Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul
It all sounds like meaningless numeric trickery to me.
Either way, I dont get why its being portrayed as the end of the world.
My "living standards" in 2013 were not exactly poor/bad.
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There's nothing in and of itself wrong with 2013. It's the underlying factors driving us to there and the likelihood of driving us beyond.
Fundamentally the Ponzi scheme that is western capitalism is running out of steam. Privatisation brought future profits into the past and consumers today are paying the cost. Increasing borrowing thresholds for mortgages has similarly brought money from the future into present, just as it has pushed it from the present into the past. The concept is of course not new, but the amounts are at four and five times the average salary.
These all come at a cost that reduces the amount of discretionary expenditure that people have in the present and the future.
The radical solution is to disassociate the costs of people's basic needs - home, energy, basic food and clothing - from the wider economy. However we've been doped up to our eyeballs in the current system that understandably there would be bitterness from those nearing the top of the pyramid who have paid in for so long.
However not addressing the underlying problem causes exorbitant expenditure papering over the cracks - like Universal Credit propping up poverty wages.