It might turn out that turning off nuclear power isn't such a great idea https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/edf-energy-extend-lifetime-two-uk-nuclear-plants-2023-03-09/
Turning off existing nuclear plants? Bad idea. Building new nuclear plants? Also a bad idea. New nuclear just isn't cost competitive. Renewables plus the batteries needed to get baseload...
Turning off existing nuclear plants? Bad idea. Building new nuclear plants? Also a bad idea. New nuclear just isn't cost competitive. Renewables plus the batteries needed to get baseload performance out of them are now cheaper than fission. And even expensive imported natural gas is cheaper than new fission.
Howso? A 1.5 GW Wind farm costs about 1/5 as much to build as a 1.5 GW nuclear plant. Except those are peak capacities. And a nuclear plant will run at near-peak capacity 24/7. A wind farm will...
Howso? A 1.5 GW Wind farm costs about 1/5 as much to build as a 1.5 GW nuclear plant.
Except those are peak capacities. And a nuclear plant will run at near-peak capacity 24/7. A wind farm will not. On average looks like equivalently sized wind farms produce 1/5th or less of the same sized nuclear plants. Which puts the largest wind farms in the world at roughly the annual production capacity of a small-medium coal plant.
Except that renewables also are going to need some massive storage mechanisms that are going to be terribly expensive, but those costs are hidden future projects right now.
Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% behind distributed renewables, I think every home should have solar panels, some batteries, and a turbine. But large-scale renewable grid production is not genuinely, undeniably cheaper compared to nuclear when you compare the most important metric: total annual generation.
Exactly. The current situation is "look, renewable energy" *closes the curtain so nobody can see the natural gas plant behind it*. Then increases in renewables are measured against the decline of...
Except that renewables also are going to need some massive storage mechanisms that are going to be terribly expensive, but those costs are hidden future projects right now.
Exactly. The current situation is "look, renewable energy" *closes the curtain so nobody can see the natural gas plant behind it*. Then increases in renewables are measured against the decline of coal, which has been heavily replaced by NG over the past 15 years or so.
Last time I saw a rough estimation of how big the battery capacity would need to be for UK to switch to 100% renewable energy (which was this year, not a decade ago or something), the issue wasn't...
Renewables plus the batteries needed to get baseload performance out of them are now cheaper than fission.
Last time I saw a rough estimation of how big the battery capacity would need to be for UK to switch to 100% renewable energy (which was this year, not a decade ago or something), the issue wasn't even the cost but the fact that, especially if you factor in the issue with batteries losing capacity and needing to be replaced optimistically after 5-10 years, there was not enough free capacity in battery manufacturing worldwide to supply the amount needed.
I haven't already seen it mentioned, but it bears saying: it is not cheaper to turn off your fridge and freezer. They are both appliances which are designed to be extremely efficient, and once...
I haven't already seen it mentioned, but it bears saying: it is not cheaper to turn off your fridge and freezer. They are both appliances which are designed to be extremely efficient, and once they get to temperature they are very good at staying that way. Turning off your cold machine once it has reached temperature and then waiting until things get warm again is a) a great way to get food poisoning, and b) going to cost you more money in the long term because it's more expensive to cool from room temperature than it is from a couple of degrees higher than the target.
You can adjust the temperature on your appliance and still retain food safety; I have heard (but not seen data) that most people have their fridges and freezers too cold anyway. The real saving to be made is in adjusting your heating, hot water, and gas cooking. Electricity is considerably cheaper than gas at the moment, and that's where most people's money is disappearing to.
I'm also surprised not more people consider chest freezers for long term and emergency cold storage. By design, the cold air pools inside so they maintain temperature far better when opened. And...
I'm also surprised not more people consider chest freezers for long term and emergency cold storage. By design, the cold air pools inside so they maintain temperature far better when opened. And even my older model barely registers any power draw when opened once a week. I know there are some standing units that have a freezer drawer but even in the best cases, cold pours out the second that seal is broken.
Bonus Features: It makes for a good counter top. More impactful for a 'fake body in the freezer' prank. Far cheaper and more reliable than most standing freezers and my I'm far less likely to leave it open a crack and loose the entire store.
But like you said heating is the far bigger culprit for energy cost. Heat pumps are a higher upfront cost but are more efficient for air and water heating. Also measured my induction stove at about 25% more efficient than my old electric stove unit. Unfortunately a lot of this cost saving come with a steep migration cost and most people are inheriting, sometimes decades, old tools. A 10 year return is pointless when most people cant stomach the cost even with generous payment plans and the minimal subsidies.
One of the reasons chest freezers are not that popular in the UK is space. There just isn't room for them in many houses. Especially houses where people are so tight for money they're considering...
One of the reasons chest freezers are not that popular in the UK is space. There just isn't room for them in many houses. Especially houses where people are so tight for money they're considering switching off appliances.
My house is probably fairly average size and I have room for a dishwasher, cooker, fridge, freezer and washing machine and that's about it. All of which are standard 600mm width under-counter fitments (cooker notwithstanding, obviously). If I wanted a clothes drier, and I don't because they're awful on so many levels, I couldn't have one. A chest freezer is physically not an option, regardless of the financial cost.
Also there's not a lot of point in having long-term cold storage when you can't afford to fill it up. Of course it's cheaper in the long run, but if people can't even afford the short term they never get to see the long run. Boots theory in action.
As a heads up to anybody that is trying to save money, odds are you can improve the efficiency of your fridge/freezer by pulling it out from the wall and cleaning the heck out of the coils. A good...
As a heads up to anybody that is trying to save money, odds are you can improve the efficiency of your fridge/freezer by pulling it out from the wall and cleaning the heck out of the coils. A good alkaline solvent to help clear off the grease and dust will make it work much better. This also applies to the coils of heat pumps, both indoor and outdoor. Also making sure the fins of your coils aren't touching each other. When they're bent and touching it inhibits the airflow which helps remove the excess heat faster. They are fragile little buggers though, and if you're not careful you'll snap them off, so I don't know if I'd try unbending them unless its a massive blockage and you are mildly comfortable with un-bending bent CPU pins. Also keeping a small gap on the back and sides should help a bit with circulation if you can avoid slamming it all the way to the wall.
Also insuring you've got the fridge set closer to 4C and not any lower keeps it food-safe while minimizing energy use. Freezer should be set to -17C for long-term storage and you can maybe get away with -6C if you're not keeping stuff there longer than a month. Having the temps dialed down too cold will speed the process of cooling stuff down, which is great, but the fridge will have to work harder to keep that more-extreme differential.
A full fridge/freezer is more efficient than an empty one. An empty fridge has most of it's cold thermal mass as air and you lose it as soon as you open the door. If you find yourself with a half-empty fridge, fill it with a bunch of water bottles to keep that thermal mass in place when you open the door.
Something to consider is that people might not be using modern appliances. A medium to high end freezer that's a couple of years old is very efficient. But plenty of people don't have those. I...
Something to consider is that people might not be using modern appliances. A medium to high end freezer that's a couple of years old is very efficient. But plenty of people don't have those.
I replaced my freezer a few years ago after I bought a power meter and discovered that it was drawing about £15 worth of electricity a month (and that was before energy prices went completely insane) just by virtue of being old and inefficient - it was at least ten years old and was probably the cheapest freezer available when bought.
That £15/month would likely be more like £25 at today's prices. Almost a pound a day is a significant cost if you're on the very edge of financial stability. That's going to be the difference between eating and not, some days.
I'm pretty sure people turning off their freezer now have already turned down everything else they can. It's not like there hasn't been plenty of advice going around about the most effective ways to save energy costs.
Per unit, yes. But gas boilers use a lot energy to heat water for central heating, so the main expense comes from there. Turning my heating on for 4-6 hours a day has literally doubled my utility...
Per unit, yes. But gas boilers use a lot energy to heat water for central heating, so the main expense comes from there. Turning my heating on for 4-6 hours a day has literally doubled my utility bill compared to not using any heating. Operating the majority of appliances in the same way would net minimal gains, and certainly not halve my existing bill.
I know the current government rolls out the tired tropes now; "Oh the war in Ukraine" "Oh Covid backlash" "Oh Covid inflation" "Oh..." But these absolute bastards have been causing the overall...
I know the current government rolls out the tired tropes now;
"Oh the war in Ukraine"
"Oh Covid backlash"
"Oh Covid inflation"
"Oh..."
But these absolute bastards have been causing the overall quality of life to plummet for 13 years. Turning off fridges to keep the bills paid? Sweet merciful christ. We're a "Developed Nation" that apparently has lost it's faculties when we've elected MPs who want nothing but to make us suffer.
I look at the nation from 15 years ago and wonder what on Earth went wrong. Where did my countrymen lose their faith in each other and think that anyone should live like this? I know many of us will raise our hands at that question and go "I'm not happy either!", so another follows? Why have we done nothing about it?
... because we're all fucked if we start throwing MPs into the Thames and we're all exhausted.
Just out of curiosity, did you get an influx of immigrants from the United States? (Sorry, snarky American response to your genuine pain)
Where did my countrymen lose their faith in each other and think that anyone should live like this? I know many of us will raise our hands at that question and go "I'm not happy either!", so another follows? Why have we done nothing about it?
Just out of curiosity, did you get an influx of immigrants from the United States? (Sorry, snarky American response to your genuine pain)
Annoyingly because we share the same language, right wing American propaganda spreads very easily via the internet to the UK. I've met honest to god QAnon supporters and flat earthers whilst...
Annoyingly because we share the same language, right wing American propaganda spreads very easily via the internet to the UK.
I've met honest to god QAnon supporters and flat earthers whilst chatting to random people. Hell just on Tuesday someone called into LBC and said "all taxation is theft, and stealing is against my religion".
Not really. It's funny, but since moving to London I've acquired a small contingent of my wayward cousins from all over your fair land! Pitts, Boston, Texas and Cali.
Not really. It's funny, but since moving to London I've acquired a small contingent of my wayward cousins from all over your fair land! Pitts, Boston, Texas and Cali.
Wow, what a great human system, Capitalism is absolutely flawless! Why is it acceptable that normal people suffer when this absolutely stupid system is slowed down? Do you think the rich are...
Wow, what a great human system, Capitalism is absolutely flawless!
Why is it acceptable that normal people suffer when this absolutely stupid system is slowed down? Do you think the rich are feeling the effects of recession? Oh no, they can't afford another gold-lined yacht?
When are people going to start protesting this garbage? Enough is enough.
Nationalize all basic needs, including housing and food.
Tax the rich.
Implement UBI.
Human civilization is such a joke. Primitive beings still chained to their selfish desires in an impermanent reality.
No, the UK has actually had substantially higher inflation than the US ever since the pandemic. I'm not sure why you're portraying it as something they're only encountering now. Cynicism aside,...
No, the UK has actually had substantially higher inflation than the US ever since the pandemic. I'm not sure why you're portraying it as something they're only encountering now.
It's a weird sorta inflation where corporations make record profits but citizens struggle to survive on very little money.
Cynicism aside, this is actually the most common type of inflation. Inflation isn't some weird natural disaster like a hurricane or something. There's two main types of inflation: demand pull, and supply push. In demand-pull inflation, you would indeed expect companies to make more money and have higher margins in aggregate - this is a market signal that more companies are needed to fulfill demand.
In the US the government keeps raising the interest rate "to prevent a recession" because during a recession people wouldn't have any money similar to how they don't have any money now except corporations would lose money so we have to prevent that.
It's actually the reverse, they're raising interest rates to cause a recession. Well, of course, the goal is to not have a recession if possible, and somehow or another we're on track for that, but raising interest rates slows growth, and in the medium-bad term expectation, you're trying to initiate a short and not severe recession by raising interest rates in order to blunt a potentially longer and deeper recession.
I don't know what else to say at this point but the governments that are allowing this to happen probably won't last another generation if they don't bridge the wealth gap and stop letting profits drive all of society.
Idk, with the way polling is looking, it mainly looks like the wedge issues are immigration in Europe, with anti-immigration far-right parties rising throughout western europe.
Just in regards to your first point, the OP commenter is taking a sarcastic jab at US conservatives blaming our current economic situation (that expands worldwide) on Biden's shoulders alone.
Just in regards to your first point, the OP commenter is taking a sarcastic jab at US conservatives blaming our current economic situation (that expands worldwide) on Biden's shoulders alone.
In Norway they're sometimes saying the increased interest rates are meant to slow down the inflation, actually. Despite nobody having gotten any significant raise in income or purchasing power,...
In Norway they're sometimes saying the increased interest rates are meant to slow down the inflation, actually.
Despite nobody having gotten any significant raise in income or purchasing power, quite the opposite, and it is clear as day that big businesses have just increased their prices across the board because they could and wanted to.
Norway is a country that runs on brands and franchises almost exclusively too, so no local mom and pop shops for most anything, not food, not clothes, nothing really outside of some services like hairdressers or boutique shops for knick knacks. So it affects absolutely everything when the big businesses do this.
It's the same around the world. Politicians do things that are so disconnected from those in the middleclass and downwards, but are obviously serving the richest.
In Norway, Erna Solberg's (the former priminister) husband has been exposed for doing insider trading with stocks for hundreds of thousands of dollars (or the Norwegian currency equivalent) for the last 8 years. But the media kept it secret until a couple of days after the elections, and despite nothing but lies upon lies being discovered everytime they claimed they "came clean" about trades and numbers...
The responsible legal departments decided against investigating anything, stating that they didn't see anything that indicated illegal insider trading...
Erna Storberg is still the leader of the political party she represents. They have not ousted her. She refuses to step down.
When a country like Norway lets corruption and buddy-buddy illegallities like this go on unchecked against the will of its actual inhabitants because the powerful just decides to do what they want... Then the world is really a different place than it used to be.
Personal thoughts on why this is becoming such an open and well known problem - as opposed to kept hidden as an "open secret" like before - is that the most powerful people in the West all got taken down a notch after two back to back world wars. They experienced suffering to a degree they couldn't fully hide from despite their wealth and power.
Those people are now dead. Today's powerful people haven't been forced to be humbled and haven't been forced to experience compassion and co-misery with their lesser powerful co-humans.
Yes, you raised interest rates, which slows economic development, which slows down inflation from the demand side. I keep hearing people say this, but it's not even logically consistent. In this...
Exemplary
In Norway they're sometimes saying the increased interest rates are meant to slow down the inflation, actually.
Yes, you raised interest rates, which slows economic development, which slows down inflation from the demand side.
it is clear as day that big businesses have just increased their prices across the board because they could and wanted to.
I keep hearing people say this, but it's not even logically consistent. In this world, businesses didn't increase prices before because... of their benevolence? Big megacorp A just kept margin they could've had on the table because... they're nice? Really? And now they're mean?
All companies have been the same amount of greedy pre and post inflation: maximally greedy, which you're supposed to be in a market economy. If prices have increased, it means that market dynamics have changed.
Prices are where they are because if companies increase them more, they lose money. If they were lower before, it was not because companies were nicer, it was because that was the point of maximal profit before, and now the price of maximal profit is higher.
As long as people still need healthcare, food, electricity, clothes, shoes, etc then there is no such thing as truly free market. Because when you must have certain things to survive, you must....
As long as people still need healthcare, food, electricity, clothes, shoes, etc then there is no such thing as truly free market.
Because when you must have certain things to survive, you must. And the only thing stopping the providers from increasing their prices across the board is their own sense of shame or the law. Whichever stops the price hikes first.
There is so much accumulated wealth in these companies, and their owners' portfolio across all manners of financial acrobatics that even if they all suddenly outpriced themselves and people just died off from lack of resources, they would still be rich enough to not be affected by that.
Did inflation only occur in industries with inelastic demand curves? Seems not, most people are complaining about classically elastic products. That's not really the issue, it's not about pricing...
Exemplary
Because when you must have certain things to survive, you must.
Did inflation only occur in industries with inelastic demand curves? Seems not, most people are complaining about classically elastic products.
There is so much accumulated wealth in these companies, and their owners' portfolio across all manners of financial acrobatics that even if they all suddenly outpriced themselves and people just died off from lack of resources
That's not really the issue, it's not about pricing people "to death", it's a simple optimization problem. Few products have truly inelastic demand curves, and in Europe especially most of those are already covered by market interventions. By definition products with elastic demand have unit numbers sensitive to price changes. Companies like to make money, no?
Moreover, again, none of this is even logically consistent. If we're talking about the wave of inflation from 2020 onwards, there must be a delta. "Oh boo companies are greedy" is not a delta that makes sense. Companies are, again, maximally greedy. This is not a new thing; this is how the economy of western nations have worked for hundreds of years. Unless you really mean to imply that companies were not greedy pre-2021, in which case I think a lot of shareholders would like that information to file suits.
What did change over the pandemic? Well, the obvious ones are twofold: a supply chain disruption, both from COVID protocols, factory closures in China, energy supply disruptions from Russia's invasion that causes supply-push inflation, and a massive influx of stimulus from governments attempting to stem the hit on demand from the pandemic causing demand-pull inflation.
Pardon, I'm not an economics person. I do HVAC and have seen the cost of equipment nearly double over the past few years. My question, and I think the issue a lot of other people have, is that...
Pardon, I'm not an economics person. I do HVAC and have seen the cost of equipment nearly double over the past few years.
My question, and I think the issue a lot of other people have, is that while we acknowledge a number of issues lead to price increases, how come now almost four years after COVID, prices haven't come back down?
In my field we no longer have supply issues, but prices never came down to reflect that. A complete furnace and AC went from $6-7K to now $10-12K.
Mind you HVAC equipment is, and I believe most people would consider it to be, as you said "inelastic."
It seems more like manufacturers, being forced to raise costs due to shortages, realized they could keep their prices at nearly double, as people are still going to buy it. What choice do they have?
This is the answer, the delta that stu2b50 was referring to. Prior to the supply crunch, they thought they could make the most money by charging $6-7k. They thought if they charged more, they...
realized they could keep their prices at nearly double, as people are still going to buy it.
This is the answer, the delta that stu2b50 was referring to. Prior to the supply crunch, they thought they could make the most money by charging $6-7k. They thought if they charged more, they would lose sales due to some being unable to afford it. During the supply crunch, they knew their sales numbers would be limited by the amounts available to sell, and so raised prices. Had only one company done this, they would have been undercut by the other companies and the move would have failed, but because the supply chain issues were global, it worked out. The profits went up, rather than dropping, so they knew they could continue to sell units for those raised amounts without losing money, and that's what they're going to do.
They were maximally greedy when they were charging $6-7k, and they're maximally greedy now. The delta is new information about price tolerances coming to the entire industry simultaneously. There's no realistic factor that could reverse that without disrupting the entire industry.
Isn't the fix for this supposed to be baked into capitalism itself? If someone can make more sales by undercutting everyone else, aren't they supposed to be doing that? That's how it's supposed to...
Isn't the fix for this supposed to be baked into capitalism itself? If someone can make more sales by undercutting everyone else, aren't they supposed to be doing that? That's how it's supposed to work, right?
If you are making $10k per furnace and I come along and start selling them for $5k, I make less money per sale but I will take most of your sales.
It's almost like it's a terrible system which really only optimises for maximal exploitation. Shocker.
That is supposed to be the fix, but there's really nothing to force it. They're making more now that they're selling them for $10k than they were when they were selling them for $5k, so they're...
That is supposed to be the fix, but there's really nothing to force it. They're making more now that they're selling them for $10k than they were when they were selling them for $5k, so they're going to keep doing that. Maybe you could make a higher number of sales than your competitor if you were selling them for less, but it would also cost you more in inventory, so you might not end up walking away with a higher dollar amount.
This answer may not say why, but I will say that you essentially never expect prices to come down in general; i.e., you do not expect a deflationary market. Those prices are never going to go back...
My question, and I think the issue a lot of other people have, is that while we acknowledge a number of issues lead to price increases, how come now almost four years after COVID, prices haven't come back down?
This answer may not say why, but I will say that you essentially never expect prices to come down in general; i.e., you do not expect a deflationary market. Those prices are never going to go back down to where they started.
Also, to point it out - deflation is generally an extremely bad thing for the health of an economy, much more so than inflation. To bring it back to the example of HVAC - if prices for HVAC units...
Also, to point it out - deflation is generally an extremely bad thing for the health of an economy, much more so than inflation. To bring it back to the example of HVAC - if prices for HVAC units are $10-12k today, but there's a reasonable expectation that they'll be cheaper in the future, absolutely nobody is going to buy an HVAC system unless they have no other option. Instead, they're going to wait for it to become cheaper. Repeat that through your entire economy, and your demand is going to plummet, since nobody is going to spend any money they don't absolutely need to because it'll be worth more later. It's a great recipe for getting yourself into a recession, or for making a recession worse.
This isn't to say that prices going down in one sector is a bad thing! That's exactly what you'd expect to happen as a result of continued innovation and competition. But doing it across your entire economy at once has bad knock-on effects.
And, incidentally, this is a major reason why Bitcoin doesn't work as a currency: it's inherently deflationary, so there's a strong incentive against using it to purchase things as opposed to...
And, incidentally, this is a major reason why Bitcoin doesn't work as a currency: it's inherently deflationary, so there's a strong incentive against using it to purchase things as opposed to holding on to it.
I agree with this statement in general but wanted to point out it's difficult to test for in practice. Stable prices have sort of a momentum that causes price to be taken off the table as a profit...
Prices are where they are because if companies increase them more, they lose money.
I agree with this statement in general but wanted to point out it's difficult to test for in practice. Stable prices have sort of a momentum that causes price to be taken off the table as a profit lever. I guess what I'm trying to say is pricing isn't perfectly efficient and I suspect some profit was left on the table by mega corps during the last decade or so of relatively stable prices
We've had 13 years of austerity as well. The Conservative government has absolutely raped this country of any assets it had left and now they're all going to fuck off and become Non-Exec Directors...
We've had 13 years of austerity as well.
The Conservative government has absolutely raped this country of any assets it had left and now they're all going to fuck off and become Non-Exec Directors of all the firms they've made, sold and conned money out to.
There are so few words to describe what a shower of bastards those people are. They're shameless capitalists, intent on making everyone suffer as much because they are aristocratic elitist fucks with zero empathy beyond their own little high score against each other.
They live in a fantasy world where Thatcher would have done all this. And the worst thing about it? Most of the 'rich' (read: "making £45K+ a year") will vote for them happily. Voting Labour means you're working class, but voting Conservative means you're not... so guess what they'll do?
Calm down there. We get that governments are evil for the most part, but look at the long list the Conservative Government has achieved because of the austerity they had to put in place because...
Calm down there. We get that governments are evil for the most part, but look at the long list the Conservative Government has achieved because of the austerity they had to put in place because Labour emptied the treasury.
Here, I'll list them....
See! It's a great list!
We haven't had a government who cared and actually did for the people for as long as I've walked the earth, and I'm hitting on near 5 decades. They are all as bad as one and other, handing friends and family contracts and deals that keep them all rich. Name a politician that is genuine and for each one you can, you can probably name 15 that aren't. My faith in politics fell flat a long time ago.
If you can give me pointers and why I should vote for a particular party in the next election, I'm all ears.
No they are not. I'm about the same age as you and Labour were far better than the current lot. Were they a complete shambles? Of course. But they were a complete shambles who were at least trying...
They are all as bad as one and other,
No they are not. I'm about the same age as you and Labour were far better than the current lot. Were they a complete shambles? Of course. But they were a complete shambles who were at least trying to help people. Labour didn't shut my local Sure Start centre, my library, my medical centre. The Tories did.
To pull just one example from the air - was Jack Straw a horrendous authoritarian nightmare? Obviously, Home Sec always is. But you cannot put Straw and Braverman side by side and say they're as bad as each other.
deals that keep them all rich. Name a politician that is genuine
I actually don't think this is particularly true. I think there are a few politicians in the UK (the US is a very different matter)who are in it for the money, but mostly not. Because you'd have to be incredibly dim to think British politics is the way to get rich. Business is how you get rich, and you don't constantly have the press poking around in your life while you do. Even if you want power, business is still the best way to do that. Money buys access and it buys influence (although only influence).
So I think most politicians actually are pretty genuine. They want to make things better. I just also think they're mostly pretty thick with it. Our electoral system does not optimise for smart, dedicated public servants. It optimises for people who can win elections, and that not the same thing any more.
If you can give me pointers and why I should vote for a particular party in the next election, I'm all ears.
You vote for the candidate most likely to stop your local Tory getting back in, assuming you have one. In FPTP that's the only move that makes any sense. You have to vote against the worst realistic option. If that's Labour then suck it up and make that mark. If it's the Lib Dems, same. Because the alternative is worse.
If you're in a safe not Tory seat then you look at the margins and decide if you can risk voting with your actual conscience. Then you read the manifestos and see what you like. Personally I always end up about 90% Green, they're a bit anti-science in some areas but fundamentally they're the best left-wing option we have so on the rare occasions I get a free vote, I support the best option out of a load of options I don't really like.
The important thing is that you vote. If you don't vote the bastards just keep doing what they're doing because from their perspective, it's working. They only care about voters, if you don't vote, they have zero reason to care about you.
Hasn't been since television. Used to be written words would be how most people learned about a president's policies and personality. Which (in theory) gives favor to those whom have better...
It optimises for people who can win elections, and that not the same thing any more.
Hasn't been since television. Used to be written words would be how most people learned about a president's policies and personality. Which (in theory) gives favor to those whom have better arguments (and staffers) when thought out. Televised debates favor on-screen charisma and quippy one-liners, which does not necessarily translate to good values and policy.
This is the thinking that totally fucks us over again and again. Blair and then Brown oversaw some turbo fucks like the Iraq war, but also saw decent social spending and social systems. They have...
They are all as bad as one and other,
This is the thinking that totally fucks us over again and again.
Blair and then Brown oversaw some turbo fucks like the Iraq war, but also saw decent social spending and social systems.
They have since been nuked by the proceeding government and social services and general societal metrics are totally crap, between the financial crash of 07-08, and austerity between then and now, along with an actively hostile gov.
Wow, I haven't read the term turbo fuck in years. Did you use to post on the Army Rumour Service, by any chance? They had some pretty funny banter over there.
Wow, I haven't read the term turbo fuck in years. Did you use to post on the Army Rumour Service, by any chance? They had some pretty funny banter over there.
Not sure where I picked up the saying, my only tenuous connection to army was a 2 year stint in Army Cadets as a lad. I eventually quit after too much marching in the rain and not enough shooting...
Not sure where I picked up the saying, my only tenuous connection to army was a 2 year stint in Army Cadets as a lad. I eventually quit after too much marching in the rain and not enough shooting range sessions. Still remember messing around with SA80 rifles in the beacons.
You genuinely got me so good then. SOMEONE DEFENDING THE TORIES! TO THE STOCKADES WITH YOU! You're absolutely right mate, I guess it's just the sheer inhumanity that the fuckers right now have in...
You genuinely got me so good then. SOMEONE DEFENDING THE TORIES! TO THE STOCKADES WITH YOU!
You're absolutely right mate, I guess it's just the sheer inhumanity that the fuckers right now have in their veins that's shocked me, and I can't help but feel like it's really cascaded down into the rest of society. Folks are furious, upset, angry, rude and vicious these days. It's shocking to have to engage with the general public at the moment.
If you can give me pointers and why I should vote for a particular party in the next election, I'm all ears.
Other than the Lib Dems who really are pushing the Vote Refom (as well as significant areas of Labour) I can't mate.
My wife and I are starting to wonder why we stay here.
Because there's few places better, if any, when it comes to politics. Moving somewhere else will give you that thin veneer of everything feeling ok because you're not as engaged with the local...
My wife and I are starting to wonder why we stay here.
Because there's few places better, if any, when it comes to politics.
Moving somewhere else will give you that thin veneer of everything feeling ok because you're not as engaged with the local politics, but when that strips away it's neoliberalism, nepotism, and greedy politicking all the same.
Honestly? It's a cynical attitude that many of us have. But my wife is from Rural Australia and my inlaws and wonderfully "out of the damn way" of just about everything. If I could do that...
Honestly? It's a cynical attitude that many of us have.
But my wife is from Rural Australia and my inlaws and wonderfully "out of the damn way" of just about everything. If I could do that sans-spiders? I'd be happy.
Ireland. It's easy to move there from the UK - most of the free movement/work deals predate the EU so are still in place. Rural Ireland is not quite as remote as rural Australia but you can get...
Ireland. It's easy to move there from the UK - most of the free movement/work deals predate the EU so are still in place. Rural Ireland is not quite as remote as rural Australia but you can get pretty middle-of-nowhere fairly easily. The weather is pretty decent although a bit rainier than here, the language barrier is low (although rural Irish accents are not always entirely clear!) and it's pretty easy to jump back over the Irish sea to visit friends and family if you want to. No spiders, not even a bitey snake to be found.
One of my friends moved to a farm about an hour from Cork a few years back and they absolutely love it. Politically they think it is better, at least compared to the shitshow in Westminster right now. Not perfect, but nowhere is.
Aye. I've got an Irish passport as well... so that's always nice. Plus like you said, the 48 agree works well. It's been on the list before actually. We'll have to see as I'm starting a new job...
Aye. I've got an Irish passport as well... so that's always nice. Plus like you said, the 48 agree works well.
It's been on the list before actually. We'll have to see as I'm starting a new job and that might work nicely, but also may cause tax issues... as is tradition.
I had always assumed dropbear was just a cover for the spiders. Much how in the novel/adaptations It, the giant supernatural evil spider masks itself as a clown. Koalas are just Australian spiders...
I had always assumed dropbear was just a cover for the spiders.
Much how in the novel/adaptations It, the giant supernatural evil spider masks itself as a clown. Koalas are just Australian spiders trying to lure you in.
A recession would be worse. Lots of people are struggling with not enough money now, a recession would mean no money and be much worse. To say what life is like today for the majority of the...
A recession would be worse. Lots of people are struggling with not enough money now, a recession would mean no money and be much worse. To say what life is like today for the majority of the population would be the same if a recession happened is obtuse.
It might turn out that turning off nuclear power isn't such a great idea
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/edf-energy-extend-lifetime-two-uk-nuclear-plants-2023-03-09/
Turning off existing nuclear plants? Bad idea. Building new nuclear plants? Also a bad idea. New nuclear just isn't cost competitive. Renewables plus the batteries needed to get baseload performance out of them are now cheaper than fission. And even expensive imported natural gas is cheaper than new fission.
Howso? A 1.5 GW Wind farm costs about 1/5 as much to build as a 1.5 GW nuclear plant.
Except those are peak capacities. And a nuclear plant will run at near-peak capacity 24/7. A wind farm will not. On average looks like equivalently sized wind farms produce 1/5th or less of the same sized nuclear plants. Which puts the largest wind farms in the world at roughly the annual production capacity of a small-medium coal plant.
Except that renewables also are going to need some massive storage mechanisms that are going to be terribly expensive, but those costs are hidden future projects right now.
Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% behind distributed renewables, I think every home should have solar panels, some batteries, and a turbine. But large-scale renewable grid production is not genuinely, undeniably cheaper compared to nuclear when you compare the most important metric: total annual generation.
Exactly. The current situation is "look, renewable energy" *closes the curtain so nobody can see the natural gas plant behind it*. Then increases in renewables are measured against the decline of coal, which has been heavily replaced by NG over the past 15 years or so.
Last time I saw a rough estimation of how big the battery capacity would need to be for UK to switch to 100% renewable energy (which was this year, not a decade ago or something), the issue wasn't even the cost but the fact that, especially if you factor in the issue with batteries losing capacity and needing to be replaced optimistically after 5-10 years, there was not enough free capacity in battery manufacturing worldwide to supply the amount needed.
I haven't already seen it mentioned, but it bears saying: it is not cheaper to turn off your fridge and freezer. They are both appliances which are designed to be extremely efficient, and once they get to temperature they are very good at staying that way. Turning off your cold machine once it has reached temperature and then waiting until things get warm again is a) a great way to get food poisoning, and b) going to cost you more money in the long term because it's more expensive to cool from room temperature than it is from a couple of degrees higher than the target.
You can adjust the temperature on your appliance and still retain food safety; I have heard (but not seen data) that most people have their fridges and freezers too cold anyway. The real saving to be made is in adjusting your heating, hot water, and gas cooking. Electricity is considerably cheaper than gas at the moment, and that's where most people's money is disappearing to.
I'm also surprised not more people consider chest freezers for long term and emergency cold storage. By design, the cold air pools inside so they maintain temperature far better when opened. And even my older model barely registers any power draw when opened once a week. I know there are some standing units that have a freezer drawer but even in the best cases, cold pours out the second that seal is broken.
Bonus Features: It makes for a good counter top. More impactful for a 'fake body in the freezer' prank. Far cheaper and more reliable than most standing freezers and my I'm far less likely to leave it open a crack and loose the entire store.
But like you said heating is the far bigger culprit for energy cost. Heat pumps are a higher upfront cost but are more efficient for air and water heating. Also measured my induction stove at about 25% more efficient than my old electric stove unit. Unfortunately a lot of this cost saving come with a steep migration cost and most people are inheriting, sometimes decades, old tools. A 10 year return is pointless when most people cant stomach the cost even with generous payment plans and the minimal subsidies.
One of the reasons chest freezers are not that popular in the UK is space. There just isn't room for them in many houses. Especially houses where people are so tight for money they're considering switching off appliances.
My house is probably fairly average size and I have room for a dishwasher, cooker, fridge, freezer and washing machine and that's about it. All of which are standard 600mm width under-counter fitments (cooker notwithstanding, obviously). If I wanted a clothes drier, and I don't because they're awful on so many levels, I couldn't have one. A chest freezer is physically not an option, regardless of the financial cost.
Also there's not a lot of point in having long-term cold storage when you can't afford to fill it up. Of course it's cheaper in the long run, but if people can't even afford the short term they never get to see the long run. Boots theory in action.
Worth it for this alone!
As a heads up to anybody that is trying to save money, odds are you can improve the efficiency of your fridge/freezer by pulling it out from the wall and cleaning the heck out of the coils. A good alkaline solvent to help clear off the grease and dust will make it work much better. This also applies to the coils of heat pumps, both indoor and outdoor. Also making sure the fins of your coils aren't touching each other. When they're bent and touching it inhibits the airflow which helps remove the excess heat faster. They are fragile little buggers though, and if you're not careful you'll snap them off, so I don't know if I'd try unbending them unless its a massive blockage and you are mildly comfortable with un-bending bent CPU pins. Also keeping a small gap on the back and sides should help a bit with circulation if you can avoid slamming it all the way to the wall.
Also insuring you've got the fridge set closer to 4C and not any lower keeps it food-safe while minimizing energy use. Freezer should be set to -17C for long-term storage and you can maybe get away with -6C if you're not keeping stuff there longer than a month. Having the temps dialed down too cold will speed the process of cooling stuff down, which is great, but the fridge will have to work harder to keep that more-extreme differential.
A full fridge/freezer is more efficient than an empty one. An empty fridge has most of it's cold thermal mass as air and you lose it as soon as you open the door. If you find yourself with a half-empty fridge, fill it with a bunch of water bottles to keep that thermal mass in place when you open the door.
Something to consider is that people might not be using modern appliances. A medium to high end freezer that's a couple of years old is very efficient. But plenty of people don't have those.
I replaced my freezer a few years ago after I bought a power meter and discovered that it was drawing about £15 worth of electricity a month (and that was before energy prices went completely insane) just by virtue of being old and inefficient - it was at least ten years old and was probably the cheapest freezer available when bought.
That £15/month would likely be more like £25 at today's prices. Almost a pound a day is a significant cost if you're on the very edge of financial stability. That's going to be the difference between eating and not, some days.
I'm pretty sure people turning off their freezer now have already turned down everything else they can. It's not like there hasn't been plenty of advice going around about the most effective ways to save energy costs.
Are you sure that electricity is considerably cheaper than gas? I thought the unit prices for gas were about 1/4 of electric.
Per unit, yes. But gas boilers use a lot energy to heat water for central heating, so the main expense comes from there. Turning my heating on for 4-6 hours a day has literally doubled my utility bill compared to not using any heating. Operating the majority of appliances in the same way would net minimal gains, and certainly not halve my existing bill.
I know the current government rolls out the tired tropes now;
"Oh the war in Ukraine"
"Oh Covid backlash"
"Oh Covid inflation"
"Oh..."
But these absolute bastards have been causing the overall quality of life to plummet for 13 years. Turning off fridges to keep the bills paid? Sweet merciful christ. We're a "Developed Nation" that apparently has lost it's faculties when we've elected MPs who want nothing but to make us suffer.
I look at the nation from 15 years ago and wonder what on Earth went wrong. Where did my countrymen lose their faith in each other and think that anyone should live like this? I know many of us will raise our hands at that question and go "I'm not happy either!", so another follows? Why have we done nothing about it?
... because we're all fucked if we start throwing MPs into the Thames and we're all exhausted.
Christ. What a shit show.
Just out of curiosity, did you get an influx of immigrants from the United States? (Sorry, snarky American response to your genuine pain)
Annoyingly because we share the same language, right wing American propaganda spreads very easily via the internet to the UK.
I've met honest to god QAnon supporters and flat earthers whilst chatting to random people. Hell just on Tuesday someone called into LBC and said "all taxation is theft, and stealing is against my religion".
Our stupidity knows no borders!
Not really. It's funny, but since moving to London I've acquired a small contingent of my wayward cousins from all over your fair land! Pitts, Boston, Texas and Cali.
Wow, what a great human system, Capitalism is absolutely flawless!
Why is it acceptable that normal people suffer when this absolutely stupid system is slowed down? Do you think the rich are feeling the effects of recession? Oh no, they can't afford another gold-lined yacht?
When are people going to start protesting this garbage? Enough is enough.
Nationalize all basic needs, including housing and food.
Tax the rich.
Implement UBI.
Human civilization is such a joke. Primitive beings still chained to their selfish desires in an impermanent reality.
No, the UK has actually had substantially higher inflation than the US ever since the pandemic. I'm not sure why you're portraying it as something they're only encountering now.
Cynicism aside, this is actually the most common type of inflation. Inflation isn't some weird natural disaster like a hurricane or something. There's two main types of inflation: demand pull, and supply push. In demand-pull inflation, you would indeed expect companies to make more money and have higher margins in aggregate - this is a market signal that more companies are needed to fulfill demand.
It's actually the reverse, they're raising interest rates to cause a recession. Well, of course, the goal is to not have a recession if possible, and somehow or another we're on track for that, but raising interest rates slows growth, and in the medium-bad term expectation, you're trying to initiate a short and not severe recession by raising interest rates in order to blunt a potentially longer and deeper recession.
Idk, with the way polling is looking, it mainly looks like the wedge issues are immigration in Europe, with anti-immigration far-right parties rising throughout western europe.
Just in regards to your first point, the OP commenter is taking a sarcastic jab at US conservatives blaming our current economic situation (that expands worldwide) on Biden's shoulders alone.
In Norway they're sometimes saying the increased interest rates are meant to slow down the inflation, actually.
Despite nobody having gotten any significant raise in income or purchasing power, quite the opposite, and it is clear as day that big businesses have just increased their prices across the board because they could and wanted to.
Norway is a country that runs on brands and franchises almost exclusively too, so no local mom and pop shops for most anything, not food, not clothes, nothing really outside of some services like hairdressers or boutique shops for knick knacks. So it affects absolutely everything when the big businesses do this.
It's the same around the world. Politicians do things that are so disconnected from those in the middleclass and downwards, but are obviously serving the richest.
In Norway, Erna Solberg's (the former priminister) husband has been exposed for doing insider trading with stocks for hundreds of thousands of dollars (or the Norwegian currency equivalent) for the last 8 years. But the media kept it secret until a couple of days after the elections, and despite nothing but lies upon lies being discovered everytime they claimed they "came clean" about trades and numbers...
The responsible legal departments decided against investigating anything, stating that they didn't see anything that indicated illegal insider trading...
Erna Storberg is still the leader of the political party she represents. They have not ousted her. She refuses to step down.
When a country like Norway lets corruption and buddy-buddy illegallities like this go on unchecked against the will of its actual inhabitants because the powerful just decides to do what they want... Then the world is really a different place than it used to be.
Personal thoughts on why this is becoming such an open and well known problem - as opposed to kept hidden as an "open secret" like before - is that the most powerful people in the West all got taken down a notch after two back to back world wars. They experienced suffering to a degree they couldn't fully hide from despite their wealth and power.
Those people are now dead. Today's powerful people haven't been forced to be humbled and haven't been forced to experience compassion and co-misery with their lesser powerful co-humans.
And it shows.
Yes, you raised interest rates, which slows economic development, which slows down inflation from the demand side.
I keep hearing people say this, but it's not even logically consistent. In this world, businesses didn't increase prices before because... of their benevolence? Big megacorp A just kept margin they could've had on the table because... they're nice? Really? And now they're mean?
All companies have been the same amount of greedy pre and post inflation: maximally greedy, which you're supposed to be in a market economy. If prices have increased, it means that market dynamics have changed.
Prices are where they are because if companies increase them more, they lose money. If they were lower before, it was not because companies were nicer, it was because that was the point of maximal profit before, and now the price of maximal profit is higher.
As long as people still need healthcare, food, electricity, clothes, shoes, etc then there is no such thing as truly free market.
Because when you must have certain things to survive, you must. And the only thing stopping the providers from increasing their prices across the board is their own sense of shame or the law. Whichever stops the price hikes first.
There is so much accumulated wealth in these companies, and their owners' portfolio across all manners of financial acrobatics that even if they all suddenly outpriced themselves and people just died off from lack of resources, they would still be rich enough to not be affected by that.
Did inflation only occur in industries with inelastic demand curves? Seems not, most people are complaining about classically elastic products.
That's not really the issue, it's not about pricing people "to death", it's a simple optimization problem. Few products have truly inelastic demand curves, and in Europe especially most of those are already covered by market interventions. By definition products with elastic demand have unit numbers sensitive to price changes. Companies like to make money, no?
Moreover, again, none of this is even logically consistent. If we're talking about the wave of inflation from 2020 onwards, there must be a delta. "Oh boo companies are greedy" is not a delta that makes sense. Companies are, again, maximally greedy. This is not a new thing; this is how the economy of western nations have worked for hundreds of years. Unless you really mean to imply that companies were not greedy pre-2021, in which case I think a lot of shareholders would like that information to file suits.
What did change over the pandemic? Well, the obvious ones are twofold: a supply chain disruption, both from COVID protocols, factory closures in China, energy supply disruptions from Russia's invasion that causes supply-push inflation, and a massive influx of stimulus from governments attempting to stem the hit on demand from the pandemic causing demand-pull inflation.
Pardon, I'm not an economics person. I do HVAC and have seen the cost of equipment nearly double over the past few years.
My question, and I think the issue a lot of other people have, is that while we acknowledge a number of issues lead to price increases, how come now almost four years after COVID, prices haven't come back down?
In my field we no longer have supply issues, but prices never came down to reflect that. A complete furnace and AC went from $6-7K to now $10-12K.
Mind you HVAC equipment is, and I believe most people would consider it to be, as you said "inelastic."
It seems more like manufacturers, being forced to raise costs due to shortages, realized they could keep their prices at nearly double, as people are still going to buy it. What choice do they have?
This is the answer, the delta that stu2b50 was referring to. Prior to the supply crunch, they thought they could make the most money by charging $6-7k. They thought if they charged more, they would lose sales due to some being unable to afford it. During the supply crunch, they knew their sales numbers would be limited by the amounts available to sell, and so raised prices. Had only one company done this, they would have been undercut by the other companies and the move would have failed, but because the supply chain issues were global, it worked out. The profits went up, rather than dropping, so they knew they could continue to sell units for those raised amounts without losing money, and that's what they're going to do.
They were maximally greedy when they were charging $6-7k, and they're maximally greedy now. The delta is new information about price tolerances coming to the entire industry simultaneously. There's no realistic factor that could reverse that without disrupting the entire industry.
Isn't the fix for this supposed to be baked into capitalism itself? If someone can make more sales by undercutting everyone else, aren't they supposed to be doing that? That's how it's supposed to work, right?
If you are making $10k per furnace and I come along and start selling them for $5k, I make less money per sale but I will take most of your sales.
It's almost like it's a terrible system which really only optimises for maximal exploitation. Shocker.
That is supposed to be the fix, but there's really nothing to force it. They're making more now that they're selling them for $10k than they were when they were selling them for $5k, so they're going to keep doing that. Maybe you could make a higher number of sales than your competitor if you were selling them for less, but it would also cost you more in inventory, so you might not end up walking away with a higher dollar amount.
This answer may not say why, but I will say that you essentially never expect prices to come down in general; i.e., you do not expect a deflationary market. Those prices are never going to go back down to where they started.
Also, to point it out - deflation is generally an extremely bad thing for the health of an economy, much more so than inflation. To bring it back to the example of HVAC - if prices for HVAC units are $10-12k today, but there's a reasonable expectation that they'll be cheaper in the future, absolutely nobody is going to buy an HVAC system unless they have no other option. Instead, they're going to wait for it to become cheaper. Repeat that through your entire economy, and your demand is going to plummet, since nobody is going to spend any money they don't absolutely need to because it'll be worth more later. It's a great recipe for getting yourself into a recession, or for making a recession worse.
This isn't to say that prices going down in one sector is a bad thing! That's exactly what you'd expect to happen as a result of continued innovation and competition. But doing it across your entire economy at once has bad knock-on effects.
And, incidentally, this is a major reason why Bitcoin doesn't work as a currency: it's inherently deflationary, so there's a strong incentive against using it to purchase things as opposed to holding on to it.
I agree with this statement in general but wanted to point out it's difficult to test for in practice. Stable prices have sort of a momentum that causes price to be taken off the table as a profit lever. I guess what I'm trying to say is pricing isn't perfectly efficient and I suspect some profit was left on the table by mega corps during the last decade or so of relatively stable prices
We've had 13 years of austerity as well.
The Conservative government has absolutely raped this country of any assets it had left and now they're all going to fuck off and become Non-Exec Directors of all the firms they've made, sold and conned money out to.
There are so few words to describe what a shower of bastards those people are. They're shameless capitalists, intent on making everyone suffer as much because they are aristocratic elitist fucks with zero empathy beyond their own little high score against each other.
They live in a fantasy world where Thatcher would have done all this. And the worst thing about it? Most of the 'rich' (read: "making £45K+ a year") will vote for them happily. Voting Labour means you're working class, but voting Conservative means you're not... so guess what they'll do?
Calm down there. We get that governments are evil for the most part, but look at the long list the Conservative Government has achieved because of the austerity they had to put in place because Labour emptied the treasury.
Here, I'll list them....
See! It's a great list!
We haven't had a government who cared and actually did for the people for as long as I've walked the earth, and I'm hitting on near 5 decades. They are all as bad as one and other, handing friends and family contracts and deals that keep them all rich. Name a politician that is genuine and for each one you can, you can probably name 15 that aren't. My faith in politics fell flat a long time ago.
If you can give me pointers and why I should vote for a particular party in the next election, I'm all ears.
No they are not. I'm about the same age as you and Labour were far better than the current lot. Were they a complete shambles? Of course. But they were a complete shambles who were at least trying to help people. Labour didn't shut my local Sure Start centre, my library, my medical centre. The Tories did.
To pull just one example from the air - was Jack Straw a horrendous authoritarian nightmare? Obviously, Home Sec always is. But you cannot put Straw and Braverman side by side and say they're as bad as each other.
I actually don't think this is particularly true. I think there are a few politicians in the UK (the US is a very different matter)who are in it for the money, but mostly not. Because you'd have to be incredibly dim to think British politics is the way to get rich. Business is how you get rich, and you don't constantly have the press poking around in your life while you do. Even if you want power, business is still the best way to do that. Money buys access and it buys influence (although only influence).
So I think most politicians actually are pretty genuine. They want to make things better. I just also think they're mostly pretty thick with it. Our electoral system does not optimise for smart, dedicated public servants. It optimises for people who can win elections, and that not the same thing any more.
You vote for the candidate most likely to stop your local Tory getting back in, assuming you have one. In FPTP that's the only move that makes any sense. You have to vote against the worst realistic option. If that's Labour then suck it up and make that mark. If it's the Lib Dems, same. Because the alternative is worse.
If you're in a safe not Tory seat then you look at the margins and decide if you can risk voting with your actual conscience. Then you read the manifestos and see what you like. Personally I always end up about 90% Green, they're a bit anti-science in some areas but fundamentally they're the best left-wing option we have so on the rare occasions I get a free vote, I support the best option out of a load of options I don't really like.
The important thing is that you vote. If you don't vote the bastards just keep doing what they're doing because from their perspective, it's working. They only care about voters, if you don't vote, they have zero reason to care about you.
Hasn't been since television. Used to be written words would be how most people learned about a president's policies and personality. Which (in theory) gives favor to those whom have better arguments (and staffers) when thought out. Televised debates favor on-screen charisma and quippy one-liners, which does not necessarily translate to good values and policy.
This is the thinking that totally fucks us over again and again.
Blair and then Brown oversaw some turbo fucks like the Iraq war, but also saw decent social spending and social systems.
They have since been nuked by the proceeding government and social services and general societal metrics are totally crap, between the financial crash of 07-08, and austerity between then and now, along with an actively hostile gov.
Wow, I haven't read the term turbo fuck in years. Did you use to post on the Army Rumour Service, by any chance? They had some pretty funny banter over there.
Not sure where I picked up the saying, my only tenuous connection to army was a 2 year stint in Army Cadets as a lad. I eventually quit after too much marching in the rain and not enough shooting range sessions. Still remember messing around with SA80 rifles in the beacons.
You genuinely got me so good then. SOMEONE DEFENDING THE TORIES! TO THE STOCKADES WITH YOU!
You're absolutely right mate, I guess it's just the sheer inhumanity that the fuckers right now have in their veins that's shocked me, and I can't help but feel like it's really cascaded down into the rest of society. Folks are furious, upset, angry, rude and vicious these days. It's shocking to have to engage with the general public at the moment.
Other than the Lib Dems who really are pushing the Vote Refom (as well as significant areas of Labour) I can't mate.
My wife and I are starting to wonder why we stay here.
Because there's few places better, if any, when it comes to politics.
Moving somewhere else will give you that thin veneer of everything feeling ok because you're not as engaged with the local politics, but when that strips away it's neoliberalism, nepotism, and greedy politicking all the same.
Honestly? It's a cynical attitude that many of us have.
But my wife is from Rural Australia and my inlaws and wonderfully "out of the damn way" of just about everything. If I could do that sans-spiders? I'd be happy.
Ireland. It's easy to move there from the UK - most of the free movement/work deals predate the EU so are still in place. Rural Ireland is not quite as remote as rural Australia but you can get pretty middle-of-nowhere fairly easily. The weather is pretty decent although a bit rainier than here, the language barrier is low (although rural Irish accents are not always entirely clear!) and it's pretty easy to jump back over the Irish sea to visit friends and family if you want to. No spiders, not even a bitey snake to be found.
One of my friends moved to a farm about an hour from Cork a few years back and they absolutely love it. Politically they think it is better, at least compared to the shitshow in Westminster right now. Not perfect, but nowhere is.
Aye. I've got an Irish passport as well... so that's always nice. Plus like you said, the 48 agree works well.
It's been on the list before actually. We'll have to see as I'm starting a new job and that might work nicely, but also may cause tax issues... as is tradition.
The spiders are how you keep the damn-way out.
Thought that was the dropbears and sharks?
I had always assumed dropbear was just a cover for the spiders.
Much how in the novel/adaptations It, the giant supernatural evil spider masks itself as a clown. Koalas are just Australian spiders trying to lure you in.
A recession would be worse. Lots of people are struggling with not enough money now, a recession would mean no money and be much worse. To say what life is like today for the majority of the population would be the same if a recession happened is obtuse.
It's called Greedflation 🤔