Inflation , It Will Hit All of Us , Are You Prepared ?

davidstockport "Scandinavian countries who have much higher suicide rates than elsewhere"

Finland is the highest ranked at position 26th behind many other developed countries.

So no, you are not backing up your knowledge with provable facts. Scandinavian countries are recognized for the entire World as one of the best places to live, but I'm sure that you knows more than anyone to say otherwise.

bzortead You seem to be like another member who can't answer questions - I actually asked: "Please point out where I said there was NO quality of life in Scandinavian countries? I actually said "I simply can't work out why anyone can think Scandinavian countries who have much higher suicide rates than elsewhere can be considered to have a higher quality of life than others. Perhaps someone needs to tell them".

Incidentally ELSEWHERE doesn't necessarily mean EVERYWHERE. The one you remind me of thinks MOST meant ALL. (if as you claim) "This is one of the most non-sense comments I ever read in my life". You obviously haven't read his. He's still trying to work out how he hadn't heard of Latest Deals until about 14 months ago - when posting from an account that dated back to 2017. (My guess is he thought he was posting from another more recently acquired account).

davidstockport I am here for the competitions, and sometimes I stop to read some of the Chat topics. That's why I wrote that after reading someone on a Deals website complaining about wages raising hahahahaha This is absolutely incredible because you don't even know the difference between the Gov raising the statutory wage and the market raising wages.

But again, you write texts and blablabla texts, as if you were the greatest connoisseur in the universe. For 10 years, newspapers, the UN and all kinds of research have placed the Nordic countries in the Top 5 of the best places to live on the planet, with the highest quality of life indices, balance between work-social life. I AM SURE YOU ARE RIGHT otherwise.

bzortead How strange did you see someone else use "blablabla" or did you make it up yourself? The only texts I have ever written are to people I know via my mobile phone. (none have appeared on this forum).

Statistics can be correct but misleading. I remember when it was once said that 5% of preventable road accidents were caused by drunken drivers, that some sources quite rightly pointed out that it meant 95% of preventable road accidents were caused by sober drivers.

As for "That's why I wrote that after reading someone on a Deals website complaining about wages raising hahahahaha" If it was this site could you point out where anyone has actually complained about wages rising?

davidstockport These Quality of Life Index by Country 2021 figures at Numbeo may help you to better understand why Scandinavian countries consistently beat most other countries in the World Quality of Life rankings.

https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings_by_country.jsp

Rank Country Quality of Life Index

1 Switzerland 188.36

2 Denmark 186.25

3 Netherlands 180.27

4 Finland 178.95

5 Australia 178.41

6 Iceland 177.64

7 Austria 176.36

8 Germany 175.24

9 New Zealand 173.6

10 Luxembourg 171.81

11 Norway 171.72

12 Estonia 171.16

13 Sweden 170.19

14 Oman 168.82

15 Slovenia 165.74

16 Japan 164.06

17 United States 163.6

18 Spain 163.48

19 Lithuania 160.29

20 Portugal 159.83

21 Czech Republic 157.49

22 Canada 157.25

23 United Kingdom 156.94

24 United Arab Emirates 156.94

25 Croatia 155.41

In this research:

Quality of Life Index (higher is better) is an estimation of overall quality of life by using an empirical formula which takes into account purchasing power index (higher is better), pollution index (lower is better), house price to income ratio (lower is better), cost of living index (lower is better), safety index (higher is better), health care index (higher is better), traffic commute time index (lower is better) and climate index (higher is better).

Johnny That is so naive (as I'm sure you know ) . Depends who is surveyed surely . I doubt if the migrant workers in the Gulf were asked about their quality of Life ?

Makes for good discussion (which I obviously Love ) but has little bearing on reality ?

Golfforall Perhaps, but most studies seem to come to exactly the same conclusion, i.e. the quality of life in Scandinavian countries is actually excellent, and they consistently rank higher for quality of life than most other countries.

I used to go to Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland regularly for work, and I'd say it's true, the Scandinavians live well.

Johnny Wouldn't disagree , however they were always very keen to get hold of a bottle of duty free whiskey that I always took (though can't stand the stuff myself !)

Johnny Thanks Johnny but my criteria for judging quality of life is how happy the population are. This although only covering Europe does indicate that in Sweden depression amongst the young is triple that of other places in Europe and explains why.https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/05/14-young-europeans-at-risk-of-depression-sweden-tops-the-list-study

I've not been to Sweden since 1980 and although I liked Swedes generally did find them not to be the happiest of people, the prices there were horrific.

I definitely wouldn't want to live there.

davidstockport Forty-one years is a long time to make a judgment The world has changed a lot since 1980. As far as I know, prices are high for tourists, the same problem in Switzerland. You have to pay twice for a McDonald's, etc. However, it is more than affordable for their salary.

kikogpe I do realise that FORTY one years is a long time but the link I provided does indicate that there is still a higher rate of depression in Sweden. So in my opinion that lowers the quality of life.

Quality of life should not be based solely on money (although not having enough can lower it).

davidstockport

"my criteria for judging quality of life is how happy the population are"

To be frank, happiness is insufficient criteria to judge the quality of life in a country. At a minimum one needs to consider quality of health, quality of education, and the standard of living. If you take a look at the UN's Human Development Index which measures quality of life, yet again you'll find the Scandinavian countries at the top of the rankings, ahead of the UK.

But thanks for the EU study.

In that EU study, I was interested to see that the UK was also one of the worst countries (No.5) for young people at 'high risk of depression' at 20%.

That's worse than Denmark (13%) and Finland (7%).

I find Finland having one of the lowest figures in the EU for young people at 'high risk of depression' (i.e. best) particularly curious.

Statistics eh!

bzortead The issue is the UK has huge debts and a trading deficit. Just declaring high wages or paying more doesn't help. They have to be earnt through a well run economy with level trading or a trading surplus. If we are to pay our debts we have to move to a trading surplus. We need to export more goods and services and that could be because they are better, more desirable or simply cheaper. The longer we keep borrowing to prop up our economy the greater the austerity to pay back these debts. Ultimately we need to do this now and its going to be painful. We need to stop importing as much and export more. A lower value £ will help but wages if anything need to be lower to return more manufacturing to the UK and other services. There just isn't the will to do this though and I feel the economy will pretty much have to collapse before people come to their senses and be more realistic.

We should never have borrowed in the first place, we have no moral right to live beyond our means and expect future generations to pay off our debts.

Golfforall My comment "It's unlikely there could be an interesting discussion. There are too many who think interesting discussions involve throwing insults at each other". has this evening (Thursday 7th October) been vindicated. You might have noticed our resident racist, misoginistic, ageist, foulmouthed, sycophantic, alcoholic and semi-literate member made it quite clear in a topic we were both involved with. If you didn't notice it it was perhaps because it was removed very quickly, but not before I had chance to copy it into my complaint. (the second in the past week - I intend just reporting and ignoring them here).

You, GFA, will know how annoying it can be when irksome members send, by tagging you, things, often just GIFs, to topics you have no interest in, then get their associates to do the same, I've noticed it has happened to you. I'd call it harassment but "the management" don't seem to think so.

(I'm wondering how many more dormant accounts some have to try to disguise who they are).

BonzoBanana A fair comment , but some of this debt wasn't really a choice ? The 2 world wars for instance which are still a massive part of the National Debt . Think we have gradually been reducing said National Debt - but then COVID hit so we borrowed more so we could implement all the measures that were generally applauded?

I see earlier today that the USA Senate agreed to extend their £21 trillion National Debt to avoid them going into default . UK National Debt is about 2500 billion . All developed nations have similar debts .

The viability of both these "mind numbing " amounts is , as you say , dependant upon the economies being deemed capable of paying the debt off within 100 years or so ! Another reason why interest rates ( based on the base rate ) will stay low while inflation due to external factors will rise to about 5% .

davidstockport To be quite honest I can only feel sympathy for those who try to "purloin" vouchers from the site . We know who they are and I dare say Latest Deals do as well .

My beef is that they deliberately take "rewards" from the site on an industrial scale thus shrinking the pot available to genuine members (many of whom rely on these rewards for presents etc ).

Latest Deals must have the expertise to know about these multis ? but choose to do little about it .

I have an occasional rant against these serial site abusers (just to remind them that some of us know their game and will keep bringing it to light ) But to be honest they are not worth the effort . It is Latest Deals and more importantly their members who should be concerned - but they appear not to be . So why should I be ?

Golfforall Of course they know about people having more than one account "I've told them" one who definitely has more than one account admitted it (accidentally) when "playing the innocent" saying he hadn't even heard of Latest Deals until about 14 months ago. He probably got confused thinking the account he was posting from was one he formed about 14 months ago. But was actually posting from one he formed in 2017. THAT SLIP UP WAS ALMOST LAUGHABLE (he still can't explain how a person who opened his account in 2017 and first posted in 2019 didn't even know about LD until mid 2020) I don't know how many more accounts he has - but do know since he realised he's been rumbled, he no longer harasses me in the same 2017 name. If you recognise who I'm talking about please ignore any insinuation from him that we're friends. Some people simply don't know when to stop telling porkies.

Regarding my email telling LD - it was totally ignored, although another posted a few hours earlier was acknowledged but no action taken YET although I'll persist in reporting rather than engaging with these trolls. I have actually asked, perchance my email was lost or overlooked, if they'd like a copy.

Incidentally I don't have any sympathy for those who cheat to "purloin points" in my opinion they're on the same level as shoplifters.

I hope this comment (because no individual is identified) is allowed to remain - IMO it should be if postings containing blatant lies are.

It might even amuse some and might even cause one troll (with several user names) to squirm.

In closing may I thank the moderator who locked the topic I referred to - it did prevent MrMultipleusername editing his comment, although I had screen grabbed it just in case I wish I'd screen grabbed some earlier comments that have been edited. I don't like being called a liar.

Golfforall As you can see from this chart. The WW2 debt was paid off by the seventies and eighties, this is all new debt. We have transferred a huge amount of money to the EU, at the time we had oil revenue, a trading surplus (which is what paid off the WW2 debt) and the Conservatives had a huge amount of privatisation which sold off a huge amount of assets to raise funds. Of course with a trading deficit, huge payments to the EU and no more oil revenue we were forced to borrow. Also need to look at our NIIP rating (net international investment position). No not all countries have debt the same as us and many have much more in the way of positive assets like Japan. We are in a very weak damaged position currently, more so than many nations when you look at the overall picture and this is pretty much indicated by our borrowing requirements.

BonzoBanana Sorry all your graph proves is that there has been an underlying debt back to the world wars (as I stated ?) .

Various governments (with differing policies ) and various worldwide economic climates have obviously affected the graph . I'm afraid "without getting political" it does not show a great deal except that we, as a nation , have to work our way out of it by increased production .

Golfforall Can you not see the huge peak of debt after WW2 and around about 1990 it was only about 25% of GDP before it started climbing again?

BonzoBanana But GDP was an awful lot less in those days . I don't go a lot on historical data ,as times , economics etc were so different .

Golfforall GDP is also significant and definitely the best way of comparing debt levels because GDP is our capacity to pay. I think GDP is mainly following inflation anyway. However GDP is just really a calculation of business going on in the country. Even house price increases effect GDP. That's why GDP shouldn't be used as a benchmark on the health of our economy. Our real capacity to pay back our debts is our trade balance, is the UK increasing the level of assets and capital in the country or is it increasing debts with reducing assets. Sadly the latter. Nothing surprising really we can all see the huge reduction in British companies and manufacturing, really only the service industries are doing well and they can't carry the whole economy.

If you think you're showing your age, how do you think I feel! My sister's late husband's coffin cost exactly as much as their first house.

It's not just the cost of LIVING that has increased.

I remember those interest rates, 15 percent on my ISA. I think it started my saving habit, people have less Incentive to start saving with todays rates. Funny how both sides of the coin caused the same outcome.

I am also of an age where I remember it well. I remember my parents watching the news each month to hear if interest rates were going up again - as each small increase would increase the mortgage payments almost straight away. Its easy to forget just how volatile rates were - something that has not been the case for quite a few years now. I doubt if it will get quite that bad again - but there is a danger for the economy - its all every well telling employers to pay higher wages - but these will be paid for in higher - resulting in higher cost of living - we are already seeing that before we start paying for the higher wages. The next round of pay deals for many sectors will be very interesting. Worrying times for many people even if Boris thinks its all a joke - many people wont be laughing over the coming months

didbygraham Lived through the days of hyper inflation too (not quite Zimbabwe or South American style - but bad enough ). Luckily our governments (of either hue ) kept it under control over the years .

We do need a bit of inflation (about 2% ) to keep the economy healthy , but I fail to see how we are going to keep it at that in the next year .

Paying our essential workers (in particular transport , food and agricultural workers ) a decent wage (now we can no longer rely on migrant workers ) will add at least 2% -3% to inflation .

Fuel and energy rises will add another 2% -3% to inflation . So we will end up at 4% -6% inflation next year . Not a time to bury your head in the sand ?

I'm not just a "Doom monger " - more folks with more money will of course lead to a vibrant economy , and of course competition for this money will lead to some price rises being less than they otherwise would be .

It's economics I'm afraid and those who have enjoyed furlough , working from home etc may have to re evaluate ?

What I sincerely hope is that those who cannot help themselves are not left behind by the government ?

Meanwhile I hope that those who can help themselves realise they must get out and work (shock , horror !) . Apparently there are nearly 1 million (now reasonably well paid ) jobs going begging !

Golfforall I have to agree with your estimate of inflation up between 4-6% 0 which will be enough to cause a lot of people problems. Sadly this government will certainly leave a lot of people behind as they always have done. Boris is just a bit more open in his lack of caring than previous PMs. Many people will loose jobs as the furlough scheme has now come to an end too, but its too early to tell just how many - great timing for Christmas as that's when many will loose their job after the usual periods of notice are served.

The big issue that this govt does not seem to understand is that many of the people loosing the £20 a week are already working all the hours they can - they are not sitting on their backsides waiting for hand outs. people cannot get affordable child care to allow them to work more hours.

Not sure how working from home is a problem though. For many people its a good thing and hopefully is here to stay, at least as an option.

didbygraham No disguising where your loyalties lie , but I have deliberately kept this "non political".

As for working from home . Have you ever tried to call the https://www.gov.uk/ pensions for instance , DVLA , the Passport office , or even an insurance company - I have many times . If and when you get through you hear the sound of a screaming kid in the background ( at least money saved on childcare there ! ) .

A question they cannot answer ? No putting a hand up and asking for a manager to advise (as in the old days )- No , it's " we'll get back to you " - I'm still waiting !

I am sure you have not tried to have a conversation with any government or insurance company "working from home " If you had I can assure you would have a very different view ! Sometimes "ignorance is bliss " . Bear that in mind next time you expect a resolution when phoning a company that favours "working from home " . Best of luck ! I speak from several really poor experiences .

Howmuch I see your post "re politicians" has been closed down . Often happens on a Friday night about this time ! Presumably a Moderator has somewhere better to go ?

I would hope that the particular Moderator is advised that we can discuss Politicians , Sportspeople, Actors etc without "political " content ?

There was certainly no "political content or argument" in your post or my replies - so why was it removed ?

Hope the moderator responsible has a good night out having removed an inoffensive "Chat " discussion - for a quiet night ?

Golfforall Everything is *olitical, I seen it on an advert. They did it in a very polite way so no hard feelings.

Howmuch Three weeks running an inoffensive post I have been involved in has been removed on a Friday night about the same time ?! . After complaining officially was told eventually - that it "could " have developed against the guidelines .

Fair enough it's Latest Deals ball and they can take it away I hope the Moderator in question has a great night , far better than waiting to see if a post turned political - which of course it wouldn't have done . We know the guidelines , even though the moderator in question obviously struggles with them ?

Golfforall Never mind I will have to launch my manifesto for world domination on another night. Three weeks running at the same time is odd, maybe the moderator knows that is the point when Friday night drinkers suddenly turn.

Well said Johnny . The whole reason for my post was to encourage members to realise what is coming and not bury their heads in the sand (and hope the bills go away - they don't ) .

I do know how easy it is to forget about coming bills (doesn't end well ) . So budgeting is important . Knowing what is happening in the world (via real news ) is also important .

Members please try to live in the real world (not the fantasy that social media creates ?) And you will be better placed to survive what the "real world" inevitably chucks at you .

No way round it (apart from those who are on a fixed deals -no longer available !) .

Nothing we can do about it except to realise our energy bills will rise by 30% + this winter.

I can't give advice - just to be aware that your bills will increase drastically over the coming months -and budget for it as much as you can .

Golfforall eon emailed today to say that they found a fixed tariff for me 120 more what am paying now but we have put £50 aside a month to hopefully cover the downfall

Ann1984 If you have a fixed deal -stick with it ! My supplier Igloo went bust ( I was paying about £800 a year ) . I fully expect to be paying £1000 having been taken on by EON (I use less than the "typical household " £1277 a year .

Anyone who is unable to understand how this works for the please feel free to post and I will willingly give my best advice (I'm all over it !) .

Maybe sufficient to say that the price cap which we will all be billed on is an "average cap" per unit - not on your total bill !

I expect mine ( a low user ) to be about £1000 a year (up 30% from last year ) . A high user could be up to £2000 a year up £500 from last year ! . Don't be an Ostrich ! just accept that whatever you are paying will increase by 30 % with immediate effect -and try to budget for it .

Golfforall no sadly it’s not a fixed rate and don’t have option to change unless I pay over £100 extra now a month

Ann1984 Join the club ☹ . Not pleasant but at least you . like me , know what is coming

Lynibis I know , Bear in my I posted this discussion well over a year ago - Mainly to warn folks what was coming ! Forewarned is forearmed . Another post that has sprung back to the surface over the last week or two . TBF even more relevant today than it was 15 months or so ago when I posted it .

The only good news I can give is that inflation is now at or near its peak . Won't mean prices falling but at least they should stop rising so fast .

I know exactly what you mean. I used to think in the past - I'm sure these beans , burgers , frozen chips , bread , milk etc etc are dearer than they were last month . Nowadays I KNOW they are 10% - 20% dearer than last week !!

Golfforall sorry I got caught in the resurrected topic trap, didn't notice it was a year old but yes it is still very relevant.

Lynibis indeed, so no need to make a new thread.