This country as gone into terminal decline

[Carmes]

I have 2 young children in school.

I am becoming more and more anxious about what sort of jobs / careers they will have open to them.

I work for very large company with 10,000s of employees.

20 years ago whe I started work here there would be 100s of entry level jobs at any given time. These are jobs that don't require experience or a degree, ideal for a school leaver, and I know dozens of people who started their career this way.

Now there are maybe 10 jobs that would fit the same criteria.so. All the jobs have been offshored.
Now are the vacancies are for very specific technical skill set or experience.

This doesn't bode well for someone who has left school at 18'or even university.

But how is social housing going to be paid for , councils. Housing associations, government are broke . Also the existing social housing is very often not fit for habitation and that will cost to demolish or bring it up to scratch .
Add in the cladding / leasehold scandals stifling budgets
Add in the 2030 EPC regulations coming down the track I'm sure landlords will sell up and therefore far fewer private property for rental pushing up rental costs
The whole housing system is broken .

Don't see how it can be worse than renting and paying way more money with the risk of being evicted on a landlords whim but ok

Well, you have had one bite of the cherry.
If they save you at 60, will you need saving again at 70? How about 80? You’ve been through the treatment you know how awful it can be. How many times you prepared to go through that? More to the point would you be prepared to pay for it out of your own pocket?

Or import tax paying, net contrubutor immigrants.

We will be clamouring for them soon as much of the West will want them. I think it will be interesting to see how this changes things eg Portugal & low tax, housing incentives for young people.

Imagine how much worse it would be if we didn't have them all 'pouring in' @Hwi

NEET stands for Not in Education, Employment or Training so they will not by definition be students

We know that you don’t know, that’s the point. You’ve not done the long-term maths here. You’re looking at short-term gains. Which may well be worth it for you.

@Strikeoutnow i think this is because people are very divided there no social cohesion I remember Blair getting in he was not for me BUT god did we feel we were a country it didn’t matter some people were getting wealthy because everyone felt supported so we all had a piece of the pie now a lot of people have no pie and a lot of resentment

Strange, with all the valuable engineers and doctors and nurses pouring in, we don't. Strange, that.

Not really

I think this is v likely, yes (countries will be clamouring for young immigrants in coming decades).
I recently watched a v interesting YT video about this- Nate Hagens (who is fantastic) and Jeremy Grantham (ditto).

They could reduce corp tax below Ireland's rate now we've left the EU to incentivise all the big tech companies to be based in London instead of Dublin. They make up the majority of Ireland's GDP so would probably bankrupt them, but despite their tax evasions the companies pay huge amounts and have lots of great jobs.

They could restore the 1.5m empty houses that have been left to decline.

They could stop people from buying houses unless they're tax paying British citizens in order to reduce house prices and rent increases. And put the cost up to apply for citizenship given the inevitable wave of applications that will follow.

They could overhaul how councils work so they're more efficient.

They could make students pay council tax.

They could give companies tax breaks by having their own creches or contributing toward hyperlocal ones which would be a much more affordable way to do childcare.

They could build cheap social housing that's not allowed to be bought/sold or privately rented so effectively has no value as an "investment" and is just for actually housing people.

@MyPithyPoster you seem to have forgotten that the NHS is free only at the point of delivery. A net contributor has paid in advance. The NHS is funded by the people for the people. DH and I are privileged - we pay eye watering amounts of tax probably covering 20 or more others. I/we have no issue about someone less fortunate receiving optimal care. It is the principle on which the NHS was founded and I don't particularly suppprt the NHS as the best possible system we could have. I'd be happier to pay more tax to support the introduction of a system such as that in France, Germany, Austria, Canada, NZ, Australia. I am not persuaded the NHs is sufficiently well-run or fit for purpose to merit more money.

It was actually much worse in the 2008 crash than it now, because there were no jobs at all and all the experienced people were forced into entry level jobs for entry level pay. Many of our generation didn't get jobs for several years, each job had several hundred applications. Now I have the opposite problem and can't find people to hire despite a 30k starting salary in the north, 2 bonuses a year, and fully work from home.

What were the salaries in 08? Wages have stagnated in part because of that crash.

In the 80s and 90s, there was still some pie left. In the last 20 years, the pie has been shrinking so trickle down economics really, really does not work! Apologies for the negativity but I'm afraid this can only get worse.

..........Depends what is meant by "young".The poster whom I quoted didn't say how old her grandparents were when they died.
Going back to my hypothetical example, if I started work at 18, paid full NI contributions until I died aged 53, (to me, that is most definitely "dying young"), I would have built up 35 years of contributions. That would include any credits I may have built up under NI Credits, (previously called Home Responsibilities Protection) for time off work for maternity leave for example.
That's hardly not putting "very much in the pot", and in fact that's the number of years needed to qualify for the "new", (post April 2016) state pension.

@hattie43 I agree it’s broken but I think after the initial outlay it will be more cost effective.

@lifeonmars100 oh yes, I missed that. So what are the high figures who aren’t in education but not looking for work?

@Parsley1234 agree, it felt like there was hope but maybe that was my youth talking? I feel your life chances are very much now more dependent on what your parents have & if they can help you. I don’t know anyone who got on the ladder without some form help (including myself). That isn’t good for aspiration & ambition.

Yes, I agree with this.

There are posts all the time where people are unwilling to accept what they can get in shops.

Of course in a few cases there is really just bad services. But the fact is that only two decades ago we all managed with less choice in the products we had access to - and it was fine. We don't actually need to have 100 choices for every product.

And shops used to have better service in many cases, for example with returns, but the competition with online sellers have forced them to drop prices to the point where they can't offer that kind of service any longer. And frankly - people take the piss when they do.

No one should be surprised when they are buying so much straight from China that local economies are shitty, and local shopping districts are empty and depressing.

It's the Walmart effect, when everyone starts buying as cheap as possible good quality becomes impossible for anyone to offer, except at the top tier luxury level.

Sorry, I don’t understand your post. Are you saying you’re only allowed one cancer treatment per person?

There is so much division in this country I live in Gloucestershire fairly affluent on the outside but there is so much rural poverty here it’s quite depressing. I think in the 90s/2000 there was more joy now it’s just bloody tense L. I have a very wealthy friend all of her demographic have left and the remaining making plans to leave I don’t say too much to my son but I’m encouraging him to get out of here for a few years it’s too dire

Frankly this seems quite radical but if I were the younger generation I would refuse to have kids. Unless ‘people’ become a needed commodity the decline will continue.

There has to be a world wide recognition that we don’t need the population levels of the 20th century with A I. We don’t need the secretaries, sales assistants etc We do need more carers though m.

However this message had to spread worldwide as the Oligarchy will just encourage migration to suppress wages and keep asset prices high.

Maybe but the part that is missing from your sentence is need to raise taxes...and spend it wisely.

This government has raised taxes and what have they done with a large part of this money.

They have made ridiculous pay deals.
They continue to give money to foreign wars
They have instigated numerous quangos-each member on each one of them will be on a very rich gravy train.
They continue to give money as aid to countries which could buy and sell us such as India. I have heard various justifications of this but none of them hold water.
Worst of all, they are happy to foot a bill which will cost more than 36 billion on the lunatic schemes of David Miliband.

Previous governments have done similar although this government is a particular example of incompetence. I know they have the excuse of not being very bright but even so,

Meanwhile, hospices receive a skittery amount each year and the rest has to be raised by them with a begging bowl.

I could have picked any number of examples there but I choose hospices.

Absolutely. Far too many not very academic DC ratcheting up debt and coming out with not very useful degrees. A shake up of the university sector is needed.

FUCK OFF