Re: This Stinks
Don't forget we are in a World recession and I believe the Banks and America are largely responsible for the unhappy situation we are in at the moment. America will not fall as far as we will though because they have the scope and resources.
Jobs for the young have been getting more and more difficult each year. Neither the Conservatives or Labour administrations have been able to do a lot about it in real terms. Some of the reasons for this, I believe, are that we have lost our manufacturing base, new technologies have been introduced and what manufacturing we have left is automated and does not need the actual manpower anymore. Also, China, India and others have come into the playground and because their labour is cheap and expensible they can produce far more cheaply than anyone else. The majority of countries are unable to compete and contracts go to these emerging countries. Hardly anything is totally made in this country anymore. For a while we "sold" our expertise - but as time has moved on it is more and more difficult to do this or excell at anything - even our knowledge base is not what it was.
All these things do not help our children into jobs. If we "oldies" are having to work longer because we are living longer and the government or resources we have cannot afford retirement costs, how can the young ones "step into our shoes" - we are still in them. It is a different workforce today - much reduced, but there are still as many (if not more) people needing a job. The real jobs have gone and what we have left are shops full of imported goods. This way of living doesn't create any wealth for our country. We have mothballed what is left of any mineral wealth and we have little to sell to the World, we can't compete, so nobody makes anything in this country anymore. Agriculture is also highly mechanised and farms don't need the manpower. It would be unthinkable that our young people found themselves working like many young do in China, India and elsewhere. Would anyone stand for that? We are a small country and our resources are becoming insufficient to support the numbers of people living here and we cannot support the livestyle we have been used to but our expectations are still high. The elite will survive, but I think the divide between ones who have wealth and those who have not will get wider and wider - whether under this government or another. I don't think anyone has a solution - but the wealthy will not share what they have that I do know.
If we could reduce our population would that work?
Just turn out the lights please when you leave the country.
PS: There is a programme just coming on BBC about affording children. Raising Britain its titled.