When does the "Cost of living crisis end"

[topcat2014]

There will always be inflation. The media created this thing called a cost of living crisis.

Recessions have a technical definition, so therefore a technical end.

What is going to be the trigger for society agreeing the cost of living crisis is over?

I got a sociology A level at evening courses!

It's not the media that created the crisis; how could they? And the fact that something has reached crisis proportions doesn't mean that an end is necessarily coming - things like misogyny, femicide, VAWG have been at a crisis point for millennia with no end in sight and no workable solution able to be agreed and implemented because the political will simply does not exist.

When more people are productive and don’t rely on the state. We have created a remarkable sense of entitlement in huge numbers who contribute nothing. That makes it expensive for the productive minority to fund everything.

The current (alleged) "cost of living crisis" is global, though, and its impact is felt hardest in countries with little or no state aid. The situation in the USA, for example, where public assistance was always minimal, has worsened since those programs that did exist have been actively gutted since January 2025.

That has always been the case though. My parents struggled to bring us up back in the 1960s/70s and worried about rising costs.
I wasn't by any means well off when I raised my children in the 90s.

There has always been a 'cost of living crisis' but years ago there wasn't the media as now so people didn't have it constantly shoved in their faces.

When people learn to live happily within their means?
The poorest people in the UK are materially better off than roughly 75% of the world's population, materially better off than 95% of people throughout history, and experiencing technological wonders that would have in previous ages been thought of as magic.

Dont be disingenuous.
They may have literally more money in their pockets but they do not have the old community and farming infrastructures that were razed in the name of industrialisation.
This means that whike they have more actual money, they have been disempowered and disenfranchised from traditional sources of emotional and physical support.
This tech magic you speak of: does that include the AI that is devouring jobs and entire professions at breakneck speed?

Yes, back in the 60/70s but things got a lot better in the 80s and 90s - cheaper food, cheaper electronics, cheaper household goods, etc., because of supermarkets and Far Eastern imports. Unfortunately, it's those supermarkets and imports that have ultimately killed our High Streets and killed our domestic manufacturing/farming industries. So we "enjoyed" it for the short term, but now we're facing the long term consequences of higher unemployment and benefit culture, higher prices due to imports costing more (due to wars, transport costs, etc). We've got to accept that there was a period of 20-30 years where things were good for most people and, yes, we lived a higher standard of living than we "deserved" based largely on cheap stuff from abroad. Unfortunately, we're now dependent on "abroad" in so many ways and we're now paying the price, and will continue to pay the price as "other" countries get richer at our expense, i.e. China!

It really is. It is becoming such a huge struggle to afford the most basic things. I work full time in a decent job and struggle every month and that’s with cutting back everywhere I possibly can

Too many megarich, influential people (though actually a tiny number of people) are benefitting from a massive upgrade in their lifestyles from disaster capitalism and bleeding everyone else dry. It started in earnest in 2008 with the global banking crisis. I can't see an end to it.

Do we have a shortage of healthcare professionals? From what I’ve heard, newly qualified doctors and nurse are struggling to get jobs. What we have is a shortage of money to pay them once qualified.

And yet it's claimed we need immigration to fill the NHS vacancies! Make it make sense.

For real??? I didnt know that! Thought we had a shortage of people qualifying

It won’t end because no government will do what needs to be done. The government needs to massively cut back on spending, stop borrowing, and reduce the debt. However, no party will do this because it’s political suicide.

As long as the government keeps spending what it can’t afford, inflation will run rampant.

The transition from abundance to scarcity is always jarring. The western world has become accustomed to life on the up, and for all the reasons above, the gradual improvements have tailed off. Most of us are still massively better off than 85% of the people across the planet, but we are standing still or having to pedal harder to stay still. It feels a bit relentless when there's no cake at the end of the week to look forward to.

They are short staffed because of NHS recruitment freezes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vy05n6xnro

Not in our time.

Exporting jobs to lower-wage economies will eventually run its course, and equilibrium will return, but it's unlikely that the same OECD countries will still be at the top of the heap. This is a long-range prediction, not about to be fulfilled any time soon... say 20 or 30 years?

It's the low paid hardd working roles often 24/7 immigrants are recruited for. No white Brits wants to be a cleaner or on the ward carerer NHS.

Agree....I'd go further and say when idiots stop voting for idiots...

When people learn to live within their means and be happy with less.

You will own nothing and be happy

Loving your optimism!

As PP have said we've never recovered from 2008 crash and austerty - and since then had covid, brexit and now another oil shock (just like 70s) and poor harvest due to weather fluxes - that will be as this last summer was bad for growing food in many places.

We are also rapdily in Europe and other parts of the world- in UK maybe this year - reaching the Demographic Tipping Point - were deaths outnumber births - pre cross over you get is typically defined by high living costs, expensive housing, and intense career focus. The next bit is that as deaths outnumber births, the workforce shrinks while the pensioner population rapidly grows. This increasing dependency ratio strains public finances, healthcare systems, and pensions, which can slow down annual GDP growth. In many respects due to migration labour we aren't doing as badly as we could be.

We have additional issue in UK economy with high energy costs which hamper industry and hit already streched household budgets.

@brownbootsandhats

the natural evolution for neoliberalism is a poverty stricken lower class and a few super rich

When would you say neoliberalism started?

If 1970s-ish, the UK saw a huge rise in wealth of the non-super-rich, accompanied by modestly rising wealth inequality, far below historical highs.

In India and China, market reforms led to massive reductions in poverty.

It’s not just the aging population in the UK that we need to worry about. Countries like China also have an aging population. Ultimately, this means a shrinking workforce, and Chinese workers being able to demand more money, which in turn, increases the cost of everything that we’ve been importing cheaply for the past few decades.

Let’s face it, a lot of UK wealth has come from exploiting less developed countries. The tables will turn.

This. And income is distributed even a tiny fraction bit more fairly. It’s no surprise that the war mongers are profiteering, too.