To think the 90's/early 2000's was when we peaked and everything has gone downhill since due to technology

[SonnyHoney]

To think the 90s/early 2000s was when we peaked and everything has gone downhill since due to technology.

Bear in mind I was only a child/teen then (mid 30s now).
There was just the right amount of technology.
People just seemed happier.

I wish I could have raised my children in a similar environment to what my mother raised me in.

Serious public sector cuts started in 2006. 2008 was the result of financial mismanagement and privatization, not the cause. Some of us saw it coming at the time, with the shift to running the economy on debt where once £100 debt was a big issue.

I don’t disagree bailing out the banks was a bad move though. Iceland, the true oldest and only democracy, famously did not.

Yes, I was working in a similar field at the same time. I got my first job easily, even though I was straight out of school. It came to an end in 2010 and I struggled to find work. I had an opportunity to work for a local Sure Start group but it didn’t come to fruition in the end due to lack of funding.
My next job, working for my local authority, came to an end due to withdrawal of funding as well.

Yeah not surprised to hear that unfortunately, and I think we are paying for the lack of surestart centres now in some of the issues we see in schools/young people now. Those early years are so important and Surestart was great for a lot of families who needed more support.

Before the tories came in we had more or less been told our 18 month contract would be made permanent, but as the end date drew closer it became apparent that wasn’t going to be possible despite the schools and parents really valuing our work.

Fortunately for me in 2011 I was able to find a great permanent position in another (very affluent) London borough a few months before the contract ended.

I think it was a combination of:
The 2008 financial crisis
Brexit in 2016
Covid in 2020
An increase of 10 million in the UK population in the last 20 years.

Any one of those would be bad enough on its own but together...

It was definitely before this that things started to go downhill.
With respect, there's a certain amount of privilege to have not noticed it before then - I guess not relying on services or living in an area where cut social services became obvious.

My parents thought everything went downhill after about 1962.

Get some perspective. Read a history book.

I don't think I can see this objectively. I'm always nostalgic for the late 90s to mid aughts period but I was young then. My DF is always harping on about the 70s so same issue. I am worried about my future employment prospects with AI though....

I remember reading a book called Hard Work by Poly Toynbee who had gone undercover as a min wage agency worker and thinking how tough it was for her and people in that situation in their real lives, scraping by.

It was written in the mid 00s!

That is shocking! Can she not see that she is also in the firing line of the far right??