Lootman wrote:Arborbridge wrote:JoyofBrex8889 wrote:I dumped my NG last month. Proceeds are now safely offshore in SE Asia. There is no way Marxists are going to rob me of a penny while I draw breath.
It makes no difference to me whether it's imaginary red under the bed or self-engrandising, greedy or hubristic directors wrecking a company. Both are equally objectionable, though the latter are a real and tangible danger, the former just a possibility.
A low probability risk is still significant if the outcome of that event happening is extremely harmful to you.
An incomptent or greedy bunch of directors may harm the value of your investment in that one company (and I am not saying NG is an example). A confiscatory anti-capitalist left-wing government could wreak havoc upon your entire portfolio, especially a UK-based one like HYP. Rich old white people are not a sympathetic demographic to those who seek to redistribute wealth. They are the target.
Political risk and single-country risk are things that I think are not fully weighted by HYP investors, perhaps because it is 40 years since we have had a government who sees private wealth as suspect. But those of us who remember the 1970s cannot discount it. And the potential privatisation of utilities is a useful warning indicator in my view to the damage that could be wrought on many UK-based investments and investors. By the time you see it, it may be too late.
I hadn't intended to go too far OT with my little quip, so this will be my last on the subject:-
I agree with most of what you say, though not necessarily with the emphasis - I suspect we'll survive a change of government as we always have, if only because we have a fairly well established set of checks and balances in this country. Short of complete revolution, governments of any colour find they cannot achieve what they want: it's never as bad nor as good as you imagine it will be, so one is .
I was really warning against attaching probably unwarranted labels: if done in a repetitive way, this can alter perceptions, not always for the best. Language is important and we should be circumspect about its use.
And as an old white person, whilst not rich, undoubtedly richer than some struggling on the first rung of the ladder, I do feel targetted at times.
Arb.