Amazing, you say that like it's something to be proud of.

'I may be a complete weirdo with no idea of real life who sees people as inconveniences and statistics to be shuffled around to fit into some failed ideology borrowed from the 1980s, but hey, I'm still human.'

You may not be a monster, but your views are reprehensible, dangerous and abhorrent and your rationale for holding such views is revolting and ridiculous.

So... it really is a tax that if you get a degree, you have to make a higher taxrate for the rest of your life regardless fo your job.

That's like.... literally the dumbest policy decision i've heard a major party have in... god knows how long.

I mean... I can't get over how dumb an idea that is.

It's like telling your citizens "Hey you better not try for higher education unless you have a job lined up before you even enroll!  Otherwise your probably going to be working the same shitty supermarket job as everyone else but paying a higher tax rate on it!

The far right Tories/Republicans believe climate change and global warming is absolute crap. It was the right wingers who fought alongside Big Oil and Big Mining to defeat Copenhagen Climate  Summit less than 12 months ago. Tories/Republicans made sure the Big Oil and Big Miners won their crusade over climate change. 

Now climate change is off the table, voters will vote the Tories(2010) and Republicans(2012) back into office. Catholic Church Jesuit Order has won over and tricked  the people again. Rupert Murdoch won his battle over the climate change issue. 

We all know how well the US economy worked out during Hoover's term as US President during the 1930's Great Depression.Sitting on your hands and doing nothing is the Republican/Tories way. The Tories do not believe in spending, they only believe in tax cuts for the rich elites and cutting Budgets. According to the Tories/Republicans all these unemployed people with no work available are lazy people. Welfare queen is a bogey man the Tories/Republicans use for political point scoring. Blame the poor for being poor and blame the sick for being sick.

Labour increased taxes on the wealthy and they tried to stimulate the economy and get people back into work and keep people in work despite the dire economic state of affairs. By taking action to fix the economy they get kicked out for a Big Cuts Tory Man. 

I mean, a graduate tax is literally incentivizing being uneducated... 

You are incentivizing making your workforce stupider and less qualified.

I mean hell, not everyone goes to college even wanting to use their degree. I know lots of people who are retired who go to college just because they want to learn.

They want a "learning tax"?

Sounds like some far fetched "keep the serfs down" plot you'd see in your local Knight cartoon.

I don't even understand how it's the policy of a leftest... that's something i'd expect out of like... some african country with a crazy dictator.

I'm pretty sure the graduate tax is in place of top up fees.  So in my ways it will encourage many from lower class backgrounds to go to university.

Exactly.

That's... the exact opposite of what it will do are you kidding me?

If you want to encourage lower class background people to go to college you give them tuition assistance.

All this does is greatly hurt the poor... because it's an actual education tax.

The rich don't have to worry because, they're rich.  People who are pretty sure they'll be high earners or have some cash, no worries cause they have a cushion.

The poor though... well they're fucked if they fail then.

Seriously the UK doesn't have tuition assistance for the poor?

instead of paying like, what 12,000 pounds to study philosphy it's 10 times that over your lifetime?  No thanks.

College rates will plummet.

I mean, imagine what such a tax would do to Philiosphy majors and other "worthless" majors when it comes to making money.  Those fields are going to rapidly plummet.

People aren't stupid.  They'll know how much more it'd cost them in the long run... and the vast majority of people would basically have to stare the fact that they didn't get any use out of their degree in the face, every day for the rest of their lives paying that tax.

You know, not to mention the best and brightest students will just end up leaving England for the USA, Canada, Mainland Europe, Australia.

Hell, get your free education, use your high scoring education to move to a different country and ditch high taxes you're supposed to pay.

Free college.

Or even better... spend 3 years in an english school, transfer that last year out of the country.

More free college.

It's just so silly and impractical.

I think you're missing the main reasons behind the Liberal Democrats proposal.

In the past, University used to be totally free, it was paid for through taxes so everyone paid for University whether you went to one or not. Unfortunately, this was an unsustainable model, and sine university was only really available to those who were already from better off backgrounds (there were much less spaces, and less universities) it was a pretty elitist system at which only the richer could achieve.

They scrapped the Government Grant and replaced it with Student Loans. University is still heavily subsidised, but you end up with £thousands of debt, which you pay straight from your pay-cheque. For mine, i pay back £200 a month and will continue for another 4 years. it's therefore like a tax until you finish paying it off, and the interests, although favourable, go up as soon as you graduate. If you have assets you can not take the loan, or pay it off straight away. Most of us cannot afford that, so end up having to pay over many many years, while accruing interest.

There is a degree of means testing which pays for all or part of tuition fees, but not for Loans.

The new proposal, put forward by Vince Cable would mean that you would pay back much less per month as a % of salary, but you would pay it for the whole of your life. Considering that people with degrees earn much more on average than people without, it would be very affordable, and you wouldn't be saddled with thousands of pounds of personal debts afterwards.

It would put everyone on a level playing field, and those people from poorer backgrounds would be able to afford university as those from richer backgrounds can, they would be able to compete for higher paid jobs and wouldn't have to worry about debts which historically have been shared throughout the whole family.

It is clear from the posts on this thread that you are the one who is out of touch, and not knowing what's going on. According to recent polls, Johnson is more popular for Mayor in the next election than both of the Labour candidates combined (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23880195-boris-johnson-to-be-london-mayor-again-according-to-poll.do)

What's more, in the general elections of this year, the Conservative party won more votes than Labour in 2005 no matter what way you look at it - (raw votes: Conservatives 2010 - 10,726,614 Labour 2005 - 9,566,618 | percentages: Conservatives 2010 - 36.1    Labour 2005 - 35.3  | turnout: 2010 - 65.1    2005 - 61.2). Of course, Labour still maintained a strong majority in the Commons thanks to the way that borders were drawn for both elections... but the Conservatives have already said that they're going to cut down the number of constituencies in Scotland and Wales before the next election - to save money, and frankly, to make it more fair.

Basically, Labour are going to have to do a LOT of work next election if they are going to win. And after 5 years of the Tories getting this country back on its feet again, what's Ed's platform going to be? Let's roll out the state again! Ha! Thank christ for the incompetence of the left.

No, your missing the point.  It won't work and will have the opposite effect.

It won't put people on equal backgrounds... it just further favors the rich even more... and by quite a lot more.

Furthermore it's silly, poorly thought out and highly abuseable.

The difference between a loan and a tax?

If I leave the country, I still have to pay a loan... however I don't still have to pay a tax.

You are self braindraining your own nation.

Plus it's so variable... the imput about how much money you'll pull in as a government for education funding will vary rapidly... way more then loans, because you'll never know what kind of jobs people will get.

It's an administrative nightmare.

What happens if your graduates start getting pushed out of the highest paying jobs by EU graduates from other countries?  Then your education budget ends up fucked.

Because that's the problem, such a tax would be VERY reliant on those "super rich" jobs.  The risk would be all located in one area... making the system EXTREMELY vulernable to a complete collapse.

Heck, those jobs might just stop existing and you'd be screwed.

While in the current system you wouldn't be because your risk is much more spread out.  

  You'd be better off with one person with a $400,000 dollar a year job and 3 people unemployed then 4 people making $100,000.   Your screwed in fact if there aren't those super rich people.

While the current system is better off with many people employed.  You are actually giving reason for the government to favor unequal income distribution.