Average UK worker would be £200 a week better off if real wages had grown at pre-crisis rate
- Thread starter ks.234
- Start date
wulbert
pfm Member
Inflation on equipment and materials is hammering small businesses. I'm sure it must be a lot higher than the claimed RPI.
I sold a trailer last week for £2,000. I paid the equivalent of £2,900 in today's money (using B. of E. inflation rates) for it in 2018. It's current price is £4,800, which is 65% higher than it "should" be according to official inflation rates. Timber and petro-chemical based products seem to be the same.
I'm charging much more, but making less profit margin than I was 5 years ago, against a background of rapidly escalating materials and energy costs. I've worked out what I "should" charge, to keep pace with increased costs, but the prices would be extortionate (to people in Glasgow. Perhaps in Surrey people would happily pay up).
I sold a trailer last week for £2,000. I paid the equivalent of £2,900 in today's money (using B. of E. inflation rates) for it in 2018. It's current price is £4,800, which is 65% higher than it "should" be according to official inflation rates. Timber and petro-chemical based products seem to be the same.
I'm charging much more, but making less profit margin than I was 5 years ago, against a background of rapidly escalating materials and energy costs. I've worked out what I "should" charge, to keep pace with increased costs, but the prices would be extortionate (to people in Glasgow. Perhaps in Surrey people would happily pay up).
droodzilla
pfm Member
Hence: Statistics.
Gingerbeard
Ayup Me Duck
Because the country is run by a bunch of f*#@ing morons that are only interested in lining their own pockets. You only have to look at the attitudes towards the homeless, absolutely disgusting
Gingerbeard
Ayup Me Duck
Paper rich and not cash rich by the sounds of it - Although I could be mistaken, as there’s an awful lot of wealth in this country, it just sounds like a lot of borrowed money I.e. property, cars etc.
Gingerbeard
Ayup Me Duck
I run an SME, came across a quote for some technical equipment we needed when starting out in 2021, 3 years later the exact same equipment is 50% more expensive, it’s insane
Bananahead
pfm Member
The UK is Sixth (or Twenty-First depending on how you want to look at it.) based on 2024 IMF data.
Salamander
pfm Member
I would say you've wasted it on big screen tv's and mobile phones.
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
This country is run by a government that chooses to increase inequality, defund public services, punish the poor and disabled, create growing levels of poverty and is becoming more and more authoritairian.
These are all choices made because of ideology. We are one of the richest countries in the world, but we choose to make most people poorer and poorer so a few can get richer and richer.
We have become a country of greed and cruelty to those who have been made desperate.
We are watching our NHS being dismantled
We are watching our children get worse care
We are watching people seeking asylum being deported
We are watching the lives of most people deteriorating
We do not criticise our country enough.
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
This is not about you and yours, this is about those who you and your government have deliberately chosen to impoverish so that you and yours get richer and richer
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
Amazing how quickly a thread about people being made worse off is turned into posts about how rich a few people are.
Something the advertising logarithms have noticed too
I like you am just a citizen. We either earn money through work or receive a pension. I guess we represent about 95% of the population. There is no you and yours, we are us because we are the same. You are me and I am you and if the government impoverish you, they impoverish me. I feel united with you and yet you consider us disunited to the point we are separate and almost at war.
Strength comes from unity and learning off each other, if we argue we will both suffer.
I love you and want you to love me.
Is that really too much to ask?
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
Not too much to ask at all.
But if you genuinely loved your fellow human being, you wouldn’t vote Tory.
If you genuinely loved your fellow human being you would vote against making them poorer.
Our current politics is based on division and conflict, not strength and unity.
I look forward to us working in unity, learning from each other and discussing how we move from choices based on wealth for a few to improving equality and quality of life for the many. But to do that we need to make choices that are directed to human ends, not ends determined by quasi religious assumptions about the free market.
How do you suggest we improve equality and promote moral and human ends? I’m eager to learn.
lawrence001
Basic Member
US companies tend to use share buybacks more (for tax reasons I think) which increases the share price, so it's only fair to include divis for comparison.
I do not know your personal circumstances but by the amount of time you spend here I would guess you are a retiree. If that is the case you have already made your bed and you now sleep in it. Wise investment is your only choice to increase your wealth but there is an element of risk.
If you are working, stop spending time here and work harder.
The UK has a low level of productivity so it needs to work harder. I worked hard, I am not boasting as I did work hard and got rewarded accordingly and everyone else can do the same.
However I am convinced that most people in the UK are doing ok.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
But should we be satisfied with 'most people are doing OK'? Does that permit us to ignore the 'some people are not doing OK' and the 'and a fair few people are doing really, really badly'?
Your point appears to be "I'm all right Jack and so are my neighbours, so sod you".
My neighbour has a porch. Only one though. He keeps the family's shoes in there, and a couple of pot plants that I gave him years ago.
Seeker_UK
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
If "doing OK" = not in poverty, then whilst your statement is correct, 1 in 5 not "doing OK" is not a statistic any caring and compassionate country should be associated with.
UK Poverty 2024: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK
The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK
www.jrf.org.uk
If "doing OK" = not in poverty, then whilst your statement is correct, 1 in 5 not "doing OK" is not a statistic any caring and compassionate country should be associated with.
UK Poverty 2024: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK
The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK
This is where I get confused. Later today I will be popping out to the local shopping centre. I know that when I get out of my car in the car park, I will see lots of nice shiny cars. Twenty years ago half of them would have been rusty but today the cars tend to be bigger and better. The people walking to the shops will be dressed smart, they will walk into shops and buy goodies, they will pay for them and will appear to be happy, so it paints a picture of things going ok.
I do not see these "1 in 5" whose are living in destitution.
