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Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

theguardian.com

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Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#41

Post by solumunus »

ukrefugee wrote: post #29
vivekd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe your statement can be 100% true without affecting the truth of the parents statement. It's possible for a government to charge high taxes and have high social spending while also funneling larger and larger amounts from the poor to the rich through regulations and government agencies that favor and act for the interests of the rich.

what are the rich anyway. UK average citizen is in the top 95 percentile in global wealth. there are no poor in UK, just wasted opportunities. if you want to listen how massive inequality is created in UK, start by looking at immigration

You will find inequality growing in Japan and South Korea where there’s very low immigration. How do you explain this?

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#42

Post by bluescrn »

blfr wrote: post #38
mytailorisrich wrote: post #12

The title was edited for some reason, the actual one is: " Budget 2025: how inflation and the two-child benefit cap has increased poverty " And indeed this is an article against the 2-child benefit cap. This is obviously full of warm feelings but ignores the tough question of the individual responsibility not to have more children than one can afford. The article interviews a family with 4 young children and apparent…

What is the point of having a civilization if we can't afford kids? Sure, if it was this or that couple, maybe it could be mere irresponsibility, but now the entire west (and plenty of non-western countries) is below replacement.

> What is the point of having a civilization if we can't afford kids?

It's not 'can't afford kids', it's 'don't prioritise having kids'. And IMHO, they've been taught to think this way. To put career and materialism above family. There's also the constant messaging about an impending climate apocalypse or the rise of new fascism/nazism - which helps justify 'I don't want to bring new life into this world' logic.

Other cultures continue to have kids even in relative poverty, they don't choose to stop having families because times are tough.

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#43

Post by psychoslave »

beeflet wrote: post #23
ktallett wrote: post #2

It will only get worse whilst costs are not regulated of essentials such as housing, food, utilities, and public transport. The rich need to be taxed on all UK based assets and income no matter where you live and we need to restrict profit and pricing accordingly. We can't keep being held hostage by those who wish to increase their bank balance year on year. Now we have no incentive right now as those who are in gove…

I am pretty skeptical of rent-control like policies, but if is being proposed for somewhere else I completely support it. Also, removing the option to have multiple jobs?

>Also, removing the option to have multiple jobs?

Well, not necessarily but a cap of the number of hour before you vastly exceed the poverty threshold is obviously a must have be it by law or sheer force of lore and habits. Otherwise this is in practice driving society to tolerate slavery, just tagged differently. If all that an individual is able doing all days through is serving mercantile work, this person represent a net negative to its society.

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#44

Post by ukrefugee »

haizhung wrote: post #36
ukrefugee wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever also self entitlement, reliance on the government is at the highest, individual autonomy is at the lowest ever

Obviously every nominal value is going to be higher YoY. That just immediately follows from inflation. Almost every year in almost every country will have: - record GDP - record government spending - record total wages - record stock market prices - record asset prices - record government debt You need to put these values in relation to something, otherwise they don’t mean anything. For the UK, take for instance the…

https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/298478/public-sector-expe...

no, I speak in relative values to GDP

only during WW2 was spending higher.

on top of it UK does no longer spend on military or infrastructure, it goes overwhelmingly to consumption of dependent population

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#45

Post by Nursie »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #33
Nursie wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that view is that it’s not the children’s fault, and the cap punishes them and messes with their life chances because of decisions made by someone else. If there are kids going hungry, that’s somewhere you usually want the government to step in and take the strain. It’s a very difficult area to navigate, politically. While it’s entirely understandable that there’s public discomfort with the idea that…

Are those against the 2-child cap in favour of campaigns and incentives to make poorer families stop at 2 children? Indeed, that'd be the best way to help children...

I honestly don’t know, perhaps find some to ask. To me that looks far too much like government overreach and interference. Not that government overreach or interference is anything but fashionable these days.

As others have said as well - people’s lives take all sorts of unexpected twists and turns. Jobs are lost, economies change and make whole sectors irrelevant. You can’t just assume everyone with more than two kids needing support has always been in that situation or always will be.

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#46

Post by tock »

wtcactus wrote: post #6
zwnow wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At what point will it get worse, a planned economy or a free economy based on greed? Life is getting more unaffordable with each passing day. Corporations need to be put in their place given that politicians dont even have backbones anymore as soon as they smell corpo money.

A planned economy will always, always get worse. All historical examples show us that. But you are free to give us an example of a planned economy that worked properly and brought freedom and prosperity to their citizens. Just one single example will suffice. P.S. I see the downvotes, but I don't see a single example. Just one...

I'm curious. What is an example of any economy that has only worked properly and brought freedom and prosperity to their citizens and has never ever gotten worse?

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#47

Post by psychoslave »

carlosjobim wrote: post #30
nialv7 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food production is heavily supported by the government in China in order to keep food affordable. Food price is also incredibly low in China. If that's failing that the Western world is in hell now.

Today's China isn't Mao's China.

Certainly, but it's officially communist, which is at least as true as western countries being capitalist free market democracy where every citizen is equal.

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#48

Post by tome »

haizhung wrote: post #36
ukrefugee wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever also self entitlement, reliance on the government is at the highest, individual autonomy is at the lowest ever

Obviously every nominal value is going to be higher YoY. That just immediately follows from inflation. Almost every year in almost every country will have: - record GDP - record government spending - record total wages - record stock market prices - record asset prices - record government debt You need to put these values in relation to something, otherwise they don’t mean anything. For the UK, take for instance the…

> > tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever

> Obviously every nominal value is going to be higher YoY

It's not just nominal. You can see on the Institute for Fiscal Studies website that, as proportion of GDP, public spending has not been notably higher than since the second world war:

https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-data-item/uk-government-spe...

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#49

Post by blfr »

bluescrn wrote: post #42
blfr wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point of having a civilization if we can't afford kids? Sure, if it was this or that couple, maybe it could be mere irresponsibility, but now the entire west (and plenty of non-western countries) is below replacement.

> What is the point of having a civilization if we can't afford kids? It's not 'can't afford kids', it's 'don't prioritise having kids'. And IMHO, they've been taught to think this way. To put career and materialism above family. There's also the constant messaging about an impending climate apocalypse or the rise of new fascism/nazism - which helps justify 'I don't want to bring new life into this world' logic. Othe…

Which cultures still have kids? India is now below replacement as well. SE Asia is doing worse than the west.

There's Africa, sure, and maybe Mongolia. But it's not clear that it will hold or that they have any secret sauce beyond just not having been yet hit with the full blown modernity.

Re: Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year

#50

Post by bluescrn »

ukrefugee wrote: post #18
jmyeet wrote: post #9

For the last 50+ years, Western governments have largely acted to funnel wealth from the poor to to the wealthy. Each economic crisis seerms to have ushered in a big jump in inequality. The OPEC oil crisis, 1987, recessions in the 1980s and 1990s, the dot-com bubble, the GFC and Covid. Ultimately this is going to correct. My preference is that it corrects by governments enforcing a fairer distribution because otherwi…

tax revenues are higher than ever, government spending is higher than ever, social programs and social spending is higher than ever also self entitlement, reliance on the government is at the highest, individual autonomy is at the lowest ever

Government competence seems lower than ever.

There's just no ability to get anything done. Whether it's big projects (HS2) or the basics (emptying bins, fixing potholes), nothing seems to work any more. And it feels like most of our tax is being converted directly into private profits while getting very little done.

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