Yes, possibly. But a lot of people got very rich as result of that happening. Also who is to blame for that culture? Did lower income people suddenly decide that they needed 50" TVs or did MegaCorp Electronics marketing people realise that they had saturated the "high income market" and start offering finace deals, via the equally greedy banks, to lower income customers? Now that those electronics corporations and bankers have squeezed both markets dry they are sitting on the profits and are refusing to reinvest them whist their former customers are losing their jobs and taking pay cuts
Easy isn't it, couple of years of this, sell off the bank shares, deficit back to normal levels and things can go back to 'normal' - normal being somewhere between where we are now, and where we were in 2007ish - probably loooong before when most of the people who are moaning will retire. I understand your pain, I really do - I lost my job to the crash, my pension went for a burton, I've still got it in terms of money in a pot, but it's not growing anymore and it won't be based on my salary when I retire ether, like it used to be. Like anyone who wants to jump on a soapbox to moan about something, I ask the same thing, what would YOU do instead? Where would you cut the 27m your employer needs to cut, or looking at the bigger picture, in order to keep the current pension scheme for public sector workers, where would YOU find the extra money, or savings to pay for it. Don't take this personally, but if your essential purchases are 90% of your total income, you're household budget is mismanaged.
Firstly by disposing of all the non jobs such as the diversity dept, corporate communication & business development, then refuse to pay fines imposed by kwangos for crap like carbon use and having the wrong coloured paint in public areas. Yes, it probably is. But for the last 20 years I've been told that I need this and must have that by various companies and I've also had money thrown at me by various financial institutions to pay for all those things that I was told I needed. The very people who made huge profits from, and indeed created, that culture are now the ones who are blaming the likes of me for the current stituation
Ive noticed a difference!! Just been cut from 6 days a week to 3 days a week today! Gas has gone up, electric has gone up, rent has gone up, car insurance has gone up, fuel has gone up, tax has gone up but now I have half the money - mint!
Just because it was offered, didn't mean you had to take it. My wife's a teacher (for now anyway, she's just about to stop), so the pensions thing affects her, and therefor me, too. I still support the governments view. Public sector pensions are not affordable. The government cannot continue to offer defined benefits schemes, never mind final salary schemes. State pensions in general (i.e. the one I will get through paying NI) are only affordable if the population is growing. I fully support your view on the non-jobs. They need to go. However, here's a question for you all - which is cheaper: To have people in non-jobs being paid a salary, or To have those people on the dole, getting free housing, benefits, etc?
It's not that simple, the former ensures a good way of living for everybody in the Netherlands and Scandanavian countries, but has not gone well in Greece. The later however is a big part of the problem in the UK, so i wouldn't reccomend Greece going that way either.
The thick inbred folks at both ends of society. Meaning the sensible working class has to pay for both of their errors of judgement. If people actually had to get up each day and fulfil the required duties at a fair rate of what it takes in both time and effort to exist in their chosen lifestyle, it would be a start. Rather than just creaming off cash and living off the backs of anyone that they can to facilitate them living beyond their means. Too many selfish and greedy people that never seem to think of the long term implications of their actions. What is the point in material wealth, if the gaining of such "status" results in your surrounding country and environment being a sheithole. Bring on the downfall..........
I know it's not that simple, it was just a thought/conversation starter. How do the Netherlands/Scandinavia fund these non-jobs then?
The public sector pensions are affordable, if the govt stops taking money from them to spend on other things, currently something like 50% more is being paid into them than is being paid out, I accept that the current scheme isn't infinitly sustainable & any pension offered to new employees should reflect this fact but I've been paying into the current scheme for ten years.
You're absolutely right I didn't But when it was offered, and indeed for the near future, I could/can afford it. I accept responsibility for my part of the bargain but I get really miffed when the very people who have profited from it not only act as though they are blameless but have also collectively engineered the situation that we are now in
I cannot & will not accept that the financial crisis, which iirc started with the US "sub-prime" mortgages, happened by accident. It is ridiculous to believe that all of a sudden, one day in 2008, all the American banks independantly of each other decided that the market was too risky & called in all their dodgy debts closely followed by other banks around the world. Somebody, somewhere made it happen & made a fortune from what followed.
the problem was made worse by the fact the housig market in the us had slumped big time and the banks could not reclame losses by sell them on it happened over 3 years
You can buy a nice enough (needs re-done) house in Detroit for 3k these days - I'd be tempted to take out a huge loan, buy a few blocks, fence it off and just wait - cities with that sort of infrastructure don't just "die". If I had the money, of course. Motor City, what have you done...
Easilly, as they're spending a tiny fraction of what the UK does on security and crime prevention, cameras and people to watch them, police etc
I'd be more inclined to invest in old peoples home in China and India. The UK don't like foriegners coming over and stealing jobs. The easy way out will be to offer cheaper care in countries where labour is cheap. It's already happend to call centres and hospital treatment. Old people with no/little ties may as well go somewheres warm where labour's cheaper, it will work out cheaper for all of us, as we all pay care costs for the elderly indirectly.
Rare occasion today, I got scrubbed up and headed to town to do some banking business. I was opening a new savings bank account, and after going through all the usual shizzle and form filling the lass said all that remained was for me to choose which one of the twelve accounts I wanted. Woah there I says like you do. What you talking about girl. Well she then explained that they were all actually the same account, just that I was able to choose the name of the account to "personalise it". Well my immediate response was to call it a "Losings Account" seeing as the interest rate was sheit and below the current rate of inflation. That did not go down too well, so she then started to show me the real options open to me. It was basically "holiday fund account", "garden makeover account", "new 3 piece suite account" etc etc. Well I demanded that I get the "rainy day account" and the "just dreaming account" seeing as I am such a good customer. She enquired why, I responded with I liked the sound of my own personal "wet dream account". I left shortly after with just the one account......... But it's good to know that empowering the public with such means to name their own account shows a cutting edge attack to climb out the financial hole we are in.
Italy's going down now, too big to fail and too big to bail, this is where it should get interesting. That Euro banking sumit last week seems to have worked, for 1 week...
