Our Scotland - www.our-scotland.org

Reluctant Hero · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:41 pm Post subject: 9.2 Billion Reasons For A Change

Water. It is plain. It is simple. Yet it keeps life on this planet alive.

You would imagine that such a vital item to the very survival of human life would be free and readily available. However, just like every other basic human need such as shelter and clothing, water is just another commodity in this capitalist world in which we live.

This is the same capitalist world that openly embraces The Royal Bank of Scotland’s (oh sorry that should be RBS) announcement that they have made profits of £9.2 billion in one year.

Out of this £9.2 billion, £2.29 billion has been screwed out of the average man on the street. How on earth can this be justified when Scotland as a nation has a third of children living under the poverty line?

How many hospitals would £9.2 billion be able to build? How many people would it take of Scotland’s streets? How many new schools or affordable housing would it build? It would even build 22.2 new Scottish Parliament buildings.

Not to be outdone, the Bank of Scotland (oops sorry I mentioned Scotland again, business types don’t like that word, HBOS) announced profits of £5.7 billion. However business analysts were “disappointed” with those figures. They expected HBOS to fleece more money out of us.

These two companies alone made £15 billion PROFIT this year alone. Now think of how many companies you deal with in the year. Now that is a lot of companies charging us a lot more for products than it actually costs. Where is all this profit going to? Whilst a very small amount may go to good causes, the vast majority goes to shareholders and big bosses, who will have more than enough money than they know what to do with already.

So why do we allow this to continue happening? Why do we blindly hand over our hard earned money and get very little in return?

Fairer wealth redistribution may not happen over night, but incremental steps can be taken to step towards this goal. For instance, changes to the council tax system, could bring about significant change for a lot of people.

With the Scottish elections now only 9 weeks away, perhaps it is time to vote for parties that are looking to change Scotland for the better, instead of voting for parties that will keep it as one of the most unhealthy, impoverished nations in Europe.

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Aventinian · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:36 pm Post subject:

Socialist clap-trap.

For one, it is the RBS Group Plc that has made profits of anywhere near that level - £6.5 billion last year (http://www.investors.rbs.com/downloads/FYR06.pdf) after tax (think about that, £2.7 billion in tax!) - which is far greater than just RBS and includes numerous enterprises operating across the globe. It employs tens of thousands of people. In global terms, £6.5 billion is not a huge sum of money. The UK has a budget of around £500 billion as I recall.

And may I remind you where this profit goes: to ordinary people. I am an RBS shareholder, you may well have your pension or other investments partially dependent on their economic success. I'm afraid I do not 'have more than enough money than I know what to do with' - I live comfortably, but I - as with virtually anyone these days - wonder if I will be able to afford to live in a decent home of my own in my retirement and pass on something to my potential offspring.

If you think RBS is doing so well, why don't you become a shareholder?

If we hand over our money, we do so in a mutually beneficial transaction. Since when is that a bad thing? RBS is subject to competition just like everything else - we choose to use them.

Really, this is just ill-considered.

Reluctant Hero · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:48 pm Post subject:

Aventinian · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:04 am Post subject:

Jimbo · This is Ma' Life! Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 667

Come independence we're going to need more companies like RBS.

Aventinian · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:37 am Post subject: