Farage Ltd and Similar Watch

[Johnny75]

So it's power companies you have a problem with? Is this the fault of the immigrants taking everybody else's power?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'd suggest that many people who were around to experience both would have said, if asked in 1984, that things were better in 1954 than the current day. And the same would apply thirty years before that and thirty years before that.

 

[thehistorymakers]

Are you saying this is the fault of immigrants?

Are you saying the living standards of a country you no longer reside in are not as good in absolute or comparative terms?

Which measurements of living standards would you like to use?

Do you class technology as an improvement of living standards or monetary alone, i.e. the ability to afford things?

Struggling there Johnny.

 

[thehistorymakers]

So it's power companies you have a problem with? Is this the fault of the immigrants taking everybody else's power?

Love it. Haha

 

[thehistorymakers]

I'd suggest that many people who were around to experience both would have said, if asked in 1984, that things were better in 1954 than the current day. And the same would apply thirty years before that and thirty years before that.

Fair point, but I was asked if there was any evidence that living standards have dropped. I trust a link from an organisation that works with poverty, more than a link to the Financial times.

 

[thehistorymakers]

Yes, but I'm sure their standard of living wasn't great in 1984.

The availability and affordability of 'luxury items' alone would mean that peoples living standard today is better than 30 years ago.

'Levels of deprivation today are worse in a number of vital areas, from basic housing to key social activities, than at any point in the past 30 years’, added Joanna Mack from The Open University, who, with Stewart Lansley, devised the study method in 1983. 'These trends are a deeply shocking indictment of 30 years of economic and social policy and reflect a rapid growth in inequality"

 

[Penk Wolf]

The PSE approach, now adopted by the UK Government and by a growing number of rich and developing countries, identifies people falling below a publicly-determined minimum standard of living. This method of measuring poverty was pioneered in 1983 and repeated in studies in 1990, 1999, 2002/03 and 2012 allowing trends over 30 years to be tracked.

Today 33% of the UK population suffers from multiple deprivation by the standards set by the public. It was 14% in 1983.


http://www.poverty.ac.uk/editorial/pse-report-reveals-impoverished-nation

What it doesn't tell me is how many of these people that can't afford to heat their homes have Sky TV and the latest smart phones. It's all about choices.

When I worked at Birmingham Midshires the amount of times people chose to pay their Sky subscription before their mortgage payment was frightening.

 

[thehistorymakers]

What it doesn't tell me is how many of these people that can't afford to heat their homes have Sky TV and the latest smart phones. It's all about choices.

When I worked at Birmingham Midshires the amount of times people chose to pay their Sky subscription before their mortgage payment was frightening.

hahaha

I always new it was Rupert Murdochs fault.

 

[thehistorymakers]

What it doesn't tell me is how many of these people that can't afford to heat their homes have Sky TV and the latest smart phones. It's all about choices.

When I worked at Birmingham Midshires the amount of times people chose to pay their Sky subscription before their mortgage payment was frightening.

If I had written that, I'd have been jumped on for generalising and sweeping statements.

I've always thought you come across as a decent bloke, but you come across as a snob in that post.

 

[Del Woppio]

Quite. People's spending habits are disgraceful tbh, and I include my own in that. I'll occasionally moan that I'm skint, but probably pay a household total of £300 a month on sky, various phones, Internet, and subscriptions. Probably the same again on booze, fags and confectionery. I'm a sucker for maoam...

Has anybody seen 'skint'? That's great for a bit of a seethe. There's some heart breaking stories, and then you've got the cunts who moan that they can't feed their kids whilst smoking and drinking at 9am.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I don't see any generalisation there.

 

[Penk Wolf]

I think I said that the person hadn't ever made a personal insult and that I could see why he thought what he did , even though I didn't agree with his opinion. Which seems fair enough to me.
I don't see how personal insults, just because you don't agree with someone elses opinion ever add to the discussion. But they happen on this forum and nothing is said , which I am fine with.

:ursofunny:

If I had written that, I'd have been jumped on for generalising and sweeping statements.

I've always thought you come across a decent bloke, but you come across as a snob in that post.

Something else to take into account only 65% of the Country had central heating in 1984 against 98% today.

 

[So Long Architect]

Thanks for the link THM. Certainly makes for grim reading.

The report itself doesn't link any of its findings to immigration - in fact doesn't mention immigration. Its conclusions are more about the more unequal nature of our society - something that's been discussed elsewhere on this site.

"Underlying these trends is a growing income divide. Over the last thirty years, Britain has become increasingly unequal. While the size of the economy has doubled since 1983, the fruits of growth have been increasingly captured by those on the highest incomes, leaving those on middle and low incomes further and further behind. Households dependent on low wages have increasingly found their pay packets squeezed and their jobs insecure. Since 2000, incomes have risen even more slowly. As a result, increasing numbers of people have found that their living standards have not kept up with the changing standards of society."

It also points out that impact of the financial crisis and subsequent government austerity measures:

"The UK’s faltering economic prospects have also had an impact on the public’s view of minimum standards. The views expressed in 2012 are less generous than those in 1999. Even so, the numbers of people lacking a range of items is higher today than in 1999. The impact of austerity has hit those on low incomes hard. These results reflect the situation before the majority of proposed benefit changes come into place and before benefits payments are revised to increase at less than the level of inflation. The impacts of the current government austerity measures are set to hit hard those whose standard of living is already well below that seen by a majority to be minimal."

 

[Penk Wolf]

Quite. People's spending habits are disgraceful tbh, and I include my own in that. I'll occasionally moan that I'm skint, but probably pay a household total of £300 a month on sky, various phones, Internet, and subscriptions. Probably the same again on booze, fags and confectionery. I'm a sucker for maoam...

Has anybody seen 'skint'? That's great for a bit of a seethe. There's some heart breaking stories, and then you've got the cunts who moan that they can't feed their kids whilst smoking and drinking at 9am.

I think we are all guilty of it, and another difference is people didn't borrow to have nice new things as much 30 years ago, where as today it's the norm.

 

[thehistorymakers]

:ursofunny:



Something else to take into account only 65% of the Country had central heating in 1984 against 98% today.

Picking at bits Penk. They had electric fires 30 years ago too. I said our living standards have fallen in the last 30 years. You said they hadn't.
No you are trying to blame people for wasting money on TV.

 

[thehistorymakers]

Thanks for the link THM. Certainly makes for grim reading.

The report itself doesn't link any of its findings to immigration - in fact doesn't mention immigration. Its conclusions are more about the more unequal nature of our society - something that's been discussed elsewhere on this site.

"Underlying these trends is a growing income divide. Over the last thirty years, Britain has become increasingly unequal. While the size of the economy has doubled since 1983, the fruits of growth have been increasingly captured by those on the highest incomes, leaving those on middle and low incomes further and further behind. Households dependent on low wages have increasingly found their pay packets squeezed and their jobs insecure. Since 2000, incomes have risen even more slowly. As a result, increasing numbers of people have found that their living standards have not kept up with the changing standards of society."

It also points out that impact of the financial crisis and subsequent government austerity measures:

"The UK’s faltering economic prospects have also had an impact on the public’s view of minimum standards. The views expressed in 2012 are less generous than those in 1999. Even so, the numbers of people lacking a range of items is higher today than in 1999. The impact of austerity has hit those on low incomes hard. These results reflect the situation before the majority of proposed benefit changes come into place and before benefits payments are revised to increase at less than the level of inflation. The impacts of the current government austerity measures are set to hit hard those whose standard of living is already well below that seen by a majority to be minimal."

Fantastic post.

 

[Del Woppio]

There's not a chance living standards have fallen in thirty years. Iiterally nobody I know is in a worse position financially, emotionally or health wise than they were 30 years ago. Apart from the few that are dead.

 

[thehistorymakers]

There's not a chance living standards have fallen in thirty years. Iiterally nobody I know is in a worse position financially, emotionally or health wise than they were 30 years ago. Apart from the few that are dead.

hahaha I don't know if that was meant to be funny, but it was.

 

[Del Woppio]

Obviously that last sentence was!

 

[MARKakaJIM]

So, Pedro, is your standard of life better now than it was 30 years ago?