Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 26, 2020 19:01:16 GMT -5
So, a bit of good news today. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced that there will be financial help for the self-employed in the UK. HMRC will look at your last three yearly tax returns, take the monthly average, deduct 20% and pay those who are unable to work due to the coronavirus lockdown (like me) that amount per month. I might have to wait until June to get it, but it'll all be backdated from March. That means that at least our household won't have to rely just on my wife's wages.
Can't complain about that at all. It's a real weight off of my mind.
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 27, 2020 6:09:58 GMT -5
So, a bit of good news today. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced that there will be financial help for the self-employed in the UK. HMRC will look at your last three yearly tax returns, take the monthly average, deduct 20% and pay those who are unable to work due to the coronavirus lockdown (like me) that amount per month. I might have to wait until June to get it, but it'll all be backdated from March. That means that at least our household won't have to rely just on my wife's wages. Can't complain about that at all. It's a real weight off of my mind. I heard a bit of good news about England yesterday. It turns out that the amount of cases and deaths are well below what the " experts" predicted. Some doctor was saying it might be 200k Infections but it looks to be slowing down and the numbers will be around 20K. We are getting inundated with cases in Ny but I expect to slow down as well. The media keeps giving alarming numbers and is keeping the populace terrified, there's no mention of the people that are recovering. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 27, 2020 6:20:03 GMT -5
So, a bit of good news today. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced that there will be financial help for the self-employed in the UK. HMRC will look at your last three yearly tax returns, take the monthly average, deduct 20% and pay those who are unable to work due to the coronavirus lockdown (like me) that amount per month. I might have to wait until June to get it, but it'll all be backdated from March. That means that at least our household won't have to rely just on my wife's wages. Can't complain about that at all. It's a real weight off of my mind. I heard a bit of good news about England yesterday. It turns out that the amount of cases and deaths are well below what the " experts" predicted. Some doctor was saying it might be 200k Infections but it looks to be slowing down and the numbers will be around 20K. We are getting inundated with cases in Ny but I expect to slow down as well. The media keeps giving alarming numbers and is keeping the populace terrified, there's no mention of the people that are recovering. The networks I watch are always listing recoveries among the stats, though I get what you’re saying. The networks have to cover this and though they are forever looking for another angle, there’s only so much good news. I hope you’re right about a slowdown in NYC! |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 27, 2020 6:24:54 GMT -5
So, a bit of good news today. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced that there will be financial help for the self-employed in the UK. HMRC will look at your last three yearly tax returns, take the monthly average, deduct 20% and pay those who are unable to work due to the coronavirus lockdown (like me) that amount per month. I might have to wait until June to get it, but it'll all be backdated from March. That means that at least our household won't have to rely just on my wife's wages. Can't complain about that at all. It's a real weight off of my mind. I heard a bit of good news about England yesterday. It turns out that the amount of cases and deaths are well below what the " experts" predicted. Some doctor was saying it might be 200k Infections but it looks to be slowing down and the numbers will be around 20K. We are getting inundated with cases in Ny but I expect to slow down as well. The media keeps giving alarming numbers and is keeping the populace terrified, there's no mention of the people that are recovering. I agree wholeheartedly about the media and its constant barrage of doomsday messages. To the pre-existing problem of a pneumonia epidemic, it helps adding a brand new psychosis. As if we needed that. However, I would absolutely not use quotation marks around the word experts. The fault does not lie with them, but with what many choose to make of what they say. The one, constant answer an expert gives when asked to predict the future is “it depends”. Said expert, if given enough time, will then proceed to explain how they can reach estimates of, say, from 5,000 deaths in the best cases to possibly 500,000 deaths if everything goes wrong. What will headlines say tomorrow? Just “experts predict half a million deaths!” with no context at all.  ( Here’s what I was thinking of that back in 2015!) |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,220
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Post by Confessor on Mar 27, 2020 6:57:07 GMT -5
So, a bit of good news today. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced that there will be financial help for the self-employed in the UK. HMRC will look at your last three yearly tax returns, take the monthly average, deduct 20% and pay those who are unable to work due to the coronavirus lockdown (like me) that amount per month. I might have to wait until June to get it, but it'll all be backdated from March. That means that at least our household won't have to rely just on my wife's wages. Can't complain about that at all. It's a real weight off of my mind. I heard a bit of good news about England yesterday. It turns out that the amount of cases and deaths are well below what the " experts" predicted. Some doctor was saying it might be 200k Infections but it looks to be slowing down and the numbers will be around 20K. We are getting inundated with cases in Ny but I expect to slow down as well. The media keeps giving alarming numbers and is keeping the populace terrified, there's no mention of the people that are recovering. I don't know where you heard that, but on Monday the BBC reported that, statistically, out infection curve here in the UK is slightly ahead of where Italy was at the same number of days after the first recorded case. In short, we're about a week and a half behind Italy, in terms of the number confirmed cases. And since the incubation period for coronavirus is up to 14 days, it's pretty much too late to stop us matching or exceeding where Italy is now in a fortnight's time. Of course, there are many, many more cases than the official total because most people who have it won't be able to get tested and will just have to ride it out without visiting hospital. PM Boris Johnson has just tested positive for it BTW. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 27, 2020 7:18:43 GMT -5
I heard a bit of good news about England yesterday. It turns out that the amount of cases and deaths are well below what the " experts" predicted. Some doctor was saying it might be 200k Infections but it looks to be slowing down and the numbers will be around 20K. We are getting inundated with cases in Ny but I expect to slow down as well. The media keeps giving alarming numbers and is keeping the populace terrified, there's no mention of the people that are recovering. I don't know where you heard that, but on Monday the BBC reported that, statistically, out infection curve here in the UK is slightly ahead of where Italy was at the same number of days after the first recorded case. In short, we're about a week and a half behind Italy, in terms of the number confirmed cases. And since the incubation period for coronavirus is up to 14 days, it's pretty much too late to stop us matching or exceeding where Italy is now in a fortnight's time. Of course, there are many, many more cases than the official total because most people who have it won't be able to get tested and will just have to ride it out without visiting hospital. Here is a helpful graph for each country that shows their doubling curve since passing the 100 case threshold. Some countries turned their curves through draconian measures. Some... didn't. www.visualcapitalist.com/infection-trajectory-flattening-the-covid19-curve/ |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,220
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Post by Confessor on Mar 27, 2020 7:33:08 GMT -5
I don't know where you heard that, but on Monday the BBC reported that, statistically, out infection curve here in the UK is slightly ahead of where Italy was at the same number of days after the first recorded case. In short, we're about a week and a half behind Italy, in terms of the number confirmed cases. And since the incubation period for coronavirus is up to 14 days, it's pretty much too late to stop us matching or exceeding where Italy is now in a fortnight's time. Of course, there are many, many more cases than the official total because most people who have it won't be able to get tested and will just have to ride it out without visiting hospital. Here is a helpful graph for each country that shows their doubling curve since passing the 100 case threshold. Some countries turned their curves through draconian measures. Some... didn't. www.visualcapitalist.com/infection-trajectory-flattening-the-covid19-curve/God, what a mess that graph is! It's really hard to read. Whoever designed that needs to be fired. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 27, 2020 8:01:23 GMT -5
God, what a mess that graph is! It's really hard to read. Whoever designed that needs to be fired. Seems clear to me. You can select out any particular continent by hovering over its name in the upper right. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 27, 2020 8:16:24 GMT -5
I don't know where you heard that, but on Monday the BBC reported that, statistically, out infection curve here in the UK is slightly ahead of where Italy was at the same number of days after the first recorded case. In short, we're about a week and a half behind Italy, in terms of the number confirmed cases. And since the incubation period for coronavirus is up to 14 days, it's pretty much too late to stop us matching or exceeding where Italy is now in a fortnight's time. Of course, there are many, many more cases than the official total because most people who have it won't be able to get tested and will just have to ride it out without visiting hospital. Here is a helpful graph for each country that shows their doubling curve since passing the 100 case threshold. Some countries turned their curves through draconian measures. Some... didn't. www.visualcapitalist.com/infection-trajectory-flattening-the-covid19-curve/I find it interesting that Sweden isn't faring worse than the rest of Europe. Betting on "outracing" the virus by not limiting the spread of the epidemic among people less at risk is a gamble, but there's no way to know if it is an appropriate strategy or not until it is tried. Which brings us to the question every world leader must ask themselves at some point, I suppose: "how many deaths are acceptable in this context"? It's not the kind of question raised only in times of war. I'm glad I don't have to shoulder that kind of responsibility. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 27, 2020 8:25:03 GMT -5
Which brings us to the question every world leader must ask themselves at some point, I suppose: "how many deaths are acceptable in this context"? It's not the kind of question raised only in times of war. I'm glad I don't have to shoulder that kind of responsibility. Yup. We actually face it all the time with lesser causes of death. For instance, every year my county loses a few teenagers to ATV accidents, but it's still legal for kids to ride ATVs even though their frontal lobe underdevelopment tells us that's not a good idea. Likewise the correlation between lower speed limits and fewer highway fatalities. We don't like to think of those policies in terms of "acceptable fatalities." But in ways big and small, government is always balancing the risk of losing life with the act of actually living. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,220
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Post by Confessor on Mar 27, 2020 11:18:47 GMT -5
God, what a mess that graph is! It's really hard to read. Whoever designed that needs to be fired. Seems clear to me. You can select out any particular continent by hovering over its name in the upper right. Well, that wasn't obvious to me. So it's clearly not overly intuitive. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Mar 27, 2020 14:22:02 GMT -5
So, a bit of good news today. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced that there will be financial help for the self-employed in the UK. HMRC will look at your last three yearly tax returns, take the monthly average, deduct 20% and pay those who are unable to work due to the coronavirus lockdown (like me) that amount per month. I might have to wait until June to get it, but it'll all be backdated from March. That means that at least our household won't have to rely just on my wife's wages. Can't complain about that at all. It's a real weight off of my mind. The US government is doing something similar too. They say checks/direct deposits will go out sometime in April. Which will be nice as I’m out of work until May 1st at the latest. April 16th at the earliest. And my wife doesn’t work. We’ve got food and bills are taken care of, and we have saving for rent for a few months. But it will definitely be a relief to have the money as back up, not knowing how long this will last. Good luck to you and Mrs Confessor. Hopefully this will help stabilize your finances until you can get work again. |
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Mar 28, 2020 2:55:25 GMT -5
Hi folks, thought I'd have a little look-see at how youse are all doing, what with the Apocalypse and all.
Its getting so sitting down to the teevee of a night is something you need to brace yourself for.
I worry about some of you guys (of both sexes, sorry Bex) sitting down here on my little island, hiding away from the rest of the world.
I havent been as active lately but it doesnt mean I dont care, I still love this place with its conglomeration of nerdity, curmudgeons, and outright weirdos.
I see the lack of leadership, and in some cases the poor choices of said leaders (and not just the obvious target) and wonder if all of our community are going to be safe.
Gods will I guess...hope...
Its not the greatest of years(he said to no surprise) for me, even putting aside Covid. We found out in November that the factory I work in will be shifting our production to a new plant in Thailand in Dec this year. So hello redundancy in December. With 150 people going into the job market at the same time, in a town without a strong job market, the prospects of 56 year old me getting another job were slim. Now with all the lay offs because of the pandemic they may be impossible. The good news is the American owners have very deep pockets and are honoring our redundancy clause in our employment contract. I was also part of the union wage negotiation this year for which we are getting a 7K payment on top of redundancy at years end. This will enable my lady and I to pay off our mortgage, so the lack of job situation is less stressful, though no less emasculating.
We also received the news that we are an "Essential" business(making cat-food pouches of which the majority are exported to Australia). Another good news/bad news thing. Good because unlike most Im working. Bad because Im terrified of this bug and am not convinced EVERYone at work is as committed to not giving it to me as I am.
We're fortunate in that the government here have the whole country in lockdown(easy enough, my entire country would probably fit in an American Attic) and have promised they will guarantee 80% wage payments to those locked down. I just wish I was one of them, instead of having to deal with the knuckle-draggers at work breathing their fetid disease-ridden putrescence at me.
Also not over the fact that Im so damn essential that I have to work right now, but the shadow of the noose is still hovering.
Well hasnt this turned into a bloody tearjerker, I certainly dont mean it that way, Im ok about the job, and kinda numb about the Covid.
We have some good clear leadership guiding us through this so Im confident most Kiwis will be alright(well healthy, probably not rich).
Just wanted to check in with a bit on our situation.
Hope you all are well, God Bless, be safe.
Paul
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 28, 2020 6:28:11 GMT -5
Amidst all the terrible hoarding stories and psycho behavior, there are moments like these-   These were given to me by random costumers so I could be safe. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Mar 28, 2020 10:40:46 GMT -5
That’s cool. And honestly I forget y’all are still out there working since we get so little mail, paying bills online and whatnot, I might normally not get mail in a week. Keep up the good work man, we all appreciate it, even if sometimes we, well me lol, forget.
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