Past Recessions - what were your experiences?

[Deleted User]

I didn't know you could turn off the internet? Just incase, i've started downloading it for you..

MORPH3US

Lotus-eater wrote: »

alot of the population today, seems to think these things are needed for living.

How true that is....

Fred1_2

70s - I was in primary school, so only patchy memories. Frequent power cuts, we had candles and an old paraffin lamp that were used often. Fortunately we had a "truburn" a sort of cheap Rayburn in the living room of our council house and we went collecting firewood from the local woods to keep it going. Both parents were home a lot of the time due to the 3 day week - how long did that go in for? I remember a shortage of sugar and being advised to put honey on our tea. Introduction of 50 mph speed limit to save petrol and my dad receiving petrol rationing coupons, although I don't think those were ever used. What I don't remember from that time is hearing about people losing their jobs though. Living in a council house, we didn't worry about house prices.

80s - left school in 83. straight on to the dole queue like most of my classmates. A few bit part jobs before moving 300 miles to get work. My home town is missing the best part of a generation of people who had to do that and have never returned. - a mini diaspora. Constant worry about being unemployed. Buying a house was out of my league, so I didn't pay attention to house prices. Inflation was at 20%, my payrises were about 5%, so paying for basics was increasingly difficult.. At least I had no debt.

90s - the negative equity was teh main thing here. I bought a house in 88 for 14k which I started trying to sell in 93 for 30k. It finally sold in 97 for 14k. Ithink that's where we;re heading this time. House prices back to 2004 levels, where they will stay till 2014. All through the 90s however, my job was safe - something I can't say now. I think we're headed for 1980s style unemployment. This time I'm not particularly worried about house prices as I have no intention of selling. even if I lose my job, I have a plan B.

space_rider

bo_drinker wrote: »

They say 3 of the first things to be turned off will be Internet, Sky tv and mobile phone operators. We may even go back to 3 tv channels ??

Mmm, tempting! Didn`t have any of them in the last recession.:T

Monks_habit

I remember in the 70's my brother and I helping me dad, chopping logs and any old bit of wood for the fire as it was cheaper than having the heating on and when the power cuts happened we still had warmth.

I now live in a house where I have an open fire and a log burner and trust me I dam glad i've got them, as them and wind fall trees are help me save money on heating?

I was on a YTS and earnt £28.50 per week 1st year and then a massive £35 per week 2nd year. this was at an undertakers where you would think they wouldn't be affected by the recessions, but at the end of the 2 years you where just replaced by another trainee, as it was cheaper for the employer to do this rather than taking you on full time and having to pay you a full time wage!

Camp coffee was bloody awful, but I'm sorry to say I did love dripping sandwiches for lunch and pig trotters for tea!

Not quite sure whether I'd like them now!

SingleSue

70's - Still in primary school but remember the power cuts and candles..as a child, it just seemed like an adventure. I also remember some kind of bread shortage at some point, my mum went crazy making bread all the time, I was most annoyed when she started to buy bread again, hers was yummy.

80's - I didn't leave school until 1986 and wasn't aware of any problems - I certainly had no problems getting part time jobs whilst I was still at school, earning in some weeks more than what was normal for a full time job (I was working 5 jobs at the time from 6.30 in the morning to 2am the following morning during school holidays with the only rest time coming in the time it took me to walk from one job to another - would never be allowed now)

Late 80's/ early 90's - Very aware, made redundant for the first time in Jan 88 when it started to get tough for hauliers/forwarders, got another job 1 day and 3 hours later (and more money)! We offered on our first house in late '89, completed in early '90 for £41k and things were going fine until Jan 91 when I was given the news that I would be made redundant in March 91 as the company was relocating to cut costs. I registered with various employment agencies and applied for everything in my field but with no result, so then widened the scope and finally secured a job offer as a care assistant in a care home with a paycut of £5k per year. On the same day as receiving the job offer, a dock runner from another company came into my office and in the course of our discussion, my impending redundancy came up (at this point there was only 3 weeks remaining before I would be made redundant), the next thing I know, I am being contacted by another shipping line asking me to go for a chat after I finished at work that day...I arrived to be offered a job with an increase in current salary by £2k as I had been highly recommended - it turns out the dock runner had gone to talk to the manager of that company, had told him how good I was (makes me feel eek saying that) and then the manager checked around his other contacts and confirmed it and it was decided to offer me a job without an interview.

I stayed with that company until maternity leave where everything went wrong and I was unable to return before maternity leave expired (it was slightly more draconian in those days), it was then a catalogue of errors and mishaps where we tried to hold onto the house. Hubby was earning useless money (I had been earning nearly 4 times his salary), so I took on 2 jobs despite being advised not to by my doctor and it all came to a head in early 1994 when I started to go into kidney failure and had pnuemonia..on top of severe post natal depression and I had to stop work before I either died or was commited to a mental hospital (no joke here either). We were repossessed in late 1994 after the conclusion was reached between ourselves and the Halifax that no rescue scheme would work due to the current market conditions (it was a one bedroom rabbit hutch by the way)..it was all very amicable and the Halifax tried everything to help us but with my not being able to work at that time (I did finally return to part time work in Feb 1995) and hubbies money still being useless, it was the only conclusion to come to. The house was sold in early 1995 for £23k and I blamed myself completely...this was also the start to my feeling of being a failure - if only my body had been stronger, we could have saved our home.

Pobby

Sue. certainly not a failure. Far from it.

Squish_21

I've never experienced a recession before.

Just wanted to say my Gramp still drinks Camp coffee!!!!

Sapphire

This is a fascinating thread.

I must say, I don't remember there being real hardship for my family in the 1970s (which was the worst of the three recessions in my memory), but then we did not have much, so we didn't have much to lose. I do remember working and the strikes and blackouts, but no one in my family who was working lost their job. I was still living at home and not even contemplating buying a home (people didn't much in those days until they got married). I don't remember any serious food shortages.

In the 80s and 90s I just carried on working. I suppose I must have been in negative equity at some stage, but since I stayed in the same place for years it didn't bother me.

Today's situation, though, seems unprecedented. For instance:

1. Massive debt, which has been/still is being encouraged by the government.

2. Businesses (especially retailers) closing and many people being made redundant – and this is just at the alleged start of a recession. Even in the business I am under contract to (a company that survived the 80s and 90s recessions without making redundancies), several people were made redundant just before Christmas.

3. Fraud on a huge scale, which is not being acted with any vigour.

4. Massive bailouts of banks with taxpayers' money.

5. Those responsible for the economic crash go unpunished.

6. A huge number of people on benefits at taxpayers' expense, including economic immigrants who are fleecing the system, and indigenes who cannot be bothered to work.

etc.

It is all very worrying. :cool:

Generali

mizzbiz wrote: »

Forgive me for my youthful ignorance but can anyone explain why there would be power cuts during a recession? I can understand not being able to afford to put the lights and fire on, but were we unable even to generate enough electricity?

There were power cuts at 2 different points in the 1970s:

- 1973-4: the 3 day week. Arab oil producing countries refused to sell oil to the US plus 'other countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur war' meaning Western Europe too. Basically oil fuelled power stations had to close as there wasn't enough oil from other suppliers to keep them running.

- 1978/9: The Winter of Discontent. Trade unions finally decided that they'd had enough of the Incomes Policy of the Callaghan Government and asked for more cash. When they didn't get it they went on strike. All of them. In reality it was a General Strike although people don't use that term about it, ie it was a strike of most unionised labour with the aim of bringing the Government down. As a result, power stations closed down and so the power went off. I think the unions thought they were about to start a socialist paradise. Instead they got 11 years of Thatcher plus 7 of John Major. Possibly not what they had in mind.