One mad thing you forgot to mention is that the City of London elections give votes to the businesses in Square Mile based on the number of employees they have. The companies have about double the votes than the actual residents have and thus naturally dominate the elections. Mad that this all happens out in the open.
Ordinary Guy always makes my day. Mentioned your TedTalk in a class presentation the other day and the feedback was incredible. Your videos are unmatched in quality, and your writing is incredible. You are the best.
That last line is a brutal assessment of modern society: "Tax means nothing to these people. Tax is something the little people need and the middle people pay."
It's all true, except there is no middle class - meaningless term that doesn't tell you anything about individual's relation to economy, it's just relative amount of wealth a person have in given economy, but this cannot be defined and is not definable by any serious metric or analysis. It's stands to reason there are only two kinds of people: those who work and produce shit for money, and those who steal the surplus from workers, the owners, the upper class. By that fact only, only the upper 1% are not working class, they own and run things.
@@iachtulhu1420 People are always going on about black vs white or women vs men etc when the reality is the elite only see rich people and poor people... if you are poor its your fault.
everyone needs taxes, its not "something little people need". Things like NHS are relevant to everyone, they become the only otpion for "little people" just because they are underfunded and private options are not accesible. its not because there are some poeple who inherently dont need them
You're doing an important thing a lot of people forget to do: you accept the ugly parts of history and current reality of your country and are not afraid of speaking out about it. This is true patriotism.
@@PenguinLord10 just in case your comment sparks a wild fight as it happens sometimes and the original thread gets lost in the process: it's kinda true for any nation innit. But it takes a bit of courage to bring it up to outsiders
So here's fun. I had a look into the number of homeless people in London, and the number of empty properties in London, and it turns out you could give every single homeless person in London two properties, and you'd still have a load left over. Re blimps, you might want to look at Cardington in Bedfordshire, there's a couple of hangars there.
@@notreally2406 And who's to say the homeless wouldn't contribute to society either if they were given a stable platform in which to build their lives instead of some Billionaire nonce using it to launder money?
@@notreally2406 why not you? Because, assuming that you are working, based on what you said, you can find means to live somewhere. That's why not. I'm mortgaged up and paying endless taxes, but I certainly don't think that puts me in any higher standing than homeless people. We are all just people. Food, shelter and water are necessities to live. The fact you have Internet access and some sort of device to utilise that access shows that you already have luxuries in life.
Half of it is nonsense and I'd blame that on his "passion". It's sad watching him fall victim to this kind of childish politics. this could have been presented without ramming his own politics into it.
NPC_843: “Wow, friend. Your content is brilliant and getting more brillianter with each new video. “ _patiently watching the likes pile up for dopamine fix_
I’ve lived in London for a year, and will never understand the dismissive arrogance of Londoners to “tax dodging Irish” when the city is built on tax dodging.
But shouldnt Irish pay tax like everyone else lol, sure theirs some rich farts not paying tax but shouldnt both the rich farts and ''tax dodging'' Irish pay tax
@@TheIndieGamesNL Cheers for the civil reply! Yeah it was a moral abdication the Irish played with the Dutch, Luxembourgs and Swiss to see who could attract US businesses (“well if I don’t do it, someone else will!”). Thankfully they eventually raised the tax to 15% for all countries, at which point the US firms stayed thanks to the EU access, native English-speaking populace and high university graduation rate. The problem I personally have with London (not the U.K.) is the Etonian elite using the city as an international money laundering hub while proclaiming a warped moral high ground that harms their own people. I wish Brits would rise up against London’s corruption but now that I’ve been here for two years I understand the apathy that most feel to a problem that is so embedded and which the government continues to nurture.
Yup this area is a bank of a different kind and the surrounding areas of Berkshire surrey is where they all live guards on their doorstep having escaped countries where they would have been sliced and diced having stolen the riches of their countries
The way you walked out in the end said it all. I can honestly say that this video is so well put together and well documented and you truly had a personal passion for this this was very personal for you.
Having lived in London for 2 years, I have to say I feel your pain. The place was bloody expensive, full of regulations and dominated by finance people. I’ll be surprised if there are still going to be a middle and lower class living in the bounds of London in 30 years.
Born and bred in a rough part of London (the suburbs) and I’m from a struggling family and we struggle to get by everyday, where we live, I’m so used to living in the nitty and gritty part of London, old council estates, pubs and whatnot, now that’s becoming a distant memory with how things have changed, which isn’t really a bad thing but it is if you can’t afford to live locally to your family anymore or you’ve been kicked out to another house by the council due to demolition of an estate; wherever you go where I live, you’ll see homeless people, food banks and when you walk around the corner, you’ll see people carrying bags of high designer clothes, sports cars, the lot. It does feel weird sometimes but I'm used to it; I do feel as if the rich and poor divide is getting far worse where I live but this is because of how the local council have treated tenants and owners on neglecting their flats and homes to only kick them out and move them elsewhere which quite possibly be worse off to build flats that aren't even affordable.
Incredible video! This must have been really hard to put together but it turned out really well. If you're interested, the London legal system has a similar story to the finance system. I'd love to see an oligarch video from you someday (look into Eurasia too- it's fascinating) but I also love your more ordinary things. Looking forward to learning about blimps!
I heard about Turkish Oligarchs in The Simpsons & really only assumed Russia was Earth's only Oligarchy but now I'm curious if there's others that qualifiy
New Yorker here. So many points about the decay of London apply to my hometown; the foreign interference in real estate, tax avoidance of bankers, massive homelessness problem, etc. It's like the elite in both cities have no idea their actions are completely unsustainable and will eventually harm themselves. P.S. I'm happy you included Delaware on the list of shady tax havens, it is literally the only reason the state exists. It's very fitting it was the first state admitted into the union.
will it though? because since it began in the 70s thousands and thousands have lived lives, gotten rich, had the best of everything ect while everywhere else suffered
@@mikemcmike6427 it’s different when the people who have those luxuries don’t even live in the city and hoard real estate as capital. The number of people who remain will not be enough to manage the bloated bureaucracy the city of that size needs to operate day to day. Then again that is probably the plan all along, so maybe my argument is wishful thinking.
@@blackranger7597 I’m not justifying don’t get me wrong. I’m simply commenting on him saying “it will eventually harm themselves” They have been able to live their full lives unharmed harming everyone. It’s like the argument “dictators eventually get justice” No they don’t: they often live great wealthy lives.
Excellent video! I am a Londoner, I’ve loved my city since the day I was born and knowing that this shit is happening right on my doorstep is so depressing, you can see the inequality whenever you go to certain boroughs and the wealth disparity is disgusting
"City of London is not London". And whilst the British monarchy exists... there will be corners on every part of the planet that legalising financial manipulation and greed is allowed. The monarchy needs to go.
at this point im fully convinced that your ass is a bot with all your generic ass comments that u post on other videos with hardly any difference with the others
LOVING the videos Ordinary Things!!!! The cost of living IS indeed going bananas. My family have lived in London and my family's family before that (Besides a few decades where they were forcibly relocated during the Blitz). They have always been Londoners, even the Irish and French ancestry from migrants who WANTED to live in London. I don't see how I can continue to live here. It's a great shame and I can't help but feel hollow when I see the level of tax evasion by the richest in this city. Anyway...Recommendations on cheap places to live (in the UK mind you) would be welcome haha.
from what i understand their family used to be migrants before living generations in london. the family was irish and french before living in london, and even they wanted to live there.
I was just starting to get interested in this topic, the fact that London is the money laundering capital of the world is such an unknown and important fact, thank you for this
@Ty Bey Of course, why do you think the Netherlands and the large majority of Scandinavian countries enjoy such great social programs at a relatively low cost? These are the great neutral zones, where the far right and far left come together to launder money.
@@somedogsarecops2354 or maybe they just have less population and spend their money accordingly, they are also historically neutral nations, hence no need to build up military industrial complex. Which is more likely, they just spent their money more fiscally safe and have less political gridlock, or that a secret wing of politics is making the Netherlands markets able to be a laundering nation? I think it’s option A
It's clearly option B. The Dutch real estate market is equally idiotic to the London real estate market. The Amsterdam Zuidas is still hiding billions of euros of Russian oligarchs just like the city of London while The Hague is making sure every country around the globe is having regulatory chill thanks to lobbying for ISDS just everywhere. Indeed there isn't that much of a MIC, but we're able to trade a lot of weaponry. Whatever the conflict might be, the Dutch are one of the first sellers out there offering something. Besides the trade, the Dutch government knows when to apply socialism pragmatically like with high quality social housing, infrastructure, agriculture and to some extent education. It isn't perfect, but it's better than London lunacy.
You may want to disclose that Honey is basically a privacy nightmare and will track everything you do. With an unknown op sec so their own data may not be secured so well.
Mentioning the British overseas territories, but not the crown dependencies is a miss. I'm from Guernsey and we're notorious for being a tax haven, all the major international firms have offices on these tiny islands and genuinely half the work force is employed in finance. Our COL is comparable to London, on a tiny island in the channel. It drives out young educated people like myself and stifles out development as aside from hiding some ultra wealthy geriatric Russian bastard's money, there's little other to do. It's just depressing
Same here on the Isle of Man. Finance and E-Gaming are our biggest financial sectors, and the place is awash with foreign money. Makes it almost impossible for young people who want to call the island home to, you know, actually afford a home here.
"Heads were mostly hatted" is better than any Charles Dickens description of London lol. Great video, I love snark / sarcasm especially when it's backed up by really sound observations and research! Your writing is top notch and you have a great sense of humor. It's tough balancing humor with facts, so you do a really good job moving things along without it seeming too flippant or shallow.
You're doing something very real and meaningful with this content, it's strangely uplifting despite the subject matter usually being kind of depressing.
The production quality is improving every video and the topics are becoming more and more political. I think it's very impressive how you link information together because, especially in political-historical context, it's not simply about facts but mainly what fact is connected with which reasoning and influence. Considering that these connections are blurred and being blurred constantly, you are doing fantastic work. I'm excited for every upload man
I like the way that you built up from mild whimsy to the anger of the overwhelmed. It is so ridiculous how that top 1% are allowed to continue to steal and not even have to pay the taxes on their ill-gotten gains.
beautifully written as always. idk if youre gonna see this, but i love your content man. the hard work you put in really shows. also kudos to you for the bits you film in public spaces, especially the one at 12:38 lol
I assume you're based in London. So many naturally classic backdrops and you took full advantage along with good creative green screening for other locations. I also feel I have a better grasp on exactly HOW the "british empire" continues to suck the blood of the world even while retaining almost no overseas territory. Shadowy. Good work.
I wish he would do an episode on the IIMF and the World Bank. They're two international institutions founded after WW2 that extort poor and developing by countries by forcing them to privatize their industries, open up trade barriers and give beneficial treatment to western corporations in exchange of predatory loans that end up in the pocket of corrupted oligarchs. Without a developed economy or a comparative advantage to effectively compete in the global market, these countries become completely dependent on western economies to survive and we can exploit their labor and resources for pennies on the dollar. This is why manufacturing is so much cheaper overseas, it's why their regulations are so laxed and their taxes non existent. It's why Coca cola and Nestle can use slave labor to make their products and know for a fact that the local government won't do anything about it. It's why t shirts that cost 30$ in the west can be made for 15 cents in Africans sweat shops. Since ww2, this was mostly a western thing. America did it a lot in Latin America and Britain and France leveraged their remaining influence in Africa to do it there. Meanwhile he Soviet Union couldn't use capitalism to build an empire and so their relied on direct political and military control. However recently, China has been getting in on it, offering incredibly predatory loans to poor south asian countries only to extort concessions out of them when they inevitably default on those loans.
I live in San Diego, CA and we feel so many of these same issues with investors from around the world gobbling up trillions in property to use as tax skirts. The global elite are making cities around the world completely unlivable.
I definitely feel for you, I was born and raised in SD and even during those times these issues were noticeable but currently it's a wasteland. I will say these foreign property owners are only part of the problem, there are just too many people in California. The U.S. moving away from production so hard drove people to massive coastal cities which allowed these predatory practices to thrive. I hope the U.S. will soon have a resurgence of people returning to live in the rest of our massive country.
So agree. California is sorely mismanaged and doesn't lift a finger to try and solve its unsustainable population. It's sad to see the homeless population grow every year and all that happens is the people in the city complain more. Smh
Great video, entertaining while informative. It's unfortunate that our friend, the Ordinary Guy, was found dead by suicide, having shot himself through his window with a rifle across the street.
Hey, my great grandfather committed tax evasion leaving my family to fend for themselves, we’re still friends with the extended family he made there. I don’t dislike him but learning more about what he did explains the grudge my family has.
@@PartnershipsForYou I would but unfortunately I have little information since it’s a touchy subject, even my grandma who knows the most people in my family didn’t know a lot about him since my grandad refused for her to meet him. I know he was a womaniser, a gambler and a fraudster but I only know my great grandmas side of the full story.
Could've also extended on how this tax havens are also a huge factor of capital flight and poverty in the third world, and how they play a part in the general flow of wealth from third world countries to first world countries (UK is not the only one playing this game)
This video just happens to be amazing context for my study abroad trip to London! I watched it first before I left home, and a second time once I'd been here a while and seen all the things you talk about for myself. You bring up many things that the average tourist would never notice nor think about. I'll never see this place in the same way (although I can separate the truth of the matter from my enjoyment of visiting somewhere new and different).
This was awesome dude. Being from the north it's absolutely heartbreaking to see people voting for the Tories because they think immigrants are the biggest problem. I wish I could convince everyone to watch this video and realize that the biggest problems are those gits.
As an American I feel we got some of the same issues and similar parties that being said it's all a den of vipers and I'd trust the left and right about as much as I'd trust Satan
Nah immigration is partly to blame as well, it's hard to unionize when they can just replace you with a random pole who would gladly be paid twice what he's paid in Poland
@@My_Old_YT_Account But it's still the people in power doing the replacing. An immigrant just trying to seek a better life shouldn't be blamed for just trying to have a better life for themselves exactly the same as people in other countries. It's the fat cats who would replace you for cheaper labour that need the kicking not your fellow worker.
Conservative media is highly effective, liberal media is not. When both sides pretend like they are playing on the same, Levelfield, yet one side has no problem breaking the rules anytime they feel like it and get away with it, the good guys will always be behind the 8-ball
I've always wondered what it must be like to live in such a touristy city. I thought people must be annoyed all the time. When I went to Paris this was proven true, however I went to London right after and, if people were annoyed, they didn't show it at all. Everyone was extremely helpful even if it was an inconvenience to them. It's one of my favorite memories from that trip.
This is typical in Paris. Once you leave the city you'll meet a load of wonderful people (not that all Parisians are bad, but allot hate tourists) . This is such a noted thing that there is even a wikipedia page on it.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome Hillariously a french man visiting Italy coined a similar syndrome which was caused by a place being overwhelmingly beautiful en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome
I think another thing about London is its very big, cant comment on Paris but as someone from London I rarely encountered tourists. I think the tourism industry/areas here are very separated from the places people actually live. I think its also we're used to them, I don't even notice tourists, cant get annoyed if you don't notice them :P
If London is like NYC, i’m assuming you could avoid areas where your most likely to see tourists because the city is fairly large and because there’s so many ppl it’s a little rare to meet a tourist over an actual city dweller. It’s only annoying when tourists do actually annoying things.
I used to live in Honolulu. The only thing that ever annoyed me was I never wanted to go to the beach that was 5 minutes from my house because it was crowded 24/7. Everyone there is really nice though.
As a Belgian I always loved to cross the North Sea and visit the UK multiple times each year. I had fallen in love with certain aspects of the culture and my visits to London were always highlights. As beautiful as the city can be in certain buroughs, I had never felt more alienated than when I found myself in Canary Wharf. Basically an artifical island, loaded with skyscrapers and yuppies. I went to see a game of football in the only sports bar on the island, and apart of having been the only one not dressed in thousand-dollar clothing, I heard some of the business execs who went there for a pint after a long day of work talking about how it's 'just some bad luck' that they just lost the 300K they bet on Arsenal or whatever. Like your video states, I feel London is in the grip of a group of individuals so wealthy and disassociated from everyday working-class life, that it dwarves the charm of some of the more cultural things the city has to offer. I sometimes wonder if there even is a middle class in London, because all I'd seen recently were either loaded yuppies, or dirt-poor beggars, hardly an inbetween. I often wonder what London would look like if the billions of pounds in avoided taxes were to be actually spent on city infrastructure or social programs. Anyway, thanks for another great video. Your wit and investigative qualities are unparalleled on this platform, and I get only the best of dopamine rushes when I see your captivating mug pop up in my subscription box. I hope you keep going strong and wish you luck with whatever video you're working on next.
@@zerohero5753 JuSt InHeRiT… oh of course, why didn’t I think of that!? My parents can’t afford to keep it so we’re selling it. Turns out times are tough for everyone.
Small correction: The Queen doesn't need to ask permission to enter TCOL(plc). I mean, she does generally need to "phone ahead", but this is the same for everywhere, as the local police will tend to be involved in security arrangements, so moving across police jurisdictions will usually involve making arrangements with the police in each of the jurisdictions.
Informative video. These tax loopholes schemed by government entities themselves are shameful. $15 billion a year is only a fraction of the budget of the UK though. I hope that there is reform on this but this will not solve many of the UK or similar problems that most developed countries face.
Don’t even want to try and think about amount US tax evasions totals when the irs is barely funded. Also you know that are national defense budget grows by 100million a year for no reason.
These legal and financial rituals is what is giving me an incredible anxiety and the biggest confusion in my life. There are so many regulations, laws, tax rules in place that the ordinary person would need to read several books just to become familiar with them and need to hire at least 3 lawyers not to make a mistake. A single minor mistake in the ritual can, in the best case, end up as a lifelong indebtedness and life of a slave. Like how did we go from hunting and worshiping forest spirits to being yuppies and feeling happy when the stonks go up.
For the average person? An odd two thousand years of increasing layers of civilization and then a massive boost of complexity and layers of obsfucation as the industrial revolution and modern financial system formed. It's been a while since people haven't been in some kind of system - and for a good majority of that, being a poor freemen (as opposed to a wealthy freemen) has often been worse than a productive serf. All about control.
Surprised he didn't bring up that the EU started working on financial transparency measures that might have cracked down on this shortly before Brexit *mysteriously* started being discussed and campaigned for.
Fun fact, the UK’s economy is over 70% financial services. If London was independent, we’d be an entirely different country. And would probably revert to feudalism and subsistence farming in a matter of months, since we literally have no economy.
Propably. Like i cant name a single thing that is made in britain by a british company and exported. While just looking at the 70's almost everything was made to a sertain amount in britain.
That is completely incorrect. As OT said in the video the financial service industry makes up 10% of the UK economy and if you want to be really shocked manufacturing (which is supposedly dead) makes up close to 20% of economy.
@@k3kboi665 I'm Swedish and the only thing I've ever owned which was "Made in Britain" was a luxury soap. To be fair, it was a pretty nice soap but your manufacturing industry is really on its last legs.
@@apotato6278 well i am not english, thats why i specified "exported" but still your statement is right. My home of finland has become a true shithole again slowly after 94 and the final punch 09 now its just getting unbearable. Thinking of moving to sweden like so many fins before.
I remember hearing about London being the tax haven capital of the world and being confused because I never heard about it that way. Tax havens are so stupid and it's great that most people in power choose to use them or ignore them :).
what a fucking hitpiece. great work. honestly fascinating how (where I was in America at least) schools will teach a lot about banks and economics but always seem to cut off right about where globalism starts. thanks for filling in ordinary people on what our systems would like to omit.
"Globalism" isn't a thing though lol. This is just regular capitalism following its mandates i.e. upholding the primacy of property rights in order to better help capital chase profits.
@@devilex121 i think i was commentating more on a smaller facet of the video that touched on how some of these trades included foreign oligarchs that own the land but only occupy it for a fraction of the year. i know its practised elsewhere (my personal experience seeing a very nice empty neighborhood in NOLA) but it isn't brought up enough in my opinion.
@@chukadoo1871 this isn't capitalism being broken, this is the natural progression of capitalism. the system is working as intended. globalism or not, we're in deep bollocks.
Dane here, the same is slowly happening to Copenhagen, not at all in the same scale, but in the last ten years, the house pricing and amount of newly build "Luxury" apartments have gone up insanely high
Great video! I had no clue that major governments and corporations had ever made _any_ attempt to hide corruption! I never thought governments and corporations had learned or would ever learn their lesson. At last, my faith in humanity has been restored. :)
As a foreigner who lives in London, this city has good things: very cosmopolitan, you have access to cultures from all over the world and the parks are huge. But it's also ridiculously expensive and I can't wait to move to one of the smaller commuter towns (with a bit of luck if my boss allows me to wfh permanently). There are flats here that should go against the Geneva convention. Bed, kitchen and a cubicle for the fucking shower all in the same place. How are those even allowed to be rented? Rn I'm paying 1200 plus bills for a flat and the bills have doubled since I moved and the NI as well, like ordinary things said. That's why hearing these things infuriate me so much. Fuck the rich. Excellent video.
@@-Eternal-Damnation- Nah. I aspire to be smart and rich xD. I'm middle class, so I mostly sustain the uelesss social thrash living on welfare, since I live in purely socialist country.
Gotta say, this is one of your best. Been watching regularly since early 2020, and it's been nice watching your evolution. Honestly (and I understand this is maybe a little backhanded), I initially subscribed because I went "this guy's funny, he's essentially stolen Charlie Brooker's Wipe shtick and joke style, but I miss having new stuff of that and this guy is really good at it". Over the time though, it's been really great to see the way you make these videos has developed. You've kept the Brooker influence, but really come in to your own and bring a lot more of your own style into it, and partly because of that, and partly because of the topic, this seems like a video that could go viral way beyond your others. More and more often now I get excited for your videos and I think that's only going to grow as this run continues.
I am more and more convinced that the entire issue of today's price hikes and issues on the house market are entirely due to tax evading mega trusts/corporations/billionaires/oligarchs/younameit. I'm perfectly okay with paying taxes, it's how we support eachother more effectively and get the best things done, but if those billions of dollars are never taxed, everything will collapse eventually. We can only hope that when it all collapses, the resulting legislation gets rid of tax evasion
@@ShieldSniper I think people should be allowed to not pay taxes, but then their not allowed to use public roads, send their kids to a public school, and if public healthcare becomes a full fledged thing, they wouldn't be allowed that either.
@@PenguinLord10 That's the point. Taxes are needed if we want to use public services, but the filthy fucking elite do all they can to not pay it. At least the U.S. you could theoretically fight back with the second amendment, but in Britain you just have to pray someone catches them in the street with a knife.
@@drvurruct2274 the money the government uses to build the public roads is stolen. But yes I agree with you since if people could choose to pay or not to pay, the government would be more like a private company. But of course is only fair for the roads built after you are free to choose.
12:55 - When you say “…You’ll see that the rich are still living off the backs of the little guy” and those two bourgie yuppies walk past you and DEFINITELY hear you - - That moment was *ART* 🤌💋💥
@@Hana9916 dont confuse a good salary with rich. Rich people are usually older, better groomed and much better clothed. Rich means you dont GAF about taxes because you live off of multiple millions of pounds worth of appreciating assets
BLIMPS ARE SO COOL I'm excited to see you make a video about them! Always wanted to learn more about them in a more entertaining way, looking forward to it!
The quality of your videos is still going up. This video is excellent, there were a number of subjects I knew something about but you connected them and really drove home why this is such a problem. Please keep on doing stuff like this, the world needs videos like this. Seriously!
I always get excited when you upload a new video. These are such a gem to watch. This might’ve been a stressful video to make, but you’re sharing something about your country that you want the world to know and that’s great! I had no idea about this complex fraud system that’s been going on in London till now and now I’ve gained a better understanding of why people hide money in the Cayman Islands! All very interesting stuffs. P.s. Let’s go INGERLUND! (Couldn’t hold that one back)
Great video! I am from one of these pseudo-UK jurisdictions, the island of Jersey, and yes the whole economy is built on tax evasion. Recently it was found that Russian oligarch Abramovich and others have billions of US dollars within Trust companies in Jersey. Living on the island I have always felt a sense of guilt even though I have never contributed to the industry. It's just hard not to feel like the island exists as a sort of parasite onto the rest of the world. The island's population is 100,000. There is no logical reason why there would be billions located on this tiny island, other than tax evasion. The living conditions there are great honestly, baring the insane housing prices. But compared to London, there's so much natural beauty and it's a very convenient place to live with it's small size, meaning if you live in town then you only have a 10-20 minute walk every morning to work. I am living the UK now as a student and I barely have enough money to live with how expensive commuting and rent is. Part of me regrets not selling out to the finance industry on the island where I would have a comfy life, but then I watch a video like this and remember that my home's existence comes at the cost of poverty across the globe. I don't blame people on the island, my family and friends for working in finance there, after all what other option is there except to move to another country? And everyone wants a peaceful life. It's easy to ignore the exploitation the finance industry represents when you only work as a junior administrator, disconnected from the deliberate decision to help others evade tax by executives through the means of boring, complicated company law. I hope one day these tax loopholes will be fixed and the UK and other countries will finally see back the finances they deserve in forms of better social programs, but of course this would decimate my island, as well as the other places you mentioned like Cayman, Gibraltar etc. Whatever the future brings, it shouldn't be ignored that the UK and its empire of islands are facilitating theft.
I remember going to Jersey in 2007 on holiday (stayed on the coast of Trinity) and see the Battle of the flowers. I was only 12/13 when I went and I can still remember the beauty of it all. I also remember looking into maybe moving there after graduating university in 2017 and instantly being horrified at the house prices even though my entire family’s from London and still lives in the Home Counties. I hope the tax loopholes are closed soon, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for living in such a beautiful place. You’re not the one who made the loopholes and it sounds like you’d be one to actively protest against them. I hope you have a great day, and UK uni towns can be so expensive, but I have a list of resources I used as a student that knocked so much money off of a load of things if you’d like me to pass them on to you? Good luck with your studies!
I went to an independent school and the number of people who's parents happened to live in Jersey or other tax havens like the Caymans was eye opening. Many of them were nice guys but it always made me think less of them on some level to know that they were tax skivers.
What you need to be aware of in regard to Jersey (and probably the other Channel Islands too), isn't part of the UK as such. It's 'property' of the queen, totally different concept, and probably subject to different laws and governing etc. I've never been to Jersey but I went to Guernsey for a week or two about 20 years ago now, it was a beautiful place, lovely hidden coves and plenty of countryside. I imagined Jersey to be similar, but a fair bit more built up and busier 😎
@@elias_xp95 That's a pretty ignorant statement. We aren't the US , the UK spends only around 2% of the budget on the military, which is the amount they commit to spending as a part of NATO anyway which is mainly insurance against stuff like what is going on in Ukraine which seems pretty necessary. The rest goes towards maintaining the country, including the social programs that pay for the meals of people who can't afford them. Anyone for whom it is worth it to evade tax in this way does not have an issue feeding their family. If you are taking advantage of the many advantages provided by the government including healthcare, roads, education and public order or just have basic empathy for your fellow countrymen you cannot in good conscience support tax evasion. But hey, your name and PFP suggest that you probably aren't a very smart or empathetic person.
PLEASE COME BACK!!! Found your channel last week and have binge watched all of your videos. Your content and writing skills are underrate. Phenomenal work. 🤗
Some historians would argue that the UK's main legacy in WW2 was helping to establish Russia as a new global superpower. And then, when this left us penniless, we clawed it back by, again, assisting Russia by cleaning their dirty money.
Really seems like you enjoy doing random bits about the web than you do pieces like these, but I speak for thousands of people when I say we really appreciate your content about real world situations with active consequences we ourselves may not be aware of beforehand. Thank you for doing this and I hope the support you get encourages you to keep pointing out how stupid we as humans really are sometimes
This was a really interesting look at english culture, at least the dark side of it. You mostly hear about the shit that China, America or Russia does, but England seems to keep a "low profile" ...
Funny how they don't teach you half of this stuff in school, grew up in England and we didn't hear much about our extensive colonising. We did hear about America's and everyone else's though. Lmao.
*MI6 Would like to know your location* but seriously though, i know everyone is saying this, but the balls on this guy to criticise his own country for its crimes is kinda inspiring and i wish more people were like that The man absolutely roasted the queen outside her palace, what a chad
I just want to say, because this glorious 10 million worth townhouses looks nice outside, inside they are like any other house in UK, an brick sheds with 100-year-old airy windows and smelly carpets.
i can confirm that i spend 3/4 of my tiny salary of my design job at a highly profitable company called Boohoo to live in a shitty little bedsit in london ... this company hasn't even offered its hard working employees a pay rise to compensate for the rise in cost of living.. :/ thanks for covering this topic!!! love ur videos
The gloomy nature of the UK’s reliance on the financial sector is just so brutally depressing, and you can understand why so many choose to be blissfully ignorant. Love the video though
0:15 Maybe there is something about having a lot of tunnels that makes you love money and gold way too much. Switzerland also has a lot of tunnels and loves money just as much. Maybe Tolkien really was onto something with the Dwarfs and Hobbits.
Possibly your best work. Your detail is absolutely perfect for someone like that wants to care about these things but can never really understand them enough to really give a shit. Great job & don’t let the bastards grind you down
Very funny and informative, but your take on the empire collapsing is way off. You made it sound like independence was a near-military affair (was in some but those were the minority). Britain didn't loose revenue from decolonising, in fact, it was the rush Britain was in to leave most territories (at least officially) that helped contribute to the poor state many are in today. The Empire's main reason for collapsing was ceasing to be profitable in a time where its overlords needed money the most.
