State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8yn0d310zo

Office based is being pushed now. Whether people like it or not. There is no growth sitting at home with your slippers on.

I think you are pinning your future prospects on a return to the office for everyone because the good old days had everyone in the office.

[Smartie]

I love it. Makes you feel part of something. Like a cog, part of a machine.

Every person there has paid ~£10 to travel for the day adding to the economy.

There is no growth of the economy when there is no spending.

More like £15-£18 for an all zones day pass.

Last year the trains and tubes weren't too bad.
This year there are fewer trains scheduled and more people so it's almost back to the bad old days of sardines.
That photo could have been taken this week.

[willendure]

Some people have had that conversation - the issue has been raised, but as with all issues these days, governments are not prepared to offer hard choices to the electorate. Mostly because the electorate will vote for tax cuts AND more spending and generally an easier life for themselves rather than what is in the long term interests of the country.

Immigration is clearly too high - there is a limit to how many people we can successfully integrate as well as providing the required infrastructure - schools, hospitals, housing etc.
The question is, what is that limit and how do we manage it?
Given that half the residents of this country are net recipients of money (government spending less tax paid), it's clearly in our interest to focus on skilled, higher income workers who will be net positive for the country.
Unfortunately, a lot of the people we currently need are low income (not always low skilled) workers such as care workers.
A points system would be helpful for both of these requirements.
In terms of asylum, there are a lot of low skilled people coming in, but also doctors coming from Ukraine, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
We don't let them work - why?

It's easy to say we should be training our own but that takes investment and several years to ramp up. It also requires us to pay more for low paid but critically required jobs such as care workers as well as having to pay more for skilled areas such as (junior) doctors apparently.

So, all very complicated.

On topic, there's no particular reason for IT workers to be exempted from the general move towards importing labour to reduce expense.
The plumbers and builders had to suck it up when the Polish started arriving in force and we were all pretty happy to be able to get a cheaper plumber, or a plumber at all.

The solution is likely to be a long term one over at least ten years.
Set up a points system with more points for high incomes and critical roles.
At the same time begin to ramp up training for critical roles and pay levels for those roles.
Adjust the points system every year as supply of home-grown critical roles increase to focus more on high skilled, high income immigrants.

Of course, attracting the high value immigrants requires the UK to be attractive to them and we'll be competing with other countries there, so a well functioning society and lower taxes might be helpful. Which reduces the money available to invest in the required skills and training. Sigh.

Sounds about right. Just forward this email to Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves who will undoubtedly read it and have a light-bulb moment before swinging into action to correct our immigration policies.

[pjt]

You have to ask yourself why would you want to go back to this..?



qh

That picture makes me glad I don't live down that way! Looks horrible and to add insult to injury in the summer its about 1000°C and smells like a sewer. WHF all the way for me if I can get it.

[SchumiStars]

More like £15-£18 for an all zones day pass.

Last year the trains and tubes weren't too bad.
This year there are fewer trains scheduled and more people so it's almost back to the bad old days of sardines.
That photo could have been taken this week.

Sounds about right. And then there is the coffee and croissant.

TBF, I usually commute by cycling or running and I don't drink coffee unless I'm racing

London is boom or bust. Clearly we are bust ATM, so yes I am hoping it changes quite soon

[quackhandle]

I love it. Makes you feel part of something. Like a cog, part of a machine.

An expendable cog that makes money for a machine whilst you work yourself to death.


qh

[SchumiStars]

An expendable cog that makes money for a machine whilst you work yourself to death.


qh

Is it any different for anyone else?

Whether you are permi or a contractor, working as CEO or a coffee baristor, we all have clients and suppliers.

Just to add, the good thing with the tube is that you could be sitting next to a CEO or someone high rank in a company.

Running at lunchtime around the royal parks or round the river, you can find yourself racing against highly motivated company directors and managers.

.....And if I could choose a place to catch my last bus it would be running in central London. . WFH, means your gonna finish in your PJs. I ain't going out like that.

The embankment is littered with people. Get to see all the sites, Westminster, M15, M16, Tower of London, Tower Bridge. And the south side is even busier!

Yes, I do love working in London. And being motivated and enthusiastic in your workplace brings results for the company and individual.

[dsc]

Sounds about right. And then there is the coffee and croissant.

TBF, I usually commute by cycling or running and I don't drink coffee unless I'm racing

London is boom or bust. Clearly we are bust ATM, so yes I am hoping it changes quite soon

Why the hell would anyone want to spend £30 a day for commute / food, then sweat your balls off on uber packed trains / tube just to feel like a part of something? go join a gym / runners club / mens club / church / local dance studio etc. and it might work out better and cheaper in the long run.

[avonleigh]

I love it. Makes you feel part of something. Like a cog, part of a machine.

Every person there has paid ~£10 to travel for the day adding to the economy.

There is no growth of the economy when there is no spending.

Not really. Don't spend on travel and you have more money to spend on something else. Which in turn helps the economy. Also it's funny because where I live there are plenty of coffee shops and none have closed down cos of people working remotely. Shops are closing down cos of Amazon. Pubs are closing down cos of the cost of living crisis.

[edison]

Those of a similar vintage to me will remember the rise of the internet and the dot.com bubble about 25 years ago.

Everyone piled into tech stocks because the internet was about to be the only game in town and bricks and mortar were redundant. They were right but the adjustment is still happening now and having a website with a strange name wasn’t enough to change the world.

The same will happen with AI. It is beginning to have real world implications and that will continue but outside of a few outriders, business and industry is small c conservative and will take their sweet time adopting it, especially as the regulatory framework isn’t their yet.

I remember the late 90s well. I had an interview with Accenture for some vague sounding blue sky internet innovation lab but didn't get the job as I was 'too grounded in reality."

I also remember one occasion when one of the big banks announced they were going to create a website and their shares rose 10% in a day - those were the days of real mania!

I agree with you about AI and think the widespread diffusion of it into real world applications will take another 5-10 years. There is a lot of 'proper' machine learning going on in things like computer vision and automation but its drowned out by the endless noise about LLMs and ChatGPT and the like.