Decline in our standard of living, when will it stop?

ruggedtoast

Percy1983 wrote: »

I certainly do, as it is my business started as a hobby and just grew to the point where I had enough demand and could charge for it.

Um, does it involve a webcam?

chewmylegoff

Puddleglum wrote: »

Theoretically, once the BoE gets inflation back down to a level equal to wage inflation our living standards should stay the same. However I have long been noticing inflation of items not in the official basket of goods rocketing up. The 500g pack of margarine I buy for example shot up by 33% last year and recently took a more moderate 9% hike. Thank heavens for small mercies. Tinned tomato inflation has recently gone stratospheric. Guess who does the shopping in this household! We may all be focusing on petrol but the things we are not looking at have rocket fuel underneath them.

i'd be interested to know how you think the BoE would "get inflation back down", in particular what it could do to e.g. influence the price of fuel, or of rice.

ILW

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i'd be interested to know how you think the BoE would "get inflation back down", in particular what it could do to e.g. influence the price of fuel, or of rice.

The inflation number is for a range of items. Some the BoE cannot control, but it could aim to deflate the items it can control, thereby keeping the overall figure within target.

budgetboo

It won't stop declining. We've peaked and are now firmly in a period of decline (though we might yet get a few mini-bubbles on the way down to help us prepare).

Look at peak oil literature, what's happened to EVERY fiat currency historically and the mindset of global leadership right now. Look at Greece.

The golden era for the working classes is over. (Anyone who traditionally needed to earn a living to support themselves as opposed to live of the interest from capital investments or big inheritances. Please don't be silly enough to buy into this nouveau middle-class bunkum as all that's done is massage people's egos and blind them to what's really going on). Look back a century and see how life was strutured. To afford housing & survive in retirement several generations living together was the norm, as was the lack of an NHS etc.

It's much easier to make the required changes to your lifestyle now if you can, before adverse changes are forced on you. Over the next decade a lot of of the underclass are going to get a nasty shock as the benefits they've become accustomed to relying on are cut off.

Most young people I know in their late teens/early twenties are aware we are entering a far less prosperous period of history than the recent one, it's older people who are in denial.

LittleMissAspie

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I woke up to the joyous news this morning, that petrol prices were about to breach record highs. Indeed since the last time I filled up I have found myself glancing disbelievingly at how rapidly the forecourt prices have started nudging £1.40 for unleaded.

Whereas not that long ago fuel price rises led to protests and barricades, people just seem to accept them now with weary resignation.

Another turn of the screw I sigh, a bit more of our middle class life falls to the coastal erosion of price inflation, cuts, and wage freezes, crashing into a sea which seems much closer to our door now than it did a few years ago. Lost forever?

I pretty much only do essential drives now anyway, have to look into that car sharing scheme again at work.

The day before yesterday we got a nice letter from the government informing us that we no longer qualify for the £40 a month working tax credit we used to get, nothing has changed apart from the ever spiralling prices at the supermarket.

That decision was taken in 2010, back when £30k a year was still, just about, a "good wage". I remember how pleased I was with myself when I broke the £30k barrier, doesn't seem that long ago, now I see myself referred to in the press as a "low earner". I know plenty of people on less.

Fair enough, the country is too broke for handouts isn't it? I only have to earn an extra £700 a year gross to make that back. I'll send an email to HR as they seem to have forgotten my pay increment this year, and last year.

At least nothing expensive has gone wrong with the car, apart from a broken headlight bulb. The last time this happened Halford's charged me £6 for the bulb and £4 for fitting. Now they want £10 for the same bulb and "£6.99 sir" for the fitting.

Preposterous I bluster, and spend 20 minutes in the darkening carpark, peering into the gloom while I bruise my hand in 20 different places failing to change the bulb.

Admitting defeat I drive to my father in law's house nearby, who unscrews some items from the engine compartment to allow room to work, and changes the bulb for me.

He's nearing retirement, and is rather glum about it. They had planned for their house to be their pension, and seem to have already spent a fair chunk of it on holidays and motor homes.

Three estate agent valuations recently, the highest was £45k less than the value they were given in the boom. Nevertheless even the lowest value puts it far beyond the wildest dreams of most middle income young families in the area, families like they used to be.

He has his own small business in the building trade, most of my wife's family do. Retiring on his state pension in a few months he's given up trying to chase the dwindling pool of building work, ferociously contested by younger, hungrier, often Eastern European suppliers, and has signed on for the very first time in his life.

When he started out he would go to to the council and harvest the addresses of people with pending planning applications, then write to them with quotes, they've gone back to it from time to time.

Two years ago, there were 30 pages of applications. Now there are barely a dozen applications, all for minor changes like windows. His son, my brother in law, may not be able to keep going.

The building trade in the South East, sighs my FIL as he tests the bulb, is pretty much dead.

I wonder if I should have bought that two pack of bulbs, the other side will go in another year, goodness knows what Halfords will charge for it then, and whether I'll still be able to afford to run a car to put it in.

Blimey you sound suicidal. This is what happens when people spend their money on fripperies. When the fripperies money runs out suddenly they feel deprived, even though they didn't need any of it in the first place. Can't get your money back on a motorhome and a foreign holiday? We're all DOOOOOMED!

chewmylegoff

ILW wrote: »

The inflation number is for a range of items. Some the BoE cannot control, but it could aim to deflate the items it can control, thereby keeping the overall figure within target.

so, with the macroeconomic weapons in the BoE's arsenal, how exactly would the new governor of the BoE, ILW, achieve that without destroying the economy in the process?

abaxas

chewmylegoff wrote: »

so, with the macroeconomic weapons in the BoE's arsenal, how exactly would the new governor of the BoE, ILW, achieve that without destroying the economy in the process?

Increase IRs to 3% but offer banks a 2.5% discount.

Hence the banks can bot borrow cheaply and recapitalise.

DominicJ_2

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i'd be interested to know how you think the BoE would "get inflation back down", in particular what it could do to e.g. influence the price of fuel, or of rice.

The BoE cant control the price of fuel, but it can control the price of sterling.
Interest rates of 30% ought to do it.
We'd all be unemployed by easter though.

Percy1983

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Um, does it involve a webcam?

Nope, high definition video cameras. :rotfl:

Graham_Devon

Dan: wrote: »

If you can't afford to run a car, how about geting a bike? Keep fit at the same time!

For starters, it's difficult carrying stuff with me on a bike.