Coping classes,middle classes.

There have been several articles recently in the UK about "classes". A recent one was headed "Middle classes hit again with tax raid on pensions".

I commented: Some people can free themselves from the binding shackles of mindset, I must confess that I am not yet a member of that illustrious club, attempts to join it founder when confronted with, " ----- currently save £225,000 a year and still receive relief ----- " [ this relief being in respect of reduced taxation]
" ----- It is currently capped at £1.8 million but will be reduced to £1,5 million ----- ". [ this was in respect of the size of a pension pot that could be accrued] There were several sarcastic comments about these amounts being out of the reach of most people, let alone the middle class.

My comment then went on: My mindset is that we are still gripped by various "spin offs" caused by the death throes of The World Financial Armageddon, this hit on the middle classes being an example. This mindset of mine also embraces the total logic of nationalising our banks and any financial institution whose actions could threaten the economic stability of our country.

My comment ended there. However in trying, at every opportunity, to expand my grasp of world finance I am continually amazed. and often baffled and exasperated, at the multiplicity of terms and abbreviations used. One little gem was that one section of the LSE could handle a trade in 124 micro seconds, this supported an observation by another expert that if one did not have the latest super fast computer you would not be in the hunt.In following the various leads one could be forgiven for thinking that that financially the end is nigh. One "expert" had it that America was just about to print another few trillion more dollars as that was legal, this should have the same effect on China as imposing a tariff on imports which was not legal.

I close with the observation that if many of the statistics quoted could also be given on a per capita basis it may be conducive to a better understanding of any problem that has built up.
Taking per capita to include all ages, how many dollars does each person in America need to give to their Government to equal the dollars that China already holds? If the number of dollars that China holds was to be divided up equally among their population how many dollars would each person get?

Frederick W Gilling 17:50 hrs BST Friday 15 October 2010.