaps it would be a bit of a blessing really and it would be nice to get going on the new extension before the Summer's out.
 
9000 neo fascists had a meeting in Spain last weekend. We can hope there was plenty of handshaking, and even tears of joy that were wiped away.

The secretary general has got it, Oh dear.

 
Spending on old age pensions is around £120 billion, and around 12% of Government spending. Then there's disability benefits, housing benefits, tax credits etc. There is a crisis in social care and housing, both would be alleviated by a large drop in numbers of older people or those with serious health conditions . In addition I think all those inheritences freeing up stagnant money, and the potential tax take from that would override any Government concern about a temporary drop in house prices. Then there's savings to the NHS from some of the most vulnerable and expensive patients disappearing, the same applies to social services. Even before you get to political opportunism, the fiscal savings of a large outbreak in the long term could be enormous, I find it hard to believe that someone behind the scenes at the Treasury isn't totting all this up and salivating.

I don't actually believe this is the key thing driving Government policy though. I think it's more like a family with a very rich and very old relative. It's not that anyone actually wants them to die, it's just perhaps it would be a bit of a blessing really and it would be nice to get going on the new extension before the Summer's out.

Tory governments are the last people wanting to kill old people imo
 
9000 neo fascists had a meeting in Spain last weekend. We can hope there was plenty of handshaking, and even tears of joy that were wiped away.

The secretary general has got it, Oh dear.

Presumably when the party folds due to enormous fall in membership numbers, headlines will announce VOX POPS
 
Spending on old age pensions is around £120 billion, and around 12% of Government spending. Then there's disability benefits, housing benefits, tax credits etc. There is a crisis in social care and housing, both would be alleviated by a large drop in numbers of older people or those with serious health conditions . In addition I think all those inheritences freeing up stagnant money, and the potential tax take from that would override any Government concern about a temporary drop in house prices. Then there's savings to the NHS from some of the most vulnerable and expensive patients disappearing, the same applies to social services. Even before you get to political opportunism, the fiscal savings of a large outbreak in the long term could be enormous, I find it hard to believe that someone behind the scenes at the Treasury isn't totting all this up and salivating.

I don't actually believe this is the key thing driving Government policy though. I think it's more like a family with a very rich and very old relative. It's not that anyone actually wants them to die, it's just perhaps it would be a bit of a blessing really and it would be nice to get going on the new extension before the Summer's out.
The number of deaths of pensioners, while high, is nowhere near enough to save the government money when you consider the effect this is going to have on the economy.

I hate selfish Tories as much as the next person, but it's venturing into a caricature to think they're loving this situation.

If you look at the figures, it's only around 6% of pensioners who die from this. The rest survive, carrying on their 'burden', and they will be joined by the additional burden of everyone else who was caught up in this and if SARS is any indication, may now have additional health problems.

So we have saved money on 6% of pensioners care, but in the meantime, we've absolutely wrecked the economy for what looks like it might be 6 months - maybe longer? - and added loads of sick, younger people to the NHS's books.

I am not able to do the sums, but I imagine this is far, far costlier than looking after some old poor people.
 
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