Why do things keep getting worse?

I am surprised this post has had no response.I think Reform is doing well because it is the only party telling a memorable story. It is a very similar story in very many countries in the western world. I believe therehas been a growing inequality of wealth for about twenty years. This was exacerbated by Covid. The current government swept to power by simply pointing out it wasn't the Conservative government. Neither did anything about inequality and a vacuum has opened up which Farage has gladly filled. All he has to do is keep pointing at the 'small boats' and people are provided with an explanation of why things seem to be getting worse. People feel no confidence about their financial prospects, even less so about those of their children.I read the financial plans of Reform: cut taxes, slash the welfare budget were the eyecatching points in my view. This would further widen the wealth gap between ordinary people and those with great resources. It is not the picture of a country I would be proud to live in.

Most people wont like what I am going to say and that is part of the problem in my opinion.

Bat tunnel - £100 million.

Many many other schemes like that. Too many to mention.
And the majority of people, on GN at least, thought it was perfectly acceptable.

If money is spent on this type of thing, not so much money left for other things.

The current and previous Governments both follow a broken economic model. Austerity does not help growth, it does the opposite.
The way to stimulate an economy is not to take money away from those with the least, because they actually spend their money .
The way to attract businesses is to keep our infrastructure in good order and our population healthy.

Marmin maybe the post hasn’t had much response because it’s so subjective.
My life is fine. In fact non of my family are doing too badly, all of my siblings are happily married, have enough money to have a reasonable lifestyle and all the next generation have employment and own houses.
This might bring the comment ‘well bully for you’ but I am only pointing out that many many people are in this position. If it wasn’t for the media telling us everything is so awful we would be quite happy.

I can’t think that Mr.Farage will be changing the lives of those that haven’t fared so well, he’s just a bit bored at the moment, his friend in the USA is too busy to have much time for him but he will go off the boil again soon.

If we want , really want, to improve the lot of the less well off then we have to do some heavy lifting.
More taxation has got to be a possibility even if we don’t like it and the government has to prioritise the basics, a decent water and sewerage system for one.
We have got to stop thinking that the Government is responsible for everything. We need to step up and realise that if we keep ignoring our communities then we lose them.
We’ve lost the heart of towns because we shop on line.
Our village halls, Parish councils, Churches are struggling from lack of support, presumably because, not only do, people have busier lives but because they think it’s someone else’s job.
Having said that, the Government have got to stop passing on
our essential services to companies that seem to be able to make money from them. If private companies can run them and pay their shareholders then surely the government could?

I can only judge from the area that I live in but it’s obvious here that the only people who are still taking part in our reasonably small community are old people. Not for want of trying to get younger people involved I assure you.

Gosh what a rant. Sorry!

Pamela J1-
I agree almost word for word with your response. I am also relatively fortunate economically but have becomw more aware at first hand the extent to which the have nots become ignored and feeling as though no one speaks for them. Worrying times.

I didn’t think I was being subjective, our lives are not bad either financially, but was rather talking about the state of the country in general, the lack of affordable housing, young people without jobs, a wrecked NHS, and many public services now closed down, crowded prisons, underfunded schools, an overpriced public transport system, especially our railways, and a pensionable age that keeps being pushed ever forwards, we were lucky enough to retire at 65/66 but some now face 68 as a pensionable age with a bus pass in England not given till then either, and certainly the next pensionable age after that will be 69/70. And this is without mentioning the cost of living.
Just because we are fortunate doesn’t mean we can’t see the growing discontent in the country.
As for this thread not being popular that tends to be how it goes with me, I am pretty good at starting threads that fall off the radar. Oh well.

Austerity hasn't worked has it? It has made things worse.

The town I live in smells of weed and in fact people just smoke it openly, anywhere. There are open drug deals in the street, people taking drugs in shop doorways or in stair wells. I don't know if these people have always been here, whether it was just more discrete but now it is on show so now so no one wants to go into town. I imagine just this one example could be as a result of cuts to services.

Good luck reading my post, it looks like I wandered off a bit!

JaneJudge

Good luck reading my post, it looks like I wandered off a bit!

It’s such a big subject that it easy to wander.

In a way your post is similar to mine(but a bit shorter!)
More empty shop doorways because the shops can’t compete with online shopping. More shops closed means fewer people wandering about means fewer people keeping an eye on things.
More people not going to work and having structure in their lives.
For some reason we don’t expect those on benefits to actually do anything so they have quite a bit of time on their hands and no appreciation for anything they may have achieved.
I don’t know what the answer is unfortunately but I think we have all contributed to it.

Babs, it’s getting more popular now! It is an important subject, perhaps I meant that it is such huge one that it’s difficult to know where to start.
I could go on about housing forever, for example I know why builders build 4bed detached homes but, unfortunately, they aren’t going to change their ways just because I want them to.

Things aren't getting worse. The media just want you to think they are because that's how they function- through making people fearful and anxious.

I am no worse off than I was last year... in fact probably better off. I just learned how to shop more sensibly.

Lots of things are cheaper than they were last year- it's all about perspective...

Good news is rarely as click baity as bad news and gossip, so there is that factor.

I don’t think that any of my family are in a bad way financially. I live a pretty frugal life anyway but I’m quite comfortable. I don’t understand why the news media keeps telling me the country is in crisis.

We don't have empty shop doorways because there are often people sleeping in them.
I do think things are not as good.
The shopping is getting more expensive.

Most people I know are feeling pretty miserable and especially younger folk. It doesn’t matter how much they work (if they can find a job, that is) the pay just isn’t stretching far enough to allow a decent standard of living. Everything is going up in price and any pay rise is swallowed up in taxes. It seems hopeless to try and strive for a decent life. Within my family, we’re dealing with redundancy (thank you Milliband), losing a family business (thank you, Reeves), coping with a broken NHS from both patient and professional standpoints and unable to trust the police to keep us safe.

As the older generation, we of course worry about how our children and GC will get through this. They feel there’s little hope for themselves and little point in trying to make plans for a better life because they’re having to tread water simply to stay afloat.

Heaven knows we’ve seen a few situations over the course of our 50+ years marriage but I don’t ever recall a time when almost everyone was so downhearted at the state of the country.

Thanks Sue was beginning think I was unaware of the Utopia we live in.
I think the chances for our GCs will not be the same as the chances we had when growing up, even with all the technology at their finger tips and AI.

There used to be a time when man went out to work and woman kept house and kids.
Nowadays, to have any decent standard of living, both people need to work. And often get topped up by benefits.

I know which time of life I prefered.

The life my children lead is still better than my life as a young mother during the Thatcher years. Maybe living in a consumer society we have to be made to feel we have to have the latest mobile phone, a new electric car etc and feel cheated if we can’t afford one?

We must all have noticed that most supermarkets now have collection points for food banks.

Great post, PamelaJ1.

Skydancer

Great post, PamelaJ1.

I second that….

I see no indication that the economy is good even the well off are economizing and businesses are very downbeat

All this makes me very glad that I chose not to have children.
The pundits keep telling us we are an aging society as though it were our fault that there are not enough "economically active" people to support us. People cannot help getting older and wearing out physically. However there are too many younger people sitting at home gaming and smoking weed. They are too anxious to do a days work. And as some of you have pointed out there is little incentive for them to get off their asses and look for work.

Education no longer opens door for them as it opened for me in the past. Now it costs a fortune to go to university so only the rich middle classes can afford to send their kids. Like many here I had a part time job at 14 and a full time job from 16. Ive had anxiety attacks and depression intermittently throughout my life. Did not stop me having several successful careers and at 81 still working. Being a single person I just had to get on with it.

Just noticed some typos!

Er, no, Maybee. My AC aren’t particularly profuse consumers of goods. The newest car anyone has is 2+ years old and some are ten years old. Phones are middle of the road items, not the latest tech - Ds’s is so old it barely charges up now.

I don’t envy any of my AC’s lives in that they all work FT as do their spouses and they are constantly stressed. There’s childcare/affording childcare, fretting they don’t see enough of their children or have to spend time away from them, making arrangements to ferry them about, last-minute panics when a child falls sick or one of them has an accident. With today’s connected world, they don’t get much chance to switch off, either, with work emails arriving late at night or on holiday. I’m glad they can use their education and skills but life is not a bed of roses.