Anyone else not just a bit worried?

[mummabear1967]

Just opened up my Facebook feed this morning to be flooded with articles that the U.K is now into a recession.

I know some may say it’s hardly surprising, but it just scares me and fills me with worry.

First of all, we are fighting this coronavirus nightmare, it was improving slightly (in the U.K. anyway) but now it all seems to be getting worse again, it just feels as though we are going to be stuck in this pandemic and going in and out of lockdown forever. It’s horrible.

And then we have the consequences of Brexit to look forward to next year and god knows what else.

I sound so negative but does anyone else feel the same? I wish there was somebody we could blame for this coronavirus, but there isn’t because it’s just Mother Nature

I've been worried from the start about the economy. It will take a long time to recover from this.

@AuntieMarys

I've been worried from the start about the economy. It will take a long time to recover from this.

It will. DS is finishing college / potentially starting university or starting an apprenticeship and I do worry he will find getting a job hard

I wouldn't say there is no one to blame. I have heard experts say that no pandemic is unavoidable....before it can be a pandemic it has to be an outbreak and then an epidemic. If things are handled properly it should never progress. Once it had the UK handled things so badly esp at the beginning, we did not take enough action fast enough and had a much bigger spread of disease than we might have, which creates the need for longer harsher lockdown with all that means for the economy.

Experts have been crystal clear from the beginning on this, to help the economy, control the virus.

I will just worry about today for now.

The only way the economy will recover is if they make everything the “old” normal again and not the new normal and just accept that lots of people are going to get Covid and many will die. I say that as someone who is / was in the clinically vulnerable shielding group. The longer they keep making everyone wear masks and banging on about social distancing nothing is going to improve. I am scared for my daughter aged 17, if things don’t get back to normal there will be no jobs and no income for future generations - yet alone everyone else.

@Bagelsandbrie

The only way the economy will recover is if they make everything the “old” normal again and not the new normal and just accept that lots of people are going to get Covid and many will die. I say that as someone who is / was in the clinically vulnerable shielding group. The longer they keep making everyone wear masks and banging on about social distancing nothing is going to improve. I am scared for my daughter aged 17, if things don’t get back to normal there will be no jobs and no income for future generations - yet alone everyone else.

Yes it’s really quite a hard one. I’d say for the sake of our economy and jobs that lockdown needs to fully end and normality needs to come back.

But then I’d be scared of vulnerable family members getting it and not surviving. It really is awful

I'd rather act than be worried.

I'm shopping, mainly locally.
Going away on short holidays, spending money there.
Contributing to food banks.

As for being preventable. It was, indeed. But (!) this virus has characteristics that weren't known at the start and were unexpected. These characteristics meant that transmission was easier and could go undetected.
Previous outbreaks and flu variants showed that people always considered strong action by health authorities as overreaction. I'm not surprised that the WHO and several countries were reluctant to recommend or impose stronger measures.

I hope we can retain the notion that strong action at the start is always preferable.

Going back to the start, worry less, prepare more.

Ive been looking at the way Sweden are handling it. They have not done the lockdown and have had a lot of deaths amongst the vulnerable but seem to have reigned in the spread and wider deaths. Perhpas its the cultural attitude, but as they ahve a large migrant population they dont seem to be having a lot of issues with ethnicity vulnerability and preception of bias which is the case here.
Poor NewZealand seemed to have it all undercontrol.

Recession was inevitable and whatever the impact of brexit will have an effect. We are, as the Chinese said "lcursed to live in Interesting times".

The bottom line to quote Captian Jack Sparrow is "The Problem is not the problem, the problem is how we deal with the problem."

A lot of possible jobs will be vanishing - young people who wanted a future in certain sectors will ahve to seek destiny in other sectors, likewise people in certain areas will need to retrain - not nice to hear, but opportunities are out there.

@Bagelsandbrie

The only way the economy will recover is if they make everything the “old” normal again and not the new normal and just accept that lots of people are going to get Covid and many will die. I say that as someone who is / was in the clinically vulnerable shielding group. The longer they keep making everyone wear masks and banging on about social distancing nothing is going to improve. I am scared for my daughter aged 17, if things don’t get back to normal there will be no jobs and no income for future generations - yet alone everyone else.

The normal you want still means hospitals being flooded, people dying at home and health personnel not at work because they are ill at home. Things have not changed.

We do need to adapt to the new normal. And yes, that means wearing masks and distancing or meeting in safer places. Improving respiratory higiene.
But going places and leading our lives as safely as possible.
That means not avoiding shops because of masks.
That means going to shows too.
But it also requires adaptations from businesses.

The old normal is not desirable now and it will also lead to recession because of the direct impact of the disease.

Sweden still implemented social distancing and improved hygiene. That is the new normal, like it or not.

Our GDP has dropped 20% on the first quarter. Growth in June was at 9%. We'll probably recover the first 10% or so really quickly now businesses are reopen and the eat out to help out scheme etc.

The last 10% will take well over a year to recoup if not longer. There are already thousands of job losses which will increase when furlough ends. And yes, there is Brexit to contend with too

I feel sorry for recent graduates who's chances of finding the same job they would've pre-covid are very slim.

There is also a knock on effect from the 08 financial crisis. Real wages (adjusting for inflation) generally never recovered to pre-2008. I'd be more worried about the impact 2 major recessions in 11 years will have on the standard of living

Economies generally are in cycles, you usually see a recession every 10 years or so. However, these are usually little "hiccups", not major recessions like the one we are in now and the 2008.

Save an emergency fund (3-6 months salary, ideally 6), spend local, support small businesses, look back at cutting back on monthly costs (use MSE website). But other than that, what else can you do? It is predominately out of our control so don't spend your time worrying about it and getting worked up, get yourself recession-secure and just carry on with life

@Lweji if we don’t get back to old normal there won’t be any hospitals to flood as there will be no tax payers to fund them!

I know it’s difficult balance to get right. I’m not naive. But we just can’t carry on like this. It’s just killing off the UK more than Covid ever has or will.

[quote Bagelsandbrie]@Lweji if we don’t get back to old normal there won’t be any hospitals to flood as there will be no tax payers to fund them!

I know it’s difficult balance to get right. I’m not naive. But we just can’t carry on like this. It’s just killing off the UK more than Covid ever has or will.[/quote]
There will be tax payers.

The new normal isn't lockdown and it shouldn't be people avoiding shops or museums because they have to wear masks.
The old normal will be unsustainable in the next year or two.
The more people realise that, the better.
This is a marathon.
We need to get back to our normal activities but with greater care.

The government has a huge responsibility in both the recession (the lockdown could have been shorter, if they got on with it sooner) and how normal lives will become. Lack of track and trace, proper PPE, and of effective and reasonable distancing rules, may well mean that further lockdowns could be necessary and people will be reluctant to get back to their economy sustaining activities.

At least Boris can blame something else rather than Brexit for the recession.

We were heading for recession anyway due to Brexit.