Rip Off Britain Keeps People Away From Savings and Being Debt Free

Raveboy

nrsql wrote: »

The reason that these things are so expensive is that people are willing to pay for them.
As long as people are willing to buy xboxes and just think of it as less money they can save there is no reason for the suppliers to reduce the price.

Similarly as long as people are willing to accept the poor quality (though cheap) goods at supermarkets this will also not change.

I suspect it is the same people who complain about how much they are forced to pay for their necessary xbox who also go for the cheapest food possible.
(would also advise against vista).

yes people are willing to pay for them but look at the national debt everyone is in. We all wouldn't be up to our eyeballs in debt if prices of things more reasonable.

any way just because food is cheaper doesn't mean the food is of poorer quality. Making up a fresh fruit salad for lunch from scratch is a hell of a lot cheape, healtier and tastier than going out for fish and chips for lunch.

Just like making a warm chicken and bacon salad from scratch would be tastier and healthier than buying a asian take away!!! - you get to control the fat, sodium and oil being put in. Wheres as they might use ghee i could use olive or rapeseed oil - high in omega 3!!!

ps when vista has service pack brought out what can be wrong with it then? i know you say that it should be avoided - what for Linux instead? and open offiice?

RayWolfe

You're all mad!
You don't want to spend on a TV licence but you want to buy an Xbox.
You think France is the best place in the world but you come back here eventually.
You want cheap food but won't spend the time to make it.
You want things to be cheaper so that you can buy even more just as you have done on clothes which have never been cheaper.
You don't want to pay any taxes but you all want government services.

Rip-off is just one more media exaggeration and head-line catch all, for sloppy journalism.

Happy new year ... here's to another year of bellyaching. ;-)

cloud_dog

Raveboy wrote: »

yes people are willing to pay for them but look at the national debt everyone is in. We all wouldn't be up to our eyeballs in debt if prices of things more reasonable.

You just dont get it.

Companies charge what they charge because people are willing to pay it, people are in debt because a) they want something, and b) they are comfortable going in to debt (doesn't mean they are able to repay it though).

Its all about apathy and unless people actually demonstrate how unhappy they are (not just whine about it) nothing will change.

As an example, different but the same, have you ever undertaken a questionaire (employee survey for example) where you have 5 choices - very happy, happy, ok, unhappy, very unhappy; unless there are significant numbers of people replying 'very unhappy' everything will be seen to be ok (within tollerances), i.e. no revolution yet.

cloud_dog

kai666

Milarky wrote: »

The Simpsons Movie - 24.99 at Woolworths (I could not believe it) while it's basically free off the internet...

thats stealing though. But if thats the way you save money.....

nrsql

Raveboy wrote: »

yes people are willing to pay for them but look at the national debt everyone is in. We all wouldn't be up to our eyeballs in debt if prices of things more reasonable.

any way just because food is cheaper doesn't mean the food is of poorer quality. Making up a fresh fruit salad for lunch from scratch is a hell of a lot cheaper, healtier and tastier than going out for fish and chips for lunch.

Just like making a warm chicken and bacon salad from scratch would be tastier and healthier than buying a asian take away!!! - you get to control the fat, sodium and oil being put in. Wheres as they might use ghee i could use olive or rapeseed oil - high in omega 3!!!

ps when vista has service pack brought out what can be wrong with it then? i know you say that it should be avoided - what for Linux instead? and open offiice?

>> We all wouldn't be up to our eyeballs in debt if prices of things more reasonable.

People wouldn't be in debt (with unfortunate exceptions) if they bought things they needed then only spent what they could afford on luxuries.

>> ps when vista has service pack brought out what can be wrong with it then?
You think this will be the last service pack and fix all major problems?
I usually refuse to implement MS products until SP2 for critical systems.

>> what for Linux instead?
Why - think of the options and why you think you need Vista. Is there anything you need in word that wasn't in word 2? Would file manager do what you need? Which was the first version of internet explorer that does what you really need. Just because it's new doesn't mean you really need it.

>> any way just because food is cheaper doesn't mean the food is of poorer quality.
True - a lot of food I buy is cheaper than a supermarket but better quality. Have a look at what they do to vegetables and how they prepare meat and you'll understand why it doesn't have much flavour or nurition.
Might be better than fish and chips - but that's just because mostly they are frozen fish and poor (sometimes prefabricated) potatoes. Not saying doing use fresh produce just that supermarkets usually aren't a very good source.

I'll agree with your comment on council tax though. A lot of that and other expense is due to reducing central funding so that the CPI can be kept down at the expense of current and future non-included payments. What's been done is starting to show in economic figures now but I guess it'll be blamed on global factors.

roswell

the more money people have the more they spend or the more credit they have available the more they spend,

ask someone to lend you £2000 so you can get a new telly a xbox some cloths and a few nights out .. what will the answer be ??? now ask people what they spend there credit card balance on.

Sadly those that have debt in the majority of instances didnt get it for life saving surgery but more likely electrical gadgets they NEEDED.

The opp would not save his £100 if xbox`s were £100 cheaper by definition he would purchase £100 worth of games, it isnt saving money unless you keep it in the bank, but its very easy to get more for your money by shopping around or waiting.

We earn in £`s and spend in £`s, i dont think we are getting ripped off we are just lucky that we dont earn Euro`s and spend £`s or earn $`s and spend £`s.

amcluesent

Loads of peeps have cashed in a pension early to get a flat-screen telly designed to be obsolete in 3 years. Perhaps a clue that financial planning isn't a great skill - OR are these the sensible people knowing that desperate governments will impose punitive taxation/means testing and the savers are the fools?

lilac_lady

We're not ALL "up to the eyeballs in debt" but we don't ALL spend what we don't have. Needs and wants get mixed up by some people. Stay with MSE and learn to want less financially, leading to a better debt-free life.

Pitchshifter

It all comes down to what you value in life and what truly makes you happy.
I think a lot of people are out of touch with what they truly value within themselves and don't understand what they really need to make them happy.

People are so hypnotized by consumer marketting they think luxuries will improve their lives, even if there are much deeper problems like debt, home repairs, fines, health care and family problems in their life.

We're all told these products will make us feel better and the advertising really works. People buy them before they've sorted out the basics in life then wonder why they're in debt, still fed up and still feeling like they need to buy non-essentials.

The best things in life truly are free, but in order to experience them fully you need to recognise what they are and work towards them, this involves earning money, budgetting and saving a little.

Raveboy

Pitchshifter wrote: »

The best things in life truly are free, but in order to experience them fully you need to recognise what they are and work towards them, this involves earning money, budgetting and saving a little.

So you are telling me a free walk in the park on a cold and wet winters night is better than sitting indoors in the warmth and playing one of the greatest ever games available on XBOX 360 like Gears of War on a 50" flat screen tv and top of the range surround sound system?

okay, maybe we are not up to the eyeballs in debt but the newspapers say the level of national debt is £1.2trillion, or something like that, maybe its million. anyway, shops are offering january sales now in early decemeber because shoppers dont have the money to spend, partly because of their current cost of living. council tax has rocketed, utilites bills and petrol has, along with cost of houses.