One statistic, more than any other, tells this story: a staggering 72% of British people believe their kids are going to be financially worse off than them. This is profoundly concerning because it goes against an iron law of liberal democratic politics: each generation is supposed to do better than the one before it. Now, however, younger generations have seen lower wage growth and are less likely to own a home than their parents at the same point in their own lives.
This isn’t an iron law of liberal democratic politics. It’s an iron law of economic growth. If you have economic growth then it will be true. If you don’t then it won’t.
That is, it’s an iron law of classically liberal economics – that capitalism and markets which is the only way you sustainably get growth – but not of liberal democracy.
As to Da Yooof being behind their parents in economic achievement, well, yes. ‘Cuz Da Yooof are spending many more years in education before they start earning to pay for things, see?
Well yes, but not because of more people doing degrees. Agenda 2030 doesn’t plan for growth. Or much liberty or democracy either…
Housing inflation greater than wage growth doesn’t help
Stagnant/falling productivity is the problem too. I put the blame for this on smart phones that soak up countless hours of “effort”, and also working from home. Most people working from home claim to be more productive, yet my observation is that this extra productivity is in non work related activity like eating breakfast at 9AM, popping out to the shops, and cutting the grass during work time. Work that increases the amount of leisure time available, but not economic output.
Economic growth is impossible during a Net Zero transition anyway, How do we expect to grow the economy by shrinking it? Did Pol Pot grow the economy of Cambodia?
Harry Quilter-Pinner
Harry Quilter-Pinner is director of strategy at SCT, a homelessness and addictions charity in east London. He is also a research fellow at the thinktank IPPR
Another posh bloke who sounds like he’s doing very handsomely indeed out of eructing cockwaffle.
Stagnant/falling productivity is the problem too. I put the blame for this on smart phones that soak up countless hours of “effort”, and also working from home
Nah, it’s the million+ visas the Home Office is rubber stamping every year, plus all the millions of illegals we don’t care to even count. The BBC delicately tapdanced around the root cause in a 2019 article about Britain’s productivity stagnation:
The causes are also not clear. While it is true we are employing more people, it seems that they are going into unproductive jobs.
This is called the car wash problem: 20 years ago, car washes were already fully automated, but now they consist of five men and a bucket – less productive, not more.
The car wash analogy is perfect, because it illustrates what’s happening in a way probably everyone over the age of 40 can remember. You never did used to see gangs of little swarthy chappies in tracksuits offering to handwash your car for a fiver, did you?
Add in the neverending supply of African cleaners, Turkish barbers, ‘Romanian’ Beeg Eeshoo vendors*, skinny brown fellas delivering boxes on scooters, the NHS’s love affair with incompetent foreign labour, et cetera, et Bharata, and well, here we are.
Low quality migration and its consequences. Don’t worry though, it’ll get worse.
*(astonishingly, the British government still treats foreign beggars brought here by criminal gangs as “employed”, until they decide to be “modern slaves” in the event of immigration enforcement issues. We are paying taxes to directly subsidise Eastern European mafias, but nevermind, I’m sure Priti/Suella/Rishi will say something about how horrid that is)
The other side of the devalued British coin is offshoring.
In their desperate greed for immediate cost savings, British employers are culling their UK back office headcounts and shipping them to brand new “colleagues” in Bharat.
So now, something that used to take 20 minutes when Sally in Accounts Payable did it, might take 5 days for an entire troupe of subcontinental colleagues, with much confusion and excitement caused by baffling emails full of broken English, shameless expectations of praise for barely doing the bare minimum tasks they are employed to do, and an endearing culture of cheerful refusal to own an issue or proactively solve any problems. Especially the ones they’ve caused.
And at the end of those 5 days, it’s probably still wrong.
But hey, Sally expected £40k a year.
‘Economic growth is impossible during a Net Zero transition anyway, How do we expect to grow the economy by shrinking it? Did Pol Pot grow the economy of Cambodia?’
Thank you Steve.
Happily, offspring much richer than us. Not in Pictland, of course. Not even in Britland. Far beyond the seas, alas.
We here this about every 20 years. In the ‘80s there were stories about how the baby boomers will be the first generation not to be wealthier than their “greatest generation” parents. In the aughts it was about the poor millennials. Now we hear it again.
In their desperate greed for immediate cost savings, British employers are culling their UK back office headcounts and shipping them to brand new “colleagues” in Bharat.
Is that so? Did they learn nothing from the customer service debacles? And company accounts – do they really not know how deeply and profoundly corrupt these cultures are?
This is a survey of opinions carried out by an American company, not scientific research into facts.
So the question should be IF this true, why?
The surge in the amount of time spent on unproductive activities and the even greater reduction in time spent on useful work (leisure time has increased as well as the time spent filling in stupid pieces of paper).
Secondly (a long way behind) the increase in the number and percentage of elderly people who are unable to work and many (a minority but still many) of whom require care
Thirdly more time spent in educational institutions before starting work
Fourthly environmentalists – wasting vast resources to pursue policies that are sound bites
Steve:
‘…astonishingly, the British government still treats foreign beggars brought here by criminal gangs as “employed”, until they decide to be “modern slaves” in the event of immigration enforcement issues. We are paying taxes to directly subsidise Eastern European mafias,’
In the historic market town where I live, we have four Beeg Ishoo sellers, all Romanian and welfare-dependent. One woman has two out-of-control sprogs and a husband who is well known as a drug dealer (though the police do nothing)…
“…72% of British people believe their kids are going to be financially worse off than them.”
Free range parenting produces directionless children; and all children need constructive guidance. From early on, I made absolutely clear to my daughter that she needed to identify her talents and get a professional qualification of some kind, as all subsidy would end when she left university. She’s now married to a fintech specialist on a six-figure salary, has two children, and works four days a week for a six-figure salary.
Only goats have kids.
Did Pol Pot grow the economy of Cambodia?
Possibly not. But the erudite Mr Pot’s higher education policy is still highly recommended & could do wonders for the UK economy. And its rice production.
“Add in the neverending supply of African cleaners, Turkish barbers, ‘Romanian’ Beeg Eeshoo vendors*, skinny brown fellas delivering boxes on scooters, the NHS’s love affair with incompetent foreign labour, et cetera, et Bharata, and well, here we are.”
Not forgetting the myriads of Indian IT workers that large corporations are shipping in these days. It does wonders for local cricket teams who have an endless supply of enthusiastic players, but not much for indigenous IT workers……….
Why do we care about mere opinions? If their kids were going to be poorer, wouldn’t there be some evidence for that, or is belief all that counts?
@David – “Housing inflation greater than wage growth doesn’t help”
Easily fixed. Housing prices are caused by supply and demand. Build enough more housing and the price will fall.
@Steve – “20 years ago, car washes were already fully automated, but now they consist of five men and a bucket – less productive, not more”
In my experience the fully automated washes don’t do a very good job. Eliminating the workers was another example of false economy. But, of course, it’s clear that you’re just haing a racist rant as the one feature you feel must be mentioned is people’s origins and imigration.
“But, of course, it’s clear that you’re just haing a racist rant as the one feature you feel must be mentioned is people’s origins and imigration.”
Yes because all the workers at hand car washes are always bona fide Uk citizens, or immigrants who are entitled to work here:
https://uk.style.yahoo.com/six-people-arrested-following-immigration-175816779.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAefZEnwXfXOGwro3zvwOSpEQwmBPVX4FT-Z91YXGgbCOL46s33u4vfwD9V9YCP_SISuOzKo_gONtYgQcYB4ibykRFpgCEeYPG4I6xV8-etsjQ6-JOvEVfRw_xKYRSzpfpgbDnN9DnLvKqLGUf_Qn-9wYlkx_9ahZl4RIyuBfunX
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/national-crime-agency-raids-welsh-26727181
https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/two-asylum-seekers-chippenham-car-wash/
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/man-without-right-work-arrested-6496595
https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/20224658.car-wash/
@Charles
It’d apply if these car washers actually did a good job. Any professional* knows that if you want to wash a car with a bucket & sponge you wash it from the bottom up. Then rinse & leather from the top down. Having watched these guys, they’re rarely professional car washers. They don’t do the door shuts, the bottoms of the doors etc. They’re just cheap to employ oiks. Cheap to employ oiks tend to be effniks. QED
*Motor trade. A pro can wash an average family saloon with a single bucket, rinse with a second. Doing 5 an hour would be slacking. Do a whole lot in a morning.
Any professional* knows that if you want to wash a car with a bucket & sponge you wash it from the bottom up.
Thus ensuring that all the grit from dirtiest and least observed parts of the car (obviously start with the brakedust covered wheels) is ground into the upper surfaces most seen by the owner. Presumably these speedy professionals are also drumming up business for their buddies in the respray trade.
Any sensible person stuck with the nasty task of washing a car with one bucket of water and a sponge would start at the top and wash down. Least damage caused and the ongoing water runoff will presoak the most soiled areas.
Easily fixed. Housing prices are caused by supply and demand. Build enough more housing and the price will fall.
Bring in more people and the prices rise again.
Easily fixed. All immigrants bring an acre of land with them and a house, lots of solar panels and one of those heat pumps plus an electric trabant in the garage.
PJF. You’re contradicting a hundred years of car washers. The reason to start at the bottom is so everything above where you’re washing is dry & you can see the dirt. Start from the roof & the water wets below & you’ll be missing bits that’ll end up only showing at the leathering off stage. That’s how to get scratched paint from the grit. Much more important with relatively soft cellulose paints were used back when.
I got taught how to wash cars as a kid by a guy ran a luxury hire car company. I do think he knew his own business. Sorry, the opinion of amateurs isn’t helpful.
Bboy – thank you
Charles – In my experience the fully automated washes don’t do a very good job. Eliminating the workers was another example of false economy. But, of course, it’s clear that you’re just haing a racist rant as the one feature you feel must be mentioned is people’s origins and imigration.
True, as a responsible father I’d rather have a dirty car than hordes of illiterate young Third World men in their 20’s coming here to live off us and rape the local girls when they’re bored.
TMB – Easily fixed. All immigrants bring an acre of land with them and a house, lots of solar panels and one of those heat pumps plus an electric trabant in the garage.
Perfect. And if Net Zero wasn’t an evil scam, this is exactly what it’d entail.
Jim – Not forgetting the myriads of Indian IT workers that large corporations are shipping in these days
Yarp. Most of them are hopeless.
There are good Indian techies out there, but they’re not working for your local council’s IT outsourcing partner.
BiS – I feel sure we should pilot this scheme at Oxbridge
Theo – I’ve taught my children all about them and their false smiles. I know most people are idiots (source: the lockdowns), but it’s still jarring to see so many simpering fools giving money to physically fit young foreign people who came here for the express purpose of begging. A lot of English people have the survival instincts of a retarded dodo.
They don’t even bother trying to sell the Beeg Eeshoo anymore, they just wear the little vest and look sad and innocent while annoying people for handouts in front of supermarkets. Productivity!
Why the Beeg Eeshoo is still in business, and its publishers not in court, is an enduring mystery.
PJF – My right hand to Vishnu, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
I hadn’t thought about the fraud angle, but I suppose you’re right. To be honest though, a lot of my job these days is spent wrangling Bharat colleagues and I’d be amazed if they displayed the initiative to successfully steal from the company or our clients.
Another downside of offshoring is it means those of us left in the UK are having to do a lot more work to try to achieve the same outcomes. Because, sadly, in 9/10 cases you simply cannot trust them to do timely and accurate work without constantly spoon feeding them instructions and reminders.
I don’t blame the Indians at all, they’re just trying to make money while doing as little work as possible – something we’d already perfected in the UK. But offshoring simply doesn’t work for large, complex organisations in practice, there’s no way the supposed cost savings outweigh the real costs of time, trouble, delays, mistakes and unhappy customers.
At some point we’re going to try to replace them with AI, which will probably be worse. We should have kept Sally instead.
offshoring simply doesn’t work for large, complex organisations in practice, there’s no way the supposed cost savings outweigh the real costs of time, trouble, delays, mistakes and unhappy customers
I’m not sure about that. I suspect getting rid of 100 Sallies and replacing them with 200 Indians represents such a massive cost saving that firms can afford to pay their Steves 20% more as compensation for dealing with the bullshit and also employ a Trevor to placate customers when things go wrong…
MC – it’s not working out that way from my perspective, sadly.
Customers want an Amazon experience when they’re dealing with suppliers these days (regardless of how feasible it is to provide an Amazon-like experience, Amazon makes it look easy).
They want things to happen at pace and be done correctly. Having your most expensive UK resources babysitting Indian staff to achieve routine process outcomes makes that impossible. I’m embarrassingly less productive than I was 5 years ago, but they’re paying me more.
It’s mental, but in my experience most big corporates look like shining palaces of commerce from the outside, and it’s only when you’re inside that you notice it’s all (barely) held together by papier mache and the shrinking number of older, experienced staff who remember how things work.
@ bis
– You’re contradicting a hundred years of car washers.
No, just you and some long dead motor trader.
– The reason to start at the bottom is so everything above where you’re washing is dry & you can see the dirt. Start from the roof & the water wets below & you’ll be missing bits that’ll end up only showing at the leathering off stage.
If you wash the panels all over properly you won’t miss bits.
– That’s how to get scratched paint from the grit.
You scratch paint with grit when washing at any stage by using dirty water and utensils. If you’ve loaded the water and sponge with dirt from the lowest, dirtiest parts, what do think happens to the upper surfaces when you rub? Washing with one bucket and sponge is nasty enough but to, er, compound the sin by using the filthiest water to grind into the upper panels and glass is just mental.
– I got taught how to wash cars as a kid by a guy ran a luxury hire car company. I do think he knew his own business.
You got taught badly decades ago by one bloke who needed multiple cars washed with minimal resources (kid, single bucket and sponge, low time per car). You don’t appear to have looked further.
@bloke in spain – “It’d apply if these car washers actually did a good job.”
That applies to literally any job you want done.
“A pro can wash an average family saloon with a single bucket, rinse with a second. Doing 5 an hour would be slacking.”
However, I live in a country where copious amounts of water simply fall from the sky merely needing to be collected. I don’t care how much water is used – it’s too cheap to matter. And neither do I care how long it takes to do, as all that matters is the price charged and the quality of the work.
@Charles I suspect if you were the chap at the garage washing all the cars and being expected to do 12 an hour then the time filling the bucket would matter more than the cost of the water. Also leaving the forecourt awash would be a bad move too.
@BiS I have always washed cars top down but I don’t always like the results when the missed bits show, so will give your method a try.
” it’s all (barely) held together by papier mache and the shrinking number of older, experienced staff who remember how things work.”
Mate of mine works for a medium sized financial institution. He’s approaching retirement, and is very handsomely paid to come to work 3 days a week and sit around doing very little except explain to Indian techies why they can’t do what they want to, because they don’t understand the ancient tech that the bank’s entire system is based on. Tech he studied 40 years ago at uni, and hardly anyone else has any knowledge of. I fully expect when he wants to fully retire in a few years time they will resort to throwing lorry loads of cash at him to keep coming in and making sure the IT wizards from the sub-continent don’t crash the entire system. What happens when he does retire and/or dies I have no idea….
@PJF, September 16, 2023 at 10:33 pm
Yes, top down – always
@bis
We stopped using cellulose paint >30 years ago. “leathering off ” also gone
@TMB
Your solar panels commment inspired an idea:
House the illegals in solar panel fields: sleep under and wash daily
@steve
Yarp. Most of them are hopeless, but racist to sack
Pcar
House the illegals in solar panel fields: sleep under and wash daily
Excellent.
The solar panels would then be a lot more efficient if they were relocated to N Africa (it’s OK, we’ll get by, we’ve got gas/coal/nuke capability)… Sand/dust’s a bugger so “wash daily” would be earning a good crust.