This is the title of the lead feature this week in the US produced "Economist" magazine.
They say that well before the economic crisis there was rising dismay about the country's direction and nostalgia for the good old days. They then point out that the actual real crime rate, including burglaries and car theft, has impoved over the past 15 years and that child murder rates have fallen by two thirds since the 1970s. The latter is actually more or less in line with child matters on another thread recently discussed in this Forum.
However, the concluding paragraphs blame the education system in general for not providing young people the skills they need and the waning of manufacturing jobs for the working class creating a generation of young males in particular who don't know what to do with themselves.
They finish with the statement that: "Britain has a crunched economy, an out-of-control deficit and plenty of social problems; but is not "broken""
PLIM'S VIEW - - I am largely in agreement with them. I feel our main failure is a weakness of those in power to take proper control of crises. I think that far stronger terms should have been imposed as a condition of the recent bank subsidies and money should be put into re-starting mainstream manufacturing, plus call centres and the like need to be brought back from overseas. And that's just a starter!
Plim :sad:
I think the economy is cyclical and that it will always be this way. What we are however is much more informed than we were even 5 years ago about the economy and where we are today.
Its hard to really define what 'broke' really looks like. For example: child poverty is a term which is interesting. Government policy is that by 2020 child poverty will be eradicated in this country. As a vision that is fantastic and I wouldnt disagree. However, what does that look like? Looked after children increased because of Baby 'P', children on the risk regster has increased and with the present economic crisis, unemployment has risen and so the cycle remains.
Is education worse in this country than 10/20 years ago? No I believe it isnt but I also believe that we have not led education and research in the way we did back in the former part of last century and have lost out in many ways to being the first to get it right. A bit like the industrial revolution - we started many things that were replicated and made better by others. What however we dont talk about is that working class white males are more likely to be unemployed and ill educated than any other group of our society today. (can provide reference for this if required).
In a sense the 3rd world has had more opportunties to move into a more technological and economically productive time, not held back by the chains that we create around policy and working practices. Our manufacturing has also been declining from the mid 1970's.
Do I blame the banks? well partly as we have put trust in unelected bodies with our money and pensions. Without trust its hard to feel a sense of where will this all end. Just like Star Trek has become a reality with all the technology it showed back in the 1970's in the early series, maybe we really will create the worlds that we portray in futuristic films where life looks dam unpleasant.
contrary to the image being promoted, that the world economy has stabilised due to governments and central banks actions, the worst is yet to come, by design.
unfortunately, there are many on this site that will poo poo the evidence as conspiracy theory, so i think i will reserve further comment for now.
*in best Andy Parsons voice*
Is it so broke that it's rummaging down the back of the sofa to get enough money together to go for a pint?
It's your fault, and mine, that the country has no manufacturing industry.
We pay other countries to manufacture the goods we purchase, because we cannot afford the cost of them made here.
IE: We want too much money to make them here.
Plus: The cost of paying the government for workers is too high here....the employers NI contribution on a weekly wage of is The employees is (note: the employers contribution is what THEY pay to employ YOU....so from your the state gets (in NI) )
Then there is the local government subsidy that employers pay to the council....known as business rates.....which are an average of £4500 (ish) for each business (some are lower than that....)
I could go on at length about how successive UK governments have priced business out of the country.
Deliberately.
mmmmm, still reserving comment, for now.
the national debt of uk plc, thats you and me, is greater than those of iceland, greece, portugal, spain, ireland and italy. the order here is pertinent. "our" government, without consulting us, has committed our and future generations of tax revenue contributors to a debt that can never be repaid in full. it has underwritten, with our money, private institutions (gamblers and risk takers) to the tune of at least £200 billion with more to come. with this the gamblers and risk takers were supposed to remain solvent and carry on their retail trade of lending to bussinesses and individuals to oil the wheels of the economy. but, other than filling their pockets with our money for failing, they have failed to maintain or increase lending levels.
if ten swingers sit round a table each with ten pounds representing all activity in the economy and they trade amongst themselves for goods and or services and all the money that they had was a loan from an eleventh member at the table, shall we say "the wanker", if the wanker charges interest, eventually, the wanker would end up with all the money.........unless, the wanker continued to increase the money supply through increased loans......do you follow? now by increasing the money supply (inflation) i dont mean big cock here, a commodity like a shag costs more notes because the increase in notes means they are worth less eventually. in the short term, the increased credit causes an increase in transactions (shags) and a feel good factor. but, in time, the amount of interest accrued becomes too great for the capacity of the swingers to shag. realising this, the wanker cuts off the supply of new credit and the activity rate begins to fall at an increasing (exponential) rate while new credit becomes unavailable but interest has to be paid. the wanker slows down this falling rate of shagging by reducing interest rates. now the wanker has done this because he borrowed some of the money he brought to the table from someone else who backed his bussiness plan but he was facing a crossover point where, if he could'nt get the swingers to shag more cos they could'nt afford it, he would'nt be able to service the interest on his debt.....to be continued
well i could joke about cds and say they are the plural of a cd but no. cds means cadbury's dairy soufle soon to become kds. the counter party being kraft and kraft are spreading their risk, i mean cheese a bit far lately.
they've nicked all the choccy by default really so you've gotta giv em credit, cadbury shareholders will have to swap choccy for money, which proves what every woman has already derived :- that choccy is legal tender.
enuf about choccy, a siv is a range rover with armour plating and a cdo is a mortgage secured by nohouse.
like a the fuckwit i am, i take more note of paul volker than i do of stiglitz coz paul is more of a peoples man (volker) but hey,i must admit joe does have some merit. both are very aware of the crisis of solvency/systemic risk and contagion.
the attention to banks on my part, which i pm'd you, became redundant to both you and me when the market opened this a.m. and it was apparent that something had occured early this morning as you probably know and no, i was not doing a goldman sachs on you.
meantime, enjoy your coffee awayman and i will try to figure out bulls and bears,risk aversion, systemic risk, derivitives, collaterised debt obligations, securitised investment vehicles, credit default swaps, assets, non performing assets, financial instruments, debt, credit, liabilities, counterparty, libor, gilts, bonds, interest and compound cos i have'nt got a phuckwit of an idea bout any of it.
and its all rock and roll to me.
them eegits meetin in sid's house in oz at the w/e callin themselves central wankers, imf's (that means international men farters) and bis, short for biscuits or taking the biscuit went all that way and decided to do nufin ?
Kent, Awayman appears to have apologised and, from his response to her, gulsonroad didn't seem to take offence at foxylady's comments.
It would help if people acted sensibly and sensitively and didn't insult each other with such regularity. If anyone really wishes to make an issue out of the comments then please let us know. In the meantime, please can we all try to refrain from unnecessary insults. Adult debate doesn't have to descend into name-calling all the time!
Back on topic now?
Nola x
Not sure how this will be received, but what about the fact that there are at least 3 football clubs in serious arrears with HMRC - Portsmouth being the most serious owing the State over £7m in unpaid tax, NIC's and VAT (the others being Cardiff and Southend).
But can you blame them when the message coming loud and clear from Westminster is to keep spending?
We harp on about Broken Britain continuing to spend it's way out of a crisis so why not the clubs continue to pay their star players £150k a week?
Maybe the only difference is that the Government can print money legally (quantitative easing) to keep afloat whereas the whole might and power of the legislature will descend on anyone who dares to copy their example!
In edit: bill now £11.5 presumably after HMRC add their daily interest charge...
Gulson did apologise and as this is a forum which should not be personal, I wonder why the comments against Gulson are rather personal?
Gulson, think a bit more before you type and send as you are intelligent and can write well without letting off steam in a way that makes you a target.