scary rising cost of living- will the govt. act?

brightonman123

food, petrol, utilities etc all seem to be spiralling upwards, though the 'average' person's income is nowhere keeping pace..

how long will it be before people start stealing from shops by nessesity as they cant afford ANY food, or muggings folks on payday at the cashpoint, syphoning petrol from cars, or increased driveoffs (i guess using false number plates? no one is THAT stupid..?)

i predict a riot.

john_s_2

Some people already steal from shops or petrol tanks and claim it's because they can't afford it.

But most people just cut back on things they can live without like foreign holidays, TVs in every room, big cars, new clothes every season, new kitchens...

According to the British Retail Consortium, annual food prices increased by 4.7% in April. OTOH they also claim that annual non food items dropped by 0.6%.

http://www.brc.org.uk/details04.asp?id=1371

(You need to click on a link that opens a Word doc from that page to get the non-food deflation figure.)

My household spends (roughly) 20%* on the items you mentioned (food, petrol, lecky, gas, water) so we have a fair amount of room to manoeuvre. I realise others may not be so fortunate.

I was in a meeting today where it was mentioned that families in a certain part of South Africa spend typically half their income on food alone. If they can manage without resorting to crime then I'm sure we can.

*
Out=£7,500
In=£36,000
%age=20.8%

dmg24

brightonman123 wrote: »

food, petrol, utilities etc all seem to be spiralling upwards, though the 'average' person's income is nowhere keeping pace..

how long will it be before people start stealing from shops by nessesity as they cant afford ANY food, or muggings folks on payday at the cashpoint, syphoning petrol from cars, or increased driveoffs (i guess using false number plates? no one is THAT stupid..?)

i predict a riot.

I predict a complete overreaction!

alanobrien

i have no doubt the government will act on this and give themselves a pay rise or employ another memeber of their family..........

continualdiamond

While i wouldn't steal in order to keep going, i have unfortunately had to sell my engagment ring just to make ends meet. My OH is unemployed (long story and is actively looking for work) and my wage just isn't covering everything.

We were £70 short this mth on bills, so had £0 left for food/petrol. Had to relie on relatives to help out. My wage has gone down with this 10p in the tax issue, despite the fact i got a wage increase its gone by by along with extra in tax.

So its been no hair cuts/clothes/shoes/day outs/meals out/cinema/dvds, basically no social life since my OH was unemployed 3 mths ago.

What can you do......not much, other than just deal with the circumstances your in...

moonrakerz

dmg24 wrote: »

I predict a complete overreaction!

Isn't that a complete overreaction !! :rolleyes:

Marcus-H_2

A quick easy solution would be to cut VAT back to 15% - On average, I spend approx. 20% more now than I did 12-18months ago on the same things.

Ok, not everything is VAT accountable, but im sure with my employer's saving an extra 2.5%, some of that saving my end up in my paypacket.

dmg24

moonrakerz wrote: »

Isn't that a complete overreaction !! :rolleyes:

It is called irony ...

I suppose you would need a brain to understand such a concept?

poppysarah

What useful solutions are there?

Make more land available for allotments. Healthy food and exercise in one. I think this is something the government should act on now.

Make communal land into orchards and food growing areas.

Rather than spend the money on a nuclear power plant, spent it all on renewables... heat sink pumps, solar hot water, etc etc
Cut the amount we spend on energy by getting energy from that big ball of yellow stuff in the sky.

Encourage people to use a bike or walk rather than take the car.

moonrakerz

dmg24 wrote: »

It is called irony ...

I suppose you would need a brain to understand such a concept?

Yes, YOU would, wouldn't YOU ?