To think Britain is heading towards economical and social collapse

[Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase]

It feels like we are living in strange times, having come out of a global pandemic, the war in Ukraine and now the cost of living crisis and the added pressure from Brexit.

Ive barely slept tonight, worrying about what might happen with energy prices. I’ve heard the energy price cap is expected to rise to £3,850 in October. A few months ago I’m sure they predicting it would be £2,400 and that was horrifying enough.
Now I’m seeing people on the energy support Facebook group talking about monthly energy costs of £900 per month. It feels like this is escalating out of control very quickly and the Government are allowing us to sleepwalk into a disaster.

I realised tonight that if the price cap does keep increasing at the rate it has then what will happen to all the businesses once people can’t afford their energy bills anymore? They will probably increase their prices to try and cover their costs but that will drive down sales even more as people won’t have as much money to spend anymore. Eventually it will only be the essentials that we can afford so that surely means that all the other businesses won’t be able to afford to keep going?

Then what? Unless our government actually get their heads together about this then the whole country will end up in financial ruin and we will see the breakdown of society. Why so much focus on the leadership contest, surely that must take a back step.

Ive just checked the parliament website and the House of Commons has now gone into summer recess so they won’t meet again until September! I think this is an emergency situation and that they should be called back to focus on this. They get paid enough.

I think it’s outrageous that they can claim for utility bills on their expenses when there are people out there with young children who are worried about being cut off and put onto a prepayment meter.

I wish most people would refuse to pay these ridiculous bills and teach those multi billion pound hydrocarbon industries a lesson.

I also wish the government would subsidise solar panels, wind and insulation but they are in bed with said multi billion pound industries and hence have vested interests in NOT going for green energy.

Hence as a species we are royally screwed.

"Which will do nothing except raise the cost of things.
If you raise minimum wage then companies raise their prices to pay for that. People are really no better off."

Ironic really isn't it that the head of the railways has got massive pay rises of circa 30% but maintaining low paid workers purchasing power is inflationary. Mp's have similarly had much higher pay rises than other publications sector workers too. Strange how their independent pay body suggests large pay increases for them but pay bodies for NHS teachers firemen police etc always suggest much lower figures....

There really has been an injustice since 2008 when the government used public funds to bail out risk taking investment funds and have largely paid for it by cutting real wages for the public sector and the working class, including massively cutting the value of pensions.

For all the talk of historic cycles, it used to be that there would be periods of belt tightening but there would be pay increases in between etc.

The problem is that in real terms pay has been eroded for nigh on 14 years by pay freezes. Granted inflation has been low and why people put up with it as they were only losing a couple of percent per year mostly but it's now added up and people question why their pay should be cut by 5 or 6 percent when many were treated as key workers during the pandemic, exposed to much higher risk of illness and infection and only 6 Months ago the government were promising high wage economy, telling employers to pay more, and suggesting we would prosper greatly but instead people are having real term pay cuts when a lot already have to use food banks and may not be able to afford to heat their homes!

also agree with pp who have questioned why pp would want civil unrest - where would the destruction to property and lives be

it’s not a case of wanting civil unrest, people will get to the end of their tether and protest vehemently opposing what they coincided the great divide

how many second jobs do you have to take when you’ve sold everything?

as po states we shouldn’t have to take second jobs when there is such disparity & sheer greed

Panickers gotta panic.

2020 they were flapping and panicking about social collapse caused by Covid. That continued until Putin invaded Ukraine and they moved on to panicking about imminent nuclear war wiping them out. Now they've ditched that, and it's on to rioting/armageddon caused by rising prices.

Anyone care to predict what the panickers will latch onto next?

How can you not see that happening?

lots of families need vouchers to pay for food for their kids during school holidays, many already use food banks and already can’t afford to heat their homes, how do you think these people will cope with rising costs when they already can’t afford what they need?

literally everything has risen-
fuel
mortgages
rental costs are ridiculous
many councils don’t have the facilities to house people
food has increased
energy
insurances

Wages/benefits haven’t increased, if anything benefits have decreased and wages are at an all time low.

of course people will die.

And hopefully some civil unrest

this is the comment I was referring to, it seems some do actively want it

Not really. Mass consumerism is an independent variable within the economy. It’s not the basis of our economic model.

My mum is already struggling, she only has the basic state pension as she was unable to work due to being a fulltime carer to her disabled oldest son, she is still his fulltime carer.

To keep him healthy and safe she needs to be able to keep him warm as he is unable to adequately regulate his temperature, that also means she has to use aircon units in the summer.

She is already only just breaking even on energy, food, petrol, I can help out, she doesn’t like as she is very stubborn. But there are a lot of people out there who don’t have any support, we already have people who can’t afford heating, we already have people who have had to changed their diets to reduce the power they use cooking their food.

If you’re personally going to be okay, fine, great for you, but a lot of people simply cannot fund the increases.

Mamapep, you are absolutely right.

@GrinAndVomit you are playing into the governments hands, or you may indeed be a Tory voter. This not just large conglomerates, and it’s not about no of companies it’s about the amount of people who are employed by them. DH runs a business if you can’t afford to pay a living wage that increases inline with inflation then your business is not a viable one.

And I am sick and tired of that old trope re business going somewhere else. They wont, and there isn’t really anywhere that even comes close to what is afforded to people who run businesses here in terms of wage depression, opportunities for tax avoidance and being able to spend the profits of former and live in a very nice way indeed.

OP mentioned Facebook several times, says it all really

I think a lot more are worried about this but don’t want to admit it, it’s not the English way.Yes,they will moan as the prices go up etc but the mass won’t do anything about it and the government know this.
As for what the government can do maybe not sell off the publics assets and bring certain things back to public ownership.
I know most people don’t agree with that but it’s crazy that investors profits become more important than the people, and for years council tax etc goes up but more and more services get cut can’t understand why the people voted to remain in that system.

I remember the riots of 1981 over out inner cities. What did they achieve? Well Thatcher stayed in power for a decade to destroy the inner city and working class.

Society isn't collapsing, it's a downturn, they have happened before. It isn't fun but the world won't fall apart.

We survived the seventies and the early eighties and we'll do it again. We've had an unprecedented period of social stability over the last 30 years. Now it may get a bit rocky for a while.

As for the poster looking forward to social unrest, don't be a fool. Innocent people get hurt. On occasion, innocent people die. may be your loved one. You may never have experienced it, but it isn't something to look forward to.

What does it look like? Businesses going under, shops disappearing from the high street, job losses, uncontrolled inflation, people not being able to afford essentials such as housing, food or energy leading to panic, riots, shoplifting, increased crime, public services under pressure, people not being able afford to pay their council tax, high rates of suicide, more pressure on the nhs. Would you like anymore examples?

We had riots in 2011 too, I can imagine that happening again.

It's going to be fine. There is no point at all to spread all this angst online. Instead, get a new qualification or better paid job.

The outlook is looking very bleak. We owe it to our children to hold them to account over this.
I never know if threads like this are genuine or designed to steer some sort of political or emotional response. But there are 100s and 100s of them.

However the Poll Rax riots of 1990 finished her off. This energy situation is more in line with that

Yeah its going to be shit for everyone
But there was intense economic or political conditions in the 70's, the 80's, the 90's and people had to just fight through it.
The last 20 years have been prosperous and lulled us into a false sense of security
Theres no magic money tree on the horizon but people arent going to be dying on the streets either

Another issue is the fact productivity hasn't improved for decades & there has been very little investment.

You’re describing a recession. Economic and social collapse is like the fall of the Roman Empire type collapse.

@justfiveminutes I agree with you. Being older does give me a sense of perspective

Current circumstances aren't great, yes many people will suffer, but the world will keep turning and it won't be like this for ever

There are a certain section on here that are hoping for riots as they keep coming up every so often, there were some with Covid.

I think this is the case with a lot of people I know in real life. People don’t like to admit they are struggling/ worried about things incase they get ridiculed for it (look at the response I got from Hattie earlier). They worry about looking like they are being dramatic. In some cases I don’t think the reality of it has truly sunk in for some people yet. I’m surprised at the number of people I know who are taking multiple holidays, posting photos on Facebook of marks out at swanky restaurants etc. I truly hope I’m wrong and it won’t nearly be as bad as I’m thinking it will.

Not yet, as pp says give it 20 years for the shit to really hit the fan. The current situation is nothing.

Humans consume everything around them, land, animals, vegetables, we send too much to land fill. Yet we want more.

In years gone by there was no sm. You had a gossip with your neighbours and then you went to work or what have you. You cut back. You rationed. Not today, we want more.

The government has handed out literally thousands - self isolation grants, you could claim up to six here. That amounted to over £6k often for losing less than £100 in earnings. Next there was £150 for everyone Band D council tax and below (regardless of whether you needed the money or not). There’s a cost of living payment, 2x £350. I agree, the payments are pointless and random because people cannot and will never have enough because they constantly want and need more! This generation pretends to worry about the next, all the while being unwilling to change.

It’ll end in war at some point. Someone posted the expected rise population per country over the next few years. We headed towards disaster and energy bills will be the very least of our worries then.