Looking Back On 14 Years Of Austerity - For What?

grannyactivist In real terms the poor (inching now towards the middle classes) are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer - at the expense of the poor. There is an explosion of ‘millionaires’ in this country - and most of them didn’t get there by winning the lottery. The number of millionaires in the UK in 2010 was 508,000, by 2023 that number had risen to 2.85 million.

Please explain how number of millionaires, risen from 508,000 to 2,85 million in 13 years impacts the poor or has been at expense to the poor?

Many have got there by sheer hard work, exploiting nobody. And by the rise in value of their houses, paid for out of taxed income and with mortgages, in recent years. There are probably a fair few millionaires on GN - it’s not all about money in the bank.

Germanshepherdsmum

Many have got there by sheer hard work, exploiting nobody. And by the rise in value of their houses, paid for out of taxed income and with mortgages, in recent years. There are probably a fair few millionaires on GN - it’s not all about money in the bank.

👏👏👏

There's nothing surer
The rich get rich and the poor get poorer
In the meantime, in between time
Ain't we got fun?

Germanshepherdsmum

Many have got there by sheer hard work, exploiting nobody. And by the rise in value of their houses, paid for out of taxed income and with mortgages, in recent years. There are probably a fair few millionaires on GN - it’s not all about money in the bank.

Indeed. 👏👏

flappergirl

The Tories have ensured that the generation coming through will have no teeth by the time they are 40, no homes to call their own, soul destroying zero contract jobs and terrifying hospital waiting lists.

They will have no free movement in Europe and should they wish to start a small business trading with Europe they will suffer extra costs and red tape which will negate the whole point. The Tories have not been caretakers of the country's future on any level.

This is in contrast to the inherited wealth and privilege (George Osborne, Jacob Rees Mogg, David Cameron for example) that many of them enjoy, safe in the knowledge that their children and grandchildren will live life with impunity at the very top of society.

They should hang their heads in shame.

I agree. Don’t forget Clegg’s part in all this though.

It's not 'sheer hard work' to live in a house that rises in value to the point where the next generation can't afford to live there, and geographical mobility is stifled. That is exactly the attitude that turns young against old, and the rest of the country against South East.

I am not against sheer hard work being rewarded - not at all - I believe that people should benefit from their own efforts. But many who will never be able to afford to own a home work very hard and pay taxes out of their income too, and it is largely those people who are affected by austerity, not the people making money from their labour, or from simply living in the homes they bought at the right time and in the right place.

So much is geared towards keeping the rich rich, and preventing the poor from having the opportunities to improve their circumstances. Whether that is in the form of attempting to reduce university places, talk of putting fixed caps (as opposed to percentage of income) on care home fees, so that those with money in houses still have most of it left to leave behind, and those without it become paupers, or blatant lack of investment in swathes of the country, it is wrong, and high time things were changed.

Doodledog it was sheer hard work that enabled us and the majority of homeowners to buy our homes, whilst paying tax on income along with high interest rates on the mortgage.

I am so sick and tired of being berated on GN for being a homeowner in the South East, it is not a crime (yet)

I didn’t say it was sheer hard work to live in a house that rises in value. Sheer hard work and house price increases appear in two separate sentences in my post. I have benefited from both. However, the sheer hard work paid the mortgage. I started out with very little and have worked hard to improve my lot in life. I have no apologies.

The point is surely that however hard they work, some people will never have the earning potential to buy their own home. Sheer hard work is not only the province of those who succeed economically.

Casdon

The point is surely that however hard they work, some people will never have the earning potential to buy their own home. Sheer hard work is not only the province of those who succeed economically.

I do not disagree with you Casdon but constantly castigating those who are home owners, and in some cases business owners and employers, how does that help others to get on the property ladder?

People need a goal, something to aim for, whether that be promotion at work, a bigger house, a family.

Pay a decent wage and not only is the employee empowered but the employer benefits from a happier and more productive workforce.

There needs to be investment in social housing, which in turn provides employment and apprenticeship in building trades.

As an ex CS I can tell you what austerity achieved! Poorer families, failure to end Child Poverty, all public sector workers worse off year on year since 2009, failing public services, shortages of Police, Carers, Doctors, Dentists and Nurses, complete loss of trust and respect in our govt, increases in crime, need I go on? Sad times!

Exactly GG. Bashing those who have managed to improve their lot in life is pointless.

I agree GrannyGravy13, and I’m not in any way against people aspiring to better their situation in life. Hard work should be rewarded with decent standard housing, healthcare, a good education for their children and enough money to enable them to have a decent life. Unfortunately for many people that isn’t what they get for their efforts now, and it’s not helpful for those who have succeeded financially to say that they got where they are by sheer hard work, because it makes those who have less money feel that they have failed, when they haven’t but the system has let them down.

Casdon there are still youngsters doing well, not all are graduates.

I see lots of young people who have gone into the building industry who are making more money than most graduates can only dream of.

I acknowledge that there are many in poverty, but aspirations should always be encouraged.

GrannyGravy13

Doodledog it was sheer hard work that enabled us and the majority of homeowners to buy our homes, whilst paying tax on income along with high interest rates on the mortgage.

I am so sick and tired of being berated on GN for being a homeowner in the South East, it is not a crime (yet)

It is not a crime, and there is no blame attached to home owners in the SE. I do, however, take issue with people saying that the profits they made from living in their homes is hard work.

GSM, I know you separated the two, but it is so often said (on here and elsewhere) that people have worked for their money, when what is meant is just paying a mortgage on a house that has risen in value, as though that is not true of most of us. I am not 'bashing' or castigating anyone - simply saying, on a thread about austerity, that it is insensitive at best to say that the fact that there are now X number of millionaires is not at the expense of the poor, and even more so to suggest that people are millionaires because of sheer hard work when it is clear that there is a lot more to it than that.

A lot of what happens in life is because of luck, and I am the first to say that everyone should work and contribute to society (and regularly get taken to task for that, too ). It's one thing to benefit from that luck, which may be caused by being born in a family that is supportive, by living in an area of rising prices, by getting the excellent education that is often boasted about on here, having good health, an inheritance, a lottery win or many other things - but the suggestion that all of that is down to hard work, as though the poor don't work hard too has to be challenged, as it is quite offensive.

It goes without saying that aspirations should be encouraged. I’m in the same camp as GG13 and GSM, I worked hard and improved my lot in life. I own my home - north west so worth much less than if I transported it to the south east

None of this means I’m anything less than disgusted by the austerity programme and the way it took a wrecking ball to our nhs and public services. I’d pay more tax because that would help those less fortunate than myself

What I have - and I have no intention of disclosing how much that is - is solely down to hard work and paying a mortgage out of taxed income. I came from a working class family and worked hard to obtain a professional qualification whilst working full time, as you will know from my previous posts. I have obtained no preferential treatment in this life and what I have has not been obtained at the expense of anyone else. My hard work was, initially, studying in the evenings, weekends, holidays, on top of a full time job - and latterly, working seven days a week. Nobody can tell me what hard work is.

We're all in this together- I think was the soundbite- what Cameron and Osborne meant was they were all in it together ie- Tories looking after their own and the rest of us going to hell in a hand cart.

I can guarantee that there are millions who do well because they work just as hard or harder than you did Germanshepherdsmum, none of us are special in that respect. Equally, there are millions who just fall lucky, and make their fortunes without overly exerting themselves, millions who don’t work hard and get by, millions who don’t work hard and don’t get by. The ones that I have the greatest concern for are those who can’t manage even though they do work hard, because the jobs they do don’t attract high salaries - and I’d wager there are more in that category currently than in any of the others. Society isn’t structured so that everybody who works hard and has talent rises to the top.

Glorianny

There's nothing surer
The rich get rich and the poor get poorer
In the meantime, in between time
Ain't we got fun?

Yep Glorianny, and it's the poor or immigrants that get the blame.

Maddyone. I will never forget the Lib Dem's part in all of this. They didn't hesitate to jump in bed with the enemy or to support policies that should branded on their collective backsides.

Casdon

I can guarantee that there are millions who do well because they work just as hard or harder than you did Germanshepherdsmum, none of us are special in that respect. Equally, there are millions who just fall lucky, and make their fortunes without overly exerting themselves, millions who don’t work hard and get by, millions who don’t work hard and don’t get by. The ones that I have the greatest concern for are those who can’t manage even though they do work hard, because the jobs they do don’t attract high salaries - and I’d wager there are more in that category currently than in any of the others. Society isn’t structured so that everybody who works hard and has talent rises to the top.

That is what I was getting at. The thread is about austerity and the damage it has done to millions of people. I have no doubt that anecdotes about individuals are true, but they don't alter the fact that hard work and paying a mortgage (or someone else's mortgage if you can't save enough for a deposit) is a way of life for most people. It comes across as very smug to say that the fact that there are more millionaires than there used to be has not happened at the expense of the poor, or imply that this was an opportunity open to all. It isn't, and austerity simply widens the gap between millionaires and those in poverty.

Casdon The ones that I have the greatest concern for are those who can’t manage even though they do work hard, because the jobs they do don’t attract high salaries - and I’d wager there are more in that category currently than in any of the others. Society isn’t structured so that everybody who works hard and has talent rises to the top.

I agree.

Really that's the point, however, what impact is the growing number of millionaires? Millionaires are a negative for poor people?

The growing number of millionaires may not directly affect the lives of poorer people but a society with such extremes of wealth, with the gap between the richest and poorest ever widening, is a recipe for dissatisfaction and the growing feelings of alienation amongst younger gestations who can never hope to own their own home or achieve security of employment. This cannot be healthy.

There is always money down the back of the sofa for foreign wars, lining the pockets of corrupt politicos and keeping illegal immigrants in 4 star luxury.