What will actually happen?

[usernamechanged1]

There are many threads on here about mortgage, rent, utility, food prices all going up. I don’t think there are many left who aren’t noticing the financial strain.

So, whilst we’ve all heard “this can’t go on…” and “when will this stop…”, it is continuing to go on and shows no signs of stopping. I’m wondering what we should actually expect.

I feel like we’re heading towards a place where people will be working but literally unable to survive. I appreciate there are people in that position already, so what happens when this is a mass problem affecting a majority of the country.

It’s akin to working an eight hour shift and having 13 tasks taking 1 hour each to do. It’s simply impossible; the maths don’t add up.

Is it out of the realms of possibility that we could see people take to the streets? For crime to shoot up (shoplifting, robberies etc).

I think many of us thought the CoL crisis would be temporary, but maybe it isn’t.

@Babyroobs my understanding is that lone parents will have to do 30 hours a week. That was obvious when they announced 30 hours childcare. Trouble is childcare is almost unavailable here, so many places have closed down and the remaining ones either have waiting lists or are really bad. I can't get a childminder for my DC as none pick up from their schools (1 in primary, 1 in secondary but has additional needs). There's no after school club in the sense of childcare either, things like sports finish at 4. So if it's true, I can't get too sad about someone with a partner having to do 18 hours (assuming they are not dealing with health or disability issues in the family). I've always thought it unfair that couples could opt to have only one in work and still claim benefits while lone parents were forced to work.

I suppose they really need to look at what hours people can do. Many lone parents do have a supportive non resident parent or family that will help. to be honest though, they won't do much if someone can't work 30 hours, it just means they get called into work commitment meetings still. And there are still much lower requirements for parents of younger children.

Also I think they are meant to be hugely expanding the provision of after school clubs but as with anything may just be empty promises that won't happen.

Grow up!

Newsflash - it happened to earlier generations, this is not the first generation to go through hard times after good times. I can't get over how ignorant some of you are!!!

This generation has had the global financial crisis, a prolonged depression, Brexit then Covid and now high inflation and the highest taxes seen in generations. There have been no real-terms salary rises in 15 years now. That is unprecedented. These are not "hard times following good times". Many people approaching middle age have had no period of significant economic growth or any salary growth throughout their entire working lives to date.

A hell of a lot of them lost their houses in the 90's

The economy will shrink down to essentials as people cut non essentials to cope financially. The vast majority of businesses based on non essentials will vanish. Beauty salons and hairdressers, pubs and restaurants, anything to do with entertainment, will all fold.

Many people approaching middle age have had no period of significant economic growth or any salary growth throughout their entire working lives to date.

I found it strange when people talk about a cycle or ups & downs because as you say there's been little economic growth for years.

Our overlords thinking baffles me sometimes. If no-one is getting pay rises and prices keep rising then more retailers/hospitality/leisure will suffer, or go bust, making more people unemployed/homeless needing more benefits and surely it's a downward spiral and unsustainable.
I think either that they don't care, or they can't see past the next election and there's no long term planning.
When I started work there were two pay rises a year (imagine!), a cost of living rise to match inflation and your actual pay rise.
Then some bright spark brought in 'performance related pay' which meant that they didn't have to give you a pay rise at all if they didn't want to.
Then they stopped paying overtime.
How did we let them get away with all this stuff?

Younger people are clueless.

Things were far worse across the board in the 80s, and far, far worse still in the 70s. Everyones quality of life has increased gradually and some are having to cut back as they got used to everything being so cheap.

In the 90s I was on benefits and had to eat the cheapest tins of beans and cheapest pasta every single day to ensure I had something to eat. I knew people who got a sack of potatoes and several tins of tinned tomatoes and lived off that until the next giro.

In 2019 before the Ukraine war the gas and electric in my 2,500 sq ft home cost me the same as I was paying in a 2 up 2 down victorian terrace in 1998.

Try paying your bills when wages are at the rate they were being paid 20 years ago.

@DemonSpawn

I think you are confused between your finances improving over your lifetime and what the experience of a young was in the 90s, compared to now.

Your home is probably cheaper to pay for now because you took out a mortgage and have benefitted for over a decade of low interest rates.

Wages are not better in real terms now, compared to 20 years ago,

No, my current house is twice the size but better insulated, my points stand, my gas and electric prices have not risen in over 20 years up until the war.

Wages are far better now in real terms than in the 80s when I was employed by the NHS and took home less than £100 a week (the NHS paid us our wages cash back then!) for a full-time job after college.

Nothing to do with mortgages. Gas and electric was 10% of my take home pay back in 1998.

Now peoples first jobs pay them £30k straight out of college and in 2019 the same gas and electric cost for the same house would be 5% of their take home pay, now it’s doubled due to the war so it’s only back to where it was for all of us in the 90s on an afforability basis.

In the 80s everyone was far more skint than people are now.

@DemonSpawn what exactly was your take home pay on 1998? I'm a 90s kid. I can actually remember that the COL is far cheaper today than the 90s. I can remember me and my brother going to a Playscheme for 50p a day!

Except if you're like many people and on min wage
My gas and electric is 10% of my take home...

@DemonSpawn

Your personal experiences do not trump verifiable statistics when discussing something at a national level.

£30k is around the average salary, there are not many people walking into £30k as their first salary in the workplace.

Sorry but this is a load of crap.

Wages had been stagnant whole house prices have become insane. In the 70s or 80s you could buy a family home on a single income, or two minimum wages.

You could not do this now in most parts of the country, considering the insane rent prices make it hard to save.

Education did not cost as much as it does now (if anything). Jobs were easier to come by, nowdays people are the most educated they've ever been but getting the worst deal work wise. Graduating with lots of debt into a job that pays the same starting salary as it did 20 years ago.

Your generation seems much more clueless to me.