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I don't think we are a rich country anymore

254 replies

ThisHairColourIsTooDarkIThink · 24/08/2025 15:30

I've been feeling for a while that the country is in a bit of a mess financially.

Are you feeling this and cutting back where you can (I know I am).

Telegraph headline today
Rachel Reeves ‘heading towards 70s-style IMF bailout’
Economists warn of 1970s-style debt crisis unless Chancellor changes course

I think this is why people are so up in arms about the inflow of all these young men from abroad seeking refuge.

Nobody minds helping others when we ourselves are sorted.

Lets be honest though - it's hard to get an NHS dentist or a doctors appt. Our police are falling apart (which is very scary given what they keep at bay in society), ambulances don't come fast when you have a genuine emergency, housing shortage, food prices rocketing etc.

How can we help all these people when we can't even sort out ourselves?

Anyway watched a few things recently and alot about our economy being in serious shit. It seems we are indeed in a position much like the seventies.

So I just wanted to know if others are feeling like we are on a bit of knife edge and are you all cutting back financially to 'brave the storm'

OP posts:
Thread gallery
13
SeaAndStars · 24/08/2025 21:44

hangerup · 24/08/2025 21:10

Pensioners are taxed at the same rate as workers.

They don't pay NI if working which is ridiculous

They will most likely already have paid 35 plus years' NI.

hangerup · 24/08/2025 21:52

@SeaAndStars many won't have & plenty of younger people will have paid 35 years but have to pay more because of the increase of state pension age.

Plus the bigger issue is 35 yrs of NI doesn't fund your state pension i

hangerup · 24/08/2025 21:53

@Kitte321 but no government will do this hence why I said it's not a cross party consensus & the electorate need to wake up.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Timeforabitofpeace · 24/08/2025 22:06

We are a rich country, but the riches are distributed massively unequally.

Kitte321 · 24/08/2025 22:28

hangerup · 24/08/2025 21:53

@Kitte321 but no government will do this hence why I said it's not a cross party consensus & the electorate need to wake up.

Then we’re all screwed aren’t we?! 🤷‍♀️

Bathingforest · 24/08/2025 22:34

SerendipityJane · 24/08/2025 16:45

There are plenty of rich people in the UK. More than you'd think. The problem is they are very good at hanging onto their lolly - mainly by getting you to pay for everything.

Exactly. In Surrey every 5th house costs a million. That's hardly poor nation...

Bathingforest · 24/08/2025 22:38

Bathingforest · 24/08/2025 22:34

Exactly. In Surrey every 5th house costs a million. That's hardly poor nation...

Also in Surrey, cheapest accommodation starts at 200 000. People on minimum wage on two salaries buy these. They might be rubbish but numerically that's expensive property. Why these flats aren't 30 000 each

Pharazon · 24/08/2025 22:39

When do you think we were a rich country? We've been broke since WWII. Our GNI/GNP per capita puts us at 26th in the world, slightly ahead of Malta. We're a middle income country with pockets of extreme wealth, chronic low productivity, widespread economic inactivity, and an aging population.

ThisHairColourIsTooDarkIThink · 24/08/2025 22:50

I don't think cutting the triple lock is the answer. For a start lots of people have planned their retirement taking this amount into account. What do they do if after paying in for years and now on the cusp of retirement 'the rules' suddenly change. If they are going to do this they need to do it for people who are say 20 today and those that come behind them. That gives them time to prepare for retirement over the next 30 to 40 years.

None of the govts will want to lose the 'grey vote' and pensioners also turn out in force on voting days.

Plus if they cut the state pension then more people would be entitled to pension credit and so they would not actually save anything.

The answer has got to be stuff along the lines of:
Get people back to work. Seriously unless you are in a wheelchair of missing a limb or have downs syndrome you can work (okay I'm making it too simple but you get the point I am making). Maybe some can only work part-time and that's fine but far too many people are on benefits.

Freeze house prices from this day forward. Eventually inflation will make houses cheaper and the huge burden that is the housing market will be minimised. I mean if all house prices froze today for everyone then nobody would lose out would they. I bought my house in 2019 for 200K. Today it is worth £250K. Except it hasn't changed at all. So I sell my house for 250K and I buy another house for 250K, I haven't benefited at all have I. I'd be happy to sell it for 200K if they rolled all the prices back to 2019 but of course they can't do that because of people that have bought since then. So just freeze them. However if they do this our 'wealth' as a country will go down and they have used this 'wealth' to give people a false sense of prosperity. Does this matter. I don't know.

Close the borders now. I know it's drastic but until the country sorts itself out we should just close them just now. I'm sure there is a reason why this is more complicated than that but if your children are starving and you are running out of bread you don't keep giving it away to children of strangers do you. I mean that would be madness yet isn't that what we are doing.

The country needs growth and production and industries. Stop killing this with all the tax changes. Yes it's short term pain for long term gain but if she doesn't then we are never going to get out of this hole (that's if it's even possible now)

Charge a basic fee for the NHS - £10 for a gp appointment and so on. I'm sure most people would think that was ok and they would surely raise alot this way plus I bet lots of missed appointments would stop. Okay I know it's not that easy but surely we all have NI numbers. So the govt could have a citizens account that charges go to based on our NI numbers. Most of us would pay with no issue like the council tax and the ones that didn't would be put on 'stop' and wouldn't be able to get any further help. I'm not saying it has to work exactly like this but you get the drift.

Police - I'm actually quite worried about our police force. If you think these are the people who stand between us (law abiding citizens) and violent drug dealers, murderers and rapists, wife beaters, kiddie molesters etc. Can you imagine how scary it would be to not have them. The trouble is the pay for the police who are on 'response' ie the ones that go to 999 calls and deal with all the horrible stuff are not really very well paid when you consider the danger they face. Already the police are having trouble recruiting and standards are going down and down. Anyone remember when policemen were tall, slim, smart, model citizens and sort of looked up to and respected. They weren't allowed beards or tatoo's and they had to be a certain height. All that's going out of the window and now I see lots that are scruffy, short, bearded and tatooed. Okay maybe that does not matter but the point I am making is they have had to lower their 'standards' to recruit people because it's a dangerous job and people are leaving in their droves. I was in a relationship with a police detective who at age 40 had to go back into uniform as part of a transfer of location. So he spent 1 year as a response policeman and you would not people the stuff he had to deal with. Drunks, fights, domestic violence, he had to deal with a man holding his partner hostage with a gun. The armed police took hours to arrive and so there he was having to handle the situation unarmed. He was high as a kite that night on adrenalin and he was normally a very calm, measured, in control person. They pick up body parts, cut down suicides, deal with drug gangs and this is just 'another day at the office for them'. They get swore at, insulted, spat at, asaulted and all the time they have to keep their cool. I sure as hell don't want to live in a society without that protection. So another idea - £10 quid charge everytime you call 999.

Anyway I could say more but raising taxes is not the way to go.
I know my ideas are not fully thought out and will have loads of holes in them but surely some of them could be implemented in some form.

OP posts:
Someone2025 · 24/08/2025 22:58

ThisHairColourIsTooDarkIThink · 24/08/2025 22:50

I don't think cutting the triple lock is the answer. For a start lots of people have planned their retirement taking this amount into account. What do they do if after paying in for years and now on the cusp of retirement 'the rules' suddenly change. If they are going to do this they need to do it for people who are say 20 today and those that come behind them. That gives them time to prepare for retirement over the next 30 to 40 years.

None of the govts will want to lose the 'grey vote' and pensioners also turn out in force on voting days.

Plus if they cut the state pension then more people would be entitled to pension credit and so they would not actually save anything.

The answer has got to be stuff along the lines of:
Get people back to work. Seriously unless you are in a wheelchair of missing a limb or have downs syndrome you can work (okay I'm making it too simple but you get the point I am making). Maybe some can only work part-time and that's fine but far too many people are on benefits.

Freeze house prices from this day forward. Eventually inflation will make houses cheaper and the huge burden that is the housing market will be minimised. I mean if all house prices froze today for everyone then nobody would lose out would they. I bought my house in 2019 for 200K. Today it is worth £250K. Except it hasn't changed at all. So I sell my house for 250K and I buy another house for 250K, I haven't benefited at all have I. I'd be happy to sell it for 200K if they rolled all the prices back to 2019 but of course they can't do that because of people that have bought since then. So just freeze them. However if they do this our 'wealth' as a country will go down and they have used this 'wealth' to give people a false sense of prosperity. Does this matter. I don't know.

Close the borders now. I know it's drastic but until the country sorts itself out we should just close them just now. I'm sure there is a reason why this is more complicated than that but if your children are starving and you are running out of bread you don't keep giving it away to children of strangers do you. I mean that would be madness yet isn't that what we are doing.

The country needs growth and production and industries. Stop killing this with all the tax changes. Yes it's short term pain for long term gain but if she doesn't then we are never going to get out of this hole (that's if it's even possible now)

Charge a basic fee for the NHS - £10 for a gp appointment and so on. I'm sure most people would think that was ok and they would surely raise alot this way plus I bet lots of missed appointments would stop. Okay I know it's not that easy but surely we all have NI numbers. So the govt could have a citizens account that charges go to based on our NI numbers. Most of us would pay with no issue like the council tax and the ones that didn't would be put on 'stop' and wouldn't be able to get any further help. I'm not saying it has to work exactly like this but you get the drift.

Police - I'm actually quite worried about our police force. If you think these are the people who stand between us (law abiding citizens) and violent drug dealers, murderers and rapists, wife beaters, kiddie molesters etc. Can you imagine how scary it would be to not have them. The trouble is the pay for the police who are on 'response' ie the ones that go to 999 calls and deal with all the horrible stuff are not really very well paid when you consider the danger they face. Already the police are having trouble recruiting and standards are going down and down. Anyone remember when policemen were tall, slim, smart, model citizens and sort of looked up to and respected. They weren't allowed beards or tatoo's and they had to be a certain height. All that's going out of the window and now I see lots that are scruffy, short, bearded and tatooed. Okay maybe that does not matter but the point I am making is they have had to lower their 'standards' to recruit people because it's a dangerous job and people are leaving in their droves. I was in a relationship with a police detective who at age 40 had to go back into uniform as part of a transfer of location. So he spent 1 year as a response policeman and you would not people the stuff he had to deal with. Drunks, fights, domestic violence, he had to deal with a man holding his partner hostage with a gun. The armed police took hours to arrive and so there he was having to handle the situation unarmed. He was high as a kite that night on adrenalin and he was normally a very calm, measured, in control person. They pick up body parts, cut down suicides, deal with drug gangs and this is just 'another day at the office for them'. They get swore at, insulted, spat at, asaulted and all the time they have to keep their cool. I sure as hell don't want to live in a society without that protection. So another idea - £10 quid charge everytime you call 999.

Anyway I could say more but raising taxes is not the way to go.
I know my ideas are not fully thought out and will have loads of holes in them but surely some of them could be implemented in some form.

Agree, if the pension or pension age was affected there would be uproar

further than that you have made some good points if they could be implemented, especially regarding getting the unemployed back to work and having a small charge for NHS treatments,

hangerup · 24/08/2025 22:58

If they are going to do this they need to do it for people who are say 20 today and those that come behind them. That gives them time to prepare for retirement over the next 30 to 40 years.

Todays 20 yr olds aren't going to get a state pension let alone the triple lock 😆

Get people back to work. Seriously unless you are in a wheelchair of missing a limb or have downs syndrome you can work (okay I'm making it too simple but you get the point I am making). Maybe some can only work part-time and that's fine but far too many people are on benefits.

There still aren't enough workers....there are already more over 65 yr olds than under 15 yr olds.

Freeze house prices from this day forward.

How do you freeze house prices?

Charge a basic fee for the NHS - £10 for a gp appointment and so on. I'm sure most people would think that was ok and they would surely raise alot this way plus I bet lots of missed appointments would stop.

Pensioners would have to pay to make it worthwhile & the people who have a habit of missing appointments are probably the ones who would qualify for help.

Already the police are having trouble recruiting and standards are going down and down.

I wouldn't be a police officer, maybe for a lot more pay.

So another idea - £10 quid charge everytime you call 999.

Why would you bother to report a crime that doesn't impact you then?

hangerup · 24/08/2025 23:01

Agree, if the pension or pension age was affected there would be uproar

There doesn't seem to be uproar when they change it for younger generations despite no change in healthy life expectancy.

You can't keep expecting younger people to pay more for things they won't ever get. It will just further encourage the ones with skills to look elsewhere for opportunities, remember much of the west will want skilled workers to prop up their ageing populations.

Pharazon · 24/08/2025 23:07

"Get people back to work. Seriously unless you are in a wheelchair of missing a limb or have downs syndrome you can work (okay I'm making it too simple but you get the point I am making). Maybe some can only work part-time and that's fine but far too many people are on benefits."

Ability to work is irrelevant. The reality is that the majority of employers are not interested in employing people with even mild disabilities.

MindytheWonderHorse · 24/08/2025 23:08

I was born in 1976. My current pension age is 67 but I am 100% expecting it to rise to 68 and I’ll consider myself lucky if it doesn’t go higher.

I don’t think people are making future plans based on the triple lock. At most they’re hoping for real terms parity with now.

Pharazon · 24/08/2025 23:09

" So another idea - £10 quid charge everytime you call 999."

Out of your list of dumb suggestions, this is the dumbest of them all. At least it will cause reported crime to plummet so I guess that's a bonus.

hangerup · 24/08/2025 23:10

especially regarding getting the unemployed back to work

unemployment isn't high though

Are you talking about the economically inactive? There are about 9m of them, which is about 1/2mill more vs pre covid.

sleepwouldbenice · 24/08/2025 23:10

Cutting back but still reading the Telegraph
Yes of course

Kitte321 · 24/08/2025 23:12

Pharazon · 24/08/2025 23:07

"Get people back to work. Seriously unless you are in a wheelchair of missing a limb or have downs syndrome you can work (okay I'm making it too simple but you get the point I am making). Maybe some can only work part-time and that's fine but far too many people are on benefits."

Ability to work is irrelevant. The reality is that the majority of employers are not interested in employing people with even mild disabilities.

I’ll probably be shot for saying this but employers are generally put off by day 1 rights.
Most happy to extend reasonable adjustments (as they absolutely should) but these rights have extended so far that OMB/SME’s worry that if the employee cannot do the job (even with adjustments) exiting them becomes costly, time consuming and could result in unfounded claims.

hangerup · 24/08/2025 23:14

Ability to work is irrelevant.

There aren't even enough vacancies for everyone to work!

Kitte321 · 24/08/2025 23:16

hangerup · 24/08/2025 22:58

If they are going to do this they need to do it for people who are say 20 today and those that come behind them. That gives them time to prepare for retirement over the next 30 to 40 years.

Todays 20 yr olds aren't going to get a state pension let alone the triple lock 😆

Get people back to work. Seriously unless you are in a wheelchair of missing a limb or have downs syndrome you can work (okay I'm making it too simple but you get the point I am making). Maybe some can only work part-time and that's fine but far too many people are on benefits.

There still aren't enough workers....there are already more over 65 yr olds than under 15 yr olds.

Freeze house prices from this day forward.

How do you freeze house prices?

Charge a basic fee for the NHS - £10 for a gp appointment and so on. I'm sure most people would think that was ok and they would surely raise alot this way plus I bet lots of missed appointments would stop.

Pensioners would have to pay to make it worthwhile & the people who have a habit of missing appointments are probably the ones who would qualify for help.

Already the police are having trouble recruiting and standards are going down and down.

I wouldn't be a police officer, maybe for a lot more pay.

So another idea - £10 quid charge everytime you call 999.

Why would you bother to report a crime that doesn't impact you then?

Perhaps tax incentives for those using private health services (including private GP’s) would help to alleviate the pressure on the nhs.

hangerup · 24/08/2025 23:18

Perhaps tax incentives for those using private health services (including private GP’s) would help to alleviate the pressure on the nhs.

I'm not against that idea.

This is controversial but because we do have increased sickness and disability I would
prioritise the young & workers for treatment/operations.

ThisHairColourIsTooDarkIThink · 24/08/2025 23:22

Pharazon · 24/08/2025 23:09

" So another idea - £10 quid charge everytime you call 999."

Out of your list of dumb suggestions, this is the dumbest of them all. At least it will cause reported crime to plummet so I guess that's a bonus.

I was under no illusion that I had presented perfect thought out ideas. These were off my head but most people seem to have got what I meant.

So £10 then for everytime you require the services for yourself. So if the police come to me or the fire brigade or an ambulance I get charged £10. No charge for reporting crimes.

Please feel free to share your ideas since mine are so 'dumb'

OP posts:
ThisHairColourIsTooDarkIThink · 24/08/2025 23:24

sleepwouldbenice · 24/08/2025 23:10

Cutting back but still reading the Telegraph
Yes of course

Yes I read the headlines and if there is any thing of interest I go and read it elsewhere. I did pay for a subscription at one point but no more.

Presumably your post was just to be unpleasant. Carry on then.

OP posts:
MJOverInvestor · 24/08/2025 23:27

SerendipityJane · 24/08/2025 17:48

There is plenty of money in the UK. We are in the top 10 of richest countries in the world. That's not hyperbole - that's just fact.

The problem is all the money is in the wrong place.

This

MindytheWonderHorse · 24/08/2025 23:29

Bathingforest · 24/08/2025 22:34

Exactly. In Surrey every 5th house costs a million. That's hardly poor nation...

This tells you absolutely nothing about how rich the country is, unless you know the value of a pound against other currencies.