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Shit life syndrome

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Re: Shit life syndrome

#171

Post by m-i-l »

padolsey wrote: post #5

This is quite darkly hilarious tbh. And consistent with my experience of Blackpool. I once went there on couple-week-long driving course when I was a teenager, hoping but eventually failing to get my license. I was put up in someone's house that was run as a sort of unlicensed b&b. The entire place, the curtains, the linen, the pillow,.. all smelled of old nicotine and damp. On my first evening I went out by myself t…

Nice story, thanks for sharing.

My parents used to take me for our "exotic foreign holiday" in Blackpool each year (I was from Scotland).

I actually have many happy memories from the time. There was the Doctor Who Exhibition we went to once - nothing even remotely like that anywhere near my home town. Then there was the Blackpool Tower. My parents used to complain about how expensive it was to get in, and I think we only went there once, but on that one trip me and my dad went to see a laser light show set to music (so futuristic!) and also went to a stall that used a video camera hooked up to one of those new fangled computer things that could print out an ASCII art picture of your face (such mind bogglingly advanced technology!) Also the arcades. Again they cost money so it was rare we'd go in, but there was once I was given money to try a grabbing claw machine, and won a pack of sweets. My parents thought I was good at them, and so gave me money to try and win something for my sister, which was a huge boost to my confidence (finally something I was better than my sister at!) Unfortunately I didn't manage to win anything for my sister. It was only decades later that I found out that those machines aren't skill based - there's a dial inside where the operator can control the "payout rate", i.e. the percentage of times the claw goes limp vs stays rigid. (Another childhood illusion shattered.)

Anyway, maybe that was before it got too grim, or maybe I didn't notice because I was so young, or maybe I just thought that was what England was like:-)

One awful thing I remember though was just how filthy the beaches were. The coast was lined with sewerage outlets, so where-ever you swam there would be all sorts of things floating by. Once I picked up what I thought was a funny shaped balloon and started filling it with water and playing with it. I went to show my mum how I could make the balloon bigger by squeezing it, but she just looked horrified and bashed it out of my hand. I had no idea why, but didn't ask, and just kept quiet. I did however wonder what it could have been that was so bad, but the best my innocent young mind could think of was that perhaps it was some form of artificial breast for breast feeding, given it was skin coloured and had a teat at the end. It wasn't until many years later that I realised what it almost certainly was.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#172

Post by toastercat »

> Blackpool exports healthy skilled people and imports the unskilled, the unemployed and the unwell. As people overlooked by the modern economy wash up in a place that has also been left behind, the result is a quietly unfolding health crisis.

I used to date someone from a small city in Northeast United States, and when I visited and met her friends and extended social network, this was the impression I got. The ambitious and privileged ones aspired to leave and never look back, while others remained to make the best of their city while taking care of aging loved ones. Half of the people I met had some awful family story (alcoholic and/or abusive parents, drug-addicted siblings, father in prison, etc.) Job prospects were dire. Monuments to that were abandoned and sometimes burned down factories that lined some of the streets in parts of the city. It's all very sad.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#173

Post by laurencerowe »

placesalt wrote: post #113
padolsey wrote: post #5

This is quite darkly hilarious tbh. And consistent with my experience of Blackpool. I once went there on couple-week-long driving course when I was a teenager, hoping but eventually failing to get my license. I was put up in someone's house that was run as a sort of unlicensed b&b. The entire place, the curtains, the linen, the pillow,.. all smelled of old nicotine and damp. On my first evening I went out by myself t…

(beautiful writing, as others have said!) > the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK I'm surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it's generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous. Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London? It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make…

As others have said I’m not sure it’s right to say that all of the British coast is run down but there are a few common modes of failed places on the coast.

Fishing ports which now have few fishers left. Long term decline due to overfishing along with Brexit making it hard for them to sell their catch to markets in EU. Grimsby.

The Victorian seaside mass resorts that lost out to cheap foreign holidays. Blackpool.

Places like Cornwall which are full of second homes and outwardly look very nice but mask deep poverty as there is little affordable housing and few good jobs.

Also the definition of coastal is different in the UK, an island with nowhere more than 70 miles from the sea. Washington DC is 85 miles from the Atlantic but still populated by the ‘coastal elite’.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#174

Post by stevoski »

padolsey wrote: post #5

This is quite darkly hilarious tbh. And consistent with my experience of Blackpool. I once went there on couple-week-long driving course when I was a teenager, hoping but eventually failing to get my license. I was put up in someone's house that was run as a sort of unlicensed b&b. The entire place, the curtains, the linen, the pillow,.. all smelled of old nicotine and damp. On my first evening I went out by myself t…

That was one of the most enjoyable comments I've ever read on HN.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#175

Post by vogt »

ip26 wrote: post #168
placesalt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(beautiful writing, as others have said!) > the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK I'm surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it's generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous. Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London? It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make…

In modern time, coastal areas prosper when they have a desirable climate (moderate temperatures buffered by water) or concentrate commerce (e.g. shipping port, especially deep water). A bunch of the coastal towns in the UK offer neither. They have a legacy of things like small fishing operations, which was significantly more valuable in the past when food was more scarce and fisheries were healthier.

Yeah, you see a similar phenomenon in the northeastern US. Places like New Bedford and Lowell, Massachusetts were doing much better when whaling and textiles were in their golden years. Now, not so much.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#176

Post by deadletters »

tetris11 wrote: post #2

I hope there comes a day when the rich and influential look for the next money-making venture in which to invest in, see only a sea of machine-generated uncertainty on the stock market, and decide "actually, the most profitable thing I can do to protect my wealth is to invest it in the public" One day maybe.

I also wish the world was fundamentally different.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#177

Post by jen20 »

midasuni wrote: post #70
tomatocracy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top marginal rate of income tax (above c122k of income since this year) is 45%. On top of that, if you are employed and below state pension age then you also pay employee National Insurance of 2% and your employer also pays 13.8%. So for every additional £1 spent on salary and payroll taxes by an employer, c.53.4% goes on direct taxation. Rates are actually even higher between 100-122k because although the income…

If you have two kids and earn 55k from work, you pay marginal tax of 60%, as you have to pay a child tax on top of income and national insurance, plus another 9% or 15% on student loans (which are funded as an income tax)

… what?

If you’re going to make the (extraordinary) claim that there is a “child tax” you’ll need to provide a link to a primary source.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#178

Post by dragonwriter »

laurencerowe wrote: post #173
placesalt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(beautiful writing, as others have said!) > the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK I'm surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it's generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous. Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London? It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make…

As others have said I’m not sure it’s right to say that all of the British coast is run down but there are a few common modes of failed places on the coast. Fishing ports which now have few fishers left. Long term decline due to overfishing along with Brexit making it hard for them to sell their catch to markets in EU. Grimsby. The Victorian seaside mass resorts that lost out to cheap foreign holidays. Blackpool. Pla…

> Washington DC is 85 miles from the Atlantic but still populated by the ‘coastal elite’.

Washington is 31 road miles from Annapolis, which is on the coast of Chesapeake Bay; straight line distance to the coast is shorter.

D.C. is also directly on the shore of the Potomac River where it becomes a tidal estuary.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#180

Post by tomatocracy »

midasuni wrote: post #70
tomatocracy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top marginal rate of income tax (above c122k of income since this year) is 45%. On top of that, if you are employed and below state pension age then you also pay employee National Insurance of 2% and your employer also pays 13.8%. So for every additional £1 spent on salary and payroll taxes by an employer, c.53.4% goes on direct taxation. Rates are actually even higher between 100-122k because although the income…

If you have two kids and earn 55k from work, you pay marginal tax of 60%, as you have to pay a child tax on top of income and national insurance, plus another 9% or 15% on student loans (which are funded as an income tax)

Yes, although that could be classed as a benefit withdrawal rather than a tax (the child benefit clawback), though I'd agree with calling student loans effectively a graduate tax under the current system (since very few would expect to ever fully repay them). More broadly benefit withdrawal rates are another horror show which create all sorts of bad incentives in the UK - the withdrawal rate for universal credit is 55% on post-tax income above the "work allowance". That can mean marginal combined tax and benefit withdrawal rates into the high 60s% for some of the lowest-paid workers!
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