Nine Million More People Struggling With Money

[DrFilth]

anyone surprised with this shower in power ?



http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/britain-in-debt-more-than-half-of-uk-adults-living-on-the-financial-edge-8742978.html

[emmie]

rather rests my case.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23406467

[zebo]

The political party fighting aside, why can some people manage and others can't even when their circumstances and incomes are exactly the same? To say it's all about money is wrong, it's also about what people do with that money.

[Gromit]

When the bankers went bust and needed the country to bail them out, there was going to be one result. The Austerity measures and cuts were going to affect the poorest in society not the wealthy.

I have several friends who still have jobs, but their hours have been serverely cut because the economy is stagnant or tettering on recession. So their take home pay is down while the cost of living is rising. There disposable income is none existant, so they can't spend, and the economy can't recover.

Unfortunately the stimulous packages that the Government have come up with have been aimed at the wrong people. The money from Quantatitive Easing went to the banks (the idea that they would then lend to small businesses, except they didn't) and mortgage relief that is designed to counter market forces, and artificially keep housing prices high.

Not much Government money is helping small businesses or helping to create new jobs.

[Gromit]

// even when their circumstances and incomes are exactly the same? //

I doubt that exists. Same mortgage? Same buy in time? Same amount of money still owed? It is highly unlikely that two sets of families have the same out goings.

[DrFilth]

we are all in it together


seems some are more in it than others to me


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/10151043/Ministers-are-powerless-to-block-10000-pay-rise-for-MPs.html

[emmie]

find out where Blair is, and how many properties he has and how much money he possesses, he didn't inherit wealth as some have, that is the problem you see, inherited, what are they supposed to do about that, give it away perhaps??

[emmie]

http://www.leftfutures.org/2013/01/tony-blair-worth-up-to-60m-with-complex-web-of-companies-to-hide-just-how-much-money-he-makes/

not to mention the large property portfolio

[mccfluff]

i don;t blame this lot (or the previous lot, or any lot) because i'm struggling with debt, i blame myself for being an idiot.

[emmie]

i was referring to the really bad old days, when industry was ruled by the unions, when down tools meant just that, lost productivity, so the companies lose out, why should anyone be held to ransom, if working conditions were so bad, then honest negotiation was the way, it's how disputes get solved, however if you want to buy British goods now, see if there is a comparison site, against, German made goods, or perhaps look further afield at the Chinese, Koreans...

[Gromit]

Emmie,
The unions were not good in the 1970s but neither were the management. And contrary to your assertion, the management ran those failing companies, not the unions.
What remains of our car industry now is very successful and productivity is high and strikes are rare. They are still unionised, but the factories are now run by foreign owners with their own managers.

[youngmafbog]

Not strictly true Gromit.

Unions had such power that management(I agree poor) were not able to run companies in the way they should.

[emmie]

so it's all capitalism fault, not seeing the logic if that is what you are suggesting - i was making the comparison because people buy foreign cars, not made in Britain, clothes not made in Britain and many other things besides. They will moan about losing jobs to foreign competitors but won't pay or can't pay for British manufactured goods, and this is not just now
its been happening for a long time. British companies do and have taken their business elsewhere because of high labour costs, and i suspect endless red tape in the UK. There are many other reasons, but it's the same as the farmer who employs a foreign worker over a British worker, they may say it's because the Brit is lazy and the foreign worker better, but is it, or simply economics, cheaper.

[Gromit]

Ymb

BL was a mess and days lost through strikes did not help. But the company did not fail because of that. It failed because it built the wrong cars, at the wrong price (expensive to build) that were not very well built (under investment). Poor productivity was blamed on the unions, but the plants were ancient and slow. Crucial business decisions like designs and which markets to build for and at what price points were not inflenced by unions, and it was those mistakes that ruined the British Car Industry. While all the strikes meant less cars were produced, that was irrelevent because they were not selling anyway. The first thing you did when you bought a British car was clean the rust of off the wheels because it had been in a field at Longbridge for nine months.