Does the phrase cost of living crisis just mean being poor?

[YellowElephant5]

"Cost of Living Crisis". I know I'll get absolutely flamed for this but the term drives me insane. When I was growing up we took accountability and simply admitted we were poor even with two parents working in white collar office jobs. It's not some massive government or economic conspiracy. You simply are poor. Sucks if you weren't before or didn't grow up identifying that way. Many of us made choices to ensure we wouldn't be in adulthood. Our parents were never on housing ladder. Wasn't a "crisis"

Agreed, poor people are all stupid and you are very clever. Congratulations.

I think you’re getting two things confused. COL is a term to describe a shift in economy, where more people are being pushed in to poverty or the fact that people who have pushed out of being ‘poor’ are constantly having their goal post moved by events going on in this world. It’s not a phrase used to describe an individual, or a household.

I agree. Rapid inflation is imaginary and only affects people who were too stupid to be rich in the first place.

You can't convince me it isn't a euphemism. Things wouldn't cost what they do if the general population couldn't afford them. Capitalism. Simple supply and demand. Many Brits simply don't want to accept that the economy has moved on in a way where many average Brits aren't average anymore. Happy to debate why the forces that make it so should be evaluated or mitigated

CoL crisis refers to the very rapid rise in prices caused, directly and indirectly, by the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

The rapidly rising prices of imported fertiliser and oil push the cost of food and other goods higher, faster than the rate of wage growth, leaving many people struggling, who would otherwise cope OK.

Add the idiot Reeves increase in NI and we have the perfect storm of higher prices and fewer jobs.

Aside from VAT on school fees there isn't massive inflation.

Children are not talking about the cost of living crisis they have zero accountability for their parents circumstances in childhood you just have to deal with what you have nothing else you can do and you don’t have a clue about what the adults where dealing with.

It’s not as simple as supply and demand. If the general population could afford the inflated prices, then the number of insolvent businesses wouldn’t be at a 30 year high, up 30% on pre-covid levels. A lot of people obviously can’t afford it.

Not everyone has the luxury of the same choices as others. Ignorant if you don’t realise that.

But in this case the supply is not simply based on the level of demand. There have been significant supply- side shocks resulting from global geopolitical issues, rising energy prices etc - which in turn fuels increased national spending and borrowing - which fuels higher inflation and interest rates.

what is the general population in your view? only confined to the UK? Or a global one - because that is what we are dealing with.

someone on six figures will afford less than they could 10 years ago. Salaries are not rising as quickly as costs. that is the cost of living crisis

There has been until Rishi Sunak brought it down

I imagine the OP, on an overheated, slow Saturday night, suddenly remembered she had a bag of popcorn in the cupboard.

And decided to 'share'.

And inflation has been brought down by higher interest rates - which has increased our fiscal deficit (at our highest ever in the UK since world war 2).

and also causing pain for businesses and homeowners. And tenants

Globalization has caused factors which would usually be considered external to impact the population. Yes, capitalism is about demand and supply, but supply has been abruptly and severely choked by wars, etc., and there is no way to compensate.

The economy is struggling because companies can't charge the prices that they really need to in order to stay afloat because the consumer can't afford them. In other words, if they charge according to their ability to supply, the demand will drop off. For example, farmers were leaving potatoes in the ground because it cost more to harvest them than they could charge.

'Cost of Living' largely refers to inflation. The rise in price of goods and services is far outstripping the rise in income of the people. Pensions are losing value. It's impacting the job market because people are deciding to retire later, if at all, so there are less jobs for people starting out in work.

You can call it a euphemism but whatever you call it, it's real.

Fair enough. I was reading an infuriating thread on here about a dead beat dad living with his mother. Mum doesn't like having grandkids about and thinks his ex shouldn't expect him to have them one weekend a month and half of school holidays as such an inconvenience to her. Most properly responded he needed to get his own place then to fulfill his parental obligations. OP was on and on about how that was impossible with "cost of living" yet ex was expected to manage majority of the childcare living solo...put a bit of a bee in my bonnet .