To think the country is b*gg*r*d, and life as we once knew it is over?

[RejectedFleece]

Just that really.

Of course not. We still have it a lot better than many many many other people in the history of this country and a lot better than millions of people around the world.

YABU at least the U.K. has some sort of benefit system and it’s not war torn. There are plenty of people out there with no hope whatsoever and making it to the next meal time is literally a battle. There are way worse atrocities happening right now.

Yes we have it a lot better than many, but the 'glory days' of the nineties and early 2000's are gone for good. Life is and will continue to be markedly tougher for most of us.

When you are quite old, you have seen lots of recessions, armed conflicts and dire predictions. Those times always pass, just like the good times do too. We are in for a rough ride in terms of the economy, but will come out the other side.

Whatever people think was the 'glory days' was propped up by unrealistically low interest rates and all other manner of things that could never have lasted.

We need to get away from this idea that life owes us anything in the UK. We're not 'owed' year on year house price increases, or foreign holidays, or multiple car ownership. People could afford those because interest rates on borrowing were low, which also meant comically easy to obtain PCP deals on cars, and lots of money to borrow for housing.

If you're genuinely struggling with food vs heating then this post is not for you - this is a horrendous time.

But for those people lamenting "life as we once knew it", go and enjoy your holiday photos and consider whether both your 17 year old son and 19 year old daughter each need cars to drive, or whether you overstretched yourself on your mortgage. We've been propped up and insulated for years from reality.

I agree with this. We've had ultra low interest rates for almost 15 years. People have been living the high life on credit. It had to end.

I'm 43 and grew up in the West of Scotland.

I've lived through at least two (maybe three?) recessions, multiple armed conflicts (including the Troubles), terrorist attacks, inflation, changes of government, global pandemics (!), personal loss and trouble in terms of the death of family and friends, illness, redundancy... and yet we keep on keeping on.

The thing that scares me most is climate change and I don't have an answer to that, but humans are resilient. It's amazing what you can get through.

Much better put than my post immediately before, but I totally agree @FortonServices it's the same sentiment.

If you don't watch the news it's bliss and you don't know whats going on x

What's with the asterisks? You can swear all you fucking like on here 😄

You can say buggered in the title, and a lot worse than that if you're so moved.

@SavoirFlair

Falsely low food prices too. I don't mind if those that bought range rovers on credit have to sell them and buy a 2nd hand fiesta instead but I do worry about food prices going up, as there's no cheaper alternative to eating.

I think we notice it more because we've never had crisis before .
It'll pass and things will improve , they always do .

We've never had crises before?

With respect, you're either very young or you've been living under a rock for the past 20 years.

Likewise I worry about this too, I don't want to spend more than I have to on essentials.

However my post was not aimed at anyone making such an unenviable and horrible choice - it was squarely at anyone who is having to cutback from 2 to 1 holiday a year, or who may have to give up the second car or the cars for the kids, or who is looking at selling up a rental property etc.

I don't envy any of that. I have more than one car in my household, I've been on holiday like anyone else, I'm just trying to describe where some people might feel the 'good times' are that they feel is now going.

Never had a crisis before? Are you a teenager?

I am extremely old. I have lived through a lot. I believe that things are going to get much worse than we comprehend. Yes, others do have it much worse. But it's going to get very bad here too. Something is different this time. You can feel it.

Who is 'we'?

I guess if you've been in adult life since 2010, it's been years of artificially low interest rates, house price rises, credit being offered left right and centre

Unfortunately some of us are old enough to remember the infamous 15% mortgages etc :-o

As a few others have said, I think "the glory years" involved people getting in debt up to their eyeballs in order to live a life that they couldn't long term realistically afford.

Reality has to bite eventually.

Realistically things aren't that bad, it just depends how realistic your expectations are.

For me its much more important than that, we have ever increasing poverty and more children in poverty, we have huge huge delays in waiting lists at all levels of the NHS, we have failing health, social and public services due to lack of investment, we have a broken housing system, we have poor service provision, you cant get through to call centres, their opening times have reduced, banks, post offices, advice services, we have more people using food banks than ever, we have billions being paid to private companies to fleece the tax payer and deliver bugger all to the country, we are a laughing stock in the global community, we have lowering food standards, we will have food security issues very soon. I could go on

The thing that I think is going to be a permanent drain is Brexit, unfortunately. We've had strikes and inflation before. We've never had a permanent and deliberate shift to lower GDP and labour shortages.

I disagree that it's okay the good times are going. Why is everyone so okay that things are going backwards? Its like we'll introduce a three day working week and people will be like ah the good old days. Why the fuck do we work five days a week if we can't even afford a holiday?

That's not living, its existing. People living in the UK in 2022 shouldn't be living hand to mouth when working bloody full time it's ridiculous.

We shouldn't be glorifying the idea that working 40 hours purely just to keep your children alive is okay. Its not okay. Its fucking shit.

@SavoirFlair

I agree with you. I'm sitting in a car park waiting for my yoga class to start in an average family area. My fully owned, 8 year old Golf is the cheapest car in the car park. I'm surrounded by cars that must mostly be on cheap finance.

No, I really don’t

Don't be ridiculous, we are at the tail end of a pandemic and the situation in Ukraine can be worrying, but worse things have happened, I think people look back at past Decades with rose tinted glasses .