Am I the only one who thinks scrimping and saving can go and get fucked for bare essentials

[Freedomfromunfairbills]

All the advice about cost of living seems to be ways you can scrimp and save to possible cobble together enough money to stay alive on bare necessities such as food, water, etc. Am I the only one thinking fuck this we just should not accept this when many of the companies jacking up their prices are making record profits. Even if it’s technically possible why on earth should I give up new clothes, gadgets, TV, holidays abroad, ect all to fund the obscene riches of the one percent. Instead of this advice on how to possibly meet these we actually need to say on mass no we are not surfs under the feudal system and we refuse to become a peasant class enough is enough. We should demand the government steps on and nationalises these companies and demand immediate taxes on the ultra rich to fund it all. I’ve always been fairly right wing and conservative but surely this is simply some kind of feudalism that will reduce many of us to little more than peasants and ruin the quality of life for many. Aibu?

@MushMonster

Right.
And who do you think would do any better?

This ^ Absolutely. You seem to love all of the things capitalism brings, holidays, lux goods etc. Make your mind up!

Any of the others would do better because ALL of them would increase the amount of money at the bottom, which would get spent, with economic benefits.

The rot with this lot started with austerity and has continued.

The Tory policies since 2010 are the reason UK households are significantly poorer than European counterparts (and that is before we factor in the deliberate shrinking of our economy i.e. Brexit).

Labour would do better than this shower of tories.

If you bother going to look you'll see what they propose - a windfall tax and help for people that need it.

It’s not a tangent, the OP and others are expecting luxuries that they can’t afford. Someone needs to mine the materials for them, design them and build them. They don’t want to do this for free.

Again with your “shouldn’t” though. There is no should, or shouldn’t. “Should” you have a better standard of living than a child collecting twigs for her family’s cooking fire? You don’t work harder than her, so why “should” you have a higher standard of living?

Apologies if people don't find this relevant but I was inspired by a comment on this thread to search for it. Apparently the tories removed our rights as the public to call an early election (funny how I read a variety of sources every day and yet this one slipped by.) I don't know if there's any petitions with bigger traction but as so many of us are running out of options and fast, perhaps is the way to go?? petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618068

Our government doesn't care - look at Germany, France etc. Our bills are going to be massively higher than theirs.

I wouldn't dispute that we have been massively let down, mostly by the Tories. France is doing better, in part, because they have heavily invested in Nuclear energy. I would question whether Germany are doing so well since they were forced to turn off Nordstream 2. (They are currently turning off public lighting and heating to save energy to prevent winter blackouts and store energy while it's cheaper, something that wouldn't help us because we sold off our energy storage capability 🙄). It's a shitshow but the trick is to resolve it without making things even worse than they are.

Germany is capitalist, but they have massively higher standard of living.

The Tory version is crap. It isn't working. Our economy is performing far worse than the rest of the G7. That is a political choice.

It's mind blowing that people can be this ignorant (or just fucking selfish in the extreme).

Many, many people have been working hard for years, multiple jobs yet have still had to live pay cheque to pay cheque. Even rely on food banks. That's before the energy price hikes etc. Where do you expect them to have savings from?

As for tax cuts, all well and good but when it's not enough to cover price rises and people need medical help due to not being able to eat or keep themselves warm, they'll be waiting hours for ambulances or hospital beds because the already decimated NHS has even less money to treat them.

OP may not be one of those people right now. They may have inadvisedly voted Tory in the past, but it's these people who are maybe now realising the error of their past decisions who can help turn the tide. They may be rebelling for selfish reasons but what helps them helps us all in the long run.

Open your eyes.

I’ll not be voting for that, thanks.

If you want to, that’s fine, and you just need to get enough people to agree with you and it can be enacted.

German energy price increases are far lower than ours - about 20%. The fact they have done this even though more affected due to Nordstream is a good comparison - when a government cares, they use their power to benefit the population.

Well you can try that. You won't get anywhere though except facing fines for non payment of bills.

I don’t really understand it all and I might be wrong but it seems that my bills (will have) have gone up x3 but the energy producers profits have also gone up x3.

So it doesn’t seem that the extra charge is just to maintain their profit, it’s increasing it……

That is what seems unfair.

Happy to be corrected!

So until Tory policies affected you personally it was fine. Vote Tory get Tory, what's so difficult to understand about that?

If you feel like this, why not join your local branch of the Socialist Party? I know a lot of people who are members. Then you could take some concrete action towards a redistribution of wealth.

But people are facing starvation this winter and not being able to heat their homes, special measures are needed and they can more than afford it

By "they", you do realise you mean "you and me". The government doesn't have money. 😀

You are broadly correct.

That is why all the bollocks about 'politics of envy' is just bunkum.

Capitalism used to be supportable because it generally worked for enough people. Now it is broken. If we don't fix it, there will be trouble.

This. You voted for this.

The energy companies have raidly increasing profits. 'They' do have money. Our money.

*rapidly

Just in case anyone feels like doing anything about it:
wesayenough.co.uk/

I’ve always been fairly right wing and conservative

Happy to vote Tory when it wasn't affecting you then? But now it is you want to demand something be done?
What did you think you were voting for? I mean really, what did you expect from them?

Totally. It just plays right into the govt's hands- the old divide and conquer technique. It's as old as time and we just keep falling for it.

Well given you are ideologically “fairly right wing and conservative” you’ll understand that you need to buckle up. There is no magic money tree. If you need to adjust your finances do that, need more money?Get a better paid job. Frankly you’re only touchy because you are individually affected. Presumably you’ve not been bothered to date about anyone else with your right wing conservative ideol

Yes, let's expect the average person to slave every hour for pitiful wages to line the pockets of the wealthy? If people on average wages can no longer afford a few luxuries, due to the escalating cost of living then I don't blame them at all if they choose to claim benefits. Otherwise we may as well be in a Victorian work house.