Dispatches, Christmas on Credit. Watch it on 4OD

wageslave

abaxas wrote: »

Option 2 - getting help from neighbours/family.

Abaxas, what bliddy planet are you living on?

Ok, lets pretend I am a single parent, three kids, living on a sink estate.

The days when my family all lived within walking distance are long gone. My friends are in no better position than I am. I cant borrow from them and I certainly cant haul my two loads of washing over to theirs every day and expect them to do it.

I would end up buying from somewhere, anywhere that would sell me what I needed and I would worry about paying for it later.

That's the reality for the poorest amongst us. It may not be your reality but unfortunately it is theirs.

Walk a mile in their moccasins and then see if you are so dead set against paying something up at a fiver a week.

abaxas

wageslave wrote: »

Abaxas, what bliddy planet are you living on?

Ok, lets pretend I am a single parent, three kids, living on a sink estate.

The days when my family all lived within walking distance are long gone. My friends are in no better position than I am. I cant borrow from them and I certainly cant haul my two loads of washing over to theirs every day and expect them to do it.

I would end up buying from somewhere, anywhere that would sell me what I needed and I would worry about paying for it later.

That's the reality for the poorest amongst us. It may not be your reality but unfortunately it is theirs.

Walk a mile in their moccasins and then see if you are so dead set against paying something up at a fiver a week.

In one fell swoop, you insulted the work of previous generations.

People did it, people still do it. Why are you some kind of special case.

wageslave

abaxas wrote: »

In one fell swoop, you insulted the work of previous generations.

People did it, people still do it. Why are you some kind of special case.

Because times and the fabric of society have changed.

The most vunerable now have to look to the state for help rather than the family and friends they could have turned to a generation ago.

The working classes I grew up amongst have all bought and sold their council houses and moved into a nice little bungalow on the proceeds.

And the less able and the least protected have been left behind.

PasturesNew

I didn't have a washer until I was about 30, never had a drier.

I think mine cost me about £200, which at the time was the cheapest new machine available ... I got rid of it 17 years later and it was still fine, I was just moving but had no need for a machine as I had no idea where I was moving to even.

If I were to buy another machine, I'd be spending about the same again, expecting it to last for life pretty much. http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=%22washing+machine%22&scoring=p

abaxas

wageslave wrote: »

Because times and the fabric of society have changed.

The most vunerable now have to look to the state for help rather than the family and friends they could have turned to a generation ago.

The working classes I grew up amongst have all bought and sold their council houses and moved into a nice little bungalow on the proceeds.

And the less able and the least protected have been left behind.

So what you are saying is total moral and state collapse? Ie no-one give a monkey's anymore.

Scary stuff.

wageslave

PasturesNew wrote: »

I didn't have a washer until I was about 30, never had a drier.

I think mine cost me about £200, which at the time was the cheapest new machine available ... I got rid of it 17 years later and it was still fine, I was just moving but had no need for a machine as I had no idea where I was moving to even.

If I were to buy another machine, I'd be spending about the same again, expecting it to last for life pretty much. http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=%22washing+machine%22&scoring=p

With the greatest of respect PN you are washing how many loads a week? Two, maximum three.

A family can do that in a day, every day.

They either buy a good (and for good, read expensive) machine or they buy cheap and resign themselves to replacing it every couple of years.

I'll send my brat round to yours, you'll be knee deep in dirty towels and discarded jeans in twenty four hours.

wageslave

abaxas wrote: »

So what you are saying is total moral and state collapse? Ie no-one give a monkey's anymore.

Scary stuff.

I imagine it is even scarier to live with it rather than debate it.

abaxas

wageslave wrote: »

With the greatest of respect PN you are washing how many loads a week? Two, maximum three.

A family can do that in a day, every day.

They either buy a good (and for good, read expensive) machine or they buy cheap and resign themselves to replacing it every couple of years.

I'll send my brat round to yours, you'll be knee deep in dirty towels and discarded jeans in twenty four hours.

Maybe she had kids too.

LilacPixie

abaxas wrote: »

Option 2 - getting help from neighbours/family.

I don't think you are being realistic. I had to take my washing to my parents for a week while waiting for my new machine to arrive and it was hell and thats with my parents living only a mile away and having a car to cart it over there. One week was bad enough, 26 weeks would IMO be impossible. Comet are doing a machine with a pathetic 1100RPM spin for £210 so it would take 30 x £7 a week to get that. The thought of 30+ weeks of carting washing about would IMO be enough to drive anyone to borrow from anywhere they could get funds.

PN our last machine was the cheapest availible too, it lasted 5 years which seems to be about their life span. Appliances do not seem to be as robust now.

wageslave

abaxas wrote: »

Maybe she had kids too.

Can't see that catching on in a tower block.

BTW where do people dry their washing in those places?

Dryers aren't cheap to run.