Inflation aside, does anyone think that they’ve really screwed with society with the lockdowns, the money printing, the vaccine mandates, and the work from home mandates?<p>Everything feels very broken. Nobody wants to work. Even people who have been asked to come to the office are screwing off at least 1-2 days of the week and no one is able to do a thing.<p>A massive group of people are essentially walking around with zero faith in their government. If they’re not hostile, they’re apathetic.<p>Money is still completely wonky. All older economic indicators have stopped meaning anything because money has stopped meaning all that much.<p>Healthcare feels even more broken than before. You’ve got more deaths than ever and chronic sufferers are the worst hit.<p>I feel very pessimistic when I look at the world right now. Everything feels very chaotic and I don’t see a way out of the disorder.
The young will be expected pick up the tab for the old, despite owning none of the assets.<p>It would not be a surprise if there are policies announced to further tax the young to give 'Granny' more free money off her bills (the existing winter fuel allowance is not means tested), and further free transport round major cities (over 60s travel London free). Then there's the echoes of the lockdown nightmare, mass punishment of the young so the old could feel safer.<p>The response to any complaints about this generational vampirism is always of course; "you'll be old one day". Inheritance is rare to appear, all too often you hear that Granny has given it all to the local cat sanctuary. Patience is running thin and apathy is higher than ever.<p>If you're young, this country actively punishes and steals from you, then tells you to stop complaining. Finding hope in anyone under 60 is a tough task.
A Mix of Brexit, an aging population, massive underinvestment in basically everything, covid mishandling and huge debt means the UK is around year 0 of a lost decade. I will leave if I can.
I live in the north of England where temperature varies from 38F in Jan to 57F in August. It's pretty chilly for me, so I tend to spend a considerable amount of gas throughout the year. I'm renting a house, so deep work like insulation gets complicated.<p>My point is that even with a comfortable salary, I will feel ~£600/month in energy. I can only fear for people that earn much less than me.
“ It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday […] it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. [...] The eyeless crature at the other table swallowed it fanatically. passionately, with a furious desire to track down, denounce, and vaporize anyone who should suggest that last week the ration had been thirty grams. Syme, too-in some more double complex way, involving doublethink-Syme, swallow it. Was he, then, alone in the possession of a memory?”<p>George Orwell, 1984.
Hopefully the current energy crisis (in Europe) will further accelerate development in renewable energy.<p>Seems much of Europe is still chained to LNG, and that demand is even wreaking havoc in countries which have been previously quite self-sustained, or really don't use LNG much themselves - with Norway being a good example.
With two candidates for the next UK PM having polar opposite views on how to fix the economy, who do you think is more correct in their proposal: Sunak or Truss?
As many pundits have noted, the UK needs to negotiate good trade deals before its bargaining positions weakens further. Looking at the forecast, it might already be too late for that.
Summary of the FT article:<p>- Investment bank Citigroup forecasts UK inflation will hit 18.6 per cent in January 2023 — the highest peak in almost half a century — because of soaring wholesale gas prices.<p>- The bank predicted that the country’s retail energy price cap — which limits how much the average household pays for heating and electricity — would be raised to £4,567 in January and then £5,816 in April (approx $6880, €6850) compared with the current level of £1,971 a year. It added that the shifts would lead to inflation “entering the stratosphere”.<p>- UK and European wholesale natural gas prices are already trading at close to 10 times normal levels and other forecasters have also raised their inflation predictions.<p>- The energy regulator Ofgem will on Friday (26 Aug) announce the energy price cap for the period between October and January, which most analysts expect to rise to more than £3,500 for a household with average usage of energy — an increase of 75 per cent on current levels.<p><i>Related article from Reuters</i>: Europe's efforts to shield households from soaring energy costs <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europes-efforts-shield-households-soaring-energy-costs-2022-08-15/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europes-efforts-shie...</a>
Inflation isn't causing this. Inflation is devaluing of the currency. What's causing this is increased acquisition costs due to public policy.<p>6K seems reasonable for a family's annual energy bill. Frankly, it seems on the lower end for such a climate. What's really absurd in the UK is property prices. You'd be able to afford all the energy you desire if you weren't paying 10x what it should cost for housing.
A looming catastrophe in the UK and the government is doing nothing. I've seen some crazy stuff here over the last 12 years but this is next level.
We have a corrupt government and media that itch each others back. There's still a complete lack of urgency.<p>A potential new prime minister trying to defend profits of energy companies recently on TV just shows you the Modus operandi of the political class.<p>It might push people to riots in the streets.
For selection of non-paywall sources, click Google News search below:<p><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=UK+inflation+to+hit+18.6%25+next+year&tbm=nws" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=UK+inflation+to+hit+18.6%25+...</a>
We should probably ban loads of our low paid workers from entering the country, print a load of money and give it to people, tell the remaining workers to stay at home, change all of our working practices so that they don't match our infrastructure, and unilaterally sever trade with partners that sell us energy.<p>What could possibly go wrong?
I've been whining about how unjust and non-meritocratic the current economy has been for the last 5 years and look at that... These insane inflation numbers are proving me right. I'm quite sure the inflation will continue too. My detractors were in fact gaslighting me the whole time, as I suspected.<p>The people at the top today are incompetent and lack principles. No better than the corrupt dictators of uncivilized nations. I almost get satisfaction seeing them driving that sinking ship all the way to the seafloor. That's the most meritocratic thing I've seen in a decade.
Three things:<p>1 Renewables: The solution exists already but no gov't (in particular the UK) is implementing it: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100%25_renewable_energy" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100%25_renewable_energy</a><p>2 The UK gov't rather is arresting people demonstrating for housing insulation. This is probably the dumbest thing a gov't can do, since insulation is a "bipartisan" issue and everybody would profit from it.<p>3 On top of this the UK is on the verge of picking a fight with the EU and risking a trade war by its illegal and unilateral changes to the Brexit agreement. NI political issues aside, no sane gov't would do that at this point in time.