Here is another topic in this threat. Should EU Monarchs be above the law?

The Netherlands for most of it's existence was a Republic, with the different regions (we call them provinces) having a larger autonomy.

This ended after the Napoleon wars. The French revolutionaries had just occupied the Netherlands for 20 years till 1814. It was then that the bigger powers in Europe (England's Monarch, Russia's Czar, Prussia's Emperor) sat together and decided what to do with the low countries. It was decided they would remain independent, but not to a republic any more.

Most of the European Monarchies have family ties, so someone was rounded up and crowned the first King of the Netherlands in 1815: Willem the first. And the Netherlands became a Monarchy to this day.

All good and well and we Dutch like the color Orange and enjoy a nice party to huddle around. No doubt the royal family in this day and age helps to give the Dutch a sense of solidarity. So all good points. Except one.

In our constitution it is written that the Dutch Monarch is above the law. Laws in my opinion should be universal. So if we have Dutch laws they should count for all Dutch people. But alas not for the Dutch King.

This includes tax laws. the Dutch royals do not pay any kind of tax. This included the most disliked tax we have called 'inheritance tax'. Essentially when somebody passes away and leaves their belongings to spouse or siblings. The state wants to have a cut. No problem for the King.

This leaves a sour taste in my mouth about our Royals. It's nothing personal, but I believe Monarchs should not be above the law. For this reason, as long as there is no change in our constitution to address this, I would prefer the Netherlands to be a Republic again.

What about you? Do you live in a Monarchy? If so, are they also above the law? If so, what do you think about that?

I don't like sharing too much about myself but I will do so to come to the NHS defence. Seeing rich people complain about waiting times and thus having to go private is a bit odd to me, I don't really understand it. If you can afford to go private and the option to go private is available then what is the issue? Is it that you're upset to be paying to help others out? Just admit then that your dislike comes from one born of selfishness rather than trying to generalise the entire NHS with a broad brush.

As to why I love the NHS, I was born with a disability, a spinal deformity, across the ages of 4-10 I had to go through multiple surgeries, I had around a dozen major surgeries on my spine. In total I spent months in hospital and I had an amazing team around me. It's not the pain that I remember the most but the level of care that I received. However, no matter how hard they tried, it failed...That's life, shit happens. For years they tried to "fix" me and I know that wasn't cheap for them, I know how expensive these complex surgeries and aftercare were.

My surgeon wanted to give me a good quality of life for my teenage years and didn't want to put me through more surgeries after they all failed and thus proposed an expensive procedure which wouldn't fix my issue but would ensure things wouldn't get worse. We were told it was an expensive procedure and he needed permission for it, IIRC in the tens of thousands. My family isn't rich, there is no chance they could afford private healthcare without being crippled with debt or I'd be in a wheelchair, the debt likely would have hit me too.

My family was stressed as hell, I could see that as a kid, I could see the sleepless nights and emotional damage it was doing to them, at least the NHS took away all concerns about how they can pay for this, it removed one major worry from their minds, not only that they went above and beyond to accommodate my family. Like many families across the UK when they're going through surgeries or when their children are going through surgeries, they have one less thing to worry about.

Every year for the past 18 years I have received a regular X-Ray and Consultation to monitor my condition, I never had to worry once about how I will pay for this. Earlier in the year I told them about an issue I had, a piece of metalwork in my back had came loose and over the years progressed to the point of pushing against my skin, it was my regular consultation but the consultant took one look and said it needs to come out as it will pierce the skin eventually.

Within a week of a regular consultation, I was in hospital with my own room, within a few days I had the surgery, within 2 days I was out. All in all from recognising the problem to dealing with the problem, it was over within say, less than 2 weeks for all of it? So nah, the NHS are not "terrible for anything more complex" than a cold/flu, that's a ridiculous generalisation and a complete lie.

I will forever be grateful to the NHS. They have never let me down. They allowed me to have a good quality of life without fear of how I will pay for it or how my family will pay for it. I will proudly contribute to the NHS for the rest of my life so that I can help people in the same way that they helped me because I am grateful that the rest of the public who actually care about the NHS helped me. Because of my experiences, I believe we as human beings should not be selfish but help each other out and the majority of the British Public love and support the NHS too.

Yes, they have their problems, the waiting times in certain situations are too long, the problems they have largely stem from 10 years of Tory neglect, but seeing rich people complaining they had to go private because of waiting times...To millions of people, going private is simply not an option because they cannot afford it, to millions of people who went through experiences like my own, the NHS is vital and loved. It is absolutely ridiculous to generalise that the NHS is only fine for colds and flus, not even the waiting times can be generalised across the whole of the NHS.

Most of the British public would rather see the NHS fixed than turn into an American system.

I don't like sharing too much about myself but I will do so to come to the NHS defence. Seeing rich people complain about waiting times and thus having to go private is a bit odd to me, I don't really understand it. If you can afford to go private and the option to go private is available then what is the issue? Is it that you're upset to be paying to help others out? Just admit then that your dislike comes from one born of selfishness rather than trying to generalise the entire NHS with a broad brush.

As to why I love the NHS, I was born with a disability, a spinal deformity, across the ages of 4-10 I had to go through multiple surgeries, I had around a dozen major surgeries on my spine. In total I spent months in hospital and I had an amazing team around me. It's not the pain that I remember the most but the level of care that I received. However, no matter how hard they tried, it failed...That's life, shit happens. For years they tried to "fix" me and I know that wasn't cheap for them, I know how expensive these complex surgeries and aftercare were.

My surgeon wanted to give me a good quality of life for my teenage years and didn't want to put me through more surgeries after they all failed and thus proposed an expensive procedure which wouldn't fix my issue but would ensure things wouldn't get worse. We were told it was an expensive procedure and he needed permission for it, IIRC in the tens of thousands. My family isn't rich, there is no chance they could afford private healthcare without being crippled with debt or I'd be in a wheelchair, the debt likely would have hit me too.

My family was stressed as hell, I could see that as a kid, I could see the sleepless nights and emotional damage it was doing to them, at least the NHS took away all concerns about how they can pay for this, it removed one major worry from their minds, not only that they went above and beyond to accommodate my family. Like many families across the UK when they're going through surgeries or when their children are going through surgeries, they have one less thing to worry about.

Every year for the past 18 years I have received a regular X-Ray and Consultation to monitor my condition, I never had to worry once about how I will pay for this. Earlier in the year I told them about an issue I had, a piece of metalwork in my back had came loose and over the years progressed to the point of pushing against my skin, it was my regular consultation but the consultant took one look and said it needs to come out as it will pierce the skin eventually.

Within a week of a regular consultation, I was in hospital with my own room, within a few days I had the surgery, within 2 days I was out. All in all from recognising the problem to dealing with the problem, it was over within say, less than 2 weeks for all of it? So nah, the NHS are not "terrible for anything more complex" than a cold/flu, that's a ridiculous generalisation and a complete lie.

I will forever be grateful to the NHS. They have never let me down. They allowed me to have a good quality of life without fear of how I will pay for it or how my family will pay for it. I will proudly contribute to the NHS for the rest of my life so that I can help people in the same way that they helped me because I am grateful that the rest of the public who actually care about the NHS helped me. Because of my experiences, I believe we as human beings should not be selfish but help each other out and the majority of the British Public love and support the NHS too.

Yes, they have their problems, the waiting times in certain situations are too long, the problems they have largely stem from 10 years of Tory neglect, but seeing rich people complaining they had to go private because of waiting times...To millions of people, going private is simply not an option because they cannot afford it, to millions of people who went through experiences like my own, the NHS is vital and loved. It is absolutely ridiculous to generalise that the NHS is only fine for colds and flus, not even the waiting times can be generalised across the whole of the NHS.

Most of the British public would rather see the NHS fixed than turn into an American system.

It's a touching story. Thanks for sharing. Sorry for you and your family to had to go through this.

It isn't a lie, facts are facts.  My daughter has a spinal issue and her main doctor scheduled an appointment with a specialist that was a 6 month wait.  We were shocked and he shrugged, blatantly told us if we didn't want to wait, go private.  

We went private because she was at risk at getting worse within 6 months.  

Frankly I was always told by the US media that long wait times was a myth for public healthcare...  sorry but it wasn't a myth.  This happened just a couple years ago.

Facts are facts.  

Perhaps it used to be better before the Torys.  I have no experience pre-Tory.  

All I can say is I wasn't impressed with the wait time and how nonchalant the doctor was about waiting 6 months to even see a specialist.  

Edit

The US system, to be fair, is flawed.  Heavily flawed.  But NHS is heavily flawed as well. 

It is a lie...Come on man. You straight up said that the NHS was terrible for anything more complex than a cold/flu...Do you even realise how utterly ridiculous that sounds? My own various experiences show that is a bold faced lie too. I'm not even denying that the NHS has problems with waiting times in some cases, but that doesn't mean all cases. You're generalising the NHS with a ridiculously broad brush and talking mad shit about it in extreme examples (cold/flu) to talk up private healthcare.

I'm sorry about how you felt treated by your doctor, I'd suggest trying to switch doctors, I'm sorry for your daughter that the wait time is 6 months but you have the ability to go private and millions do not. I'm not taking issue with people complaining about NHS wait times, I'm taking issue with a rich person complaining about NHS wait times who has the ability to hop over to private (private still exists in the UK).

Why is it a bad thing that we have both public healthcare and also a private option?

P.S. Sorry about your daughter, if she has what I have then I'd be willing to talk to you about it if it can help.

Just to be clear, I have Scoliosis, happy to admit that if I can help someone else with it.

I just really dislike the extreme generalisation that NHS is terrible for anything above colds/flus.

Tax the rich is always an interesting position. What is rich? From a selfish point, if I already pay more in taxes then most people make, why should I pay more? When I was fresh out of school money was super tight because I went without to ensure I saved at least 15% of my net. Now that I have investments people want to tax me more.

Not sure how any of that makes sense to me. But I suppose it is easier to spend other people's money.

I always have mixed feelings because I have more wealth than most, but I've always had smaller houses, cheaper cars, etc comparative to my peers... solution, tax me more?  

I think, at least in the US, a consumption tax makes sense. 10% federal sales on all non food purchases.

Also I think getting rid of credits and deductions makes more sense than raising taxes.

Edit

I suppose my issue with raising taxes is the uber wealthy have a team of lawyers and accountants that will just loophole and defer owed payments.  So raising taxes ends up on the back of high middle class and low high class.  Simplify the tax code and get rid of loopholes.  

And make Little Red Hen mandatory reading in secondary and at Uni.  

Edit 2

The other issue, at least in the States, is the gap between the top 5%, 1% and 0.1%.  Sure I am in the top 5% but I have a fraction of what the top 1% and the top 0.1% make more a month than I do a year. 

I'm not calling anyone out in particular, but blanket statements calling for taxing the "rich" makes me wonder what is rich.  

Addressing your second edit first: You can't say that you aren't calling out anyone in particular when only one person in this thread has talked about taxing the rich. You must be scared of me.

Addressing your first edit: I don't think you understand what "taxing the rich" really means. It's about a tiered system where the more money you earn and have, the higher your tax rate will be. At that point all worries about the middle class are off the table already, and everyone who is above middle class has the money to spare for the benefit of society as a whole anyway, because they'll have tons of money left over regardless of the tax rate.

Using Germany as an example, right now a typical middle class citizen delivers around 40% of their income as taxes to the state; this includes the taxes on cost of living (rent if applicable, food, energy) as well as income tax, health care and the country's retirement plan, plus VAT on non-essential goods for living. People above the middle class get away with under 25%.

So the correct question is how is it fair that those who earn more in raw numbers have to pay a lower share? That's why your assertion of measuring tax money in raw numbers instead of percentage of income isn't only selfish, but also silly. Nevermind that rich people still would have more money in raw numbers left than the middle class after having to pay a higher share of their income, and if the average person gets by with a lower amount than you have, then you can certainly still live a good life too.

What good is it for if the wealth of a country is more evenly distributed among its citizens? The far-right won't find enough fertile ground to gain traction with its delusions, so no riots which is the topic I talked about. Nobody gets killed, nothing gets destroyed, more people can live happy lives. And the far-right political parties won't be more than minor players in any country that properly taxes its citizens, providing the world with more predictability and stability in its economies.

There would of course still be large differences on an individual basis when it comes to how much money someone has, but that's how it should be, because not everyone is savvy with money nor is everyone going to put equal effort in education and work nor will there be equal interest in any given profession. As you know, the fewer qualified individuals there are for a job, the higher the payout can be.