Co-worker 2: "If I was a millionaire I wouldn't have a new car....I'd have a private helicopter to fly me around."
I wonder if this co-worker is confused between someone who has wealth of a million or someone who annually earns a million.
Slightly off topic and grossly simplifying, in the UK, there are two main political parties - the Tories (Conservatives) are a low tax, small government party, and Labour who are a high tax, large government party.
There is also tiered income tax, whereby the more you earn, the higher the rate on the amount above the limit is.
There has recently been a lot of debate about what the rate should be for income earned above £150,000. Before leaving office, Labour raised it to 50%, and since coming into office the Conservatives have lowered it to 45% and (it is commonly believed) would like to put it back down to 40%. Labour is against this.
The thing that infuriates me (politics aside) is that Labour insist on calling this a "Millionaire's Tax Cut". Labour make the argument that every person who earns £1,000,000 in a year would be £40,000 better off, and makes political capital from this as it resonates with the public.
However, if you subscribe to the view (like me) that a millionaire is simply someone with wealth over a million, calling it a "Millionaire's" Tax Cut is just wrong
- someone earning £200,000 with no stored wealth is not a millionaire, but would benefit from a lowering of the rate over £150,000
- someone with wealth of over a million, with no income, who is a millionaire would not benefit from a lowering of the rate over £150,000
I can only imagine that Labour (who aren't silly enough to make this mistake) were deliberately confusing the definition of a millionaire, but I was amazed at how successful they were. In the end I had to stop watching the debates as it just got me annoyed. :-)
https://www.labour.org.uk/poster-on-camerons-tax-cut-for-millionaireshttp://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check/2012/oct/02/is-david-cameron-really-going-to-give-each-millionaire-a-40-000-tax-cut