Profoundly depressing – that things ain’t wot they used to be – and may never be again – perhaps not even within the working lifetime of your own children!
My kids are nearly all young adults now, making their own way in life, and I worry for the sort of future they’re facing. I can’t help wondering if those in power understand my concerns, and those of a generation of mums and dads my age who thought that, if we all held tight, this downturn would one day end, and things would brighten up again for my kids as they enter their twenties.
‘It really will get better,’
I’ve found myself reassuring them, as they wonder how on earth they’re ever going to afford a mortgage or a car like their mum and dad. Then we hear, from today’s USwitch survey that things are consistently getting worse – and there’s honestly no light at the end of the tunnel. The cost of car insurance, gas, electricity and petrol have seen the highest increases since 2008 at 67%, 52%, 32% and 33% respectively, while wages climbed just 6% over the same period. Plus there are dire warnings – this time taken seriously – of a triple dip recession. And recognition by some experts that this time (as opposed to the recessions I lived and worked through in the 80s and 90s) our standard of living will NEVER recover – and we’re all going to have to learn to endure a hugely reduced standard of living.
Is it enough, though, to grimly grin and bear it? Or should we expect better from our politicians, so many of whom boast first class degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Economics? I was never that clever to gain such a degree but perhaps stupidly I always had faith in those that did. I’m feeling rather deluded right now.
