is the recession thingy easing?

[peterd51]

Hi Chunko,

great shelves! As always I'm amazed at the prices of such things...

yes I can see there's some design and build work gone into each one, it's that there's people around with money to buy them.

Difficult to tell from the pictures, it looks like rod (bright 1/2" ?), but is it brazed?

At least I get my bus pass this year!

mine's due in two years but I believe they're being phased out to save money.

They've reduced my BT pension by about 25%, I'm expected to pay more tax and NI, plus extra VAT, etc. My wife should have got her state pension in four years but it'll now be seven, in fact I'll get mine before she gets hers assuming I can retire at 65 and not 67.

Then I find out I'm not likely to get my bus pass!

What annoys me most of all is that the people on benfits carry on just as they did before. They'll not be giving up anything!

And after years of scrounging they'll get full pensions too...

And all our glorious leaders can come up with is to hammer a few banking staff now and suggest there'll be major cuts in six months in the forlorn hope that they may, just about, squeeze another term out of the gullible voters...

The country needs a major shake-up, and it needs it now!

Regards
Peter

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

Peter wrote:-

What annoys me most of all is that the people on benefits carry on just as they did before.

Me thinks that those on benefits and other fixed incomes will be slowly starved or die from hypothermia , for the benefits & fixed income have not & do not rise with inflation .

A loaf of bread a year ago was £1.05 today normal retail for the same loaf type is £1.35. I have found that food increases across the board are slightly more . fuel , electric and gas have also climbed the inflation ladder .

 

[brightspark]

Peter wrote:-

What annoys me most of all is that the people on benefits carry on just as they did before.

Me thinks that those on benefits and other fixed incomes will be slowly starved or die from hypothermia , for the benefits & fixed income have not & do not rise with inflation .

A loaf of bread a year ago was £1.05 today normal retail for the same loaf type is £1.35. I have found that food increases across the board are slightly more . fuel , electric and gas have also climbed the inflation ladder .

the people who realy need benefits rarely get it. i do a lot of callouts for a few housing asociations no names mentioned . the ones i mainly get called out to have nicam stereo large flatscreen tv laminate flooring smoke ciggies go on holiday abroad and drink and smoke wacky backy then try and get funny cos i turned up half hour after they called there you have it

 

[phasesonix]

He was the guy who, legend has it, sold his soul to the devil in return for being a great blues guitarist. If I'm right, the photo in the avatar is the only one of him that exists.

As for the recession thingy. I reckon we'll see a quickening of what has been gradually happening over the last few years, real full time skilled jobs disappearing for good, being replaced by part time unskilled jobs, which offer just enough pay and hours to get people desperate for anything of the unemployment register. HMG can then say 'look at all these jobs we've created and how we've reduced the dole queue'

The big money makers want us all to work in tesco and eat tesco value food and live in a tesco value house.I think it's going to get worse, this is the result of a capitalist society borrowing money that it does'nt have and spending it on crap. It's always been doomed to fail.

 

[restorer]

I'm a bit of an Eeyore when it comes to the economy. The fact is, a lot of western governments and individuals have been living way above their means for twenty years or more. In the UK, house prices went up by around 12-15% a year while salaries increased by 2.5% on average.

The colossal shortfall was made up by all the Chinese money coming into the market as cheap loans. They are ferocious savers, but when you have some of the poorest workers in the world lending money to the richest nations, instinct should tell you something has to give. And what the flying feck were the securities and derivatives markets all about? Recycling debt and lending it out again, that's what. But not just once, you do it over and over creaming off a huge commission every time you sell it until you can't because the capital can't support the size of the debt anymore. Ye gods...

The horrible truth is, it's all been a massive pyramid scheme and we owe them all that money back and then some.

The two things that amaze me are, the only solution anyone can come with is to borrow even more money to attempt to buy our way out of this monumental mess, by trying to recreate the self same financial circumstances that brought us to this point in the first place???

They hope to achieve this financial miracle by giving this new money (that doesn't even exist by the way) to the same bunch of compulsive gamblers addicted to cocaine and prostitutes, so they can skip back to bookies and play the same game that created the mess in the first place??? What a plan.

I'm waiting for some brave politician to come out and say we all individually and collectively need to cut back and cut our cloth. But they'll ask you to hand over your firstborn before they do that because it's not a vote winner.

You'll have to excuse me, I get a bit ranty about this as I never bought into the 'Bid Bang' opening up of the money market (remember that) and knew it would all end in tears. Anyone who keeps even half an eye on history will remember that the twenties crash took two years to turn into depression. So hold onto your hats. If nothing changes we had better get used this happening every ten-fifteen years and the next will be bigger than the last.

Finally, I'd like to leave you with this thought. Communism only had to fail once but had the good grace to go so it could no more harm. Capitalism has failed with unerring and metronomic regularity since it's conception, yet we seem to be stuck with it. Still, those with a vested interest keep telling anyone that will listen that "it's the best way."

Erm....

Rant over.

 

[phasesonix]

I'm a bit of an Eeyore when it comes to the economy. The fact is, a lot of western governments and individuals have been living way above their means for twenty years or more. In the UK, house prices went up by around 12-15% a year while salaries increased by 2.5% on average.

The colossal shortfall was made up by all the Chinese money coming into the market as cheap loans. They are ferocious savers, but when you have some of the poorest workers in the world lending money to the richest nations, instinct should tell you something has to give. And what the flying feck were the securities and derivatives markets all about? Recycling debt and lending it out again, that's what. But not just once, you do it over and over creaming off a huge commission every time you sell it until you can't because the capital can't support the size of the debt anymore. Ye gods...

The horrible truth is, it's all been a massive pyramid scheme and we owe them all that money back and then some.

The two things that amaze me are, the only solution anyone can come with is to borrow even more money to attempt to buy our way out of this monumental mess, by trying to recreate the self same financial circumstances that brought us to this point in the first place???

They hope to achieve this financial miracle by giving this new money (that doesn't even exist by the way) to the same bunch of compulsive gamblers addicted to cocaine and prostitutes, so they can skip back to bookies and play the same game that created the mess in the first place??? What a plan.

I'm waiting for some brave politician to come out and say we all individually and collectively need to cut back and cut our cloth. But they'll ask you to hand over your firstborn before they do that because it's not a vote winner.

You'll have to excuse me, I get a bit ranty about this as I never bought into into the 'Bid Bang' opening up of the money market (remember that) and knew it would all end in tears. Anyone who keeps even half an eye on history will remember that the twenties crash took two years to turn into depression. So hold onto your hats. If nothing changes we had better get used this happening every ten-fifteen years and the next will be bigger than the last.

Finally, I'd like to leave you with this thought. Communism only had to fail once but had the good grace to go so it could no more harm. Capitalism has failed with unerring and metronomic regularity since it's conception, yet we seem to be stuck with it. Still, those with a vested interest keep telling anyone that will listen that "it's the best way."

Erm....

Rant over.

I don't think your ranting-just thinking more than the norm. It's great how goverments can print money with nothing to back it up!

I don't think people's votes makes any difference on who wins- they are just puppets for the ones who are really in charge of everything.

The only realistic and sustainable society is a resource based soceity that cares more about ethics than wealth.

 

[malcolm]

The whole economy thing seems screwy. Houses annoy me the most - I'd love to have the security of my own place rather than living on a constant 2 month notice, but it turns out the time I was best in a position to afford one was when I first started work in 1995 on a miserable salary.

They aren't worth 3 times as much now as they were then. But it's really handy for the "economy" if people have twice as much to spend on BMWs because their houses are going up in price faster than they can earn. It's not a sustainable income, and I feel very sorry for anyone starting work now - keep it like it is and they will never be able to afford their own home.

 

[brightspark]

The whole economy thing seems screwy. Houses annoy me the most - I'd love to have the security of my own place rather than living on a constant 2 month notice, but it turns out the time I was best in a position to afford one was when I first started work in 1995 on a miserable salary.

They aren't worth 3 times as much now as they were then. But it's really handy for the "economy" if people have twice as much to spend on BMWs because their houses are going up in price faster than they can earn. It's not a sustainable income, and I feel very sorry for anyone starting work now - keep it like it is and they will never be able to afford their own home.

the only good thing about not owning a house is no maintainance if u loose your job it cant be taken of u and when u get old and infirm and have to go into a home the state pays. whereas if u own it they make u sell it to pay for the care leaving u with only 20 grand at the end no matter what it was worth

 

[Monje]

i made a decision 3 yrs ago to abandon the uk now live in southern spain weathers better foods better but money a prospects not good but the spanish just get on with it many in uk just moan if you dont like it change it ANY WELDING TYPE BRITS IN THE SEVILLE AREA WANT TO CHAT or MEET GIVE US A CALL

DAVE (OSO)

 

[Marty2005]

Finally, I'd like to leave you with this thought. Communism only had to fail once but had the good grace to go so it could no more harm. Capitalism has failed with unerring and metronomic regularity since it's conception, yet we seem to be stuck with it. Still, those with a vested interest keep telling anyone that will listen that "it's the best way."

Here's an interesting thought as well. With the Government pumping so many billions into the financial system, socialism saved capitalism.

 

[Iain Westland]

OT, but on the bail out to the banks 35 nations met to decide whether they should combine and give $150 billion to the developing world in the effort to stem global pollution, how much did it cost us to bail out the uk banks due to miss managed and unrealistic loan decisions falsely inflating the house of cards we call the economy

iain

 

[dannyweld]

well i think the last of the money has been pumped into the economy, but they could borrow more i suppose, its hard to predict what will happen next year its unknown territory, will be an interesting general election. it is a **** take though that so many people and companies are cut to the bone while the fat cats in the city are back high rolling. there excuses in RSBC is they need to keep the best guys so they need to pay, but they didn't have anybody good to start with look at the mess they made. maybe they shouldn't have had pumped all this money into the economy and let it self adjust which it will next year anyway, its hard to know really, will be interesting next year alright

 

[R Kraft]

The way they are doing things here in the states, the economy can't self adjust.
And if they do what they say they are going to, It will keep getting worse for years to come.
Robert

 

[dannyweld]

well there has been massive growth for years, fuelled by new tech and new markets but things had to slow down eventually, the whole thing turned into a giant rat race i welcome a slower pace myself. every bodies got their eye on the price of there homes all the time, fair enough but just remember your in business if you do and most business fail within five years, hope they got their limited liability..