To think the UK is in terminal decline

[ThisOchreBiscuit]

Jobs Civil service to cut thousands of jobs

Nothing positive is happening in this country. It’s just cuts, cuts and tax increases but these arent doing anything to scratch the surface.

The whole country is being propelled up by a massive Ponzi scheme: house prices and immigration. House prices make all home owners feel richer and immigration makes the GDP figures look better.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain as I am a child of immigrants. My parents came here in the 70s from India. They were virtually penniless but they have now been retired for 15 years, earning a state pension from 65 and still getting their final salary pension. They own their home in London and have thousands in savings. They were able to achieve this whilst working in low skilled factory jobs.

Now, professionals with university degrees would struggle to achieve their life style.

I think we are heading to a social mobility and quality of life that is closer to India and than the traditional western view, with wealth in the hands of a small number of landlords.

A has just purchased a completely nice family home near me for £500k and added a back and loft extension and turned it into a 6 bed HMO charging £800 per room.

They will make a 15% return on their £250k investment.

With the aging population staying healthier for longer, far more easily than in the past. We are so far away from having 'very few' young people even if population control measures were in place.

Yep, I agree with all that.

With the aging population staying healthier for longer, far more easily than in the past. We are so far away from having 'very few' young people even if population control measures were in place.

@Sourdoughandjam when do you say past when do you mean? healthy life expectancy hasn't increased in years?

We already have more over 65s than under 15s?

This decline is totally manufactured by those with vested interests. None of this was inevitable but here we are.

Viviennemary · Today 09:21
Until the exploding world population issue is tackled the whole world is in decline

I agree with this, but then there are lots of articles going on about the decline in birth rates in Korea, Japan and China being a disaster.

Actually global healthy life expectancy went up by nearly 10% between 2000-2021. It's not all about the UK.

Anyway I'm going out so won't be replying to anything else.

I hate the Labour Party but even I can see that as we are broke I’m not sure what they can do unless they lose their left wing ideals . Get to grips with welfare , get to grips with crime and antisocial behaviour. Every area of public service is not functioning, society has broken down . There is no hope . It’s all just so bloody depressing.

@IncessantNameChanger
My adult son thinks we are headed into mass civil unrest as decline becomes very noticable in the next tens years.

What form does your son think the civil unrest will take? Large gangs raiding the houses of rich people? Rioting against the government? Total breakdown of law and order?

I sort of see where you are coming from but also for years luxury has been considered the norm. We might be moving towards a time where we don’t holiday abroad, eat basic food, don’t eat out, mend clothes rather than buy new ones etc. but that’s what my parents did when I was growing up. We’ve gotten used to having what we want when we want and we are just going back to those things being a luxury.

No one protests or riots (not thousands of people anyway) like they did in the 80s or 90s. People can’t be arsed and just moan online now and think they have done their bit

We might be moving towards a time where we don’t holiday abroad, eat basic food, don’t eat out, mend clothes rather than buy new ones etc. but that’s what my parents did when I was growing up. We’ve gotten used to having what we want when we want and we are just going back to those things being a luxury.

What classes as basic food?

And will this be for everyone or only certain generations?

What I want to know is how the NHS is the UK’s biggest employer and also the 5th biggest employer in the WORLD but people are still waiting (and dying) for years for treatment.

I think that sums up the state of the UK very succinctly.

People in the UK have long been discouraged from having children, (in general successive government policy and societal influence does not support women having children and large families are stigmatised) but we are also told we need more people so need to import them from abroad and change the very fabric of society, but infrastructure is not provided leading to the dog eat dog scenario we’re currently living in where there is a fight for services and underlying vibe of hostility which the government NEEDS to detract from their own deliberate incompetence.

I mean isn’t it a basic part of governance to FORECAST how many public services workers, additional infrastructure, housing units, etc, a country is going to require to meet it’s citizens needs and ensure that people are trained and funding is set aside to meet these needs?

I also don’t think there’s any other country in the world that has encouraged an internal self hatred its own people of ‘we’re all too lazy, fat, stupid, racist etc to work hard’. No wonder people give up. A lot of it is classism based - ‘elites’ know better than the plebs who they can’t be trusted to think for themselves, while the elites corrupt the country for their own ends.

Patriotism is basically a crime in the UK. How can you care about something you are not allowed to have any pride in and are primed to hate?

Hopefully foreign travel will become what it once was, a luxury. The days of retired people in their 60s going on multiple cruises or holidays abroad will cease. A retired bricklayer and secretary from Mansfield being able to own a second property in Spain are over. I see this as a good thing. What worries me is working couples not getting on the housing ladder or not being able to afford childcare. We need to protect our young working age population, they are our future.

Not like domestic holidays are cheap though. Everything is so expensive in UK. Going abroad can be the cheaper option.

Have a look at Gary's Ecomonics on insta / youtube - he explains whats happening in this country very well and is an interesting watch!

Loads of the people who migrate here don't work anyway, or operate cash only businesses with no benefit to the taxpayer.

It's just adding to the benefits bill more than boosting the economy.

People think it's bad now. Wait until they find out the country has to find an extra £30-50bn per year to spend on pensions due to the aging population. The country is in a death spiral. Everything is being carved up and sold off and we're all having our pockets emptied to feed this pension black hole.

It might be a bit more manageable if the economy was growing. However the economy isn’t growing and this is due to a 15 year wage freeze and utilities sucking the life out of the economy. Everyone's wages are going on bills. The money that went to local businesses and paying vat to the government is now going to the energy companies.

We are fked until the government does something different and sacks off the fiscal rules that hold us back… not in the trussonomic view, but in the public investment view. Infrastructure projects, new technology, state owned utilities and energy, etc.

Totally agree.
Very arrogant of the poster to equate blue collar as being thick.

Something needs to change and drastically. People are sick of working themselves to the bone and having nothing to show for it. While others do nothing productive all day and have everything paid for.

Then why is the same thing also happening all over western Europe as well?

I think we has about 20 years in a western affluent bubble where it seemed we could buy what we wanted, eat what we wanted, holiday when we wanted, party when we wanted and we got spoiled. Whilst we were doing that the super rich were buying up all the assets and sitting on them getting richer. Now suddenly everything is unaffordable and we can’t we are noticing and life seems unfair.

The general population started being able to have hot showers in 1960. They only took foreign holidays for granted in the 1980s. Now we want it all. However we can’t have it all because whilst we were running around like kids in a sweet shop the super rich were squirreling away assets and now rentals have sky rocketed, there’s no housing for people to move to and they hold the power not the governments. That’s why Elon and Bezos have their feet up on the Whitehouse desk!
This is not a UK problem. It’s a global problem. Wake up everyone!

I believe they did a good deal of pillaging, actually.

JFC. Lots of raping and pillaging actually! Ever read a book?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C9jBRD76C/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The post war era of even wealth distribution ’was not normal ‘