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I know it's all doom and gloom but what can be done about it?
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Spending less than you earn, saving a couple of quid for a rainy day, growing your own food, updating your skills, mending things when they break, decreasing your reliance on fossil fuels etc.
Years ago, these things were seen as normal and sensible things to do.
Now if you mention it you're either a doom and gloomer or a ti-foil hatter.
your no fun nearlynew.0 -
Nobody knows. The basic function of the economy is to grow food and get it to the customers. The distribution system is far more complex now than it's ever been before, but it could be simplified, though we'd then have less choice of pizza toppings.
This all depends on the customers doing something useful to make money to pay for the food. Famines occur when there's plenty of food because people have nothing to buy it with.
I'm pessimistic because too much of our economy is a bubble. Too much of our effort goes into selling each other stuff that we don't need and would hardly miss. As unemployment rises, those businesses fail, creating more unemployment.
So far it's been less bad because of the huge inequality in outcomes. We've got ourselves a depression that many people are doing rather well out of, so the markets for luxuries are mostly holding up well - though the motor trade is falling off a cliff.
It'll be interesting to see whether we can still afford Christmas. Usually people spend a small fortune treating themselves at Christmas, and a lot of firms depend on it. If consumers cut back on the excess this Christmas, there'll be a big fall-out in January."It will take, five, 10, 15 years to get back to where we need to be. But it's no longer the individual banks that are in the wrong, it's the banking industry as a whole." - Steven Cooper, head of personal and business banking at Barclays, talking to Martin Lewis0 -
Spending less than you earn, saving a couple of quid for a rainy day, growing your own food, updating your skills, mending things when they break, decreasing your reliance on fossil fuels etc.
Years ago, these things were seen as normal and sensible things to do.
Now if you mention it you're either a doom and gloomer or a ti-foil hatter.
You are obviously not being serious.
Next you'll be saying that it is possible to survive without an Iphone.0 -
I don't have an Iphone, or even a smart phone or a blackberry. I just have a phone ;-)0
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The_White_Horse wrote: »however, they didn't save in the good times, they spent like drunken sailors on all manner of lunatic programmes.
Brown spent it buying votes by expanding the public sector as much as he possibly could, in all the areas he could expect to win votes.
It's quite incredible just how many of the people who hate the Tories turn out to be either working in the public sector or married to someone who is, or both.
A look at this eye-watering map illustrates this nicely:
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/11/16/1289917118715/Public-sector-employment--007.jpg
25% in Birmingham. 30% in Newcastle. A ludicrous 50%+ in other areas. And a few poor sods with non-Govt jobs trying to pay for it all.0 -
The basic solution is not to care too much about all this, and do the obvious things. Pay down debt. Work smarter, increase your skills. Live a good life. Find out if you can start a side business, so if you lose your job you have something to fall back on. Start saving a little bit.
Basically, don't worry too much, do the things that will make you wealthier and happier regardless of whether disaster happens.
I think Tom's nailed it for the most part.
Making sure you are part of a community that shares and works together is also useful, because no one person can possibly tackle everything that's likely to come at us in the next few years, unless they're Bruce Willis, of course..... and I bet he can't grow veg or use a sewing machine.
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I don't often agree with you, The_White_Horse, but that I definitely agree with.The_White_Horse wrote: »this is the time a responsible govt should be spending on infrastructure and the like
That's funny, I'm sure I heard the other day about the top bankers and other chief execs getting huge bonuses.now, there genuinely is nothing left.
Sounds to me like there's plenty of money, just in the wrong pockets.0
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