What Is It With The 20% Increases On Food?

[El Cid]

1 minute ago, Rockers rule said:

So those that did work in those conditions should keep having the goal post moved.

Total Hogwash ECCO.

We have moved to a system where if people want to retire sooner, they get tax relief and they can save in order to retire.

If you are not getting richer as you get older, you are doing something wrong. People that prefer to rent perhaps?

[ECCOnoob]

8 minutes ago, Rockers rule said:

So those that did work in those conditions should keep having the goal post moved.

Total Hogwash ECCO.

Those that did work in such conditions are already well retired or on their way to being, so the change won't even affect them.  Majority of the next generation had it far easier and more likely started work later.

 

Like I said, people are naive if they think it was going to remain stagnant with such dramatic changes in not only life expectancy but the years people actually work.

 

Do you want to put your feet up and retire early?   Pay for it.

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by ECCOnoob

[Padders]

Price's are rising dramatically now, and I fear much worse is to come...

I break open a £20 note at the beginning of the month, and always find I have a couple of quid left over at the end of the month...

Not anymore,

I'm now having to split an extra £5 note open to survive.

 

[Anna B]

42 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Completely disagree. Somebody has to pay for all these pensioners.

 

Average life expectancy in the UK has been steadily increasing. Back in the 1970s and 80s it was around the low aged 70s. By 1990 it was hitting mid to high aged 70s, and by 2019 the average figure was aged 80 or above. Even now with all the pandemic there might have been a slow down or stagnation but you still at such level.

 

Add on the fact that there has been significant change as to when people join the workforce. Let's compare how many people back in the 70s and 80s left school at 15/16 and straight into work.  Now, at least for the past two decades we have had significantly more numbers of people going into further education, at the very least a couple of years in technical college after school or as one of the huge numbers of people going to university.  That means we have far far more people not even starting any sort of full-time work until in their 20s.

 

The work itself has dramatically changed, no longer are we having vast numbers of people working in dangerous life-threatening Heavy Industries. We now have advances in machinery and methods comma safety and controls with much more work being done at the press of a button or click of a mouse.  That technology advancement is showing no signs of slowing down we've even more aspects of of so-called 'grunt work' being completely humanless or human light involved operations.

 

It's absolutely naive to think things could just stay as they were.  

Yet that is the generation that are reaching pension age now and is being penalised. 

I started work at 16, as did many of the current generation of new pensioners. Plenty of them worked down the mines, in the steelworks and in heavy engineering. They also dealt with asbestos and other dangerous substances etc. and their health has suffered.   

 

Your also wrong to assume that heavy work is a thing of the past. Try watching 'Life and Death in the Warehouse' (BBC3 tonight 9.0pm.) There are still very physically demanding jobs. Try a 12 hour shift in a hospital or care home. Try looking after a family and also having to work fulltime. Try living with the stress and uncertainty of the gig economy. Stress kills.

Protection in the workplace, health and safety etc, is also in decline. The rich still get richer on the backs of the workers and don't care what corneers they cut to do it.

 

The work changes, but it is still not equal. There is still a massive difference between the health of those who have/had a lifetime of secure 'office jobs,' and the rest. Hence the disparity in life expectainty between the rich and the poor.

 

As for 'paying for all these pensioners,' it woulld help if the government stopped spaffing our taxes up the wall on pointless exercises. It's a question of priorities. Pensioners have paid their taxes longer than most, and frankly when they need help in later life, the help is not there.

 

We are a supposedly rich country. To have the lowest pension in Europe and most of the Western world is a disgrace.   

Edited March 7, 2022 by Anna B

[Dromedary]

2 hours ago, Anna B said:

Lucky you. I'm on the old rate which is considerably less. (I had to work till 63, but missed the new rate by 2 months.) I don't receive any top ups because I have a small works pension, which is all but wiped out to make up my pension. 

Ahh but thats all I get! No works pension or other income to add to it. How much do you get including your works pension?

 

2 hours ago, spilldig said:

It's garbage. Compare it to 40 hours at minimum wage and then treating pensioners like second class citizens with gimicks like free bus passes with strings attached while paying the lowest pension in the civilised world.

It may be the lowest pension but it is all relative. Its a bit like how the poor are just relatively poor when compared to high earners salaries.

[Rockers rule]

49 minutes ago, El Cid said:

We have moved to a system where if people want to retire sooner, they get tax relief and they can save in order to retire.

If you are not getting richer as you get older, you are doing something wrong. People that prefer to rent perhaps?

What  Lost that one on me El Cid.

Never rented in my life, but what the hell has that got to do with anything?

Think we did alright, went to work bought our 1st house, own business at 31.

Getting 'Richer' as you get older being compulsory - your having a laugh .

Best of luck to all the young un's out there starting off on life's treadmill they sure ain't got the same opportunity's we had.

 

Stay safe out there  .

 

 

 

[Dromedary]

2 hours ago, El Cid said:

I was just going on predictions that it will reach 8% and then decline to 4% at the end of the year, those predictions maybe optimistic, but it will only reach 15% if people have money to spend. The Government paying back its debt by reducing public spending will keep inflation down.

Rising interest rates will also have a downward pressure on inflation, savers need higher rates.

Not necessarily as although it may be good for savings it also means the money is not being spent on goods its less income for the government and manufacturers. It also has a knock on effect on housing as interest on mortgages will also increase so again less money is being spent on other things. One of the reasons why the BOE and other countries like low interest rates is to encourage spending and not savings.

 

Quote

If pay rises and council tax is kept to CPI inflation or lower, that will keep the money supply down, so keep inflation in check.

One problem there is that CT rises are not linked to inflation and generally rise by the maximum amount the local authority can charge without having to hold a referendum on any increase. IIRC the CT increase this year is set at 5% so going over that would require a referendum in that CT area. 

 

As to the last bit on money supply, it's not that simple. We are seeing a very high increase in inflation recently and it has nothing at all to do with money supply. 

Edited March 7, 2022 by Dromedary

[ECCOnoob]

51 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Yet that is the generation that are reaching pension age now and is being penalised. 

I started work at 16, as did many of the current generation of new pensioners. Plenty of them worked down the mines, in the steelworks and in heavy engineering. They also dealt with asbestos and other dangerous substances etc. and their health has suffered.   

 

If they are part of the 'current' generation of pensioners then the rules are not going to affect them - so what's the problem.

 

If they are the next generation of pensioners I can tell you that they wouldn't have started in any such Industries until at least the late 70s early 80s by which time all those hazardous operations were mandated by various health and safety rules and protective equipment which were coming into force. Add on that most of the mines particularly were on strike during the 80s and closed altogether by early 1990s they have hardly had a lifetime of exposure have they. 

 

By the time the third extended pension generation comes into force,  it will be affecting people who started work in the early 1990s onwards and whom would have not had anything near such hazardous harmful, hazardous or distressing conditions.   I'm not buying your tales of woe about warehousing work or care work or stress related symptoms caused by the uncertainty of the gig economy. These are free choices that people are making and  something most consumers could not care less about when they are more than happy to continually usually services and reap the rewards of of their cheap prices and immediate service. We can't have it both ways. In any event, as I have mentioned earlier, likely such will slowly be replaced by automation or light touch human interaction over time. Further doesn't change the obvious fact that people don't even leave school until 18 now with a vast majority  at least going do some form of higher education .  

 

You may have started work at 16, but the next generation of pensioners who will be affected by the changes highly likely  didn't start work until 18 if not into their 20s. Therefore it is surely only fair, reasonable,  common sense that they should be retiring at a later age. 

Edited March 7, 2022 by ECCOnoob

[ECCOnoob]

27 minutes ago, Rockers rule said:

What  Lost that one on me El Cid.

Never rented in my life, but what the hell has that got to do with anything?

Think we did alright, went to work bought our 1st house, own business at 31.

Getting 'Richer' as you get older being compulsory - your having a laugh .

Best of luck to all the young un's out there starting off on life's treadmill they sure ain't got the same opportunity's we had.

 

Stay safe out there  .

 

 

 

Don't they?     They have two extra years of education....   A far more better chance of wandering into university to get a degree or free to go and do some remote study course without assessment and minimum accedemic thresholds....  the security of a mandatory minimum wage rate which seems to go up year by year.... a globalised society in the world of Commerce and advances in technology which can allow for work opportunities with companies accross jurisdictions...  a government supported help to buy scheme....  and a far bigger proportion of of parents whom actually have an asset or home they can pass over to their younger compared to the generation previous who didn't own homes or other property.

 

That's just some things I can think of that my generation didn't have the luxury of when I was younger.

Edited March 7, 2022 by ECCOnoob

[Rockers rule]

14 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Don't they?     They have two extra years of education....   A far more better chance of wandering into university to get a degree or free to go and do some remote study course without assessment and minimum accedemic thresholds....  the security of a mandatory minimum wage rate which seems to go up year by year.... a globalised society in the world of Commerce and advances in technology which can allow for work opportunities with companies accross jurisdictions...  a government supported help to buy scheme....  and a far bigger proportion of of parents whom actually have an asset or home they can pass over to their younger compared to the generation previous who didn't own homes or other property.

 

That's just some things I can think of that my generation didn't have the luxury of when I was younger.

Two years extra education instead of working.

But Hey-Ho, who needs people in work when we can have more 'Marine Biologists than there are oceans' 🤣 🤣.

 

How good is the 'help to buy'?

People need security in the workplace to enable them to buy on their own merit, not some government hand out that isn't a hand out.

We've watched British business being decimated only for us to be reliant on the likes of Russian gas - how good is that working?????

Working for the same firm for 40 years is nothing more than  a distant memory and something by the looks of things future generation will never see 😢.

How many of us haven't been affected by redundancy at some point?

Never mind! our Social security system is always there to fall back on  (Joke)

 

Like I said best of luck to this generation.