Why has the economy just come to a complete stand still?

[dosxuk]

Its relative though. If you have 10 billion and a loaf of bread costs 1 billion, you are poor.

 

But if everyone else you know has less money than you and can't afford that loaf of bread, you will still feel rich because you can.

[lynsey82]

You do realise that you are not the country, but I'm sorry I was being lazy. What I meant to the worlds 4th/5th largest economy, we've actually slipped down to 6 now. Here's the list.

 

Thank you for the clarification that I am not in fact a country that is very reassuring! phew. But I am a part of the country as are you. The list you've posted is from 2010. 2011 seems to be far worse than 2010 so I don't think we'll be the 6th for long. Anyway regardless I am skint as are others besides me and my husband working full time and doing our best to "put back in the economy" it doesn't seem to make a blind bit of difference.

[Wildcat]

Thank you for the clarification that I am not in fact a country that is very reassuring! phew. But I am a part of the country as are you. The list you've posted is from 2010. 2011 seems to be far worse than 2010 so I don't think we'll be the 6th for long. Anyway regardless I am skint as are others besides me and my husband working full time and doing our best to "put back in the economy" it doesn't seem to make a blind bit of difference.

 

The reason things seem worse now is political. We have a Tory Govt. imposing austerity on us whilst they let the rich off the hook from their responsibilities. They are willfully following the same sort of policies that prolonged and deepened the great depression in the 30s, using monetarist theory we now know to be flawed. The reason they are running us in to the ground? ideology they believe a better society is one with a smaller state, there is no reason to believe it is true and many reasons and evidence to believe their views are false, but the media dominated by money from rich businessmen like Rupert Murdoch has been promoting these ideas since the 70's and earlier, successfully framing public opinion in accordence with the views that are in their and the super riches short term interests and excluding the possibility of people waking up in some sort of revolutionary fervour long term interests as well, whilst we all suffer.

[donkey]

Nor was I expecting you to be - but you were speaking yourself about your perceptions of others.

 

 

 

 

 

So, when you said "speak for yourself" you weren't refering to what I was actually saying, but instead instructing me to voice my own perceptions, rather than those of somebody else? Is that it?

 

 

Why not? Or is being successful and prudent - especially when someone who liked being prudent failed to be so so spectacularly now a terribly bad thing?

 

 

????????

[INTERVIEWER]

Much of the money that could be used to stimulate and energise the British economy is being sent, and spent, overseas.

 

In the first year of the hybrid Coalition Tory/Lib Dem government, 87 per cent of the 400,000 newly created jobs have gone to immigrants, according to new official figures uncovered by the Labour MP Frank Field.

 

This is one of the reasons why we will not feel the benefits of a resurgent economy. Sending money abroad is now a boom industry in the UK. Mass immigration - taking the pound out of the British economy so that it can be spent overseas.

[INTERVIEWER]

The reason things seem worse now is political. We have a Tory Govt. imposing austerity on us whilst they let the rich off the hook from their responsibilities.

 

Too true, mate.

 

The Tory/Lib Dem alliance is cutting services which are designed to protect the disadvantaged and vulnerable of this country. This means these evil Tory/Lib Dem men and women are, in fact, taking from the poor in our rich country and giving the proceeds to the rich in the world's poorest countries.

 

You couldn't make it up.

[Mecky]

Too many cuts too fast. This government, if you can call it that, was told by economists not to cut too far and too deep but they ignore that advice and it has affected the publics' spending. That said, the cuts have not taken hold yet; you can imagine what it's going to be like. If you were around in the 1980s and 1980s, you should know what life is like under the Tories. To add insult to injury, foreign aid has increased and borrowing is up this year.

[L00b]

I'll put it in simple econospeak:

 

"Too many cuts too fast" = price to pay to keep negligible interest rates despite past QE policies, and (by and large) keep people in their homes, paying their mortages (thus putting off more toxic debt, the root cause of the problem).

 

The alternative = rocketing interest rates which would be kill any recovery faster and deader than the (staged) cuts (the job of which is not to stimulate growth, but to clean up its context).

 

So, let's say it's your call to make: which one is it going to be?

 

The cuts (such as they are) have not been anywhere near as severe as they would need to be, so far. That's why the deficit is still progressing the wrong way (in this tax year), and discussions about foreign aid and warfaring are a red herring (the foreign aid spend under discussion is over many years, and army spend is a drop in the ocean).

 

That's not saying the cuts must be harder/deeper/etc., but just a reflection on the fact that -if Osbourne/the LibCons really wanted to solve the countries' finances regardless of 'the people'- they'd have a damn side farther to go.

 

I'm seeing the same arguments over and over, and they're either "It's all Labour's fault" or "The LibCons are doing it wrong". How about some apolitical suggestions/solutions, for a change?

[Wildcat]

I'll put it in simple econospeak:

 

"Too many cuts too fast" = price to pay to keep negligible interest rates despite past QE policies, and (by and large) keep people in their homes, paying their mortages (thus putting off more toxic debt, the root cause of the problem).

 

The alternative = rocketing interest rates which would be kill any recovery faster and deader than the (staged) cuts.

 

So, let's say it's your call to make: which one is it going to be? Death by a thousand cuts? Or death by mass defaulting and repos?

 

That is an awful lot of hyperbole.... interest rates for the Govt are as you point out low. Interest rates for the private sector however remain high, without public borrowing the recovery and growth we rely on to get us out of the economic problems will be strangled at birth. Austerity is the last thing needed when an economy is down, it spreads and with no one spending there is no growth... we go in to recession. Money borrowed should be spent wisely on public initiatives to boost the private sector and get people in to work. That does not mean tax cuts or favourable policies for the richest who benefited to our detriment from the economics that created the recession in the first place. The Tories are robbing the victims to pay the perpetrators. Just focusing on the debt is what prolonged the impacts of the Wall Street crash, it is a the Keynesian Paradox of Thrift.... it made things worse then and is making things worse now... look at Greece, look at Ireland, look at what happened in Argentina and the Tiger economies when they crashed. If interest rates have to go up then so be it... neglecting employment and the recovery will have far worse consequences.

[0114owl1867]

I think that the point still stands, compared to the average person on this planet, people in the UK are rich.

When you say average person, what is 'average' just curious because I never compare myself to people in other countries, just to people who live in this country