Comment by atombender
17 days ago
> IIRC earning 90k per year puts you in the top 1%.
According to the public data for 2023-2024, top 1% is around £180-200k, so you're off by quite a bit. £90k is around 5-6%. This is gross, not net.
In the U.S., the top 1% is around $570-600k according to 2024 census numbers.
Fine. I'll take top 5%.
In the mind of probably at least 75% electorate, the top 5% are filthy rich who should make up any tax shortfall. But also 90k puts you, I believe, out of reach of all the services I listed above.
I'm all for paying tax, and even more tax if need be, where I get equal access to services. But not when I'm literally excluded for paying more tax.
Interestingly, according to an FT article, high earners in the UK pay comparable amounts of tax as they would on the "high tax" continent. It is the low earners who oay substantially less, bringing down the effective average. But they in turn pay outsized housing rent, so arent better off either.
Renting doesn’t go to government but to landlords and aristocracy
To maybe explain the confusion, there’s a difference between national and global. I bet it is true that if you earn 90k/year in the UK then you are in the global 1%, but that is different from what most people in the UK mean when they talk about “the 1%”.