'Close this site for the recession?' blog discussion

confused1

Has that scheming weasal of a Mandelson been having a quiet word with you, too?

bryonyhines

I agree with scarlet macaw, we need somewhere to find bargains.

There is one problem, anyone who will be 'helping society' by spending probably won't be visiting this site, and similarly, anyone on this site will (hopefully) be trying to save money, not spend it.

naturally_2

I can't decide which of two possible responses to post.

1) Clsoe the site down, its the only way to save the world. :mad:

or

2) Screw the world, each for their own!

tongue is firmly in cheek, I hasten to add!!:p

brush-head©

I very rarely post but this one prompted me. Debt free for over 3 years (no mortgage, no card balances - nowt) only spend what we can afford & make the most of any good deals we can gather ourselves or from this absolutely fantastic site.
To follow the current advice from HMgov would be like throwing good money after bad.
When you see the attempts to get people on credit cards, loans with all sorts of incentives & people wonder why the financial markets are in this mess?
Where its' really going to work is in the long term - people who have the aims we have on this forum, who exercise care, only consume what is needed rather than want & who use credit carefully, that is the behaviour that will get us out of the mess.
I wonder who are the people who pulled the plug on the banks? Merchant bankers? Bond market makers? Don't know - maybe I might find out from truly absorbing programme on C4 at the moment The Ascent of Money - rivetting - but then maybe I changing into a self righteous money nerd!
Keep the money saving going - way to go!

PhiltheBear

It's all very well to ask people to spend - but what about those who can't afford to?

I'm not talking about those who have huge credit card bills and are in debt but people like pensioners and the unemployed - especially with the increasing numbers of redundancies.

The budget, laughably, reduced VAT by 2.5%. Note - NONE of it is applicable to food / council tax / water rates / utility bills - which are the basics for people on low incomes / benefits / pensions. I'm in the category of being single and unemployed. [Let's not get into the "you can take any job to get money argument" - if there are very few jobs and lots of competition you can't. It may be an age thing because I'm coming up to 60 (so at least I can get pension benefits instead of Jobseekers allowance).]

The simple fact is that I won't be able to benefit from the budget at all. Nor will millions like me. Pension benefit will rise by around £5 a week next year. In theory that keeps place with inflation but the essentials of life have risen way more than inflation. And, of those who may be able to, why should they spend now if they have a potential unemployment black cloud hanging over them? It's easy to say you would until you realise that you may need every penny for food, fuel and taxes.

The only way that this is going to get sorted out is when someone realises that the banking system needs (at least temporarily) to be brought under control. If the banks were made to operate 'normally' or better yet, had a dividend freeze imposed so that their profits had to be used as market liquidity, then the financial system would rapidly return to normal.

Until then I doubt that my food spending is going to make much difference to digging us out of recession/depression - and I sincerely doubt that anyone else's spending will help either. In this case, Martin, you are spectacularly wrong.

angelflower_2

interesting.....been watching the world over the last few weeks from my heavy debt bubble so probably coming at this from a different point of view from joe public but what has happened has horrified me...

The goverment is saying in response to irresponsible lending, lets borrow more and encourage you all to keep doing more of the same

Have some vat back (if we ever get it) but because you will be depressed at your financial situation and might take up drinking/start smoking, we will get it back off you anyway

I dont know much about the worlds finances but I just have this nagging feeling that perhaps we should let all the cards fall...if banks fail, they fail. I know that there will be catastrophic effects from this but we cannot and will not get out of this mess, as a country, by borrowing more. Idealistic point fo view perhaps but would it really be such a bad thing to have to go back to smaller enterprises rather than global supermarkets. We learn to be content in our house that is perfectly adequate for us rather that extend our budget to something grand in order to make ourselves feel better than others. We stop spending money on things we dont need, to replace things that still work, that are adequate.

Is it so wrong that as a nation we learn again the act of satisfaction with what we have, we develop community spirit and help those all around us.

I read today that the minimum salary a single person needs to be an active participant in today's society is £13,500 per anum. My costs are probably slightly higher having a child but through being on this site, learning contentment has been the most valuable lesson ever.

Why should i spend my money making other people rich? Quite happy to earn my way, live my life and do the best I can by others.

I reckon some goverment figures need to learn this lesson.

krazykidskate

I don't understand the government's obsession with rising house prices. Wouldn't it be nice if homes were more affordable and one parent could stay home to be a home maker in the family rather than both parents needing to work just to make ends meet. And if the recession stops people buying tat that they don't need from China then surely this is what the environment needs.

To answer your question, No, I've never spent as much as I have since discovering the site and all the bargains on the Grabbit and Sales etc. So the big companies won't make as big a profit margin if its on the Grabbit but usually its sales will be up a few hundred percent when it gets a mention.

bnabound

Well, I don't quite see this site contradicting what the govt. is doing at the moment. People who cared about their financial affairs have been on here forever and have known about this site - those who now will HAVE to care because recession has taken the roof over their head, will need a place to go to that shows them the right way.Cue MSE!!!
Thanks, Martin, for a well thought-out, informative, eye-opening site that is a pleasure to peruse and be part of! :T

And I agree with everyone else - I'd vote for you!!!!

MSE_Martin

Thanks for all the very interesting comments above. And dont worry... I've no plans to close the site (after all there are 22 of us full time now so in itself, by creating employment the site staves off recession).

As for those who'd vote for me. Well until three years ago I did harbour political ambition; and thought being an MP would be a good progression. Then I changed my mind. The levels of stress doing this are already far too high, and I simply decided that the nightmare work life and adversarial scrutiny of people a person of profile in politics was too much. I'm now happily settled on the 'quiet' life.

martin

wishus

With the pre-budget report, Brown is hoping for a flow of money back into government pots to help solve a financial crisis that his government did not sufficiently guard against. If you went out and spent extra money now, where does that money flow first? To the big retailers, maybe, where the VAT gets skimmed, then the trickle starts, back to shareholders, company executives, getting thinner and thinner, to workers and suppliers. If we spend can we guarantee that those top skimmers will guard against job losses? If a company is internationally owned, maybe the group parent is acting on profit loss, rather than actual loss, and calling for redundancies anyway (which is what happened at my place, after the group had just announced it's biggest 6 month gross ever). In times like these, the top skimmers tend to cling to their own pots more greedily, which is no solution.

So we spend, or save if we can... but in 2011, when we are used to budgeting in a certain way, we face massive tax hikes - we 'consumers' are going to feel very poor indeed.

... and is the money recouped by the government in the short term going to be wisely reinvested? Or will it end up in the pit as they put together rescue packages for banks or other essential big companies who will insist on taking their usual bonuses? And making redundancies anyway.

I really don't know what the best advice is-the whole thing makes my head spin - but my gut instinct is to keep using the site so that every pound spent gets us the best value, not throw money after glib words, superficial trends and marketing pull - the more marketing someone can put into their product, the more you pay for it, and you're just paying for air.

Is anyone else worried about what things will be like in a couple of years' time?