Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by Nursie » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 4:00 PM UTC

anon191928 wrote: post #65

docdeek wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This runs into trouble when the older people rely on the younger ones to pay for their retirement and government services. Having fewer children means fewer people to pay taxes, so while a lower birth rate might address environmental and automation/AI challenges, it creates significant headaches elsewhere and requires a society-wide shift in expectations and responsibilities.

social welfare in almost any nation (excl. energy rich countries) is not sustaniable long term. maybe we can start with ack. that fact? Sure retired people can get some amounts and free food but bigger amounts in budget just don't make sense? I mean calculate and see it. Countries literally pay these with DEBT. How hard it is for avg people to get this? It is such a simple thing to calculate too. When debt gets too b…

This has been a refrain of the political right for several decades now, particularly in the US, and appears to be ideological rather than factual.

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

#72

Post by varispeed » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

orwin wrote: post #56

varispeed wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not capitalism, but corruption. Subsequent governments have been shovelling billions to tax avoiding multi national corporations without checks and balances. "Taxing the rich" is a distraction. Correct action is investigate corruption and cut spending. For instance NHS reliance on agencies - they pay agency for a nurse £2,500 a day, nurse gets £500 from agency if lucky, £2k goes offshore. That's how our money is…

Capital is power in a 'free market'/liberalist world. I like the idea of free markets, but capital accumulation makes the capital owners able to decide more and more on policies that allow them to accumulate even more capital/power. in any case, most of it isn't corruption, it's only people seeking more capital for themselves and their families.

The rot is in the state: procurement rackets, sweetheart deals, and policy capture by corporations who get access no ordinary voter ever will. When a government sits down with giant asset managers, then magically “discovers” Digital ID is its national priority, that’s not the invisible hand at work. That’s the very visible hand of influence bypassing democratic process.

People love saying “it’s just capital seeking returns” as if that explains anything. It doesn’t. Accumulating money isn’t the issue. Being able to buy policy outcomes is the issue. Once private interests can tilt regulation, spending, and national infrastructure in their favour, you no longer have a market problem. You have a governance problem.

Food banks didn’t explode because Jeff Bezos has too many zeroes in his account. They exploded because governments funnel public money into offshore middlemen, contractors billing ten times the real cost, multinationals avoiding scrutiny, and regulators pretending this is all fine. That’s not the “cycle of capital”. That’s a parasitic state captured by rent-seekers.

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

#73

Post by varispeed » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 4:09 PM UTC

cjbgkagh wrote: post #28

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…

We have oligarchic corporatism, not democratic capitalism, though I guess that is what is meant by the phrase ‘late stage capitalism’. The problem is that we already have regulatory capture, a more powerful regulatory system leaves us with fewer ways to escape the oligarchs control.

The problem isn’t the number of regulators or how muscular they are. It’s that there’s no functioning enforcement. You can design the neatest regulatory framework in the world, but if the people meant to uphold it look the other way, you may as well print it on kitchen roll.

Take MI5. Their remit explicitly includes safeguarding the democratic system. Yet when you’ve got a government holding cosy meetings with global asset managers and, like magic, Digital ID turns into a flagship national policy nobody voted for, where are they? Nowhere. They’re busy pumping out LinkedIn-based “espionage alerts” about Chinese headhunters while ignoring policy capture happening in broad daylight. They don’t even need the Prime Minister’s blessing to investigate that kind of threat. They just… don’t.

So yes, we have oligarchic corporatism. But the real failure is that the institutions meant to keep it in check have basically checked out.

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

#74

Post by anon191928 » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 4:30 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #71

anon191928 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

social welfare in almost any nation (excl. energy rich countries) is not sustaniable long term. maybe we can start with ack. that fact? Sure retired people can get some amounts and free food but bigger amounts in budget just don't make sense? I mean calculate and see it. Countries literally pay these with DEBT. How hard it is for avg people to get this? It is such a simple thing to calculate too. When debt gets too b…

This has been a refrain of the political right for several decades now, particularly in the US, and appears to be ideological rather than factual.

I dont support right, just search for countries by gdp/debt %. It's been just incresing for decades, that is not sustanaible + welfare + any govern. service that relies on that debt.

More simple , it's not sustainable because new workers dont earn much, people live longer and % from the state budget just keeps growing.

Think of it as income growth getting slower and liabilities growing just bigger with more old people in terms of %. how can you or we fix that?

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

#75

Post by adammarples » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 4:59 PM UTC

louthy wrote: post #53

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…

When I was 8 years old my father got ill. He lost his ability to work, lost his business, and eventually we lost our house and ended up in social housing. Then three years later, when I was 11 years old, my father died leaving my mother with 3 kids to raise and no income. If the two child benefit cap was in place then, we would have been in food poverty in one of the richest nations on earth. Not every situation is a…

Your situation is obviously tragic and very rare. I don't think anybody claimed that gaming of the system was at work.

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

#76

Post by adammarples » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 5:01 PM UTC

bluescrn wrote: post #50

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

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.

But the covid enquiry just cost £200 million, proving that we have world beating enquiries. No, it's not finished yet.

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

#77

Post by jabberwhookie » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 5:06 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #69

nobodyandproud wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty sure the retort was aimed at the patronizing bit here: > but ignores the tough question of the individual responsibility not to have more children than one can afford. Which seems quite relevant. The only fool-proof plan for anyone is to have zero kids, which is ridiculous. My wife and I live beneath ours means, save as much as possible, live debt free, and we instead try to afford as much as possible for…

Nothing patronising in my comment... it's common sense. Unfortunately it almost customary here that any comments be interpreted in the most negative way possible for some reason. Perhaps to avoid discussion or, indeed, the tough, uncomfortable questions.

Your comment is completely patronizing. Every child who needs help has parents who should know better and let's make them suffer.. Not because it is rational or even meets the objectives of the community but because we should be a community that is mean spirited.

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

#78

Post by mindslight » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 5:09 PM UTC

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…

> constant messaging about an impending climate apocalypse or the rise of new fascism/nazism

Or perhaps, and I know this is a wild idea, we could attempt to address these problems instead of complaining about the "messaging" ?

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

#79

Post by bigbadfeline » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

api wrote: post #58

bluescrn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I’m just going to throw this out there. What if reducing birth rates at this point in time is rational? On the employment side, we have rapidly advancing automation and AI that are dramatically reducing the work force required to maintain society. On the ecological side we have a combination of climate change, soil depletion, and many other factors that at least threaten to impose a bottleneck on us. We are smart and…

> What if reducing birth rates at this point in time is rational?

Well, lower birth rates are the perpetual excuse for more immigration. Even Trump made a U-turn on H1B and he's now OK with more immigration. Low birth rates and high immigration give credence to the various "replacement" theories and become a political force that can bring nationalists to power.

Next, lower birth rates could be "rational" if they led to higher standard of living and better quality of life, but that's not the case now, in fact we are seeing the opposite because less children make the work force cheaper thus increasing profits. Increased profits go towards increased power and influence which make the trend irreversible.

> During the transition it may be harder for us to support vastly huge populations.

Nonsensical in the current environment of birth rates below replacement level and falling.

> In the 1970s people predicted

Not people - the mass media. They are just noise and BS which should not be considered in a serious conversation - one way or the other.

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

#80

Post by mindslight » Sun, Nov 23, 2025, 5:22 PM UTC

meheleventyone wrote: post #64

wood_spirit wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People made the decision to have each child at least 9 months before the child was born. And in the subsequent years and 9 months anything could have happened, eg illness or losing a job. So even careful planners might be unlucky enough to need food banks?

Not to mention that children are a multi-decade commitment. My kids are nine and twelve. In that time I’ve been laid off twice and had a serious medical emergency. Things on that timescale are just not realistic to plan for as if there are guarantees. The less well of you are the more precarious everything is as well. This is also all on the back of people complaining about declining birth rates!

Not to mention that children are their own people that we hope will grow up into being fully functioning adults. Mitigating their suffering due to their parents' failings is a worthy goal. There is a lot of suffering we just have to agree to disagree about (eg many religions), but lack of food is basically an unequivocal [0] evil. And are our western societies not wealthy enough to provide basic sustenance to everyone ?

[0] being HN I know I'm running the risk of having have some contrarian edgelord arguing about parents' rights to innovate with calorie restriction and whatnot.