The Savage Side of the Credit Crunch

[scorrie]

Wow, it's a hard life!!

I was in Somerfield the other day and a young Mother, with kid in tow, was giving it large to the checkout Lassie about the worry of Christmas approaching. I think the young woman in question was someone that Locals usually categorise as "Never worked/never wanted" but, with the current economic climate, and my heart being softer due to the strains of Shakin Stevens in the background, I cocked a normally deaf ear in her direction, anticipating a tale of Dickensian proportions, complete with evil Landlord and Bailiffs at the door.

To my astonishment, the concerns were not at all about matters financial, but solely about not being able to think of anything to buy for her kids' Christmas.

"What can I get them, when they already have EVERYTHING?" was the whining plea.

Golly, life's just not fair, is it? I suggest the following books as pressies:-

Bleak House and Hard Times by Charles Dickens

or

Where's The PS4 When You Need It? by Benny Fitz

[telfordstar]

I wish that that was all i had to worry about for xmas.

[forevera123]

life is always not easy, with the credit crunch, just like adding the fuel to the fire, makes everything more difficult.:(

[hotrod4]

That is so true! What do you give the child who has everything? Why not give them another brother or sister that way they would have to share everything and then they would have only half of "everything"?

As long as I have my health and my family and friends have theirs then I can truly say I have everything.

[Gizmo]

That is so true! What do you give the child who has everything? Why not give them another brother or sister that way they would have to share everything and then they would have only half of "everything"?

Or how about getting them two of everything?, seeing as the government will be throwing a load of extra money their way for having more kids.

[Mister Squiggle]

I was a little taken aback watching ITV news last night. There was an item about the latest "Lappland Theme Park" near Wolverhampton that had closed before it had even gotten off the ground - basically, it was a collection of tents and some muddy fields. The supposed park would have had a skating rink, formula 1 racetrack, Santa and his elves, reindeer, snow every 10 minutes etc etc.
People who had pre-booked tickets were turning up, to be turned away. The tickets for a day's pass were £25 each, or £80 for a family ticket They interviewed one woman who said she had spend £150 (and I quote) "That's not a lot of money, but the children are disappointed".
WHAAATT?? Since when has £150 not been "a lot of money?" What kind of parallel universe was she living in? And what does this say about the current "credit crunch" which is supposedly bringing us all to our knees?
They then showed the usual scenes on Oxford Street of mobs of people shopping (yet the item said that people weren't actually spending, which sort of begs the question, 'Well, what were they doing then? Knitting? Figure skating?' - Forgive me for not believing that 20,000 people herding up London's busiest shopping street are not actually parting with any cash).
What is going on? Are we actually starving or doing without on any significant scale, or is the media distorting things to such an extent that its hard to see the wood for the trees?
I switched to BBC to see an item about the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe - suffering and tragedy which seems to have been brought about largely through mismanagement, corruption and greed. Perhaps the sniffy heifer at the Lappland debacle might like to think how far her £150 might go towards clean water and medicine.
Sad, sad and sobering stuff.

[hotrod4]

Or how about getting them two of everything?, seeing as the government will be throwing a load of extra money their way for having more kids.
That is so true. child benefit is an outdated system that has no place today.
How can someone on 100k a year get the same as someone on the breadline?
Admittedly there are those that will milk the system, its such a shame that so few spoil it for so many![evil]

[cazmanian_minx]

What made me choke the other day was an article I read about a scheme to help first-time buyers on lower household incomes out - a loan that's interest-free for 5 years for certain properties to try and fill up the glut of city 2-bed apartments.

'Good idea,' I thought, until I read on and found out that a lower household income was judged to be any couple earning between them less than SIXTY THOUSAND A YEAR!!

[Gizmo]

I was a little taken aback watching ITV news last night. There was an item about the latest "Lappland Theme Park" near Wolverhampton that had closed before it had even gotten off the ground - basically, it was a collection of tents and some muddy fields. The supposed park would have had a skating rink, formula 1 racetrack, Santa and his elves, reindeer, snow every 10 minutes etc etc.
People who had pre-booked tickets were turning up, to be turned away. The tickets for a day's pass were £25 each, or £80 for a family ticket They interviewed one woman who said she had spend £150 (and I quote) "That's not a lot of money, but the children are disappointed".
WHAAATT?? Since when has £150 not been "a lot of money?" What kind of parallel universe was she living in? And what does this say about the current "credit crunch" which is supposedly bringing us all to our knees?
They then showed the usual scenes on Oxford Street of mobs of people shopping (yet the item said that people weren't actually spending, which sort of begs the question, 'Well, what were they doing then? Knitting? Figure skating?' - Forgive me for not believing that 20,000 people herding up London's busiest shopping street are not actually parting with any cash).
What is going on? Are we actually starving or doing without on any significant scale, or is the media distorting things to such an extent that its hard to see the wood for the trees?
I switched to BBC to see an item about the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe - suffering and tragedy which seems to have been brought about largely through mismanagement, corruption and greed. Perhaps the sniffy heifer at the Lappland debacle might like to think how far her £150 might go towards clean water and medicine.
Sad, sad and sobering stuff.

£150 is not a lot of money if you have plenty, you don't know anything about the woman interviewd, her household income could be a couple of thousand per week so to her £150 is not a lot of money, i on the other hand have sod all money so £150 is a lot to me.

And those 20,000 people shopping on oxford street, do you know exactly how much they were spending?, they could all be spending half the amount they did last year, so at the tills takings are down and it will be reported that shoppers are not spending.

The simple fact is that the majority of us are struggling to get by these days, my family, which is myself my wife and my son have around £270 a week to get by on, i have been unemployed all of this year and get no unemployment benefit as my wife works full time, we get a small amount of child tax credit and that's it, we have £90 a week rent which we get no help with, same with the council tax, we don't drink or smoke, we don't have any debt and we don't have a car, but we have seen our food electricity and heating outgoings rise by at least 30%, we are on the bones of our arse as far as money goes, and i'm sure with the amount of people being made redundant lately there will be many more families just like mine, it's tough times.....and it sucks!

[Mister Squiggle]

Point taken, Gizmo, however the point I was trying to make was that on the one hand, we are being beaten over the head with notions that the economy is on the slide, but on the other hand we are still confronted with signs of rampant consumerism and over-expenditure. And then one person's supposed hardship (losing £150 for not seeing some dopey reindeer and a bloke dressed as Santa) is a sick, sad joke when compared to the scale of suffering around us.
Yes, plenty of families are finding life very difficult - that's what sticks in my craw a little when someone can lightly disregard £150 -it could make a massive difference to so many people.
One person's half-hearted day out with the kiddies is another person's monthly heating bill ...

[dakud007]

£150 is not a lot of money if you have plenty, you don't know anything about the woman interviewd, her household income could be a couple of thousand per week so to her £150 is not a lot of money, i on the other hand have sod all money so £150 is a lot to me.

And those 20,000 people shopping on oxford street, do you know exactly how much they were spending?, they could all be spending half the amount they did last year, so at the tills takings are down and it will be reported that shoppers are not spending.

The simple fact is that the majority of us are struggling to get by these days, my family, which is myself my wife and my son have around £270 a week to get by on, i have been unemployed all of this year and get no unemployment benefit as my wife works full time, we get a small amount of child tax credit and that's it, we have £90 a week rent which we get no help with, same with the council tax, we don't drink or smoke, we don't have any debt and we don't have a car, but we have seen our food electricity and heating outgoings rise by at least 30%, we are on the bones of our arse as far as money goes, and i'm sure with the amount of people being made redundant lately there will be many more families just like mine, it's tough times.....and it sucks!
i always pray for myself to win the biggest prize on the lottery, but this time i pray for you,if you do buy lottery. good luck, Mister Squiggle!

[Mister Squiggle]

Thanks dakud007 - if it comes up, I'll split it with you (promise) ;)

[dakud007]

i always pray for myself to win the lottery, but this time i pray for you Gizmo,if you do buy the lottery. good luck!Gizmo
£150 is not a lot of money if you have plenty, you don't know anything about the woman interviewd, her household income could be a couple of thousand per week so to her £150 is not a lot of money, i on the other hand have sod all money so £150 is a lot to me.

And those 20,000 people shopping on oxford street, do you know exactly how much they were spending?, they could all be spending half the amount they did last year, so at the tills takings are down and it will be reported that shoppers are not spending.

The simple fact is that the majority of us are struggling to get by these days, my family, which is myself my wife and my son have around £270 a week to get by on, i have been unemployed all of this year and get no unemployment benefit as my wife works full time, we get a small amount of child tax credit and that's it, we have £90 a week rent which we get no help with, same with the council tax, we don't drink or smoke, we don't have any debt and we don't have a car, but we have seen our food electricity and heating outgoings rise by at least 30%, we are on the bones of our arse as far as money goes, and i'm sure with the amount of people being made redundant lately there will be many more families just like mine, it's tough times.....and it sucks!

[dakud007]

Thanks dakud007 - if it comes up, I'll split it with you (promise) ;)
thank you, i will wait for your good news!