To be absolutely sick of hearing about the cost of living crisis

[Katypp]

I surely can't be the only person sick to death of hearing about the cost of living crisis?
I am tired of reporters interviewing middle-class (usually) mothers inside paid activities such as soft play and hearing them moan about how they are struggling to make ends meet.
Have we completely lost the ability to cut our cloth according to our means or does 'struggling' now mean carrying on spending as usual then complaining when there's no money left?
There have never been as many massive new cars on the road, towns are full of hairdressers, nail bars, brow bars, tanning salons, soft play, play cafes, coffee shops, ice cream parlours, dog groomers, most of which didn't exist 25 years ago and are probably the recipients of the money of the families who say they can't keep up with spiralling costs.
Yes, some families will have been hard up before prices started to go up and will have nothing else to cut back on. They have my sympathy.
But i am utterly fed up of hearing how hard households ars being hit by the cost of living crisis when all that's needed is a few minor cutbacks which they don't want to make.

Or people who bought a house 50 years ago who reckon that we just need to look at "cheaper" areas.

If we moved to a cheaper area we couldn't do these jobs. In those areas, our jobs don't exist so we take lower paying jobs. Probably with less benefits and flexibility, but more stress. But now the proportion of our income being spent on housing is exactly the same as it was when we lived in the more expensive area but had the better jobs. So we're in the same position financially but higher stress.

Whats the point?

Also the cost of commuting from outside London into it for your job is ££££ now.

Same. I wasn't broke but as I said, the priorities of the Labour government in the 2000s weren't the same as the subsequent coalition and Tory regimes. Labour at the time were committed to ending child poverty. A lot of the current crisis is caused by ideology - it's exactly what was intended.

It isn’t inadequate.

Many industries are tied to London, even for a first job. Mine was. It's also not reasonable to expect people to move away from their friends, families and support networks.

And many adults have to resort to credit cards and loans to cover basics, and are encouraged to, because it's a lucrative industry.

Like a list of all the things that you think the plebs enjoy! Your snobbery is showing and it's not pretty.

Because they’re frittering money on other shit they don’t need!!!

And yet the content of the thread is about the cost of living! Seems like it's moved on without you.

Then who does the low-paid or public sector jobs in the expensive areas?
So you stayed because of your social conscience? Very noble of you, but you still had options, you just chose not to go with them.

100%

Not to mention needing to be near elderly parents (and other relatives without children), so we can care for them, as we should and want to.

The "shit they don't need", lots of people don't do. My sister and her husband don't do any of them unless they've been gifted a meal out, which is often what they'll request as presents for occasions.

They're still struggling. They work in just over minimum wage jobs, and there is no prospect for progression unless they move away. But if they move away (as I did), the cost of living increases because housing costs are higher.

With great fucking difficulty.

Nope I like eating out and but rarely do and don’t go on holiday unless I can really afford it. Hence not having been on holiday the last few years. I’d love a better car but I have an older car I saved up for…. We’d all like to be able to waste money on luxuries and pay the bills but life means you have to wait for things and can’t have it all.

It was never "sold" as anything. It was never "sold" at all. It was never voluntary so why would they try to "sell" it - it was just another tax. I've been in the workplace for 45 years and never heard it being "sold" as any kind of savings scheme - it was just tax. The only minority it may have been "sold" to is where you can buy a few extra years you've missed to increase your state pension, but that's a completely different form of NIC and not linked to wages like the main NIC rates are. I'd love to know where you saw it as being "sold" as anything - I suspect you've just misunderstood and misremembered. They're not "changing the message" - the message was never that it was any kind of savings scheme.

what do you mean?

The poster you quoted is correct. People in poorer countries don't have the same levels of obesity as here. In fact, I don't know any other country in Europe with the same levels of obesity. And food in the UK is much cheaper than in many European countries.

I honestly think we need to start issuing some benefits via food and electricity vouchers with a portion for spending on other things.

As usual people keep saying the gap between rich and poor is widening. It isn't.

Yes it is - I posted this earlier but it bears repeating:

Post war wealth inequality reduced before starting to increase in the 1980s. In the 1970s CEOs earned around 20 times the amount of a median earner. Today CEOs earn almost 80 times the amount of a median earner.

Between the end of WW2 and the 1980s the top 10% share of income fell from 35% to 21%, it's 30% again now. The bottom 20% had and 8% share of income in 1979 - it is the same today.

Since 1981, the economy has grown 87% in productivity terms, yet median wages has only increased by 62%

The top 10% own over 50% of the countries wealth, the top 20% own 63% and the bottom 20% own just 0.5%!

All of these things are clear evidence that the gap between rich and poor is widening.

Calm down, as others have said this is about the cost of living, which is no longer covered by average incomes to the degree that the government has to subsidise wages, or social problems will spiral, costing more money to mop up aka the poverty industry, because that's outsourced to private profit making sectors too.

You do realise that if people stop "frittering" when they do feel flush and able to have a short term fix of "luxury", like a nice coffee or a fake Barbie from Poundland, half the economy will eventually collapse?

No need to be rude and personal. Surely you can debate with reaching for insults.

I don’t work in public sector.

But I ask again, who does those jobs: in social care, childcare, healthcare, education in expensive areas, if everyone moves to cheaper areas? Not to mention shop workers, delivery drivers, hairdressers, cleaners, street sweepers?

I really hope you don't expect people to be grateful for what they get. That's a horrible attitude to bring to work. I don't think anyone needs to be grateful for the protection of the welfare state, especially now it's so piecemeal and inadequate. It's a social contract, not charity
I am grateful. Grateful for my health, grateful for the opportunities that I chased but ultimately we're there, grateful I was able to work FT as a single mum and managed to raise two great kids who are now independent and happy.

Gratefulness goes a long way towards happiness.

I dont want to get on board with this "cloth cutting" mentality, because it makes me feel like I am personally responsible for the shortcoming of an economic system that is badly managed by a handful of people and companies.... I don't want to stop doing nice things for my children because some Orange man decided to have a power trip and cover up for his friends dirty deeds....

I refuse to cut my cloth in the way goverment wants me to cut it... I will moan and voice my displeasure with this system forcing me to give up few nice extras ( a soft play for a 5ver) while we can't have a comfortable life or holidays and days out with kids.

Also all those businesses you seen on the high street are small businesses basically all struggling to feed their own families in those times.

I am sure your heart is in the right place, but conforming and surviving in this broken system is not an achievement and we will keep on moaning and pointing the widening gap between poor and rich.

If that's what you think then sorry, you have no idea what you're talking about. Our residual welfare regime provides some of the lowest benefits in Europe and they're reactive, doing nothing to prevent poverty before it takes hold. We had no strategy on child poverty for a decade and a half and policies literally designed to increase child poverty. There are very few boroughs in England and Wales where LHA will fully cover rents so people are having to use subsistence level benefits to cover their private rents. I could continue but your views are likely to be entrenched.

I am assuming that two professionals working full time will bring in at least 70k per annum? Your essential outgoings surely do not take the majority of this income? 😬

Some regular outgoings are used to support a privileged standard of living, but are not necessarily essential, e.g, extra curricular clubs, tutoring, paid family days out/activities, pre-prepared meals, Netflix, disposable mop heads, etc. Many people are voicing that they are not willing to give these up, because they work hard. People worked equally hard in the 90s. Why is there a presumption that living standards (aka consumerism) should just increase year on year, without consequence?

The cost of living ‘crisis’ has been a real crisis for some low income households that had no wiggle room to reduce their costs and were struggling already.

However, many posters claim to be ‘struggling’ when what they actually mean is they are unable to maintain their privileged standard of living to the same degree, but they are still pretty privileged.

We are allowed to grumble about it, but I think it’s important to not be disingenuous and use the phrase ‘struggling,’ like those in actual poverty. I agree we can moan that we haven’t eaten out or had a take away all month, but please be careful who your audience is.

The older generations sometimes scoff at the moans, as their lived experience was very different when living standards were much lower. They are accused of begrudging standards improving. I think we miss the point that increased happiness has not matched increased living standards.

If you are currently ‘struggling’ (but not actually), just imagine you are living in the 90s… you will have just one house phone between you, will have painted your own nails and box dyed your hair - you won’t feel like you are missing out at all!

The 90s were great, btw

I agree. DS is having to pay circa £1k per month for a dingy basement box room size bedroom in a HMO. It's utterly obscene. OK, that's London (not Central either), but that's where the jobs in his profession are located since the push for centralisation closed huge numbers of regional offices and concentrated everything in London and a handful of other large cities.

Even 1 bedroom flats in our run down regional town are averaging £800-£900 per month these days and are heavily sought after due to lack of supply and lots of people needing homes.

I really don't think the older people who are sitting pretty in houses/flats bought a few decades ago have the faintest idea of the current state of the housing market.

If you're paying £800-£1000 in rent alone, plus utilities etc plus commuting costs, plus subsistence level foods, you've bugger all left if you're on minimum wage, and virtually no chance at all of saving anything towards the deposit needed to buy your own flat/house.