Turn off the T.V. & stop buying newspapers.

Darth_Marty

Whats the scum comment for? Give it a break..............

Is he related to geoffky?

PasturesNew

robsta wrote: »

In fact, i bet most people (apart form those poor few who have lost their jobs), if they get over the media hysteria for long enough to think about it, are actually better off than this time last year. Petrol is down, mortgages are down, shop prices are down.

...
I, for one, am living life as normal.

Everybody's different, as we see here.

I was relying on my savings interest to pay my rent/bills/basic foods, leaving me time to take a gap year/chill out/think about things. Now my interest has been decimated (almost literally to the meaning of that word), I am now having to find a job from scratch.... not a good time to be job hunting. Especially as my CV demonstrates "Not really done much for a few years, it's all odds and sods ...." as I've been "doing random/any jobs that will pay money to keep going" for the last X years.

As for: "Petrol is down, mortgages are down, shop prices are down."
Petrol: I drive under 3,000 miles/year
Mortgages: I don't have one (my rent's the same as last year)
Shops: I don't buy things. I have decluttered and minimised my life and don't want or need things.

Pobby

Wow. Agreeing with brit1234 AND dd. I think a recession around 2002 would have been fairly mild with an outcome that may well have slowed hpi. Again, the powers that be fiddled around with the rate in 2005 just as it seemed that housing costs had reached a peak.

Austin_Allegro

robsta wrote: »

The sad truth to this recession, as with most problems we have, is that it has been propelled into life by the great gullable British public.

Im not saying that there weren't certain problems already, but for most of us we are unafected by those, for example- i know a lot of people, and i don't know anyone who is looking to move/buy a house, i don't anyone who needs to borrow vast sums of money from the bank, and i don't know anyone who has that much money in the bank they stand to profit significantly from high interest rates. I don't even know anyone who has lost their job. Sure, these people exist, but it probably doesn't count for the majority of us.

In fact, i bet most people (apart form those poor few who have lost their jobs), if they get over the media hysteria for long enough to think about it, are actually better off than this time last year. Petrol is down, mortgages are down, shop prices are down.

The media loves to whip up a storm, and the British public lap it up. So MFI, Woolworths and Zavvi have gone bust? MFI managed to go bust when the kitchen industry was thriving! Woolworths had no USP and no sense of direction- what did people go there to buy? These companies didn't go bust over night, its been years of mis-management. Zavvi started to struggle (apparantly) because its main supplier was Woolworths distribution arm- when i was Christmas shopping people were cueing out of the doors.

The latest announcement was Christmas sales figures were the worst on record. But based on what? Units sold? Turnover? Profit? I couldn't move for people in any shop i went in throughout December. The media manipulates everything, and if it was up to me i would impose a black-out.

The bottom line is, this recession will continue, and get worse, for as long as people let it. Keep hold of your money, by all means, and create more job losses until it is eventually your own.

I, for one, am living life as normal.

So basically you're saying we're just talking ourselves into recession, and if we pretend nothing's wrong, we'll be ok? The only problem is, if it's all just a case of talking the talk, if you blackout the media, who will be able to talk us back into the boomtimes?

Do you seriously believe this 'bloke in the pub' theory? We're in the middle of a serious crisis due to an excess of debt - the most serious crisis since 1914 or possibly since banking began; pretending it's not happening is not going to help. Unless you're a Labour politician, that is...

Dithering_Dad

While I don't agree with hiding your head in the sand, I do agree that once you've done as much as you can to protect your family against a downturn, reading/viewing increasingly alarming and often sensational news stories just serves to make yourself miserable.

Pobby

Help me out here guys. Now as I understand it we should all be out spending. Am I right? This is the message that I get from the media. Now I do have a fair old bit to spend as it happens. Although our income is reduced from what it has been in the past we are fairly frugal, saving at least 30 to 40 per cent of our income.

Now here`s my problem. I was always told to save for retirement, in my case only a few years off. Now, I was always advised to look for an income of between one half to two thirds in retirement compared to what I was earning. Hopefully I`m on target.

So is Gordie now telling me to cash all this in and spend it on MORE cheap imports (actually not so cheap now, just had the prices rises through, ouch ). Me , I will always do my bit if needed for Queen and Country but what happens when I retire? Will Gordie give my a nice big pension to make up for years of fairly frugal living.

What I would call a bit of mixed messaging going on if you ask me!

longtimelurker_2

Can I still go on BBC News online?

Zagu

robsta wrote: »

I don't even know anyone who has lost their job.

I'm quite surprised by that. I know a couple of people who have lost their jobs, and a few others who have lost contracts, or are on reduced hours.

This thread reminds me of Sideshow Bob.

"By the way, I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it, so don't bother pointing that out."

Ok, it's not TV, but still...

Dithering_Dad

Pobby wrote: »

Help me out here guys. Now as I understand it we should all be out spending. Am I right? This is the message that I get from the media. Now I do have a fair old bit to spend as it happens. Although our income is reduced from what it has been in the past we are fairly frugal, saving at least 30 to 40 per cent of our income.

Now here`s my problem. I was always told to save for retirement, in my case only a few years off. Now, I was always advised to look for an income of between one half to two thirds in retirement compared to what I was earning. Hopefully I`m on target.

So is Gordie now telling me to cash all this in and spend it on MORE cheap imports (actually not so cheap now, just had the prices rises through, ouch ). Me , I will always do my bit if needed for Queen and Country but what happens when I retire? Will Gordie give my a nice big pension to make up for years of fairly frugal living.

What I would call a bit of mixed messaging going on if you ask me!

I haven't seen any news reports where we're being encouraged to cash in our pensions to buy goods .

Austin_Allegro

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

I haven't seen any news reports where we're being encouraged to cash in our pensions to buy goods .

Probably because Brown's already done it for us...