To feel worried about the future? (Election related)

[Abc123def]

I’m incredibly sick of the society we’re living in. It’s bleak and horrible. When you hear about the millions of children in poverty and over 130000 people who have died as a result of austerity it makes me so sad.

My dh and I are working 4 jobs between us just to be able to save up for a house, whereas my elder siblings managed to buy in the 90’s when everything was cheaper with tiny deposits. No matter how we save, house prices keep rising and our “25%” deposit figure keeps getting bigger.

I feel deflated and feel like there’s no hope. Liars and cheats are the winners in this world. Hard working people get nothing. I’m probably feeling over emotional but the thought of another 5 years of tories fills me with terror.

My family were also poorer than poor, but they made sure they had some shillings saved for a rainy day. When a family member's mother died 6 months after her father, she used those shillings to pay the landlord before he found out about the death so as they had a roof over their head for a bit longer before other family could take them in. So even the poor saved, not just restricted to middle class

I had some lovely savings for a rainy day. £6k of which is about to go on specialist safe beds for my disabled children after months of them being in danger every night and multiple people completely failing to refer them to social care.

Savings don’t go very far these days in this situation.

I'm very grateful for the disability benefits we receive. In my parents younger days, there were no benefits at all.

Well in my parents day, my mother could rely on the NHS to treat my brothers disabilities, get him the therapy and equipment he needed, and get him support at school. She didn’t have to spend money on legal assistance just to force the local authority to educate him.

We are not in that day any more.

Deathgrip.....I understand that, but better to have savings than not? I'm certainly glad we had some before family member got a brain injury. As a result of a bit of forward planning and caution we arent getting the house taken off us and are ok for a bit longer. If I hadnt, we'd be out on the street by now. This is why I get irritated when I see friends doing spend spend on the credit cards and buying houses and cars they cant afford and no back up plan.

I think most people know which is the sensible political party which will look after their interests best and manage the country's finances better for the good of us all and it is not Labour under Corbyn.

Not for you @Xenia. We’ve already established that your interests are a million miles away from most ordinary people.

What an absurd statement. Are you seriously trying to claim that life is objectively worse for the poorest groups today than it was in the 50s/60s/70s/80s/90s? This is the thing that always puzzles me.

"Well in my parents day, my mother could rely on the NHS to treat my brothers disabilities, get him the therapy and equipment he needed"
That's brilliant, we do have a fantastic nhs which everyone wants to continue. My Mum used to tell me how if someone was ill they couldnt call the doctor out if they had no money as the NHS didnt exist then. So if they hadnt put a few shillings aside they died basically....hence the "save for a rainy day" mantra.

@Xenia

The conservatives recent economic record is fucking woeful.

They do not give a tiny shit about the poor. Their core vote is the wealthy and pensioners sitting on the nest eggs they built before housing became completely unaffordable. Ironically Brexit is going to fuck them over just as much as anyone else, but they are too willfully ignorant to see it.

This is the thing that always puzzles me

It needn’t puzzle you at all @derxa. I replied immediately underneath. Perhaps you didn’t notice?

So if they hadnt put a few shillings aside they died basically....hence the "save for a rainy day" mantra

And die they did. My great grandmother gave birth 15 times, seven of them reached adulthood. They couldn’t afford to save and they couldn’t afford a doctor.

This is how it was.

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/04/coalition-attacks-nhs-return-britain-age-workhouse

@Alsohuman yes, she owns an Island. All achieved by apparently freelancing in her spare time, so it’s easy to make £1000 a day according to her. If you don’t make £1000 a day, then you’re lazy and doing something wrong.

But Alsohuman I used to work in 1980s in NHS clinics in one of the poorest areas in Lanarkshire. I mean very materially poor. Are you saying life is tougher now? Honestly?

and interest rates on savings accounts are pitiful, because it's now more important to feed the housing market beast.

Yes. This. It’s all well and good for people to get low interest rate houses, but when you’re saving, it’s bloody hard. This is all designed for only the rich and high earners to get on the housing ladder, not average people like my husband and me. Working 4 jobs isn’t normal, and it’s not fair that I’m having to sacrifice time with my kids just so I can earn enough to save up and survive. It wasn’t like this in the 90’s. Our wages are shit and aren’t increasing.

I remember in 2008, a friend at work would show me how he was accumulating a good amount of interest for the money he had saved in his bank account. He was just a trainee and on £15000 a year, and although it wasn’t a big sum, it was helpful.

This Lanarkshire?
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/statistics-reveal-40-per-cent-11791826

Yes I am @derxa. I was a single mother on benefits for part of the 70s, I could pay my rent and feed us.

Which policies 'won't work', m8? Very similar policies as those in the current manifesto work perfectly well in many European countries.

For a start, you can't just compare systems between countries and think they would work everywhere. There are too many variables. For example, placing 5,000,000 Somalians under the Nordic model would not produce another Denmark in 15 years.

Countries are made up of people, not policies.

It's also the manner in which Corbyn plans to introduce these changes. He is asking a tiny % of the population to raise an extra £90bn/year, pretty much overnight. And no, it's not just the super rich, ffs. Not every business is a McDonalds or a Tesco. In fact, 99% of businesses in the UK are "small businesses".

Corbyn is using current numbers to "fully cost" his handouts, while not considering the fact that a huge amount of wealthy people are going to leave and take their business with them, and a huge amount of small businesses are going to go under, or have to significantly cut hours, or raise prices, or a combination.

I explained in a previous post that lower corp tax = more tax revenue. It's not magic. It has been happening for a century. But Corby, with his degree in Marxist economics, doesn't seem to care about facts.

Basically, nothing is fully costed. At all. It's a joke.

Are you genuinely suggesting that another 5 years of the Tory Party in power will improve things for those who are struggling now? For the NHS? For education? For social care? For mental health services? For those who cannot afford to buy a home? For those currently requiring food banks?

I doubt things will get much better. But they will get significantly worse if Corbyn manages to enact his policies.

The biggest mistake we made as a country is that we allowed the government to be responsible for all those things. The government is a bottomless pit of incompetency. They spend £800bn/year. Can you even comprehend how much money that is? And what is the result? Nothing works well. It didn't work under Labour for 10 years either, btw. That's why the Tories got back in. Eventually, Labour will get back in, and things will stay the same.

You can look up videos from the 70s and 80s on youtube. People were complaining of the EXACT same things. The NHS has been at breaking point for at least 40 years.

If your siblings are millionaires have you asked them if they'll help you get on the property ladder?

They couldn’t afford to save and they couldn’t afford a doctor.

Researching my family history, death certs show that many of my granny's siblings died (of preventable disease long before antibiotics) having not seen a doctor. They lived in a slum area in overcrowded accommodation. Their mother was blind and their father worked but was unskilled so doubt wages were low .

My grandparents were hard up but had enough to pay to go "on the panel" in pre NHS days.

I said 'tougher'. Poorer people in Lanarkshire have been failed by all Governments for decades stretching back into the 70's 60s. It may not have escaped your notice that the Labour party have been kicked out in Scotland. The SNP are in charge now.
The Daily Record is traditionally a Labour supporting paper. That photo at the top of the article- not biased at all.

Blimey all you lot voting Labour might end up panicking me into voting Tory.

I love Labour's Environment and Animal Welfare policies but definitely not the economic ones.

If they decide to 'give' 10% of shares to 'the workers' then that's 10 % off my pension. I work in the private sector so am on a defined contribution pension which is invested in the stock market.

Similarly if he renationalises utilities that will cut my pension even further as no doubt the funds will include these shares.

Pension funds are invested in stocks and shares. Bugger about with the the stock market and you bugger up pensions. We already have a two tier pension system. This would make it so much worse.

I'd be lucky to retire at 80!

I am so desperately bleak about the future if the tories win.

I have enduring mental health illness and struggling first hand with cuts to the NHS and welfare for people with disabilities.

Also have a SEN child and seeing the devastating effect that lack of funding will have for his future.

Most days I wish we were not here as most professionals see us as a nuisance / waste of time and space and I’m beginning to think it’s true.

I cannot vote Labour - if there was any sensible thinking on the economics or an opinion one way or another on Brexit, or dare I say it, a different leader, I could be persuaded. I would be very very happy to pay more taxes for the good of all and I'm nowhere near the £80k cutoff but I am comfortable. I cannot vote Conservative because I care about humanity. I will vote Liberal Democrat.

The one question that always baffles me is that of the NHS. I am grateful for the NHS, I had both my children under the NHS and have received good care under it. But why do we have this sentimental attachment to the NHS as it is when it is frankly no longer fit for purpose?

Why can there not be a cross-party committee to look at the future of the NHS with some degree of impartiality without the mass hysteria that this creates like we're talking about killing off a failing family member? Would it be so bad for people on a certain level of income to have to have health insurance?

And given the emotion that this subject creates I will now duck behind by bunker.

Another depressing thread. Imagine thinking there has been 'no harm done' in the last 10 years. The information is out there if you care to research

What has austerity done to help the economy? We are in worst debt than we were 10 years ago. The UN's report of 40% of children living in poverty within the UK was obviously a myth to some people

I don't know how people can be so unkind to think just because they are doing ok that thousands of people aren't? I am not on even half of £80k but if Labour want to take £20 more from my wages each month to put into the health service, they are welcome to it. We need the NHS to survive and it won't for much longer if Johnson gets his way

If your siblings are millionaires have you asked them if they'll help you get on the property ladder?

No. It doesn’t work like that. Especially when I have been told by one of them that it isn’t hard to save up money and buy a house and what my problem was. I was told “we owned 2 houses at one point, what’s your point?” When I told her deposits are hard to accumulate. When she hasn’t worked a day in her life and her husband’s salary of 26k was enough to put down a deposit and buy a house. Where is the fairness in that?! We live in an affluent area and moving is out of the question; I have work and children at school. How could she afford a house 20 years ago without even having to work in our area? My siblings don’t understand how everything has changed... I see the people on this thread who don’t “get it” in my own family. This is what capitalism has done to people. They bought houses when it was easy to do. Freehold, no mortgage and rents from houses they bought cheap in the 90’s/00’s.

This thread is just depressing.

@loobyloo1234 - see my comments above - why do we need the NHS to survive as it is?

Here's what I said:
The one question that always baffles me is that of the NHS. I am grateful for the NHS, I had both my children under the NHS and have received good care under it. But why do we have this sentimental attachment to the NHS as it is when it is frankly no longer fit for purpose?

Why can there not be a cross-party committee to look at the future of the NHS with some degree of impartiality without the mass hysteria that this creates like we're talking about killing off a failing family member? Would it be so bad for people on a certain level of income to have to have health insurance?