Up to 40% cuts in UK Govt spending?

[RuleBritannia]

A new Tesco opened near me a couple months ago, they were looking for 15 new employees (tranfers made up the other jobs), they had over 1000 applicants.

The government wants to cut thousands of public sector jobs and expects the private sector to pick up the unemployed as if businesses exist to give people jobs out of the goodness of their hearts.

[Meekychuppet]

...I also think that, right now at least, for anyone complaining about the job market, there is work. Sure, you might have to flip burgers but it beats the alternative...

I have to call you out on this one. There is a lazy assumption out there on the part of people who are safely in jobs that "even if there's nothing else, there's always the minimum wage stuff" - No there fucking isn't!!! Or at least insofar as there is, there are about a hundred applicants for each one.


Good luck finding yourself a "McJob" if you end-up unemployed Meeky. Might be harder than you think.

Maybe it will. I dunno, but I can assure you I am not safely in anything. Things can change pretty quick in my line of work and I am currently due to run out of funding around 6 months after these cuts take hold so don't be under the impression that all is rosy for me either. The job market could be far better but I do think the cynicism about employment is not especially new. The recession highlights a need for employment but where I live it's never been any other way. The last meaningful statement I heard about this indicated that there are some 600000 unfilled positions in the job market - this was on a TV chat show so I can't link to anywhere. I am certainly aware of plenty of people I was at uni with who, when they claim they can't find work, what they really mean is that they can't find graduate work at 25k p/a. If all options have been exhausted then fair enough, but I know too many who turn their nose up at gainful labour.

We'll wait and see what happens. I am still not sure how this will go. Rum's post about people being laid off now isn't at all to the point, because in times of uncertainty businesses always lay people off in lieu of difficulty. They don't fire people because of cuts, they do it because they fear cuts. It's one of the things that made the Great Depression so bad. People began hoarding and the rich refused to release money in to the economy to make it's way down to the poor. As a result they killed off demand for their own services and, ironically, by trying to keep hold of what they had, they destroyed their own livelihoods because the populous could not afford to pay for their products and services. I remain as convinced as ever that, whilst cuts are coming, the way through this is stimulus. Given the election result I think things could be far worse and the impending cuts could be far worse.

One good sign is that interest rates are going to rise. For too long savers have been bankrolling cheap mortgages and that has encouraged people to use their homes as ATMs. The fact that consumer credit will be harder to get is a good thing, and I am actually hopeful that rising interest rates will give me a shot at a retirement. Right now a pension and/or savings is worthless because of interest rates, but if rates go as high as I think they will, in excess of 10%, then it will eventually put real wealth in to the hands of UK again, and not the 'paper wealth' that the 90s housing boom madness featured. One of the things that was so disastrous about Labour's property boom is it created a mindset in many people that property ownership was redemptive. Home ownership is something that I think is worthwhile, but people deluded themselves in to thinking it was better than cash in the bank. As interest rates rise then I think that mindset will change.

Say what you like about the way things are here and now, but UK where I live is a much better place to live than it was in the 1970-80s. I am already planning some community stuff that is geared towards pulling people together and defending what we have as a whole rather than individuals batting for themselves. I am not naive enough to think this will be easy but there are opportunities here, there really are. It just needs people to work at it rather than dividing in to huddled masses. There's no doubt we've a tough few years ahead, and maybe I am too optimistic, time will tell. I am as much opposed to the government as I ever have been, but we have the government we deserve. In my line of work I have learned that you can't be idealistic. I educate all ages and sorts and I work to bring people together. I don't get to have the 'clear-thinking oasis' I dream of, I simply have to do the best I can with what I have and that means meeting people and working with them as they are, not as I would like them to be.

We're still one of the richest economies on Earth. We're still a great place to live, and I think we're going to avoid the savage austerity measures that Greece and Spain had to implement. The jury is still out on that for sure, but I think we won't have it as bad as that. Thank god we're not in the Euro, we can trade our way through difficult times with our flexible currency.

Of course, now I've made a performative post, full of predictions and I am asking to be shot down, I know. I think double dip is a certainty, I think depression is avoidable. I also think we atheists could be more of a guiding light. Religion always dives on austerity, not only to recruit, but to tell us all it's punishment for how we live. I think how we live is worth defending.

[Pensioner]

The problem is when a rich bastard tells me that my wife and my self have to tighten our belts when we are looking like wasps already no wonder I get angry. When a powerful rich silver spooned cunt says we are all in the same boat why is it that folk like myself and my family always end up doing the rowing? Socialism for the rich bankers (public money for the banks) capitalism for the rest of us.

[Meekychuppet]

The problem is when a rich bastard tells me that my wife and my self have to tighten our belts when we are looking like wasps already no wonder I get angry. When a powerful rich silver spooned cunt says we are all in the same boat why is it that folk like myself and my family always end up doing the rowing? Socialism for the rich bankers (public money for the banks) capitalism for the rest of us.

I'm with you, I am as pissed off as anyone. I am kind of scratching my head too because it doesn't seem as though the UK manufactures anything any more. I am wondering what industry is going to lead us out of this.

[floppit]

I am wondering what industry is going to lead us out of this.

I think we have a half decent toe hold in Pharma, and I suspect it's along those lines we have our best bet for the future. I don't see how we can compete with countries willing to work for a dollar a day without reaching that level of poverty first and global trade is here to stay. On the other hand despite decrying the UK education system we don't do too badly for our size academically, not so much in terms of the average citizen but in terms of research and those who manage to excel. Of course none of that bodes well for anyone less educated!

[RuleBritannia]

Green technology, green, green, green.

[Meekychuppet]

Green technology, green, green, green.

I think/hope it's this.

[Pappa]

Green technology, green, green, green.

I think/hope it's this.

I hope it is, but I know it won't be.