One man's eight-year effort to build a wooden ship by hand

Seven Spades said:
This is a really good illustration of the differences between the UK and US economies. Firstly no one here could afford to own their own warehouse/boat shed in which to construct a 42' boat and give up five years of their life to do it without working, the rates alone wold keep you in full time employment. I think it is so sad that the upfront costs of being in business here in the UK mean that so many marginal businesses simply cannot exist, we can no longer afford to allow vocational businesses to exist.
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Iirc there were several peasants revolts in the Middle Ages when taxation reached 50%.

If you include direct tax, indirect tax, tax on duty tax, tax on tax tax, tax tax tax, to comes out at about 75 % of your gross earnings....So you're just working to keep the politicians in their chaufer driven cars, and the unemployed in their four bedroomed west end council houses.
 
Seven Spades said:
This is a really good illustration of the differences between the UK and US economies. Firstly no one here could afford to own their own warehouse/boat shed in which to construct a 42' boat and give up five years of their life to do it without working, the rates alone wold keep you in full time employment. I think it is so sad that the upfront costs of being in business here in the UK mean that so many marginal businesses simply cannot exist, we can no longer afford to allow vocational businesses to exist.
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his parents are footing the bill

this looks like an indulgence rather than a business to me

he is a bit of a sponger

and if my parents would pay me to spend eight years building a wooden hull then that sounds like a pretty good deal

I am not sure that rates or politics have anything to do with it
 
The states: Earn twice as much ( in $), spend half as much ( cost of living).

No wonder all those European emigrants never returned.
 
Woodlouse said:
Go and tell them that in the slums of New Orleans. For a prosperous nation it's third world in places.
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Good point, but iirc New Orleans has the biggest percentage population of black inhabitants in the south, and those immigrants (slaves) came from Africa, not Europe. But worryingly, as you have pointed out, there is a sub-class of disenfranchised poor people in the states, and more and more in the UK on sink estates where the vast majority do not work, and indeed have not worked for several generations not through lifestyle choice, but lack of education.
 
rustybarge said:
Iirc there were several peasants revolts in the Middle Ages when taxation reached 50%.

If you include direct tax, indirect tax, tax on duty tax, tax on tax tax, tax tax tax, to comes out at about 75 % of your gross earnings....So you're just working to keep the politicians in their chaufer driven cars, and the unemployed in their four bedroomed west end council houses.
Click to expand...

I am not the biggest supporter of high taxation rates, but I suppose one ought to add to the chauffeur driven cars and four bedroom houses for the unemployed:
the entire police service, fire ambulance, doctors and hospitals, pensions, education for all, armed forces, roads, environmental health, border control, government veterinary inspections, waste disposal for all householders, and I haven't even put in any welfare benefits yet. Actually the list goes on for quite a bit more if one is interested but I suspect people might be glazing over.

The vast majority of government spending is pretty fixed. The levers for control aren't very effective - which comes as a surprise/shock to many reformers as they enter the house of commons full of zeal.

But I digress from the thread.
 
Seven Spades said:
This is a really good illustration of the differences between the UK and US economies. Firstly no one here could afford to own their own warehouse/boat shed in which to construct a 42' boat and give up five years of their life to do it without working, the rates alone wold keep you in full time employment. I think it is so sad that the upfront costs of being in business here in the UK mean that so many marginal businesses simply cannot exist, we can no longer afford to allow vocational businesses to exist.
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Lots of assumptions there - one big difference is that there's lots of room in the US of A and there are still quite a few rural inhabitants. Here in the UK we are overcrowded, over-urbanised and over-neurotic. We are also over-taxed, but that's another story.
Interestingly, he's found the cash to go to law-school, Fees alone range between $51K(Cornell) and $10.6(Brigham Young), excluding expenses which are between $5-8K and board $8-15K, so I guess his family are not short of cash.

Still, good luck to him - I wonder if he's knowingly following in Josh Slocum's footsteps (he built "Spray" with his own hands before his circumnavigation)
 
rustybarge said:
Iirc there were several peasants revolts in the Middle Ages when taxation reached 50%.

If you include direct tax, indirect tax, tax on duty tax, tax on tax tax, tax tax tax, to comes out at about 75 % of your gross earnings....So you're just working to keep the politicians in their chaufer driven cars, and the unemployed in their four bedroomed west end council houses.
Click to expand...

I do worry about your maths - the mean rate of taxation in the UK (for a working person) is just under 65%, if you include NIC, Income Tax, VAT and allowance for Council Tax. Most Scandinavians pay more and the most highly taxed country in Europe is France, though this tends to fall most heavily on businesses.

Perhaps we Brits are not sufficiently revolting. ;-)
 
What gets me is why it even made it onto the BBC website. How many home-grown boatbuilders are showcased on it? What? None? There's a shocker. It strikes me that it's some mate of the reporter/ researcher, and yes, the family seem to be pretty comfortably off.

America's definitely a land of contrasts: as somebody once said to me, for every person living the American Dream, how many have to live the American nightmare?
 
Seven Spades said:
This is a really good illustration of the differences between the UK and US economies. Firstly no one here could afford to own their own warehouse/boat shed in which to construct a 42' boat and give up five years of their life to do it without working, the rates alone wold keep you in full time employment. I think it is so sad that the upfront costs of being in business here in the UK mean that so many marginal businesses simply cannot exist, we can no longer afford to allow vocational businesses to exist.
Click to expand...

I so agree.
 
john_morris_uk said:
I am not the biggest supporter of high taxation rates, but I suppose one ought to add to the chauffeur driven cars and four bedroom houses for the unemployed:
the entire police service, fire ambulance, doctors and hospitals, pensions, education for all, armed forces, roads, environmental health, border control, government veterinary inspections, waste disposal for all householders, and I haven't even put in any welfare benefits yet. Actually the list goes on for quite a bit more if one is interested but I suspect people might be glazing over.

The vast majority of government spending is pretty fixed. The levers for control aren't very effective - which comes as a surprise/shock to many reformers as they enter the house of commons full of zeal.

But I digress from the thread.
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All of which (especially the armed forces - I was one myself) seem to require LOTS and LOTS of managers and consultants, the latter on daily rates that any politician would envy, which is why so many ex reforming MPs try to become consultants once the electorate rumble them.
 
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