Britons poorer than they were in 2019, as living standards continue to fall

38 comments

1. To be frank it’s been about the same or worse since 2008. We’re approaching a point where people are adults in the UK whom have never known a period of growth.

   Ive left for the US for 2* my salary. I reccomend if you can fleeing too. There is no hope here

2. I used to be able to save £350 a month. A MONTH!! Now I’m overdrawn by that amount a week after payday. Didn’t realise how lucky I was.

3. And here I thought we were all living our best lives. Thanks for clearing it up sky news.

4. Good luck getting a job in the USA if that’s where you’re going.

5. [removed]

6. The red line must continue to move up and to the right.

7. The Tories really worked hard to poison the chalice. They deserve their annihilation.

8. Since Covid, 75% of the World’s wealth has transferred to less than 10% of the world’s wealthy.

9. No shit. When my mortgage interest per month goes up 100% for no fucking reason, shits gotta come from somewhere and that’s my savings.

10. 2019? Those are rookie numbers.

    Inflation adjusted wages are 2% lower than they were in 2008.

11. I’ve been told things can’t possibly get any worse than they were in the Rococo era. Which could be pretty darn bad but at least it wasn’t the Middle Ages.

12. Wonder why…. Oh yeah 2016 had something to do with it

13. 2019 i used to be able to get by for 10 days to two weeks on a £60-65 tesco shop home delivery while living alone. Some cheaper choices to allow for some treats. 

    Same items/shop now would be nearing or above £85 before the delivery charge which in 2019 was 50p. Now the cheapest i’ve seen where i am is £3.00 – 3.50 and at worst £7.00.

14. I am only doing okay because I have a side hustle that I do alongside my job, without that I’d be in the minus every single fucking month with the cost I’m paying for bills, mortgage, commute and everything else.

    Where is all the money going?

15. Each pay day I just become slightly less out of my overdraft… Forget about saving anything

16. It’s funny how if you dare suggest this is the case on some threads then people try and gaslight you with statistics. The last one I got involved in I suggested GDP was bullshit as everyone was feeling the squeeze. It was suggested I look for a new job if I thought the cost of living was too high.

17. And yet the ruling class/billionaires have seen their wealth grow exponentially during that time.

    Funny that.

18. If *only* there was a massive economic/customs union full of some of our biggest trading partners that we could join to inject some real growth into the economy! 😔

19. Find a way to escape. Not only are we worse off. I bet everyone’s quality of life in other areas has fallen too. Everyone noticeably seems less happy. There has to be more to life than working 40 hours a week to pay for an over priced house or some landlords mortgage. Know it ain’t so easy for everyone but thats my plan and a few friends have left. Some earning less but still seem happier as they have more time for their family. Better weather probably helps as well.

20. Probably has to do with everything being double the price it was in 2019. Just a little thought there

    Meanwhile wages have gone up a whole £2 in that time?

21. You mean the plan of importing workers to suppress wages, underinvestment in everything, hiking taxes, and printing money to inflate house prices, isn’t working? I’m shocked I tell you, shocked.

22. If only we could pinpoint something happening in 2020 that could have led to this.

23. I earned £30k in 2019, ate out multiple times a week, lived on my own, had money to go out shopping and still managed to save a few hundred every month.
    Now I earn £80k, admittedly I’ve moved house but I share the mortgage with my partner who earns similarly, and I honestly don’t really feel much better off somehow? 😕

24. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. the wealth gap grows regardless.

    Nothing will be done about it unless we all DO something about it.

    TAX THE RICH!

25. Far more than £20 a week, for most. And s long way to fall yet
    The reason’s obvious and thankfully people are waking up to it. And no the biggest problem isn’t immigration.

26. people are spending more on rent and utilities , what do you expect ?

27. Very much the case for myself and my wife. We’re struggling terribly now.

28. Maybe Michelle Mone could look under the cushions on one of her fucking yachts, for the 150 million she sole and then we wouldnt be hurting as much as a nation? Well, her all the other crooks with fancy titles who robbed the UK blind during covid.

29. Britain is in chronic decline. Has been since 2008. The big ideas of the political class, Conservative austerity and Brexit, have only worsened and deepened that decline.

    The coronavirus pandemic has also triggered a debt crisis, which is currently preventing us from make the large infrastructure and productivity investments which would be the best way to counteract decline.

    Sadly the next big “idea” (if we can call him that), Nigel Farage, is likely to make it worse still for most people. He’s a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher and is likely to do what she did in a crisis. That is to say pursue policies which destroy regional economies in order to inflate the financial services industry and boost the overall national figures, leaving more millions of people and dozens of towns basically ready to be torn down because there’s barely any point living there.

30. I now pay 40% tax on some of my earnings, I never used to and I haven’t changed job, but my wages went up with inflation so now I’m paying a ‘wealth’ tax. I cant earn the same in real terms as I did in 2019.

31. Impossible I was told this can’t be true, because the government has fixed everything

32. Also, no pay-rises despite the company I work for making more money than ever.

33. We are in an 18 year cycle 2026 2008 1990 1972 every 18 years there’s a downturn before things pick up again

34. I earn £15,000 a year more than I did in 2019 but I don’t feel even slightly better off than I did then.

35. Yeah the interests rates are still double and the food is double what it was wages are the same. Everyone fucked mate.

36. And, by and large, the blame lies pretty much with the Conservatives and those who have voted for them/Brexit/the parties that have led the Conservatives towards such idiotic policy approaches.

37. I just paid 55 quid for 2 bowls of ramen, 1 bottle of beer and 1 lemonade.

    Then went to the pub and paid 15.40 for 2 pints of Guinness.

    Its fucking mental.

38. It’s funny how I keep seeing posts on here about how the economic “doom and gloom” is unwarranted and the economy is actually in a good place

    yeah maybe it’s in a good place for everyone way above upper middle class but for the majority of us, we are constantly balancing on a tightrope between poor and broke and it just get’s worse every few months

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