On the Breadline on £190k a Year

Generali

ukcarper wrote: »

I'm sure your right about the circle they move it and if they want to complain to their friends that's fine, but complaining about it in the national press is plain stupid.
I think you moght be surprised at the presure some people in lower paid jobs are under.

Not really. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth and I have spent plenty of time working low paid jobs. There are all sorts of pressures facing people that are low paid too and I completely get that.

Lots of people, especially British people for some reason, seem to be under the impression that if you are making a good income that you are somehow immune from anything bad happening impacting you: the death of a loved one or a house fire destroying precious memories or dealing with stress or mental illness doesn't hit you as hard.

That is twaddle but it doesn't seem to stop people believing it.

kabayiri

I suspect a strong parental influence.

They both enjoyed private education, courtesy of their parents.

Perhaps they are benchmarking against that era?

The problem is that living costs have changed, and expectations have to move accordingly.

ukcarper

Generali wrote: »

Not really. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth and I have spent plenty of time working low paid jobs. There are all sorts of pressures facing people that are low paid too and I completely get that.

Lots of people, especially British people for some reason, seem to be under the impression that if you are making a good income that you are somehow immune from anything bad happening impacting you: the death of a loved one or a house fire destroying precious memories or dealing with stress or mental illness doesn't hit you as hard.

That is twaddle but it doesn't seem to stop people believing it.

I have never earned a high salary but I don't begrudge people who do, I do feel that pay does not always reflect the value of a job, but I've been around long enough t know that's life. If they were complaining about some genuine hardship I would have some sympathy for them, but of course they are not doing that.

martinsurrey

A lot of people on here think this couple have no idea of how lucky they are, how self absorbed they are, and how they have struggled on low incomes in the past...

Well every one of us is wrapped up in our own world

http://data.worldbank.org/country/ethiopia

To 95% of people in Ethiopia, the lowest earning 10% of people in the UK are these people.

If people can be blind to how well off they are on a global scale, how much of a leap is it on a national scale?

(I did laugh at them, but mainly because they are idiots for appearing in it, but I'm not going to start throwing stones...)

Generali

martinsurrey wrote: »

A lot of people on here think this couple have no idea of how lucky they are, how self absorbed they are, and how they have struggled on low incomes in the past...

Well every one of us is wrapped up in our own world

http://data.worldbank.org/country/ethiopia

To 95% of people in Ethiopia, the lowest earning 10% of people in the UK are these people.

If people can be blind to how well off they are on a global scale, how much of a leap is it on a national scale?

(I did laugh at them, but mainly because they are idiots for appearing in it, but I'm not going to start throwing stones...)

This is a point I try to make.

We who live in G20 countries have won life's lottery already. The complaints we make about benefits being limited to £20,000 a year would seem ridiculous to people living in huge swathes of the world.

Despite income inequalities across the world declining rapidly (contrary to what you will have been told of course but absolute poverty is collapsing, in large part because of the death of communism), an income of £20,000 a year would put you pretty comfortably into the top 10% of income earners I would expect.

the_flying_pig

I saw this quite a few days ago on the 'boring dystopia' facebook page. Genius. Particular highlights:

• Having a text box (larger, different, font) for “They are currently heavily reliant upon their salaries”, presumably since this status is so unthinkable to the DT’s target audience;
• A reminder of just how fantastically good the status quo is at preserving itself – the guy [who’s unsportingly made his linkedin profile private during the last couple of days] went to a £20k a year school & then onto somewhere called Aston University, at best that can put him in, what, I’ll be generous, at best the borderline of say about the top 25% in terms of intelligence, but in his mid thirties he’s: (a) on a six figure salary; (b) a property millionaire; and (c) dissatisfied with the above.

setmefree2

Private schools are a serious waste of money in London/ South East. (Can't talk about the rest of the country) and a fast way to bankrupt yourself.

I know people who spend / have spent a fortune on private schools only to find that their kids have performed no differently than those who have used the state sector, that is, nearly all end up getting great A levels and end up in Russell Group Unis, whether you spend a fortune or use the state sector.

In London / South East, it's the type of parents that a child has that will predict how well kids do at school, not the school.

The majority of people in London use the state sector - so most schools are excellent.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I've met some astoundingly thick people who went to private school.

setmefree2

chucknorris wrote: »

If they can't work out how to live well enough on £190k, they must belong to the the highest paid idiots club.

Watched a TV prog the other day about a family who spend £350 a week on food!!!!!

Eat Well for Less?
8pm, BBC1

The Warners from Stratford-upon-Avon spend £350 a week on food for themselves and their four children; can MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace and greengrocer Chris Bavin quell the family’s taste for premium granola, pricey pizzas and marinated chicken? As well as substituting their middle-England faves for some mystery alternatives, Gregg teaches mum Hannah that there’s more to cooking than piercing film lids. Dietician Lucy Jones is also on hand with some shocking sugar stats that might have you binning your pasta sauce. Hannah J Davies

martinsurrey

setmefree2 wrote: »

I know people who spend / have spent a fortune on private schools only to find that their kids have performed no differently than those who have used the state sector, that is, nearly all end up getting great A levels and end up in Russell Group Unis, whether you spend a fortune or use the state sector.

apart from the obvious (who's to say that the private school kid would have done as well in state, unless you manage to put the same kid through school twice...)

A lot of the extra a private school adds isn't in the exam grades for the brightest, put a bright kid in any school and as long as the parents are on top of it the kid will get straight A's.

However, the state kid would struggle to get into Oxbridge relative to a private school kid, as they just are not prepped for the interview, or the way of thinking that Oxbridge looks for, they are taught to the syllabus, and no further.

And things like that flow through into life,

With smaller more disciplined classes in private schools, debate skills and presentations are much better taught, they help with job interviews and general confidence with public speaking.

I speak from experience, I was northern comp educated, sailed through A levels, should have gone to Oxbridge, but didn't even apply as I was scared off the application process by my school, and my wife was comp educated in Surrey, walked A levels and got hammered by the interview at Cambridge as it was the first time anyone had asked her questions of that type, we've both been successful, and are glad we got the education we did, but who knows how much further we could have gone with the confidence a private school would have given.