UK recovery 'to take five years'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8162217.stm

A leading think-tank is predicting it may take another five years for income per head to return to the level it was before the recession hit in early 2008.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) sees total UK GDP falling 4.3% in 2009 before growing 1% in 2010 and 1.8% in 2011.

Why do I have the feeling that it will probably be longer?

[lauzjp]

pppppft. How can they possibly know it's going to take 5 years. I'm no 'expert' but I can't see any way out of this any time remotely soon.

How on earth are governments going to convince companies to be socially responsible - i.e. keep jobs in this country, instead of just going for the cheapest options and easiest returns for shareholders?

I find it pretty terrifying. I get such snidy comments from people who don't have a job... Hubby is on a 4 day week, & I'm on edge too, I could lose my job/s too - things are very bleak on all fronts.

Everybody is worried so ignore the snide comments..they are just frightened about their future.

[SB_07]

tbh it'll take about 10 - 15, or it'll just never recover and we'll live in depression forever.

Happy days.

I reckon it's going to take 8-10 years before we see any sort of improvement in the economy, we've had 10 years of good times so IMO it's going to take that amount of time for us to get back to where we were. Whoever thinks these figures up? Are they trying to get us out there spending again?

Does anyone think that if we had enough positive media as we did negative talking ourselves in to this recession it would be a bit quicker?

[lauzjp]

Originally Posted by Tuftus

Does anyone think that if we had enough positive media as we did negative talking ourselves in to this recession it would be a bit quicker?

er, no. People just haven't got money to spend at the minute. So many of the customers that come in the shops where I work have lost their jobs lately. Or they've had their hours cut. It is depressing - you don't even need to read the news.

[Osem]

It'll take years to get the economy back into shape - just servicing our massive debt is a big problem. Falling tax receipts and rising unemployment (hence social security expenditure) exacerbate it considerably. I'd like to think that those who evidently weren't in the least bit worried about all the spending and uncontrolled lending/debt of the last decade or so might have learned an important lesson but some people will never learn. A politician's definition of 'long term' is the next election so don't be too surprised if 'spend now, pay later' is their favoured mantra. Of course shiny new hospitals are popular but these things have to be paid for and stacking up vast debt in order to provide such facilities merely shifts the burden and delays the inevitable. The truth is that we'll all be paying for this profligacy for years!