Has anyone made any changes recently with a view to helping the UK economy?

ess0two

Co-op seem to have a monopoly in my town,must be 5 stores in a 3 mile radius.

Thrugelmir

fc123 wrote: »

So.....I am going off shore..that's IT for me...

The global picture is changing. China is under going fundamental change for one. Over the past 18 months manufacturing in many sectors has suffered. Late deliveries, poor quality, strikes, lack of skilled labour are all hitting hard.

The golden days are over for Western explotiation.

The internet is allowing people to see how others live. What we pay for the goods they make. Not unsurprisingly they want a bigger slice of the cake too.

PasturesNew

Procrastinator333 wrote: »

Apparently you can't post a 2 letter reply so I had to type this bit first....


No.

Oh

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silvercar

Apparently you can't post a 2 letter reply so I had to type this bit first....

Really, I thought you could!

PasturesNew

I increasingly suck US$ into my bank account .... and spend it locally.

Most of my income's in US$, from big US companies. I'm exporting my genius.

Damaged

P__G wrote: »

With our national debt now at over £1,000,000,000,000 pounds, I wondered whether anyone here has made any changes to their lifestyles with a view to trying to help the UK economy?

We always shop locally thesedays and avoid the supermarkets. I occasionally make an exception with the Coop (inc Summerfield) stores because of their ethical stance and the fact that they donate a huge amount of their profits to worthy causes. As for buying locally, it is said to be more expensive but that is not something that I have noticed at all.

There is a bar in our village which has a stance that they themselves will only buy things locally. So we figure that when we go there to get drunk :beer: we are creating jobs and profits that will always go back into the local area from the bar owner.

I also try to buy goods produced in the UK - now that is a diffiuclt thing to do! Any fruit and veg I buy is generally in season and produced in the UK and I buy directly from farmers when practicable. We have found that stopping at a farmers market good fun, certainly better than bashing your way through hundreds down at Tesco's. Also, the quality is, in my opinion, far superior. I just dont accept that fruits from South Africa have the same amount of nutrients in as those picked an hour before. Want to know what foods are currently 'in season'? http://www.farmersmarkets.net/
Want to find a farmers market? Try here - http://www.farmshopping.net/

I try to consider where the profit from my purchaes will end up I guess.

For other reasons (my wife is pregnant) we did not venture abroad this year but that too, is something that perhaps we ought to try doing more? We went to Harrogate, The Lake District and Norfolk this year and absolutely loved all three.

I am not pretending that I have done all of the above to simply help the UK ecomony. I believe in environmental impact too and often they go 'hand in hand'.

I also appreciate that, against a backdrop of £1 trillion debt, little ole me buying from my local shop is hardly likely to solve the problem. That is not really the point I seek to make though. I just wondered what, if anything, people have done to try and help the UK economy?[/QUOTE]

It all helps though, those local businesses get more turnover and therefore potentially increase their buying power which in turn makes it cheaper to buy.

The problem is most people only want to look after themselves with out realising buying locally and sharing the money within the economy will help everyone.

The reason for such the massive divide in the economies all over the world is due to this.

Damaged

SingleSue wrote: »

I holiday in the uk......but everything else is what ever is cheapest to buy, so if that is Morrisons and a 12p can of beans compared to the local little shop and a can of beans at 65p, then so be it.

Ah see you cant see the bigger picture can you.
Your greed prevents the nation from flourishing

A._Badger

Damaged wrote: »

P__G wrote: »

The reason for such the massive divide in the economies all over the world is due to this.

This is wrong on so many levels that it's hard to know where to begin. But let's just start with the poor devils in Africa and South America, who are absolutely dependent on exporting their produce for survival and will be for the foreseeable future.

There's nothing wrong with supporting local businesses and producers - indeed, I do it itself - but this post-Schumacher stuff is the economics of guaranteed poverty.

Thrugelmir

Damaged wrote: »

The reason for such the massive divide in the UK econom[STRIKE]y[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]all over the world [/STRIKE]is due to this.

Go into the American heartland and you'll find a very insular market. Very community based, skill bartering , networking. People realise the value of each other, the inter dependance. If your customers have no money, then neither will you.

Totally different to the UK.

SingleSue

Damaged wrote: »

Ah see you cant see the bigger picture can you.
Your greed prevents the nation from flourishing

Greed? Nope, thrift.

If you don't have the pennies, you can't pay the higher prices, no matter how much you would like to support the local economy.