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Trying to take politics out of it, which I know isn't easy... after all Labour weren't in power in France which is still having a very rough economic time of it and Tories aren't in power in America, which is still bouncing along the bottom of economic growth...
[b]Bad things[/b]
1. We're taking a hell of a long time to recover from the recession
2. Wages have barely moved in 10 years
3. Inequality is increasing
4. Deflation/slow economic growth
5. Super-high house prices- likely to lead to another crash or at least sucking money out of our pockets which could be spent in the real economy
6. Possibility of war - Russia/China/US/Saudi
7. Immigration/refugee crisis from Africa/Middle East to Europe
8. NHS funding crisis
9. Obesity
10. Ageing population
11. Immigration - tricky one this, but how sustainable is a growing population for UK - it's also a good thing if it grows the size of the working population
12. Pensions crisis - a whole generation have failed to save enough
13. Robots come to take your job
14. Mental health crisis
15. Low productivity
16. Superlow interest rates leading to asset price bubbles
17. Massive credit growth forecast
[b]Good things[/b]
1. We didn't have full-on economic breakdown/depression in 2008
2. Most? people are ok - surviving - not sure if this is true or not but consumer spending seems to be sustained, as does consumer confidence
3. Superhigh house prices leading to the wealth effect which supports consumer spending
4. Economy is ok. Not in recession, outlook not great but not lousy either
5. Are we sowing the seeds of a post-consumerist world as we all reflect on the situation?
6. Rise in the use of mindfulness and meditation making us nicer?
7. Rise in cycling - tackle obesity and pollution
8. Jobs market ok - even if pay isn't increasing
9. More people self-employed reduces the power of corporates as employers
10. Social media takes power away from the authorities
11. Low cost technology
12. Cheap internet access for most - more information, more communication
13. Deflation keeps prices low
14. Robots doing our jobs might free up our time for better work/life balance and leave us just the interesting work?
15. Superlow interest rates allows people to manage their debts and leaves them money left to spend on stuff, keeping the economy going
Not an exhaustive list, just food for thought and to provoke a discussion but overall, do we think our future is looking just ok, good, or not very good at all?
STW, on your marks, get set, DISCUSS 🙂
after all Labour weren't in power in France
I'm sure some on here will still blame them though, after all apparently the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the US was caused by Gordon Brown 😉
We're all going to die. 100% inescapable fact. 😐
Its going to be very windy and very rainy for at least another week.. Not good short term news.
define future. I've got the day off tomorrow, which means I'm pretty optimistic it'll be better than the here and now.
Bad thing: you're going to die.
Good thing: It might be painless.
"Most? people are ok - surviving - not sure if this is true or not but consumer spending seems to be sustained, as does consumer confidence
3. Superhigh house prices leading to the wealth effect which supports consumer spending
Superlow interest rates allows people to manage their debts and leaves them money left to spend on stuff, keeping the economy going"
These are not good things.
what this shows is a fundimental lack of understanding of the situation from the consumers point of view and the sticky plaster nature of the governments policies......
I call it mobile phone consumerism..... i can afford the monthly - **** the rest of the details.
On a positive note; Brannigans Roast Beef and Mustard crisps are back in circulation again
We're all going to die. 100% inescapable fact.
Not necessarily 🙂
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34581809 ]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34581809[/url]
We're all going to die. 100% inescapable fact.
It is thought by some people that true AI will happen in the next 30-50 years and that the outcome will either be we will all be wiped out in the blink of an eye or live forever.
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html#4
Happy trails!
binners - MemberOn a positive note; Brannigans Roast Beef and Mustard crisps are back in circulation again
OP didn't want us to politicise this, but you must be a toff with such high falutin' crisp habits.
The dominance of the West is gone. we are in a terminal decline. The centre of global economic activity has already shifted from the mid-Atlantic in 1980, to somewhere around the gulf states today and is projected to be [i]East[/i] of India by 2045.
Were in a pretty unique period in history at the moment/ In developed countries we're going to have to figure out how to support two generations of pensioners /retirees. (the baby boomers being a big old cohort) add to that the fact that most people don't really start working until they're in their mid twenties and things start to look a little tricky.
I cant see any big technological paridigm shifts coming along to help smooth things out. I reckon we should be starting to look at discouraging population growth as a priority, rather than pretending that constantly adding more people will keep the worlds economies afloat.
On a positive note; Brannigans Roast Beef and Mustard crisps are back in circulation againOP didn't want us to politicise this, but you must be a toff with such high falutin' crisp habits.
Nonsense - Brannigans Roast Beef and Mustard are the crisp equivalent of Chuck Norris.
You need to be rock hard to take on a packet of those bad boys.
You will lose but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you've been thrashed by the best. High falutin' toffs need not apply.
Go anywhere with Jet2 and you'll realise there's no hope
Hmm.
I've accepted that, short of a lottery win:
1. I will never own my own home
2. I will never pay off all of my credit card debt - even if household spending was cut to bare necessities, the (rising) interest charges on the balance will prohibit me from ever quite getting there
3. I won't ever receive a pension, either private or state - I can't afford private, and I currently have a predicted 42 years to go before state age. Considering that prediction has risen about 13 years in the last 10, I can't see it being less than 100 by the time I get to the current predicted age!
4. As above, I will probably die working
5. There will be no 'college fund' for the kids. Currently only looks like the youngest will take that route, which gives me another few years to find a second, nightshift job to fund the extra £15k a year that will cost by then.
6. I've missed the boat on all the 'get rich quick' job opportunities - e.g. back when I was at uni and the North Sea £3k a month for washing dishes on a rig jobs were being offshored to the Philippinos for less than a third of the UK rate.
On the plus side:
1. It's unlikely the kids will put me in a nursing home
2. My risk of dying of cancer is significantly reduced as I will probably die younger
3. The only 'asset' i currently have, an Orange ST4, was a gift and therefor can't be taken from me if I have to declare bankruptcy (which would probably leave me more actual spare cash than I currently have, unless the rules have been changed!)
4. I don't have the stress of 'wealth management', watching the property market, or worrying about 'losing it all'...
5. Robots stealing my job isn't that likely -indeed it isn't for most of us, as if we don't have jobs, there's no point spending money on robots as nobody will be able to buy the products/services they provide!
6. Sex is still going to be free.
I was just going to defend my crisp choice, but PP beat me to it.
If those crisps were a person, they'd be the one ripping there top off, then offering you out, outside the kebab house, at two in the morning, for looking at their bird!
[b]DO YOU WANT SOME?!!!! [/b]
Where I'm from, real men eat pork scratchin's. (With Wolves tattoos on them.) 😉
ETA Fill your boots for forecasts here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/global-strategic-trends-out-to-2045
Economic diagram on page 7.
Got my health, kids and wife = happy fella, everything else is fluff.... 8)
Nope - too much up in the air for me at the moment.
14. Robots doing our jobs might free up our time for better work/life balance and leave us just the interesting work?
No they'll simply allow employers to employ less people and work around the clock. They won't still employ all the people they used to on the same money for less time, there's no money in that for them.
yeah its interesting how thats working out for the supermarket till operators - instead of 15 till operators it takes 3 or 4 to man the 20 screaming robots that are intent on telling you what to do before you have even had a chance to think about it .... i guess thats 10 people who now have infinately more time to pursue their other interests .....
Compared with when I started work 35 yrs ago we are in general far better off. The internet. Dirt cheap mobile phones and other technology. Car ownership rose from 19 million in 1971 to 31 million in 2007. It isn't the 1% fat cats driving those millions of cars. We are living longer healthier lives. Peak oil fears have proved unfounded. Anyone born in a western country post WW2 won first prize in the lottery of life. Compared with being born anywhere in earlier generations or in the 3rd world today we are better off in every way.
If you look for them you can always find things to worry about but in general I'm optimistic. Health, family, and not wanting things because other people have them.
Maybe humanity's best days lie ahead.
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/munk-debate/
"Car ownership rose from 19 million in 1971 to 31 million in 2007"
An incredibly strange metric from which to measure quality of life though ???
Question:
How many people look at these factors and then decide to bring new life into it?
🙁
I stand to inherit little from my parents, neither of whom own their own homes.
I am heading towards 40 and have yet to get a pension underway after having to pay off uni loans, save for a wedding and then save for a house deposit.Last few years I opted to pump money into the mortgage as opposed to into a pension, I'm not sure if this was the right or wrong thing to do at this point in my life.
😐
I'm about to change jobs introducing a commute by car and train replacing my current bike only commute, negatives are lots of hours out of the house, cost and lack of exercise. Positives are the time to read or watch something on the train, the new job pays better and has more opportunities and better benefits, the pension for one.
🙂
Over the last 10 years my salary has more than doubled and it about to increase again, I've got married bought a home and had some great times. I've learnt a fair bit in that time and passed on some knowledge to others too.
I've also not suffered any serious health issues and neither has my wife.
Could be better could be worse, may as well get on with it!
I was once told that I would be dead by about 50 from a stroke. A few years later they fixed my AF and now I can expect to live longer than that, but in what sort of state I don't know. Ultimately, we all die. If you can accept that, then you're pretty much set. I think I'm just about there now.
About other things? I don't know. I think it unlikely that my wife and I will ever be able to have kids of our own, something that we have been planning and saving for for seven years. Realising something you want so much may never happen is hard and turns all your plans on their head. It does sometimes make me wonder why I am still here, pushing myself to get promoted or look for other jobs and save for the future when we should just go and enjoy ourselves.
I do keep thinking about moving to Canada or somewhere else though.
How do you get a wolf tattoo on a pork scratchin?
.... i guess thats 10 people who now have infinately more time to pursue their other interests .....
Well with UK employment at a record high the other interests may be a different job.
An incredibly strange metric from which to measure quality of life though ???
But a good rough measure of disposable income. spending it on a car is just a choice.
Just been promoted , family all doing well , live in our own bubble and hardly ever read the news ect .
The futures bright the futures Orange (5 this weekend in the lakes )
You mean a Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. tattoo? (The Black Country is one of the major pork scratching production centres of the UK.)fasthaggis - MemberHow do you get a wolf tattoo on a pork scratchin?
If you don't get the joke then, suffice to say, never fall out with a man who owns a pig farm.
But a good rough measure of disposable income. spending it on a car is just a choice.
Not entirely, a huge % of cars are bought on finance, rather than savings built up over time from disposable income. A mate at Ford said before the crash their Finance division made more profit than the manufacturing division, a mate at BMW Finance said after 2008 crash they were screwed if they couldn't borrow money from the markets to then lend on to their customers to buy their cars, and a recent article in the Economist made a point that VW will be in difficulty if they have their credit rating downgraded (which they now have) as they won't be able to borrow money so cheaply to then provide finance to sell their cars
Optimistic? If I focus on the positives, the things I can change and the things that are important then yes I am optimistic. If I worry about all the things wrong with the World I get a bit overwhelmed and frustrated about how little I am able to or have the energy to improve.
I keep my expectations in check and that keeps me happy and grounded.
After having a crappy few years I saved up for a campervan hopefully it gets finished next month...So yes optimistic about holidays next year LOL
JeZ
...The dominance of the West is gone. we are in a terminal decline. The centre of global economic activity has already shifted from the mid-Atlantic in 1980, to somewhere around the gulf states today and is projected to be East of India by 2045.
good news for our manufacturing exports then - lots of rich potential customers!
never fall out with a man who owns a pig farm.
Aye,there was a story up here like that,they never did find his wife.
Worked with some lads from the Black country for a bit. [i]full on black country accent[/i] >> "Ow ah,yow jocks,a don't ounderstan awurd yow say,now ayah comin fi sum snap?" << [i]full on black country accent[/i] 😯
You couldn't make it up,lovely folk though ,once I got a translater . 🙂
brooess - Member
...A mate at Ford said before the crash their Finance division made more profit than the manufacturing division
a mate of mine at 'car company X' said their opt-in health care scheme was more profitable than the manufacturing division...
and a huge amount of cars are not bought through choice they are bought because people live 55 miles from their job......
CO2 has more or less passed 400ppm and continues to accelerate. We're now half way to the (arbitrary but best scientific guess) 2 degree rise that will mean irreversible and catastrophic climate change that will render large swathes of the world uninhabital, create massive droughts, rising sea levels, food scarcity, unstable governments and mass human migration on a level that makes the current refugee crisis look like a (long) walk in the park. Apart from that, Yep, I'm optimistic, everything is tickety boo thanks very much 🙂
I'm optimistic about my future - and looking forward to it. I'm going to be dead by 2050 though.
Much much more worried about my kids' future.
good news for our manufacturing exports then - lots of rich potential customers!
UK manufacturing currently in recession following 2 quarters of decline (seen this in the FT and Economist and noted it's not reached headline status in the mainstream media!)
Rolls Royce share price currently in freefall - one of the very best manufacturing companies we have I thought?
Not disputing your point but current evidence not supporting it, sadly...
No they'll simply allow employers to employ less people and work around the clock. They won't still employ all the people they used to on the same money for less time, there's no money in that for them.
And once everyone is out of work bar the fat cats there'll be no one to sell anything too and the system will collapse. That's the downside of thinking in black and whites.
Take supermarket checkouts, that's 10 less people employed scanning barcodes and packing bags, so your shop is maybe a little cheaper. Which means you now have a little more disposable income, which means you buy something else, which was possibly made by the person who's no longer scanning barcodes, and the economy trundles on as always. Just like there aren't vast numbers of unemployed farmers hanging around since that was mechanized 200 years ago, or the hunter gatherer lamenting the loss of his job to agriculture.
What'll be really interesting is WTF do we do when AI starts to do the same to profesional jobs? Do you go to the Dr who's human and fallible and costs £500k a year to employ, pay off the PFI on the surgery, have a receptionist etc, or the PC terminal that cost £500, and never makes a mistake? Then think how quickly research will progress once it's a computer looking for the patterns rather than people trying to turn anecdotes into data?
you think its bad? You didnt live in the post WW2 50, 60, 70s or 80s then?
All generations face challenges, you seem to forget the ones we have already passed.
I can remember sitting around with just candles 3 days a week
4 candles?
I'll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Can't do anything about yesterday so no point wasting any time on that.
Kryton's account has been hacked,he would never post that 😛
I'm going to be dead by 2050 though.
That's a shame. You'll miss the end of Storage Hunters Uk on Dave. It doesn't finish till 2100. 😥
I can remember sitting around with just candles 3 days a week
Born 1973 so I can remember my mum getting the candles and tinned food out when the lights went out.
Was reading the reports this morning about chances of it happening again early 2016 - yes I can get candles and tinned food out (and I have camping stove and down jacket!) but a massive amount of stuff I would usually need to get everyday stuff done using t'internet and mobile (and presumably even make card payments in the shops) will be screwed without a leccy supply.
I also think in the early 70s a lot of people had experience of the war (my parents for e.g. born 1937/39) so they had much worse experience of hardship. These days however, we have so much provided for us and have got so used to a life of comfort I'm not sure the same level of stoicism or even basic experience of dealing with material hardship will be available to see. We'll see, I may be being pessimistic but listening to a lady stuck in Egypt last week complaining about the inconvenience to her and entirely forgetting several hundred dead Russians made me wonder about her sense of perspective
My current future prospects:
The small dream I've had of owning my own house is getting more and more distant as prices rise, I get older (and the mortgage I can get gets smaller) and rents rise.
My job is one that will slowly disappear over the next decade or two as digital payment methods take over from cash transactions.
My health is currently deteriorating so I've had to cut back on my hours at work, meaning less money for saving for a deposit or paying into a pension.
To get any meaningful pension by the time I reach my (current) retirement age of 70 I would have to pay in 55% of my salary!
Doesn't look good from my perspective so no, I'm not optimistic about the future.
3. Superhigh house prices leading to the wealth effect which supports consumer spending
most definitely not a good thing.
I don't dwell on bad things I can't control (painful lesson learned long ago), but I like reading other peoples lists 🙂
Mine is;
Good
1. I am alive and healthy, warm dry and not hungry.
Bad
1. Anything in the immediate vicinity that is likely to negatively affect number 1 in the good list, over which I have some control or influence.
My job is one that will slowly disappear over the next decade or two as digital payment methods take over from cash transactions.
Don't bet on that. I've just been working on payments in one of the UK banks and despite millions and millions and millions having been spent on card infrastructure and promotion over the last 25 years, you'd be surprised that c50% of UK spend is still on cash - there's lots of people still prefer it for various reasons. The stuff you read in the press is PR...
TL DR
Giving thanks daily for 2 working arms, legs, eyes ears and a seemingly fully functional body and brain. A bloody brilliant partner and a stepson who likes to call me 'dad' from time to time.
Why worry about stuff I can't control, or has happened or has yet to possibly happen? I spent too many years doing that, not worth the angst for me.
Peace out 8)
and a huge amount of cars are not bought through choice they are bought because people live 55 miles from their job......
Well they chose their job and where to live, so the need for a car can hardly be a surprise to them! I'd say they've chosen a lifestyle which requires a car.
Me it's going to be great.
OP, apologies politics first.
France. Right side where in power during the crises, the left wing government did all the things Labour here suggested, i.e. no austerity, spend our way out of the recession and don't reform the labour market. Result equals no real recovery and further problems building
USA. Democrats are to the right of the Tories and have pursued free market policies including not harming their banks so as to allow them to sell their stakes in rescued banks at a profit. Also US economy less reliant on financial services than the UK.
To answer your question.
Not particularly optimistic, in fact bordering on pessimism
The EU is in a terrible state over Greek bailout (the numbers are staggering and the eurozone is on the hook) ,over migration and their political project for ever closer integration and a super state.
Whilst we are bickering about how to sort out our deficit, Asia is growing fast, education standards and mastery of English is such that more and more of our "value added" jobs will transfer to Asia.
We are far from out of the woods.
10. Ageing population
Er... In my personal opinion that's quite a good thing.
It is thought by some people that true AI will happen in the next 30-50 years
There are also people who keep predicting the end of the world or the return of the Messiah in the next couple of years.
I had a book 50 years ago predicting the hydrogen economy was just around the corner.
The EU is in a terrible state over Greek bailout (the numbers are staggering and the eurozone is on the hook) ,over migration and their political project for ever closer integration and a super state
How many people who wore a poppy will actullay vote to leave europe though?
I was very optimistic then reading your OP took up the rest of my life. Thanks.
>drops dead<
Probably for whatever reason intrest rates will go up, forcing those with credit to have to pay more out each week, theft will go up as people buy knock off stuff, police numbers continue to go down, buy to let landlords see the end coming and flood the market with properties, but home buyers cant get a mortgage, housing benefit reduced even more, some parts of cities get even more run down, buy to let landlords start getting repoed and then a few years latter get chased by the B/S for the debt,quite a few major engineering employers shut up shop and move abroad, a major pension providor goes bust,power cuts on a large scale due to technical difficulties or deliberate acts,
and then JC is voted in to sort out this mess
You forgot about living in a surveillance state.
You forgot about living in a surveillance state.
Don't think I didn't hear you say that 🙂
Good:
1. You lot are trying to learn to eat proper food.
2. Fish & Chips are still available at £3.65 at my local albeit smaller cod.
3. Health is relatively acceptable for me.
4. I will strike Euro Million jackpot to set a new EU record.
5. UK becomes the new "EU" i.e. new UK pack.
6. EU will learn a lesson for being Utopian.
Bad:
1. You lot are still fat coz you don't know how to cook no food.
2. Bloody PC healthy eating means much more difficult to find fish & chips. FFS!
3. My bad pain is still there and my heels are numb. (pain transfer)
4. The Euro Million jackpot is mine not yours.
5. Lefties continue to blame UK exit from EU for stopping their gravy train. (Ya, take that! We are out!)
6. EU learns shite and one of the Scandinavia country becomes the first European/Western Mus-lamic nation. That will learn you! (majority rule)
🙄
You lot are still fat coz you don't know how to cook no food.
Says the man who then goes on to say
Bloody PC healthy eating means much more difficult to find fish and chips. FFS!
Anyway loads of really good chippies in my area.
I'm always optimistic about my future even if it gets a bit hairy I'm sure I can pull through.
But the world is another matter Middle East is in crisis. Europe is on border of melt down with the combined effects of debt, and mass immigration. Germany are taking the p*ss now. Asked me 3 years ago about EU and if definitely be for staying in, now I'm not so sure. If the UK (or someone else) can't reign in Germany then we'd be better out IMO and let Europe fall to its fate and then deal with the consequences.
In short, yes!
Changed careers and countries. Married an incredible woman. Like who I am. Roll on the next 40 years.
No.
Spiders are getting bigger, i pee more at night than during the day, i grunt whenever i sit down or stand up and i keep misplacing my tin opener.
It's November. Everything always looks shitty in November. Ask me again around about March, April time and things should be looking up.
In developed countries we're going to have to figure out how to support two generations of pensioners /retirees. (the baby boomers being a big old cohort) add to that the fact that most people don't really start working until they're in their mid twenties and things start to look a little tricky.
We are going to have to reset our expectations. Given increases in life expectancy and the fact that folk are active for longer why should the retirement age be 65? If more people are going to live in retirement for 20+ years then that's a pretty big pension pot! We may need to work till we are older but that's just a fact of life.
house, great kids and wife, get to ride to work and the company I work for didn't go under 18 months ago, I know I am VERY lucky to be a house owner, I'm acutely aware that it's the wedge that drives inequality in this country (I don't like the fact that it is..)
I've found Buddhist philosophy (note philosophy not religion) the most rational response to this.
1= life is change, change is life. If you expect the status quo to continue you will be disappointed. Embracing change instead opens up opportunities.
2. Who's to say what will have good or bad consequences. Wars can lead to times of peace, prosperity can lead to complacency. If you can't influence it or predict the consequences there is no point in worrying about it.
3.Do the right thing. We all inherently know what is the right thing to do. Where you do have influence do the right thing
And if that doesn't convince you go live in a shanty town in pretty much anywhere in the world and get some perspective
Namaste dudes! 😉
Yes
I'm aware it won't be all shits and giggles. But it's all I've got.
and a huge amount of cars are not bought through choice they are bought because people live 55 miles from their job......
Well they chose their job and where to live, so the need for a car can hardly be a surprise to them! I'd say they've chosen a lifestyle which requires a car.
local to me at least folks cant/wont afford to live near their work.
I know folk that live 60 miles away justifying it by the lower house prices/ being unable to get a mortgage on "the dream" house in the local area so move 60 miles away to get the mortgage on the dream house - they can then HP or rent the car they need to live there and get to and from work without the same stringent checks that exist on a mortgage so
I decided it wasnt worth the time or the car or the financial stress of having said items to have the dream house so just aimed lower in my expectations.
there are a significant number of people who wont be able to retire ever due to the amount of debt stacking up over the years , the gravy train will end.
Yep, pretty optimistic here..
I'm 42, have an amazing wife and two great daughters (aged 5 and 8)
Me and the Mrs are both in fairly 'safe' careers in jobs we don't mind (she's a science teacher and i'm a project manager basically in the defence industry)
I earn twice what I did when I started the job 9 years ago, and there are reasonable promotion prospects if I want them, both with my current employer or elsewhere.
We have a nice house in a nice part of town, and although we currently have huge mortgage and a few other debts, they are more than manageable, and the equity in our house means we could move tomorrow (to somewhere not quite so nice) and be mortgage free.
The kids are at a good school, we are all reasonably healthy (daughter has a few health problems, but they are manageable and not life-limiting)
I've only been paying into a work pension for 8 years, and my wife has been slightly shafted with her teachers pension, but i'm confident that we'll be better off than some of our friends who are mid 40's with no pension provision at all.
As for climate change, the wars in the Middle East, etc... Stuff I can't do much about doesn't keep me awake at night.
YesI'm aware it won't be all shits and giggles. But it's all I've got.
What have you actually got?
Do you own, a car, a house, a wife? It ain't certain. Your attachment to it and belief that you can hold on to it is the problem. That ain't rational.
All you really have is a life of experience. If you understand that and approach it in the right way... I'm not saying everything will be alright but it'll be less painful
Very. I couldn't really give too much of a toss about the good and bad things in the original post. I just love living and am determined to enjoy every last moment.
Not sure I can convey the idea right but,
Appreciate what you have at this very moment
Understand it'll all change in a way no one can predict
Do the right thing with what you can right now.
Ride your bike a lot... Cause they're ace
local to me at least folks cant/wont afford to live near their work.
I'm sure there are some genuine exceptions, but I suspect in most cases they could chose to live nearer (in a smaller house) or change to a job nearer (possibly paying less).
I've done very well out of my 20 years of working so far so should feel fine - nice house in a nice area and no mortgage plus investments. But Indians are taking over the work I do - both through offshoring and coming here. So no idea what my future holds.
Looking wider the economy is looking bad again after looking like things were going well early in the year - FTSE is well down having hit new highs.
People in many poorer countries are a lot better off than they have been so we're paying the price, hard to complain about that part of it really.
Optimistic:
my girlfriend is smoking hot, we don't have a mortgage, I have no need of/desire for a car with the Peak District on my doorstep, and I'm well on course to run some massive PBs in spring 😀
I'm not. Far from it.
If those crisps were a person, they'd be the one ripping there top off, then offering you out, outside the kebab house, at two in the morning, for looking at their bird!
Oooh a crisps debate. Brannigan's shmannigans...
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