You’ve Never Had It So...Bad

 

Winston Churchill once responded to a grammatical criticism, up with it I will not put. Party members of the World Socialist Movement are constantly asking of workers, why are you content to put up with this continued oppression by the capitalist class? The current wave of strikes in the UK by groups of workers is reminiscent of 1970’s industrial relations. The United Kingdom, disunited kingdom more like, is the sixth largest economy in the world. Perhaps it’s time for an up to date version of Friedrich Engels classic, “The Condition of the Working Class in 1844.” Forget Back to the Future: we are rapidly transitioning back to Hobbes life of nasty, brutish and short.

“Soaring prices, inflation, and unemployment are pushing up deprivation levels, the New Economics Foundation says The UK is on the cusp of the greatest cost-of-living crisis in modern times, with the number of those below the poverty line rising, according to a report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

In a study released on Monday, the think tank said that 30 million people in Britain will be unable to afford what the public considers to be a decent standard of living by the time the current Parliament ends in 2024.

Rising prices, below-inflation increases in earnings, and projected increases in unemployment will result in 43% of households lacking the resources to put enough food on the table or buy new clothes, the report said.

According to the NEF’s calculations, by 2024, almost 90% of single parents and 50% of workers with children will fall below the minimum income standard. On average, those falling below the threshold for a decent standard of living will be short by £10,000 ($12,422) a year, the research shows.

“A decade of cuts, freezes, caps, and haphazard migration between systems left the UK with one of the weakest safety nets, both among developed countries globally, as well as in the UK’s history,” NEF economist Sam Tims wrote. “Millions of families were already living in avoidable deprivation and hardship but … the day-to-day experience of low-income families is set to become even more desperate.”

Official figures show that 22% of Britons are currently living below the poverty line because they are getting by on less than 60% of the median household income.”

RT 8\12\22

Dave C.