Brexit, the economy and house prices part 5

kabayiri

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

....
Let the free market decide.

The free market will wash these jobs out of the economy at the first sign of the next real recession.

So it will decide.

Herzlos

kabayiri wrote: »

The free market will wash these jobs out of the economy at the first sign of the next real recession.

So it will decide.

And then they'll come back again when consumers have disposable income.
Unless people stop caring about coffee, their appearance or the cleanliness of their car those things will stay in demand (subject to the affordability cycles).

If automation frees people up more, they'll spend more time and money consuming.

Moby

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Consumption drives all economies. Without consumption there is no production. And what consumers want consumers will get.

It's not up to you or to me to play God and judge what people want to consume - nor to moralise that some types of business or job are not worth having.

Let the free market decide.

No Hamish. This is where you and I part. Quantity does not make up for quality. Worshiping at the altar of consumption ends in one way and it cannot continue. I care what sort of country I live in; what it looks like; what it feels like etc. I want it to be more like Zurich than Delhi.

Tromking

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

The UK is virtually empty.

We use just 1.1% of our land for housing, and less than 3% is built on with anything at all, including all the roads, railways, factories, shops, etc.

Meanwhile there is a huge shortage of workers building up with unemployment at near record lows - and a vast empty country that could accommodate 100 years worth of growth with just a fraction of a percent more land used.

I’m not sure a Scot declaring how empty the UK is will go done to well with those in other parts of the UK. In comparison to the SE of England for example, Scotland is indeed empty and lest we forget doesn’t have the advantage of having its public services royally subsidised like Scotland.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Tromking wrote: »

I’m not sure a Scot declaring how empty the UK is will go done to well with those in other parts of the UK. In comparison to the SE of England for example, Scotland is indeed empty

I may be a Scot but I'm not blind.

The south east of England is also virtually empty.

I have seen this with my own eyes as I've flown over most of the UK and looked downwards at all the emptiness.

When you see it from the air you gain an entirely new perspective of just how incredibly empty the UK really is - and what a tiny percentage of it we absurdly cram ourselves into.

If I ever win the lottery one of the first things I'll do is find a dozen or so proponents of the ridiculous 'small crowded island' theory and take them flying over the south east of the UK so they can see for themselves just how wrong they are.:cool:

Herzlos

You don't even need a plane. Satellite images from google maps of London show a lot of greenery:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/London/@51.5068332,-0.1324099,17433m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8a00baf21de75:0x52963a5addd52a99!8m2!3d51.5073509!4d-0.1277583

And once you zoom out from London it's almost entirely green.

Quite a lot of it is national parks and farmland though, so I'm not proposing we concrete it all over, but there's no denying that habitation only takes up a tiny proportion of the landmass.

ukcarper

Herzlos wrote: »

You don't even need a plane. Satellite images from google maps of London show a lot of greenery:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/London/@51.5068332,-0.1324099,17433m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8a00baf21de75:0x52963a5addd52a99!8m2!3d51.5073509!4d-0.1277583

And once you zoom out from London it's almost entirely green.

Quite a lot of it is national parks and farmland though, so I'm not proposing we concrete it all over, but there's no denying that habitation only takes up a tiny proportion of the landmass.

According to this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41901294 UK is 5.9% built on and England is 8.8% built on, my council area is my council area is 13% built on and adjoining councils are 57% and 27%. This is an area 15 miles outside M25 and a lot of unbuilt on Land is used army training there is also a large amount of building going on. Aberdeenshire is 1% built on. Perhaps something should be done to even out demand.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Herzlos wrote: »

I'm not proposing we concrete it all over, but there's no denying that habitation only takes up a tiny proportion of the landmass.

Yep.

Around 1% of the UK.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

ukcarper wrote: »

According to this link UK is 5.9% built on and England is 8.8% built on, .

That link overstates it because up to 50% of the land it designates as 'urban' is actually greenspace.

Two other research reports give similar findings....

The UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), for example, estimates that less than 1% of the country is "built on", about 2% of England.

Ordnance Survey data suggests that all the buildings in the UK - houses, shops, offices, factories, greenhouses - cover 1.4% of the total land surface. Looking at England alone, the figure still rises to only 2%.

Buildings cover less of Britain than the land revealed when the tide goes out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41901297

Tromking

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I may be a Scot but I'm not blind.

The south east of England is also virtually empty.

I have seen this with my own eyes as I've flown over most of the UK and looked downwards at all the emptiness.

When you see it from the air you gain an entirely new perspective of just how incredibly empty the UK really is - and what a tiny percentage of it we absurdly cram ourselves into.

If I ever win the lottery one of the first things I'll do is find a dozen or so proponents of the ridiculous 'small crowded island' theory and take them flying over the south east of the UK so they can see for themselves just how wrong they are.:cool:

Just merely pointing out that a Scots perceptions re. the ‘small crowded island’ theory maybe skewed by personal experience or the lack of. Factor in that in comparison to England, Scotland has escaped the worst excesses of austerity, then you get nearer to one of the reasons why England voted out and Scotland didn’t.
People muster around areas of economic activity don’t you know.