Longest Period Of Falling Wages For 50 Years

[Gromit]

// Real wages have been dropping consistently since 2010 - the longest period of falls since at least 1964, official figures show.

Real wages calculate earnings when the rising cost of living, or inflation, is taken into account.

The Office for National Statistics said real wages had fallen by 2.2% annually since the first three months of 2010. //

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25977678

Whe people vote, the first thing they ask themselves is "Am I better off than I was 5 years ago?" the answer is seemingly "No".

Can the Government do something to remedy this terrible statistic before the next election?

[Old_Jim]

The biggest problem is that (according to the Institute of Maths) 51% of the adult public are functionally innumerate. That means they cannot understand the difference between being "better off" and borrowing to spend. We now have the Wonga generation with many people deep in debt with no easy way out. The same applies to central government spending. For decades, people have elected successive governments who have promised high spending and low taxation, unable to grasp that the only way to achieve that is to borrow. The country is now £1.3 trillion (that's 1.3 million million) in debt.

Our present government is trying to reduce the debt by cutting back on spending in the hope that the economy will grow sufficiently to allow our existing tax revenues to reduce the deficit. Some hope! The NHS alone accounts for most of our yearly tax take.

The alternative government's policies are equivalent to "if the ATM won't give you any more cash with that card, get another card - and tell the bailiffs you're out." Eventually we'll run out of credit and have our economy taken over by the IMF - which won't be comfortable.

The bottom line is that we've been paying ourselves too much and we need to tighten our belts and pay more tax. However, there's no votes in that so whoever's in power is simply going to borrow more. The choice is between national bankruptcy in 10 years under Labour or 20 years under the Conservatives - or next year when UKIP gets us slung out of the EU.

[jake-the-peg]

No because the market will take care of it!

As the economy grows labour will become more scarce pushing wages up so people will be better off in another 10 years or so.

Unless the work is off-shored abroad of course.

But even if that happens we'll all have our 200% bonuses to fall back on!

We're all in this together!

[jake-the-peg]

Old_jim - I'd say the biggest problem is that so many people think that the economics that you and I employ to run our lives is directly transferable to the economics used to running a country!


//The biggest problem is that (according to the Institute of Maths) 51% of the adult public are functionally innumerate.

The NHS alone accounts for most of our yearly tax take.//


NHS budget for 2012 was £104 billion
tax receipts 2012-13 are £550.6bn


You're right about that innumeracy in the public!

[Gromit]

The country is still spending more than it is earning.

Which meant that in
2010 we borrowed £148.6billion
2011 we borrowed £120.6billion
2012 we borrowed £99.5billion

All of which ends up on our national debt.

http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/html/Years/2013/March/images/BudgetGovernmentFinal2.png

[Old_Jim]

Nice try, but now add back in the costs of PPI.

[ToraToraTora]

Gromit, spare us the socialist propaganda. I understand your your belief don't inflict it on the rest of us.

[ToraToraTora]

"The NHS alone accounts for most of our yearly tax take.//" - inser word "direct" after the word "yearly" and you'll see what jake is talking about. Wonder how that important word got mislaid!

[Gromit]

// Gromit, spare us the socialist propaganda //

It' from the ONS, the Government's own figures.

[mikey4444]

TTT...why is wrong for gromit to "inflict" his socialist views on us, but its OK for you, and others to express your Thatcherite views ?

[seadogg]

Don't forget the plight of savers in all this. The small saver is hammered by low interest rates and those without an effective knowledge of the securities market find their money disappearing into the pockets of the trailing commission "advisers" and indifferent fund managers.

[Sqad]

Gromit

\\\Can the Government do something to remedy this terrible statistic before the next election?\\\

What a good question.We have not seen any of mikey's polls showing the Lab/Con gap recently, which is slightly suspicious but depending upon which poll you want to believe, you can take your choice between 4% and 6 % ...a bit of a distance from 10-12% of some months ago.

Yes, the economy is growing, no the electorate are not feeling it at the moment, some 16 months to go and the Tories ripping themselves apart over vote in key issues........BUT.......for the first time, i get the feeling and it is only a feeling that the Tories feel, for the first time, that they have a chance to get an overall majority at the next election.

A feeling, a stirring perhaps....but it is something that I have perceived for the first time in this parliament.

[mikey4444]

Sqad...Good Afternoon and thank you waking me up ! No mystery why I haven't posted any of my little Polls...just too busy trying to earn a crust !

I normally use YouGov, for consistency and the gap has actually widened since last week. This was commissioned by the Sun ( ! ) and was published this morning ::

http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/01/31/update-labour-lead-10/

And this from UK Polling Report ::

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

I am waiting for this to be updated ::

http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html

As you can see, a labour majority predicted of 76-78. Also the LibDem vote is collapsing and UKIP have dropped a couple of points...hardly surprising in week when Farage and Co seem to be committing mass suicide, in public.

I think one thing is becoming very clear. The Government of the day, in this case the Tories, can blind us with science and statistics and claim that the
"economy" is improving, but unless the people actually feel better, its all for nothing. People see prices still rising, and services still being cut. Until they actually start to feel better, we can expect that the Polls will continue to favour Labour.

As long as dave and co continue to present a disunited front, they can hardly expect to make any headway over Labour. What happened last night in Parliament over the Tory rebels was a complete shambles. Combine that with their inaction and dithering over the serious flooding in Somerset, and its no wonder that they appear to running around like headless chickens.

[Sqad]

Good afternoon mikey.......can't disagree with your comments except to say that I would have accepted the 10 point gap some months ago, but as i mentioned in my post, my comments are based on " a feeling in my bones."

[mikey4444]

Sqad...I am a little surprised by the huge gap that Labour has over the Tories as well. I was expecting it to be a little less, maybe 5-6 points. This gap seems to have widened not so much by what Labour has done but by what the Tories haven't done at all, or done well.

If you look at the 4 "killer" questions on page 2 of the YouGov Poll, you can see that the Tories appear to be losing ground on that vital issue of trustability.

Still, there is many a slip between cup and lip, as it is said, and the next 15 months will be very interesting indeed !