London mayor Johnson getting downright ugly about the gap between the rich and the poor

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has dismissed the vision of economic equality in Britain - by saying some people are too stupid.

"Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85," Mr Johnson said in a speech.

"While about 2% have an IQ above 130."

Mr Johnson made the comments at the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) on Wednesday night, in a speech that sought to highlight the benefits from inequality.

http://news.sky.com/story/1174637/boris-johnson-says-some-people-too-stupid



He also, um ... appears to be saying that you can't help the poor without having a class of greedy, wastefully wealthy people ... :\\:[:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has dismissed the vision of economic equality in Britain - by saying some people are too stupid.

"Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85," Mr Johnson said in a speech.

"While about 2% have an IQ above 130."

Mr Johnson made the comments at the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) on Wednesday night, in a speech that sought to highlight the benefits from inequality.

http://news.sky.com/story/1174637/boris-johnson-says-some-people-too-stupid



He also, um ... appears to be saying that you can't help the poor without having a class of greedy, wastefully wealthy people ... :\\:[:

Those sort of people couldn't give a stuff about the poor Ben....I have never ever known it to be so bad in this country, they want a return to the Victorian times where if you can't make ends meet then you just have to starve to death, we never had that in this country, there would always be a safety net in the form of short term state interest free loans and that has gone now, the government pays towards your rent if you are on a low income but i can't see that lasting for much longer tbf.

I don't think that you've ever had a free health service in the US?.....Is Obamacare the first venture for the US in that area?

What did the poor do in the past if they got ill in the US?

Well, not even Obamacare is a free health service -- it's a requirement that A) insurance companies, which are privately owned companies, sell insurance to everyone regardless of their health and B) that everyone have an insurance policy, either through one of these companies or through one of our government health plans. If you don't make much money, however, you can now get a plan that's deeply discounted.

The government health plans have been around for a while, but they don't cover everyone. Our version of Medicare is for people over the age of 65, and we have a plan called Medicaid which is for very low-income people. Then there are plans for current and past government employees, like military and Congressional government plans. It's a patchwork, somewhat like Switzerland has, but not nearly as regulated as the Swiss system.

That said, Obamacare is a positive step forward, because before, if you didn't have health insurance and got sick, you were basically stuck with a last resort of visiting a hospital emergency room. In the U.S. emergency rooms are required to accept you and treat you even if you can't pay, but they will bill you, which can ruin your credit rating. In the meantime, the companies that own the hospitals also usually run doctors' offices and clinics, and in order to make up for people not paying for emergency services, they've raised the prices on everything else.

So requiring people to have insurance is seen as a way to lower costs as those companies won't have to compensate for people who can't pay for their health care by raising prices.

Something like the NHS or Canadian or Australian Medicare would be vastly simpler and superior to Obamacare -- but it would probably cut way into health insurance corporations' profits, and we simply CANNOT have that here in America, where capitalism is the state religion ...

It's very obvious to me that when our National Health Service was divised we had an empire  ...After WW2 we owed so much money to the US, we paid back that debt though, since then many of the nations that we enslaved have quite rightfully become independent so we lost money there, this nations asset's and infrastructure has been sold off to cushion the blow over a few decades, things were going reasonably OK....Then the world wide bankers fucked everything up and made things much, much worse...All that and the rise of China, where they have become a lot more affluent has led to a strain on world wide food resources and that has led to price rises!

.....I don't know what is going on with the energy prices, the only thing that i can think about there is corporate greed.

Yeah, I think the requirement that capitalist societies basically have to keep expanding and exploiting will be their eventual demise. If we're not careful, the system will probably drag humanity down with it!

And I think high energy costs are both corporate greed and the fact that there's no more "easy oil." The days of digging a relatively simple hole a few hundred meters into the ground and tapping into a reservoir of fossil fuel deposits that will last for decades have essentially run out.

Hey, maybe someday our species will learn to plan for the future before crises come along!  

Ben_Reilly wrote:Well, not even Obamacare is a free health service -- it's a requirement that A) insurance companies, which are privately owned companies, sell insurance to everyone regardless of their health and B) that everyone have an insurance policy, either through one of these companies or through one of our government health plans. If you don't make much money, however, you can now get a plan that's deeply discounted.

The government health plans have been around for a while, but they don't cover everyone. Our version of Medicare is for people over the age of 65, and we have a plan called Medicaid which is for very low-income people. Then there are plans for current and past government employees, like military and Congressional government plans. It's a patchwork, somewhat like Switzerland has, but not nearly as regulated as the Swiss system.

That said, Obamacare is a positive step forward, because before, if you didn't have health insurance and got sick, you were basically stuck with a last resort of visiting a hospital emergency room. In the U.S. emergency rooms are required to accept you and treat you even if you can't pay, but they will bill you, which can ruin your credit rating. In the meantime, the companies that own the hospitals also usually run doctors' offices and clinics, and in order to make up for people not paying for emergency services, they've raised the prices on everything else.

So requiring people to have insurance is seen as a way to lower costs as those companies won't have to compensate for people who can't pay for their health care by raising prices.

Something like the NHS or Canadian or Australian Medicare would be vastly simpler and superior to Obamacare -- but it would probably cut way into health insurance corporations' profits, and we simply CANNOT have that here in America, where capitalism is the state religion ...

Hmmm.....Thanks for the education Ben, i wasn't aware of any of that tbf....I think that our national parties was to steer us towards the US model in this country in reality.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Yeah, I think the requirement that capitalist societies basically have to keep expanding and exploiting will be their eventual demise. If we're not careful, the system will probably drag humanity down with it!

And I think high energy costs are both corporate greed and the fact that there's no more "easy oil." The days of digging a relatively simple hole a few hundred meters into the ground and tapping into a reservoir of fossil fuel deposits that will last for decades have essentially run out.

Hey, maybe someday our species will learn to plan for the future before crises come along!  

It doesn't worry me that in this country and in other Western democracies people are living longer, what worries me is that certainly in this country, old age pensions can't be sustained (or so they say)....With rising prices the most poorest in society will not be able to heat their homes or even feed themselves properly and this will hit the poorest pensioners first that will be dying in their droves this winter....This will eventually filter down to the middle aged poor, many of whom are working but are in poorly paid jobs and are already having to rely on food banks as it is to make ends meet....I don't want to go on further because this is making me fell depressed...

I feel lucky that i have an inheritance and some kind of future ahead.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Yeah, I think the requirement that capitalist societies basically have to keep expanding and exploiting will be their eventual demise. If we're not careful, the system will probably drag humanity down with it!

And I think high energy costs are both corporate greed and the fact that there's no more "easy oil." The days of digging a relatively simple hole a few hundred meters into the ground and tapping into a reservoir of fossil fuel deposits that will last for decades have essentially run out.

Hey, maybe someday our species will learn to plan for the future before crises come along!  

It doesn't worry me that in this country and in other Western democracies people are living longer, what worries me is that certainly in this country, old age pensions can't be sustained (or so they say)....With rising prices the most poorest in society will not be able to heat their homes or even feed themselves properly and this will hit the poorest pensioners first that will be dying in their droves this winter....This will eventually filter down to the middle aged poor, many of whom are working but are in poorly paid jobs and are already having to rely on food banks as it is to make ends meet....I don't want to go on further because this is making me fell depressed...

I feel lucky that i have an inheritance and some kind of future ahead.

...I fear that we are seeing a modern day holocaust....Perhaps history will judge this period in time in the same way.

I feel that this issue is in Western Economies and is the natural shift as the larger economies of Asia industrialize. We in Australia fortunately are being propped up by our strong relationship and economic ties with China, India and the rest of Asia.

keep in mind for the majority of the last 2000 years Asia has been vastly more powerful than Western Nations. its only been a couple of centuries where Europeans have had power/wealth and that was due to our earlier adoption of industrialization. Japan was the first Asian nation to Industrialize and it took over half of East Asia before/during WW2 and was only stopped when it had to face Other Industrial nations.

while there is some truth is some of his statements (yes it easier if you are smarter, I know I have it easier than friends that are not that bright) it doesn't change the fact the gap between the wealth and poor is growing to an unfair level and the vast majority of Wealth is not earned, it is inherited even if you are smart you need money to make money, and you need a lot of money to make a lot money.

I think you hit on something profound there, veya. This guy and his fellow travelers take a few things that are true under certain circumstances (especially when you're applying them to some individuals and not the population as a whole, as in the case of motivations to achieve) and try to make them into Supreme Laws of the Universe.

An example from here in the States is the conservative faith that cutting taxes is always, always good. You can see the difference between them and everyone else when you realize their opponents don't believe the opposite (that raising taxes is always good). There are situations where tax cuts are effective and situations where they are not, but the right doesn't tend to take this nuanced view because, I think, their brains simply don't work that way: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sahil-kapur/key-difference-between-mo_b_175535.html

I think it's also they like to point to one factor and say 'look, that's the reason'

For example the fallacy that 'it takes hardwork to be successful'
it really takes a combination of;
hard work
luck
education
intelligence
money
social contacts

And thats all in a Western society like ours, if you're in a 3rd world nation you gonna need things like Food security and shelter first.

veya_victaous wrote:I think it's also they like to point to one factor and say 'look, that's the reason'

For example the fallacy that 'it takes hardwork to be successful'
it really takes a combination of;
hard work
luck
education
intelligence
money
social contacts

And thats all in a Western society like ours, if you're in a 3rd world nation you gonna need things like Food security and shelter first.

You are bang on the money there Veya!

The gap between rich and poor now means that hard work alone is not enough to make you successful if you are working class, many poorer working kids are forced to live at home just to be able to make ends meet and don't have much opportunities to get on the property ladder because the salaries are now so low, i say salaries....But the facts of the matter are that we have mostly temporary/part time jobs here in London and zero hours contracts where you don't even know how many hours you are going to get each week  

As i've said on a previous thread, my brother is keen to get out of the banking sector because he's sick of the pressure, he's earned his pension since he has worked there since leaving school....He wants to branch out into property development....That could only ever be achieved with a lump sum of money to get started, there will be that massive sum once we sell our mums house in Spain and if we pull our resources we could set up a company.

My mums house is also packed out with antique furniture, that was her hobby in life...There are some pieces that i would never sell no matter what, but other stuff where by we would have to sell them, there would be just too much to ship back to the UK.

@Catman: Marry me?

You guys got me to thinking about a study I once read about economic mobility here in the so-called land of opportunity.

To quote the Wikipedia article on that:

Only 4% of those raised in the bottom quintile to the top quintile as adults, and only 8% of children born into the top quintile fall to the bottom. These findings have led researchers to conclude that "opportunity structures create and determine future generations' changes for success. Hence, our lot in life is at least partially determined by where we grow up, and this is partially determined by where our parents grew up, and so on."

But shush, don't tell conservatives that

Ben_Reilly wrote:@Catman: Marry me?

You guys got me to thinking about a study I once read about economic mobility here in the so-called land of opportunity.

To quote the Wikipedia article on that:

Only 4% of those raised in the bottom quintile to the top quintile as adults, and only 8% of children born into the top quintile fall to the bottom. These findings have led researchers to conclude that "opportunity structures create and determine future generations' changes for success. Hence, our lot in life is at least partially determined by where we grow up, and this is partially determined by where our parents grew up, and so on."

But shush, don't tell conservatives that

Completely right!    You have to be really exceptional to overcome poverty and rise to the top.   You also need an awful lot of luck.   Its very rare.

Welcome aboard, Sassy!

Ben_Reilly wrote:Welcome aboard, Sassy!

Thanks, can I ask, were you Debunker?

Yes, welcome, Sassy!

I was not Debunker, but I'll tell you who I've been I started off on this wonderful news forums career of mine at Shortnews.com way back in 2004, I believe it was, going by the monker sbenglish. That site had a points system with stars, and once I reached the top rating, I started going by l'anglais; worked my way to the top rating again and changed to Ben_Reilly, my username ever since. I was also Ben at the defunct NewsHabit.net.

By the way, nice avatar, Lurker!

Sassy wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Welcome aboard, Sassy!

Thanks, can I ask, were you Debunker?

 ....Methinks i will have to send you an email 

@ben
didn't know you were l'anglais

@lurker
lolz @ avatar

...Hopefully not an imposter!

veya_victaous wrote:@ben
didn't know you were l'anglais

Yep! That was back when I was far angrier, if you can imagine that ...

Thanks to everybody for liking my avatar. I thought it was cool!

You mean with all the stuff that is going on now you are not still angry?   I flippin am!!!!!!!

Sassy wrote:You mean with all the stuff that is going on now you are not still angry?   I flippin am!!!!!!!

Got your email!

This is the real Sassy! 

Catman wrote:

Sassy wrote:You mean with all the stuff that is going on now you are not still angry?   I flippin am!!!!!!!

Got your email!

This is the real Sassy! 

It definitely is LOL.   You can't keep a good woman down.

Lurker wrote:Thanks to everybody for liking my avatar. I thought it was cool!

I think it's great, like the sense of humour.   Mine is a painting I did.

Sassy wrote:

Catman wrote:

Sassy wrote:You mean with all the stuff that is going on now you are not still angry?   I flippin am!!!!!!!

Got your email!

This is the real Sassy! 

It definitely is LOL.   You can't keep a good woman down.

..There was a recent episode with Didge being impersonated on here, the debunker quote made me question your true identity because i think that Big Andy was doing a lot of impersonations on here.

It was just because I was on the phone to SM and she said she thought she was registered on it, and wasn't it the one DB started.

Back to Boris LOL.   How do you put up with him as Mayor, really nasty piece of work.

Sassy wrote:Mine is a painting I did.

Ooh, please link to a larger version -- I like it!

Sassy wrote:It was just because I was on the phone to SM and she said she thought she was registered on it, and wasn't it the one DB started.

Back to Boris LOL.   How do you put up with him as Mayor, really nasty piece of work.

She is registered on here, as i said on Speakfree, when i last got banned from Flap it was because i linked to this site, Dean had a look and knew that it was me and then someone started registering names on here from Flap....I think it's Big Andy, he did the same on the Sky and ADO forums...My tag has been interfered with on more than one occasion over the years, when i've resigned and other times where different letters were used to impersonate my tag.

.....With regards to Boris, we have no choice but to put up with him, same as this wretched government and i'm sure that you would agree!