So here we are then, in a country that barely manufactures anything, where the credit tap to the working class majority is about to be shut off, where the government seeks to restrict real wages for the very same people, that is, so we're told, reliant on consumer spending to fuel economic growth.
And here I am watching the television and Tesco's, which I suppose must represent a barometer of some sorts, are advertising their latest deal, something about money off your petrol in exchange for doing your shopping with them, as 'inflation busting'. Forget the statistics, if the advertising executives think that the hard times are a buzzword, we all must be really feeling it.
What is it? Ten per cent on foods prices? 15% on petrol prices? We're told there must be belt-tightening, but it's always ours, never theirs', and it always assumes we were living the high life since the last crisis, instead of just racking up debts and earning more or less the same we always did.
Comments (4)
Erm sorry, but looks like you've just been to Australia. How much did your plane tickets cost-at least £1400 probably? Should be easily enough to cover a few months inflation if you had chosen. Your choice but I still don't feel hard done by, just having to forego things that are by any relevant standard luxuries (I'm earning below average wage myself)
Posted by derry | July 2, 2008 10:15 AM
Posted on July 2, 2008 10:15
flight was £680 and I booked it a while back. In any case, as a young single male with no financial responsibilities I don't have to earn that much to have a bit of disposable income.
In any case it's not about feeling hard done by, it's the way in which each and every economic problem is felt first and foremost by the people with the least.
Posted by jack r | July 2, 2008 12:42 PM
Posted on July 2, 2008 12:42
Agree with you there and reading it back my comments sound harsh-I wasn't meaning to get at you, more the general culprits in MSM who are talking about cutting back on holidays and luxury foods as if this was what happened in the Great Depression. When you get Alan Sugar and the CEO of M&S talking about economic problems you know that 'the economy' has little to do with the fortunes of most people. (Good example-Chinese pull millions out of poverty largely through competing for the same oil resources as us but with government subsidies and this is seen as causing all sorts of problems for the global economy)
I'm also young, single, living student-style with no responsibilities but I don't feel hard pressed yet and have some marginal room for further cutbacks
Posted by derry | July 3, 2008 9:31 AM
Posted on July 3, 2008 09:31
well I suppose consumer goods were supposed to be the compensation for living in less democratic, more individualised/privatised societies.
It's not the case that there's been a massive rise in real wages over the past 10 years or so, just that some consumer goods came down in price and credit became easier to access.
So essentially we've all been sat here accepting that the money stays the same, we just have a wider range of things that we can spend the disposable bit of it on. So taking that away becomes a big deal in terms of living standards.
I mean, I saw an article in the paper I while back saying that no matter the economics problems, the tourist industry were doing fine, because people just weren't prepared to sacrifice it - not for financial security, not to spend on other things - it was the last thing to go. Which I think reflects on our attitude toward work as much as anything.
Posted by jack r | July 3, 2008 11:57 AM
Posted on July 3, 2008 11:57