UK now sick old man of Europe

[hyperD]

The reason why Gordon Brown (the best chancellor the UK has ever had © Tony Bliar) says we invest in public sector is so we can get £20b worth of PFI debt off the balance books.

[Mailman]

Quite obviously the only answer is a flat tax regime!

Mailman

[xoggoth]

I always think this increasing standard of living stuff we are peddled is misleading. Higher household incomes are a lot to do with the fact that far more women have to work than used to be the case.

[NoddY]

I always think this increasing standard of living stuff we are peddled is misleading. Higher household incomes are a lot to do with the fact that far more women have to work than used to be the case.

Spot-on.

It now requires more labour hours to finance a family home than the post-War generation ever had to do. The days of 1x average income financing an average house are long gone.

[Fleetwood]

I has this conversation with my Dad.
The first house he bought was a four-bed semi-detached in nice area of Manchester*. It was 1963 and the house cost £500, which was less than his yearly salary.

(* not a contradiction in terms)

[stackpole]

"Record investment... "

Public services in the UK are the only things I know who's performance is measured by how much they cost.

Very strange.

[Fleetwood]

True.
("whose", btw)

[expat]

I always think this increasing standard of living stuff we are peddled is misleading. Higher household incomes are a lot to do with the fact that far more women have to work than used to be the case.

It now requires more labour hours to finance a family home than the post-War generation ever had to do. The days of 1x average income financing an average house are long gone.

I has this conversation with my Dad.
The first house he bought was a four-bed semi-detached in nice area of Manchester*. It was 1963 and the house cost £500, which was less than his yearly salary.

All spot-on. When the function of a market is to distribute limited resources among too many people who want them, then no amount of universal extra work and higher earnings can move everybody up, not when there are no more resources to go round.

If everybody earns more, the price will just go up accordingly.

(Incidentally something similar applies to pensions savings: you will be short, not because you haven't saved, but because there will be too many other wrinklies also wanting retirement homes, cleaners, medical and other care, and the only way to get those in a tight market is to be better off than the other guys. Everybody saving will not fix it).

[DimPrawn]

Moral of the story.

Don't worry about how everybody else is doing just make sure you are head and shoulders above everyone else.

HTH

[Mailman]

If everybody earns more, the price will just go up accordingly.

No, what we really need is a model like Singapores (except without all them nashty government taxes on everything) where you can earn heaps and heaps and heaps BUT still pay next to nothing for anything important (like beer and food).

So, obviously, apart from a flat tax regime, WE really do need a massive body of poorly paid poor people to keep costs down...while us ex contractors can live in the nicer parts of town, drive our nice cars and get hammered for next to nothing

Mailman