UK wage collapse

michaels

Great article from the BBC as ever...except it doesn't mention:
Why the figures are from 2010 to now when the 'crash' started in 2007
That it is about 'change' in real wages - absolutely we may still be doing better than the other countries
And most importantly it lloks at real wage per employed person - compared to countries like Spain and France with their massive unemployment our total wage bill may well have declined less and remained a greater proportion of GDP, we just choose to share the money around by having many fewer unemployed but everyone paid less.

Which is fairer, having more people employed but each one earning less on average or keeping real wages high at the expense of 11% unemployment (France) or 26% (Spain).

The BBC HYS bang on about rich getting richer and poor getting poorer but I would say that lower wages with reduced unemployment is a lot more egalitarian than high wages and high unemployment.

Thrugelmir

michaels wrote: »

The BBC HYS bang on about rich getting richer and poor getting poorer but I would say that lower wages with reduced unemployment is a lot more egalitarian than high wages and high unemployment.

Disparity between top executives pay and everybody else though is still obscene. This includes public sector I should add. So some way to go before fairness is achieved.

misskool

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Disparity between top executives pay and everybody else though is still obscene. This includes public sector I should add. So some way to go before fairness is achieved.

Anyone looked to see if top executives pay have shown a net decrease vs inflation? Guessing it won't be the case.

Loughton_Monkey

Hamish has gone 'graph mad'.

But his post #16 explains adequately why wages in UK are too high. Wages have gone up more agressively than GDP. We continue to pay ourselves more than we afford. Productivity is effectively down the drain.

But the good news is that some of us don't work any more, and therefore can't get a wage cut or freeze.

Thrugelmir

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

But his post #16 explains adequately why wages in UK are too high. Wages have gone up more agressively than GDP. We continue to pay ourselves more than we afford. Productivity is effectively down the drain.

Brown's boom is coming back to haunt Labour just at the wrong time.

chucky

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Brown's boom is coming back to haunt Labour just at the wrong time.

How long do the current government have to be in place until your warped partisan 'view' makes them have some responsibility?

Loughton_Monkey

chucky wrote: »

How long do the current government have to be in place until your warped partisan 'view' makes them have some responsibility?

As far as I know, at the next election (2015?), the ballot paper will not include an option to vote for a parliamentary candidate under the banner of 'Conservative/Liberal Coalition'.

Hence whatever blame we might put on this government, none of us will be voting for it again.

Cameron will blame Cleggy for anything that went wobbly. Cleggy will blame Cameron. In truth, however, it was 100% Brown's fault for creating a mess that no-one could solve in 5 years.

CLAPTON

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

As far as I know, at the next election (2015?), the ballot paper will not include an option to vote for a parliamentary candidate under the banner of 'Conservative/Liberal Coalition'.

Hence whatever blame we might put on this government, none of us will be voting for it again.

Cameron will blame Cleggy for anything that went wobbly. Cleggy will blame Cameron. In truth, however, it was 100% Brown's fault for creating a mess that no-one could solve in 5 years.

In 2007 the government (% of GDP) was about the same as in 1997


the financial melt down was mainly caused by USA mortgage debt and the securitisation of these bad debts.

This wasn't helped by the 3 party consensus in the UK about spending more and more on government services and refusing to raise interest rates to defuse the housing asset bubble

chucky

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

As far as I know, at the next election (2015?), the ballot paper will not include an option to vote for a parliamentary candidate under the banner of 'Conservative/Liberal Coalition'.

Hence whatever blame we might put on this government, none of us will be voting for it again.

Cameron will blame Cleggy for anything that went wobbly. Cleggy will blame Cameron. In truth, however, it was 100% Brown's fault for creating a mess that no-one could solve in 5 years.

We could blame Gordon Brown for the global financial crisis but we woulld be wrong...

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Brown's boom .

Cameron's bust.

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Brown's fault

That's wearing thin.

Just as it's impossible for this government to fix a global depression in a few years, it was impossible for the last government to avoid a global depression occurring.

I despise Labour for many reasons.

Their reaction to the global financial crisis isn't one of them.

Although it's certainly true they made mistakes.... they initially reacted too slowly and with not enough firepower, the liquidity response was too little too late as a result, and perfectly sound banks required nationalisation due to their dithering.... but they were no worse in this regard than most other national governments that failed to see just how badly the Americans had screwed up.

If anything, this government has been worse though, and only now are they starting to get a few things right with repairing lending.