Uk is in big trouble - what do you think will happen?

[hippysun]

Thames water on brink of collapse. All those CEOs getting fat bonuses. Water shortages and rising bills.

the cost of living is off the chart. Every bill has gone up. Pop in to Tesco for toothpaste, butter and chicken and it costs an insane amount for just a few items.

the government are crap and taxing the hell out of us.

my salary is stuck. I feel constantly poor now. 10 years ago when I earned significantly less, I felt ok money wise. Chatted today to a colleague about science graduate son who is stuck doing a minimum wage job as there are no jobs here. I’ve noticed this myself in my town. The council have a few, other companies outsourced to India years ago, the pharma company moved out years ago and the land will soon be a new housing estate.

the nhs is a total mess.

housing costs make me want to weep! No chance of moving. Feel bad for my kids. They just keep building expensive houses here all packed into poorly designed estates. Tiny gardens. But no infrastructure. The promised schools get cancelled and drs surgeries and hospitals are rammed with patients. My mortgage of course is up.

in my industry… everyone is obsessed with AI and I’m sad to say it has taken some jobs already. There is a huge push towards AI.

there seems to be underlying tension here re migrants. People getting increasingly annoyed.

this country feels like a right mess. Making rich people richer and poor people even poorer. The middle earners are getting squeezed. I hate it.

i don’t remember it being this bad ever before.

why is it so terrible? And what do you think will happen?

And unemployment continued to rise. It was almost 12% in the early 80s, fell towards the end of the decade and then rose to 10% in the early 90s. Yet the same government was in power throughout.

Not if you were a woman.

Does anyone really know what the equivalent figure in unemployment is now though ?

As far as I can tell they just fudged all the figures so it is impossible to compare.

I think the greater difference between rich and poor started in the 80s with the City boom, some with humble origins made millions (the barrow boy to stock broker trope) while the mining, print and docklands industries among others either disappeared or were massively reduced. Thatcher presided over this.

No electricity because of miners strike. My Mum had a gas cooker and had to feed relatives and neighbours who had all electricity which was very common at the time. Some nights she had about 20 to cook for.

There is also the question of the nature of work- zero hours contacts for example

The UK had to have an IMF bailout in 1976

I think eveyone looks back at the 70s with rose tinted spectacles but hasn't really got a clue how bad they were.

Hospital treatment was much worse. MRI wasn't even invented until about 1970.

Restuaurants were awful. Burt steak and chips were considered haute cuisine. Eating out was a luxury and there were far fewer takeaways.

Cars were absolutely rubbish and rusted to pieces because zinc galvanisation was not used. Cars like the Morris Ital were not only rust buckets but hideously unreliable.

It was common for houses to be without central heating and double glazing.

+about 1000 other things.

The 70s really were shit.

At least we still had industry to fall back on then, what industry do we have left now (other than Financial Services). We can’t even make our own steel anymore, it’s all been decimated (deliberately in my opinion, but I’m not going into that).

I second this. We all know the country is in a bit of a state and we all feel powerless. To be honest, threads like this make people feel depressed and hopeless. There's enough of that about already.

True there was that level of inequality- however even a female worker in the 70s would have a better ratio of their bosses’ wages than now

It really isn't that bad. British press and bias reporting would have you believe that crime is through the roof , immigrants are taking over the country etc etc
It's not like that at all.
This government are making positive changes but the press really aren't on their side. You have to actually look at the government own statements to find out
I'm not saying this government is perfect btw , not at all. But the way the press present things it's total doom and gloom.

Threads like this do make people feel unsettled and depressed. However that is the intention of these threads and many of the contributors.

No they wouldn’t.

I believe infrastructure is collapsing due to lack of investment/care/low wages.

Setting up account for CIS with HMRC, advised it must be done before X date, ring as heard nothing to be advised they have a backlog. Then customers recieve a fine as they haven't made a declaration onto the account that hasn't been set up. Advised to appeal, but there is a back log for appeals as everybody appeals.

Order materials for work, advised supplied within one week so book customer in, still waiting on materials 3 weeks later.

Move to village with hourly buses, local council change the buses to once per day.

Bin lorry breaks bin, so order a new one and advised it will arrive within 15 days, still not arrived a month later. But must leave bin empty at top of the drive waiting for it to be swapped so having to travel to the tip.

The water infrastructure in our village is collapsing, so some of my neighbours end up with drives flooded with sewage regularly. Water company fobs them off.

3 year wait for ASD assessments for children here.

A few years ago, these things would have been a big deal, now they are daily annoyances. Something needs to be done.

Where do you live? I have no option other than walking the streets alone and I don't feel unsafe. Obviously I wouldn't do it at 2am.

ETA? How does anybody get those two mixed up?!

The thing is, all of that is true but my grandparents, who had very down to earth jobs, were still able to afford to move from council housing to their own home, take holidays, eat well, save and invest. In the 70s they were about the age I am now but had barely any mortgage, no debt and steady jobs which would ultimately yield them excellent pensions. I’m not in that position now, despite working for 30 years.

This is important to remember, because some of the spending that led to that was the same spending that led to the infrastructure that some have mentioned as mitigating the hard times they experienced. A lot of the debt that led to the need for that loan came from the council level - things like housing and library vans.

And IMF loans have a lot of strings attached. The measures people like Thatcher took were the kinds of measures that the IMF demanded in return for their largess.

I find it looking back to the periods of largess as if they came mainly from better governance a little difficult - the Labour governments that preceded Thatcher, and later Blair, all spent with money they didn't have (in Blair's case he used private money), and that was material later on because ultimately it all had to be paid back.

The sky will fall in, and we'll all be trapped underneath, like a big quilt.

My industry has been hit hugely - banking. Branch closures everywhere. I'm predicting that soon bank branches will no longer exist. Our phone helplines are gradually being transferred offshore where people will work for peanuts, but customer service is going down the pan as a result. Data inputting is being taken over by A1. I know people have said we've gone through a similar cycle in the 1970s, but it feels very different this time. For the first time in my life I despair for what our future generations are going to face.

It interests me the effects of changes and improvements since the 70s and 80s. One poster mentions better food and takeaways which I agree with. However, I think this has resulted in much more obesity which strains people and health services and has caused far more litter in the streets, which in turn has fed rats in cities. It certainly seems like the UK is in a downward spiral at the moment.

I suspect bankruptcy is in our not-too-distant future, or at least a debt crisis of the kind that Greece had. The government has given up on taking control of the welfare bill and taxing working people more and more is only going to result in them working less. So we'll end up having our national policy set by the IMF instead.

I think there will be a coalition govt in 2029. Welfare spending will fall, and there will be a period of subdued trading/employment.

Whoever the next govt is, it will reverse the NI increase, the farm tax and the VAT on schools. Income tax will rise. House prices may fall a little. Not sure about inheritance tax.

On the bright side, this is nowhere near as bad as the 1970s which were very tough. There are still opportunities, in our area at least, for those prepared to push hard for openings. At 61, after redundancy, I found a decently paid new full time role last year. It was surprisingly easy. And my 17yo DS has just landed a job for the next year that will allow him to save through sixth form, for university in 2026.

Advice - focus on the essentials. Try to save a little as a safety net. Take all opportunities for extra training or qualifications. Keep skills current. Don't waste anything.

Yes, I am totally pissed off by all these things and thanks to Brexit can’t move to another European country. If AI means more income for companies and less staff needed surely we should be moving to a pattern of a 3 or 4 day working week on the same pay or a universal benefit?