Rising tide of bad debts will flood over banks

Sapphire

From the Torygraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/11/ccom111.xml

Some of the comments that follow are pretty accurate too, among them:

We are heading into a slump as bad as the Great Depression. But this time around, we have a feral and violent society that will not be pulling together to get out of this mess.

I wish the outlook wasn't so grim, even for those who had not participated in the financial scams of the last few years. Can anyone tell me anything (reliable) that will reassure me, i.e. by saying that the situation is not actually that bad?

WTF?_2

Sapphire wrote: »

From the Torygraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/11/ccom111.xml

Some of the comments that follow are pretty accurate too, among them:

We are heading into a slump as bad as the Great Depression. But this time around, we have a feral and violent society that will not be pulling together to get out of this mess.

I wish the outlook wasn't so grim, even for those who had not participated in the financial scams of the last few years. Can anyone tell me anything (reliable) that will reassure me, i.e. by saying that the situation is not actually that bad?

I have to admit I'm worried by the likely reaction of society to this myself. It has become so shallow and obsessed with the trappings of wealth and celebrity. Just what will happen when a generation used to easy money, endless credit and cheap luxuries (flatscreen tellies, foreign holidays etc) finds themselves skint with no hope of a job and the prices of even essentials shooting up?

Look at the cesspits some parts have become in the middle of the biggest economic boom in modern times. What is going to happen to those areas when the economy tanks? :eek:

Sapphire

!!!!!!? wrote: »

I have to admit I'm worried by the likely reaction of society to this myself. It has become so shallow and obsessed with the trappings of wealth and celebrity. Just what will happen when a generation used to easy money, endless credit and cheap luxuries (flatscreen tellies, foreign holidays etc) finds themselves skint with no hope of a job and the prices of even essentials shooting up?

Look at the cesspits some parts have become in the middle of the biggest economic boom in modern times. What is going to happen to those areas when the economy tanks? :eek:

You and I seem to be on the same wavelength, !!!!!!.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It is really alarming that future leaders of this country are probably among the people you mention. They are hardly likely to want to work for the good of society, or to have the same sort of sense of duty and responsibility towards it that politicians generally used to have. This stemmed largely from the education they had been given. Today's education system does not prepare people for a life of any kind of 'service' to their country – it is everyone for themselves.

I'm not idealizing yesterday's politicians – there are bad eggs everywhere – just talking in general terms. :cool:

dhassen

Maybe society will improve when we're all up *hit-creek

PasturesNew

Back in WWII times people didn't move about a lot. People tended to grow up around family, go to school and stay with the same people in the same areas so still see those people regularly out and about.

There was a society.

Now everybody's been distributed all over the place, people in short-term rentals, where houses were owned by owner occupiers many have become rental areas. Jobs move. People move: to go to Uni maybe or to strike out somewhere new in the hope of work opportunities.

We've no sense of place any more ... and if we have, then the rest of the street don't have it.

WTF?_2

dhassen wrote: »

Maybe society will improve when we're all up *hit-creek

A recession will either "make it or break it" for society.

Given the extent to which social cohesion has completely broken down in many parts of the country, I'm not too optimistic for the 'make it' point of view.

Kez100

Our leaders will not come the feral, they will come from the good and there are many of these children in this country. The problem is we adults are not obsessed with them.

I'm Governor of a school with a very high majority of self motivated children. Whilst I agree we have lost that 'dunkirk spirit', probably forever - we should not write a whole two generations off as useless. It is our generation - well,a roportion of it - that has brought these children up.

dhassen

sorry, but isn't feral like children raised by wolves? I've hear talk of feral children on estates on some TV programmes / reports..... is this a new meaning or somthing?

I don't think the worst areas will be affected by these bad times..... priobably nieve to think that though.....

morg_monster

Yes I have to agree with Kez, I'm more optimistic. I see children on a weekly basis from a fairly manky part of London which yes does have its bad kids, like anywhere (including the nice commuterville where I grew up), but the majority of families I meet are full of love and support, their kids are expected to behave and be well mannered and thoughtful and they are reprimanded when they are not. Regardless of social/family situations and the same goes for their teachers. The kids I see every week and their brothers and sisters are lovely; they have taught me a lot (most of all not to be judgmental!).

Also - many "bad kids" do grow out of it by their late teens. I know some don't, but not all bad kids grow into bad adults. That was the case in the 50s, 60s, 70s ... it will still be the case in the 2000s. There are many politicians who have behaved far worse as adults than many of these "bad kids" / "chavs" etc have as children. As Kez says, don't just write off this generation. Personally I think they will surprise us - and tbh they are going to have to pull something pretty special out of the bag, the huge mess they are going to be left in by previous generations when they reach adulthood.

tintaja

dhassen wrote: »

sorry, but isn't feral like children raised by wolves? I've hear talk of feral children on estates on some TV programmes / reports..... is this a new meaning or somthing?

I

I think they mean feral as 'wild and menacing', current 'knife culture' as an extreme of that springs to my mind.

Like mong_monster, i do not think it is that bad.

dhassen

I prefered the idea of wolf children running round estates on all fours

gun culture is worse in manchester.....