Fed up with the current state we are in

[SanctusInDistress]

Am I right to be upset over the current state of things and that the future looks bleak?

nhs- don’t get me started

jobs - where on earth are jobs? Barely anything there and when there are they are looking for somebody who has done that exact job in an equal organisation.

bills - spiralling

food - at this rate we will be either back to the middle ages foraging for postage, or eating cheap nasty ultra processed stuff all of the time.

working conditions - there are two camps; the quiet quitters with chúpatz to get away with it, and the workhorses being worked to death.

brexit - I’ve yet to hear of a tangible benefit (apart from blue passports).

politics - everybody has run out of ideas. They don’t know what else to come up with.

poverty in work - spiralling

house prices (in SE where I live) - where are people finding the money to pay these prices?????

going out - impossible. Theatre tickets, cinema, meals out. It’s just become too expensive except for rare rare treats.

everything is at a standstill, waiting for this election so that something can happen again (or not) to jolt the economy for ordinary folks like us back into action.

am I just being unreasonable with being fed up?

@mnhq it's so bad, the website thinks it's 101% bad🤣🤣

At least this country is not at war, your house hasn't been blown up and your kids are well fed and safe.

we could aim a little higher surely?

I don't think it's stupid sentimentality that's fucking over the NHS. I think it's more likely to be underfunding and under-resourcing.

No, it’s not ageists. It’s true fact.

it is a fact We will all be retired pensioners at one point.

it is absolutely a true fact that as people age they need more medical care.

it is a fact that in tbe UK tbe population demographics is changing into a top-heavy ‘pyramid’.

it is a true fact that there are people in hospital that should be in a care home, but that care homes can’t take them.

nothing ageist at all in what I am saying.

i am pointing out that it is not the immigration that are putting a strain on services.

if a country has a large working population, income from taxation is high, so there is money to be spent on caring for tbe people who need care.

if a country has more people out of work than in work, then it will have less income from taxation, so it will have less money to spend on care.

the UK is in a mess because it doesn’t generate enough money from taxation to use it to care for the people who need it.

the poster was saying that immigration is causing the strain. That is an incorrect fact. The correct fact is that the UK needs more money than it can generate.

@SanctusInDistress its like a shouting into
a void 😆

@SanctusInDistress what would you like me to do, raise you a monthly standing order to improve your standard of living.

The care bill is largely met by the elderly themselves unless they ha e less than £20k assets.

Maybe all those who voted Brexit based on immigration (and seriously many thought it meant 'all' immigration) should have given thought to the fact that mainly youngish EU people who came for a few years, often shared houses , didn't have kids and were not much of a strain in health made far more sense than a lot of full families from developing countries needing all of that. In later years just pre Brexit there were far less full families of Polish, Czech, Lithuanians etc coming here. Clearly many thought it would mean much less immigration all round- that would never be the case because we have far too many under qualified Brits who don't want service economy or low paid work because they are very little better off these days than doing sod all- especially if they have kids I'm not saying that's ok- just being factual- and many have worked out if they do 16 hours plus they are not much worse off than working full time. it meant huge gaps in the workforce. A lot of the immigration figures too (I believe it's around 350,000) are overseas students too - who rarely are paying tax or NI. That needs looking at too, many good universities are favouring them even with identical qualifications , because they 'pay more' in fees - I don't think that's ok.

@SanctusInDistress you are correct , which was why I mentioned about a different ethos when we lived in Denmark- it was far more about both of a couple working and the support in their to make it possible. One thing some on here won't approve of was I saw very little advertised group wise for young children and babies and parents to attend- I suspect it's because the vast majority are in nursery- not saying that's right or wrong but it was noticeable. Living standards though were clearly higher.

I’ve seen a chart doing the rounds that shows our growth has flatlined since the financial crash. Before that we were on a good trajectory. I’m no economist so I won’t pretend to know all the reasons why but the last few years have felt bleak and the outlook seems bleaker. I don’t look at any of the political parties and feel any sense of hope. It’s the same old arguments rehashed, tinkering round the edges of real systemic issues in our economy. But as a few others have said, I think we have the politics we deserve. Unfortunately a lot of people are stupid and believe the partisan sound bites and we don’t demand any change. We seem to accept the downfall in our living standards with a shrug.
There doesn’t feel any point in working harder or taking the risk to start a business in this country. We do have high taxes despite what some say, but the state of the country really makes me question where is all the money going and why things just don’t work well anymore. It’s really frustrating that as a nation we just accept getting poorer and living in a country that is starting to feel very second rate.
I remember watching Adam Curtis’ hypernormalisation a few years ago. Basically he argues the modern world is so complex, politicians don’t even try to solve issues, they just pretend to and we’re in a fake world run for the benefit of corporations. It resonates because this is where we seem to be at these days.

Yes, it's very sad. I'm also an immigrant, paying taxes etc.
Cannot wait for the proverbial door to open again to go back and live in Prague.
Moved here 25 years ago with best intentions. 😟

But surely, aren't we already? 🐑

what would you like me to do, raise you a monthly standing order to improve your standard of living.

What a stupid response, it’s ok to be wrong 🙄

You've just won me a pound 😀

The moment I saw that headline I thought "somebody is going to ask where it is then". I was so certain I bet myself £1.

I think you were rather supposed to go "all hail the Gods of Brexit and the Tory party that gave them form" and sell all your belongings to fund the Tory party.

Is there any chance you could change your mind ?

Please ?

Pretty please ?

I could have wrote this. My husband and I are facing bankruptcy. My ds (5) is being assessed for autism so can't do a full day at school and is a nightmare to get into school in the first place so I can't hold down a proper job besides cleaning richer people's houses in the few hours he's at school. I applied for dla in October but have to wait until May for a decision (if we get any at all) if we don't get any I don't know what to do. We got a no fault eviction last year and had to move to a much more expensive house (we are in the se too). My husband had just started a job that would have seen us better off when this happened but we are worse off due to the massive increase in living costs. I'm full of rage all the time and feel the lowest of the low

Or as my MIL would say " what do you do with all your money?" As if we actually have any spare but she goes on 2 holidays a year and wouldn't piss on us if we were on fire

You are right, life owes us absolutely nothing.
But then, I didn't F choose to be here, either.🙂

As part of my job I recently helped a retired couple. Both disabled ( him long term lung damage, , her too anxious to leave the house etc ) on highest rates of PIP which will likely continue indefinitely. They had 2 state pensions, one was a bit low as is often the case when people haven't been in paid work much during their life, £1400 between them in disability benefits, all rent and council tax paid and I helped them to claim Pension credit which came to £149 a week. So in total around £3200 a month in benefits plus no rent or council tax to pay, so in a council house possible another £650 covering rent and CT. They were newly at state pension age so this will potentially continue for many years. This is just one of many. I am not saying they shouldn't get that money, I am just trying to show the enormous costs of benefits for one couple alone as people live longer with health difficulties, this is without them even needing any paid care currently, which of course could change. It is completely unaffordable as more and more people live longer, nearing 4k a month, potentially more if people are in private rented properties. Unless we get more tax revenues coming in this is completely unsustainable. I honestly don't think people have a clue what it all costs or where the money is going to come from ? I guess some people may be more self sufficient as most people now have a private pension to draw at retirement age.

At least this country is not at war, your house hasn't been blown up and your kids are well fed and safe.

Around 3 in 10 children (4.2 million children across the UK) live in poverty.

Increase in homelessness and rough sleeping

Increase in Foodbanks

The Tories have been in power for 14 years, if you are still blaming the people who came before 14 years later then you have squandered those 14 years. What improvements? What is better?

Nothing for the ordinary person in the street that is for sure.

When I think back to the time when Labour left power I remember a much better health service, cleaner rivers than in hundreds of years, better childrens services, more police per capita....the list is endless.

Odd thing about sheep tossed in there. Do please elaborate.

Thank you for this. Had been frantically googling to find this info. We have had years of austerity ( to balance the books- ha) and we are deeper in debt.

The Tories have been in power for 14 years

14 years is nothing though - we're expected to wait 50 years for the benefits of Brexit to materialise. And that's not me being mean. That's me quoting one of it's biggest proponents.

Blair was my first ever vote. They felt like good years, at the time. But looking back we can see that he

• started privatising the nhs - Thatcher did that, not Blair
• led us into a disastrous war with Iraq - Howard, who was the Tory leader at the time would have done exactly the same
• opened the doors for uncontrolled immigration putting unforeseen pressure on all services increased levels of immigration eased pressure on services and provided more income to the Treasury to pay for them

Any more myths you’d like dispelled?

@SailingStormyWaters

"I think people need to change their attitudes, life owes you absolutely nothing."

No, but the government who we vote in based on the promises they made and whom we fund owe us something and we are right to question them if they don't deliver.

potentially more if people are in private rented properties

yes this is another issue.

“the Pensions Policy Institute predicts the proportion of households that will own their home in retirement could fall from 78 per cent to 63 per cent by 2041.”

we need more social housing

I think part of it is the aftermath of the pandemic, but I also wonder, (being a bit of history buff) if we’re actually in decline as a nation and as a culture. Certain signs say we are. Hope I’m wrong though.