Pensions Outrage In UK

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

In all seriousness though, is anyone getting a bit of deja vu? I mean, it's been thirty years since The Specials did 'Ghost Town', but the lyrics could be for today. I guess its true what they say about history repeating.

One of my fundamental concerns is the fact that on previous economic/industrial downturns there was still a healthy apprenticeship scheme in many industries to help rejuvinate manufacturing etc. when the upturn came but today there are no such schemes or industry for that matter.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

One of my fundamental concerns is the fact that on previous economic/industrial downturns there was still a healthy apprenticeship scheme in many industries to help rejuvinate manufacturing etc. when the upturn came but today there are no such schemes or industry for that matter.

I hear you, the death of our primary and secondary industry has been a concern of mine. It's all well and good moving towards a tertiary civilization stage if you have the society to support that, which we do not. Furthermore, tertiary based civilizations are more vulnerable to economic downturns than primary and secondary ones because of their reliance on the economic sector for employment and business. We desperately need to take a step back in the sector stages and focus on secondary and primary industry for employment purposes...however the big problem with that is the quotas set by the EU which put limits on what farming and fishing industries can do. I'm not sure where the EU stands on Secondary industry, but Tertiary seems relatively untouched, which is probably why we're thrashing like mad trying to keep our head above water in the Tertiary sector.

Oh, and for those who are not sure what I mean by Primary, Secondary and Tertiary industry, here's a quick link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-sector_hypothesis

It was something I was taught in Geography which has stuck with me because it is a very true proposal in most instances.

[TarJak]

The problem is that by the time you have gotten to 3rd stage economy based largely on services rather that production, you have priced yourself out of the primary and secondary markets.

The only way you can compete then is to drop your salary which no-one wants to do because of the hit on standard of living.

I don't know the answers but going back stages is not as easy as you might think unless people are prepared to forego their previous lifestyles. This only happens when the economic downturns bite hard enough on enough people to force large sections of the economy to shift direction.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by TarJak

The problem is that by the time you have gotten to 3rd stage economy based largely on services rather that production, you have priced yourself out of the primary and secondary markets.

The only way you can compete then is to drop your salary which no-one wants to do because of the hit on standard of living.

I don't know the answers but going back stages is not as easy as you might think unless people are prepared to forego their previous lifestyles. This only happens when the economic downturns bite hard enough on enough people to force large sections of the economy to shift direction.

Hmmm, good point, however it's coming up to a crunch time where people might not have much of a choice. Of course, the reductions will hit the poorest hardest and it'll be Greece in the UK. There is no real answer that will fix the problems we face without significant pain for most of the country. On one hand, raising the pension age is an inevitability, as our local MP put it last night in the commons the average life expectancy in the UK is rising at a critical rate, an unsustainable one even. However you cannot target pensions and public sector workers alone, you have to make the cuts across the board and treat everyone equally, you have to tax the richest as well as the poorest. I don't know if that is what they are doing, but there is a widespread belief that they are not, that they are hitting the poorest and the disadvantaged first, then hitting public sector workers, whilst leaving the bankers and rich people well alone, I don't know if this is true or whether it is a myth brought about by popular perception of the Conservative party however it doesn't have to be true for it to rile the people up. I have a feeling we are in for another 'Winter of Discontent', quite possibly two or three of them to be honest.

[Herr-Berbunch]

We've not much left in the primary, few people have the know-how to be in the secondary, that leaves everyone else answering phones - unless some bright spark decides to ship that out to India. Oh!

And whilst I don't want to get into a political row, yes the Tories may have started the downturn in the loss of primary and secondary industries, but Labour have done little if anything over their 13 years in the hot seat to reverse this.

Back OT, women (and men?) want equality, and this is just one more step towards something like that - still not equal in a lot of other areas, but slowly getting there. And we need to find some way out of this fiscal cock-up. I just wish Dave would stop announcing things and actually put some feelers out as to what the people think rather than announcing and then changing his mind. A bit ridiculous.