To feel our quality of life in the UK gets lower every year?

[Playingvideogames]

Off the back of another thread where I mentioned my childhood homes being bought by my parents for under 300k in the late 90s/early 2000s, and are now all selling for 700k+.

I feel like our quality of life just dwindles every year. Everything becomes more expensive. Housing is low quality, small and extortionate. The weather is awful 70% of the time. Everything feels so overcrowded with fewer green spaces and natural beauty as more housing estates go up. The roads are awful, choked with traffic and potholed. Constant roadworks here yet nothing ever seems to get solved. Customer service is a bit rubbish, nothing really works as intended. More and more rules about what you can and can’t do. People just seem stifled and stressed.

I’m sure people will rush along to say how wonderful the NHS is and similar, but I sometimes feel really envious of people living in places where (although not perfect) they have something reliable to enjoy - great weather, a nice big house, just more space and less overcrowding.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable but I wonder if you do!

Brexit, Covid and austerity cost us dearly. It's a lot easier to smash so thing to pieces than build it up and the Tory party did just that in 14 years. On top if that, we also had the Ukraine-Russian war which thoroughly fucked energy prices (thereby inflating everything else).

We're starting to climb out of it now, but it will still take 10+ years to feel the benefits and that's assuming we continue to have halfway sane Governments who want a good trading relationship with Europe, will build housing and make post education training a routine thing instead of a rarity.

I think most people have had it tough over the past 5 years and we're at the start of a tricky demographic slope as the baby boomers retire, lean more on the NHS and require social care. We REALLY need to sort out housing security and jobs for the younger generation, otherwise we won't be able to support the older cohorts.

I don’t drive and feel so embarrassed about it sometimes as people are like “you don’t drive !” But at the same time I kinda like the fact I’m one less person on the road

Well said. Completely agree. UK is a great country. Labour are building it up whilst complainers drag it down moaning about things, without realising it's what the conservatives have done over the last 14yrs. Labour have immediately started building us back up. This will take time.

I think it really depends what part of the UK you live in and what your income is.
The weather is just what it is.

What on earth are you talking about? I haven’t mentioned Labour. Are you Kier Starmer?

That's mass immigration for you.

Now they talk about productivity and never discuss what damage brexit and austerity have done.

Its so frustrating

I grew up in the 1970s and 80s. No central heating. No car. No phone

But many people did have cars & house phones & central heating in the 80s…

We're starting to climb out of it now

I don’t think we can because of the demographic issues you mention.

I quite enjoy living in a country where I don't have to worry about being bombed or summarily executed in the street.

I also enjoy our mild weather. That I don't have to worry about earthquakes or tsunamis or hurricanes or typhoons or tornadoes or -20°C winters and 50°C summers.

I enjoy central heating and reliable electricity and running water.

I enjoy that I can choose freely whether to be single or to marry and that I wasn't forcibly married off and then forcibly impregnated.

I enjoy having the right to vote without fear of violence.

I enjoy having the choice to work and without my options being limited to secretary, teacher or nurse.

I enjoy being protected from sexual harassment in the workplace. I enjoy being protected from second hand smoke in the workplace.

I enjoy that I have a variety of transport options and that I am not limited to a weekly trip to church in a horse drawn trap with no suspension.

I could go on. Nothing is ever perfect but that doesn't mean there aren't positives.

If you only focus on negatives, you will always feel negative. That's a daft way to spend your one life.

These are all protections from harm though. They’re the absence of a negative, not the presence of a positive, if that makes sense

i’ve tried telling younger relatives “don’t worry about housing security, at least you aren’t getting bombed”. Doesn’t go down to well!

No, that's your negative twist because you are apparently determined to be negative about everything and anything.

Your choice but I think it is a sad and unnecessary choice.

lol

We don’t have mass immigration 🤦‍♀️

honestly people can’t fucking count and believe the absolute lies the right wing dog whistling media tells us

The UK is declining . The wages are too low for most people to support anything other than the basics . It doesn’t make you feel positive when you work full time and can’t even afford a pizza at the weekend . You look outside your home and everything’s gone to shit . The roads are disintegrating, crime is out of control , can’t see a doctor , schools are failing , no jobs , poor housing choices , leasehold is ruinous , rents are extortionate , government not interested in anything accept their own agenda . Business are failing , high streets are derelict , people can’t even get their bins emptied in a timely fashion , fly tipping omg it goes on and on .

Good grief, unless I love the UK and think it’s fabulous then I’m a miserable person?

honestly people can’t fucking count and believe the absolute lies the right wing dog whistling media tells us

My theory is many know it’s bullshit but it’s still easier to blame the “other” because otherwise the burden to fix things may fall on them.

I feel like there’s this element of assuming no other countries have a decent health service, or safety, or proper public infrastructure and only the UK is truly civilised. Which is bollocks!

Agree.

OP, a lot of the things to mentioned in your first post are specific to wherever you live. Maybe you need to consider whether urban living is for you.

@Playingvideogames did you not read @Tonissister excellent post - esp this bit

‘Far fewer people owned a home or expected to. Or went to uni or expected to.
The food was bland. Racism was rife. Life expectancy was far lower. Neurodivergence was just laughed at. Dyslexics were thickos, autistic people were weirdos, ADHD sufferers were lazy or naughty. Sexism and sexual predatory behaviour was totally normal and it was never the men who were blamed but the young girls who were ridiculed as sluts. Domestic violence was not tackled by police. Rape in marriage was legal. Homosexuality was an aberration. Having children outside of marriage was such a social disgrace, that perfectly capable women were forced to give up their babies for adoption.’

this this and this.

OP, you have no clue what you are taking about, and aren’t you lucky !

The biggest structural issue we have right now is our ageing population.

This article covers it well:

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/8950/labour-markets/impact-ageing-population-economy/

If you look at the analysis of the effects of this shift in the link above, it will feel awfully familiar.

You are pretty negative

‘Far fewer people owned a home or expected to. Or went to uni or expected to

But there was far more social housing. People didn’t need a degree for a job.

Life expectancy was far lower

Healthy life expectancy hasn’t changed in years but retirement age keeps moving out.

Sexism and sexual predatory behaviour was totally normal and it was never the men who were blamed but the young girls who were ridiculed as sluts

Victim blaming is still a thing…

@MandingoAteMyBaby we can’t afford state pensions and the current NHS model.