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UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

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Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#201
post #197
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russian war crimes apologists are the worst. Nobody forced Russia to invade a sovereign country (or to consider itself the rightful owner of those lands for that matter), that's entirely their fault. And it was mind bogglingly stupid, as we can see a few months in, with the massive losses to their army and economy. It wasn't something to prepare for because it was unthinkable. It was still a huge risk to prepare for…

Nobody forced NATO to expand to Ukraine either. Or to invade Libya. Or to invade Iraq/Afghanistan. Whataboutism as a rationale for war escalation with a nuclear power is insane . To consider reining in NATO expansion war to be equivalent to war crime apologetics is beyond absurd. If we get to winter and the Russian economy fares better than ours (and at first glance it looks like it will) then a lot of people should…

> Nobody forced NATO to expand to Ukraine either

Cut the Russian propaganda, NATO didn't expand to Ukraine. Ukraine, a sovereign country, wanted to join NATO, as is their every right. Denying Ukraine that right and excusing Russia's war crimes is pretty bad.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#202

A looming catastrophe in the UK and the government is doing nothing. I've seen some crazy stuff here over the last 12 years but this is next level.

No, it is definitely doing something: Arresting people that protest for housing insulation.

They’re arrested for being street-blocking twats, to the cheers of everyone with somewhere to be. Pooling donations to install insulation would have been fine. But no. No interest in that.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#203

Inflation isn't causing this. Inflation is devaluing of the currency. What's causing this is increased acquisition costs due to public policy. 6K seems reasonable for a family's annual energy bill. Frankly, it seems on the lower end for such a climate. What's really absurd in the UK is property prices. You'd be able to afford all the energy you desire if you weren't paying 10x what it should cost for housing.

I strongly disagree that nearly 20% of the median household income (£31,400 [0]) is reasonable for a family's annual energy bill. Median income for the poorest 20% is £14,600 - the chances they could afford £6k a year on energy are slim. Are you really suggesting that housing costs should average around £1400 per year (about one tenth the average annual rent [1]), but energy costs more than 4 times that amount are re…

> Are you really suggesting that housing costs should average around £1400 per year

Relative to wages in the UK, absolutely. The working class is getting absolutely fleeced over there.

> I strongly disagree that nearly 20% of the median household income

Same thing here, there's two sides to every equation. The UK has to import almost all of it's energy, importing is expensive.

It seems to me, global energy demands are outstripping supply, and energy is going to become a permanently larger portion of everyone's budget. The way of life we've enjoyed the last 70+ years in the western world, that life is quickly changing.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#204
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even for the people that own their own home there's also the capital required to install insulation, solar panels or a heat pump. How many of those home owners do you think have tens of thousands of pounds just laying around that they can spend on those upgrades? (and that's after taking in to consideration the grants available)

If you look at the amount of cars driving around in the UK (similarly priced as all the upgrades combined), probably most homeowners. Also, if someone does not have sufficient capital, there are subsidised lease options for all upgrades.

You can buy a car (although not a new car) for significantly less than £10k, so, no, that's a nonsense comparison. A very brief search on autotrader showed me about 80 cars for under £1,000 within a ten mile radius, for example.

Also where the hell can you lease cavity wall insulation from? And what happens if you stop paying, do they come round and suck it back out of the walls?

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#205
post #201
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody forced NATO to expand to Ukraine either. Or to invade Libya. Or to invade Iraq/Afghanistan. Whataboutism as a rationale for war escalation with a nuclear power is insane . To consider reining in NATO expansion war to be equivalent to war crime apologetics is beyond absurd. If we get to winter and the Russian economy fares better than ours (and at first glance it looks like it will) then a lot of people should…

> Nobody forced NATO to expand to Ukraine either Cut the Russian propaganda, NATO didn't expand to Ukraine. Ukraine, a sovereign country, wanted to join NATO, as is their every right. Denying Ukraine that right and excusing Russia's war crimes is pretty bad.

I'm not excusing Russian anything and Im not repeating any propaganda.

I'm explaining that war, gas crisis and 18% inflation was a predictable and deliberately chosen path that wasnt hard to avoid if we'd wanted to - simply by withdrawing an invitation.

You didnt want to avoid this scenario and consider withdrawing this invitation and "denying ukraine that right". I get that.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#206

The young will be expected pick up the tab for the old, despite owning none of the assets. It would not be a surprise if there are policies announced to further tax the young to give 'Granny' more free money off her bills (the existing winter fuel allowance is not means tested), and further free transport round major cities (over 60s travel London free). Then there's the echoes of the lockdown nightmare, mass punishm…

We already see indirect youth tax in the USA in the form of social security - millennials will never see the benefits from their life-long contributions that the current retired age group is seeing. As it is currently benefits will decline 22% in 2034, and even further by the time millennials hit 65+.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#207

Inflation aside, does anyone think that they’ve really screwed with society with the lockdowns, the money printing, the vaccine mandates, and the work from home mandates? Everything feels very broken. Nobody wants to work. Even people who have been asked to come to the office are screwing off at least 1-2 days of the week and no one is able to do a thing. A massive group of people are essentially walking around with…

It feels like that among my friends. Our situations are comfortable but there's nothing to look forward to, so we just coast. It's not like we can afford a house or any sort of retirement. Everyone seems quite cynical, but not willing to kill the mood by talking about it.

It's just weird.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#208
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about training, it's about control and low pay. Much like US' h1b, but with a clearer path to citizenship and better rights for workers.

the context of this quote is that the UK economy shot itself in the foot by getting rid of cheap European labour, then someone responded actually no because they got even cheaper labour from outside Europe, I was pointing out that they are not cheap as they seem due to training cost and decline in quality of service.

They shot themselves in the foot already - but is there any proof that european labour was cheap? I kept reading about this, but my anecdata shows otherwise. At least in tech. In many cases it was the opposite tbh.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#209

Hopefully the current energy crisis (in Europe) will further accelerate development in renewable energy. Seems much of Europe is still chained to LNG, and that demand is even wreaking havoc in countries which have been previously quite self-sustained, or really don't use LNG much themselves - with Norway being a good example.

> Hopefully the current energy crisis (in Europe) will further accelerate development in renewable energy. Or investment into basic insulation and house upgrades. Single glazing and simple brick is still very common in the UK. Many houses could use much less energy if they didn't lose lots of it through the windows and ceilings in the first place.

UK is not europe anymore :x. European north and center is highly insulated. By law in most coutries.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hopefully the current energy crisis (in Europe) will further accelerate development in renewable energy. Or investment into basic insulation and house upgrades. Single glazing and simple brick is still very common in the UK. Many houses could use much less energy if they didn't lose lots of it through the windows and ceilings in the first place.

UK is not europe anymore :x. European north and center is highly insulated. By law in most coutries.

The UK didn't magically move on the map just because it left the EU.
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