Dear People of Britain
We are now poorer than the Czechs. We were complacent. Our economy was fucked and all we did was to sit around and moan about politicians.

Our personal debt was the highest in the world. Our government debt was huge and our corporate sector was insanely based on banking. Our government was borrowing 13% of GDP to maintain the budget! And we were more interested in football than our futures.

Did we get involved in politics, did we take to the streets, did we try to get change before the cataclysm? No. All we did was sit around drinking tea and beer and hoped all the problems went away. It was only when the financial disasters hit us that we got off our backsides, but by then it was too late. Like the Icelanders we only started to protest once the thing had collapsed.

I wish I could send this back in time. I wish you knew what the future had in store for us. But I figure, even if you did know, you wouldn't have done anything anyway.

We were smug and self-satisfied, but not anymore.
(stuntsmile, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 13:15, 14 replies)

Oh I don't know.
I'm still pretty smug and self-satisfied.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 13:16, closed)

me too
when you have nothing to lose, then it seems to affect you less. In fact I almost enjoyed a kinda schadenfreude over all the wealthy/middle class losing assets/money/jobs etc.

From a single mum
( camp freddy well, would you look at that!, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 13:19, closed)

It's not as fun as watching the poor moan about their free housing, though.
That gives me the raging horn.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 13:23, closed)

me too
There are far too many moaners talking the economy down.
I've never had it so good.
( finnbar has officially retired, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 17:35, closed)

Poorer than the Czechs?
Eh? UK GNI per capita is in the region of $45k; Czech GNI/capita is about $16k. That means that Brits are in the region of three times wealthier.

The size of a debt doesn't make you poor, because the borrowed money buys assets. For example, you aren't poor because you have a £100k mortgage - in fact, that makes you quite wealthy. If you can't make the payments and the debt becomes un-repayable, that's a problem: but merely having a debt isn't.

That governments borrow is no big deal. Most do. To borrow at a given interest rate is, in effect, to buy a service. There's nothing obviously wrong with governments buying services.

It might be wise to reduce the debt, of course. But a recession is not the time to cut spending. And, as the UK comes out of recession, tax revenues will rise, and welfare spending will fall. This means that a significant part of the debt - up to half, on some estimates - will repay itself even if the government does nothing.

Something similar applies to the banks. They were expensive to buy, but cheap compared to their potential value. If the government holds on to them for a couple of years, they'll be hugely valuable assets that can then be sold back to the private sector at a vast profit. (Of course, the Tories'll be in control then, so they'll spunk the cash away on tax cuts rather than spending it... but that's for another rant.)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 14:29, closed)

Stop bringing facts into this, it'll confuse him.

( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 15:11, closed)

Aye.
Just like what happened in Japan when they hit this point in the late 1980s.
(davywavy, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 15:31, closed)

Ahem.
Party politics aside, the cunt brown sold the country's gold reserve for a knock-down price to allow the payment of £100 to each baby born, or some such marketing shit.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 18:10, closed)

Oh, that crock again...
liberalconspiracy.org/2010/02/24/why-tories-are-deluding-themselves-over-browns-gold-sell-off/
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 22:15, closed)

I dunno
An investor friend of mine, back in 1998, gave me the following piece of sage advice. "In a Labour first term, invest in property as they'll tax non-fixed assets and drive up house prices as people hedge. In a second term, invest in gold, because the asset bubble will make you rich."

Sadly, I didn't listen, because he now lives on the Cap d'Antibes and I don't.
(davywavy, Wed 10 Mar 2010, 10:51, closed)

This was written from the future, ten years in advance.
Perhaps that wasn't made clear.

Looking at the comments, I think my argument has been confirmed.
(stuntsmile, Thu 11 Mar 2010, 3:26, closed)

Very true
Someone had to say it

I thank you

*click*
( RossThePiper Stretch Armstrong is my Father, Tue 9 Mar 2010, 15:30, closed)

Tea + Beer+ Ignorance
= Bliss

Its the British way
(Eggstrovert isnt patronising you...honest..., Tue 9 Mar 2010, 17:25, closed)

Amen
brother.
(Surfeit, Wed 10 Mar 2010, 17:33, closed)