Collapse of normal life

[OldPot]

It feels to me that this is what is beginning to happen. Spiralling bills that surely only the well off can pay, shortages of things we all took for granted (2 of my mum's regular medications are out of stock, no chemicals for the local swimming pool, things opening for a few hours instead of all day (post office, banks etc), NHS on its knees, many other services just not running as they should). Plus the sodding infernal heat and drought this summer.....

And yes I know we are luckier here in the UK than many, many others countries.....but I just feel there is no turning back to life pre-covid.

I think you are right. I have faith in our resilience, in our ability to adapt, and in our inventiveness. We'll keep going.

I sort of know what you mean OP - as a family we realise that we are hugely privileged (DP is in the top 5% of earners and has just been awarded a generous pay rise, and I’m currently a SAHM by choice) but we live in quite a mixed area and I spent a lot of time out and about accessing public facilities with DD. Literally nothing here (London suburb) is functioning properly at the moment, and everything around us is gradually becoming more and more run down. There’s now often a real sense of poverty and desperation when you walk through what was formerly our thriving town centre.

To some extent we’ve been able to pay our way out of the problem - bypassing the filthy council pools and long post-covid waiting lists for swimming lessons by joining our local private health club, for example. But even these commercial businesses are now struggling and starting to cut back. There literally seems to be no money anywhere.

We are doing what we can where we can to support others - continuing to donate to food banks and other charities, volunteering for regular litter picks and so on. As a recently escaped teacher and current governor I know the dire financial straits that schools are currently in, so with DD starting Reception in September we’ve spent the summer putting together a big box of resources (glue sticks, packs of card, craft resources, tissues, wet wipes) to donate to her new school. But it does feel bleak out there, and the one thing that we need most at the moment - competent, courageous leaders with intelligence, integrity and a long-term strategy - is sorely lacking.

I think this is what happens when you get to the end of a long run of Conservative government. Nothing has been funded properly in so long... then you add in Covid, which has probably sped up the decline, and now inflation is rising...

I think the news stories are hyping it up a bit and frightening people. I don't find things are as bad as they are painted, so far.

I am a single mum lost my job after lockdown, but found a new and better job with lovely colleagues and increased pay.
I was diagnosed with BC during routine screening in Sept 22 but the NHS were brilliant, op in Oct, chemo in Dec-Feb, radiotherapy in March, covid wasn't allowed to slow the pace of treatment down. New work have been brilliant, v supportive as well.

We staycationed this summer paying off the debt from being out of work (and travel insurance was ridiculous) but have found council swimming courses for ds, plenty of stuff to do at home and at little cost.

I'm prepping for big rise in bills by adding to loft insulation, lining curtains, collecting wood for log burner. Stocking up on candles as well, given the rumours of power cuts. All things I can do gradually myself.

I've had a rollercoaster year to say the least, but need to approach it from a positive angle, for DS sake (and my own) and so far all the support I needed has been available. Obviously things can go downhill quickly but the gloom and doom isn't all warranted as far as I can see. Maybe I have been the exception.

Don’t forget the war is being fought in Ukraine and also globally on an economic level

If the West want to back Ukraine, which it makes sense to do for security generally, it is not cost free

If the war ended many things would release pressure and some redirecting and rebuilding could happen

Next up is climate issues which need attention more urgently

I don’t think it’s as negative as you say, yes big events are occurring and we’ve had two, or three but the media plays a role in keeping you scared, clicking and reacting

It makes money for them so if it feels too onerous take time out from it

Over a long view this happens all the time - growth and collapse due to disease, bad governance, famines etc. We notice it especially because we have been used to having more. It will take years of recovery to go back to normal. This zombie government is deliberately trying to choke off resources and we are in a rare-ish position of having zero opposition. A PM who openly states he wanted people to die in the streets was unchallenged. What will it take? Removal of bad governments (all over the world - that's not easy), better use/sharing of resources, decent accountability to the people, loosening of the grip of Murdoch's media, etc.

We're fukked. That's all there is to say really.

It is all a bit shit.

I'm getting a bit pissed off with part time services and shops. Boots in my home town was open for a grand total of 2 hours last Saturday, Greggs closed at 3, the banks not open past midnight afternoon. The high streets are dying but if big businesses can't manage to stay open for normal shopping hours, people will stop relying on them, do even more online and then these branches will end up permanently closed and their staff made redundant!
Also fed up of companies not answering the phone and doing their jobs and still blaming Covid.

The real worry though is the climate - there are floods in parts of the world right now while we seem in permanent drought.

The calibre of our current politicians is absolutely dire. What is the point of Kier Starmer? He's been absolutely fucking useless at a time when the Tories have given him an open goal!

It goes in cycles. The 1940s were dreadful but by the 60s we were prosperous. Then in the 70s there were blackouts, industrial job losses in the 80s, but by the 2000s we were prosperous again. And now we’re on another downward swing. Things will improve but it might take years. Kids born now might not have a great childhood but by the time they’re 20 the world will be great. Equally the kids who had great childhoods in the 2000s are going to have a shit time as young adults in their 20s. The last 20 years has been an unprecedented time of wealth and tech progress, it couldn’t realistically last and doesn’t reflect what the world is like on average.

Lovely heartening attitude and some good tips.

Well, that's quite the dramatic spin.

I agree , it's the little things, that don't even matter in the grand scheme of things but just feel not the same ( not taking away from the big stuff but that's a whole other ballpark ).
Village pharmacy is sometimes open some times not, usually no warning.
Shelves with big gaps in previously well stocked shops like Wilco.
Go for a coffee before the weekly shop and the in house costa is shut due to lack of staff.
Local pool is several degrees colder
On hold to call centres for ages " cuz Covid "
Even kfc has reduced opening hours ( I don't even like kfc but that's not the point )

My sister said only the “new poor” are worried about it. I.e. the people who are used to being relatively well off and have no idea how to live without money. We are “old poor” - we grew up with nothing and we know how to survive if we end up back in that situation.

Covid was just the circuit breaker. Accidental or otherwise.

I could write for hours on this subject. The experiment in communism failed. Capitalism took over and the US was and still is good at allocating capital. Other nations want some of that and that is where BRICS came in. The last 25-30 years have been prosperous and we have had low inflation and cheap money while the BRICS decide what to do.

Bolsonaro will plunder the natural resources of the Amazon, Putin is playing out the lessons he learned in the KGB and will steal and torture and 'false flag' whole nations and economies, China will use its Belt & Road programme to spread into other nations and eventually subjugate their people to serve Chinese society in old age. Europe is in cultural decline and economic stagnation. Over 70% of people live in autocracies and less than 30% in democracies, whatever they are these days. Much continues to depend on the US and Trump and the polarisation of US society is the most dangerous thing at the present time.

The next 30 years will be characterised by Europeans learning to have less. We are broke. The UK national debt is £80,000 per household. Our interest bill on serving the debt is nearly $80 billion a year. Yet Liz Truss wants to cut taxes so we can spend our money on foreign goods. Disaster but it is popular for the middle earners of course. Just don't look to far into the future and everything is rosy.

You sound like a lovely person, really kind and caring. Thank you for sharing your wealth by doing things to help others. I mean this genuinely BTW!

I agree. When David Cameron became prime minister he started to cut everything. Immediately. I remember for instance he got rid of an advisory service which worked to reduce teenage pregnancies. It was only a matter of time before losing all of these worthy organisations would mean life in the UK really deteriorated.
Then the disaster that is Brexit - just done for personal financial and political gain by the people in power. It was obvious that it would make things much worse for the general population.
Then Covid.
And the big one, which will get so much worse so soon - global warming.

Agree with @Lolabalola that it’s often the small, subtle, insidious changes that make everything feel a bit bleak right now, especially in the public realm. Just a general, quite nebulous sense of decline. Our local library, for example (last one standing in our area as others all closed down under austerity) never returned to normal after covid, now opens fewer hours, no longer runs toddler rhyme times etc and constantly has computers and lending machines out of order as they can’t afford to maintain them. But plenty of affluent people won’t have noticed this as they’ll be ordering all their books online from Amazon or Waterstone’s and paying for private toddler classes.

I think if you’re as individually fortunate as we are as a household, and still relatively immune to the wider cost of living crisis, how you perceive the situation will depend on who you come into contact with every day and how much you need to access public services.

We have a nice house, only one child to support and sufficient funds for our needs. We’re not living in fear of the next bill arriving, have just had a lovely foreign holiday and so on. If we lived in a more remote, affluent area, drove everywhere, sent DD to private school etc I doubt we’d notice much in the way of change. But we live in a demographically mixed part of London, walk everywhere, are sending DD to a local state school and need to access the NHS because DP has a chronic condition that his workplace private health scheme won’t cover. So we’re lucky in the grand scheme of things, but it is very visible to me how much other people, and almost all public services, are currently struggling.

Your attitude is amazing, really admirable! Your DS is a lucky boy to have such a strong mum.

My local library is removing a day of staffed hours. It only offers 3 hours on a weekend for working people to get to. We have to accept lower standards at higher cost and that's just how it's going to be. Dog eat dog, fighting over the reduced food and public services for you and your family first. People will have to go into survival mode and put themselves first

i really feel for the young just leave college....😔

I have a teen a bit younger and my primary concern for him is employment figures, he’s just got his second casual job (first the owner didn’t pay a few times the bugger) and he has a career in mind

Thankfully employment is ok, the biggest issue is when it drops markedly and you get large parts of country in youth unemployment

I think now is one of the better times to be entering the employment market. There are plenty of vacancies around - our HR are brainstorming how to make the company as attractive as possible so we retain staff, as they know there are competitors out there just waiting to poach good employees with a better offer.

Why don't you go back to work?