Yep, most of use are far worse off, and it’s only going to get further decline for the foreseeable future.
Saint_Sin on
Meanwhile those at the top are far, far better off then 20 years ago.
Funny that.
MDK1980 on
Makes sense. Wages have been stagnant since around 2008. Working as intended.
jtrimm98 on
This is what happens when we keep getting Tories and austerity! Time to reject red, blue and cyan Tories
MastermindEnforcer on
I feel 20k worse off than five years ago. My pay has gone up by more than that in the time but my quality of life has barely changed. I’m very lucky to have what I do, but damn does it feel like what I get should be going way further.
jack5624 on
> “A typical household today would be £20,000 richer had incomes continued at the rate of growth trending in 2005”
Very disingenuous, what the article is actually saying is that the average family is £20,000 worse off than some hypothetical world where we are £20,000 better off.
Realistically with 2008 and Covid, I can’t see a world where the UK would have been this rich.
> “typical family income today would be £51,000, but is instead £31,000.”
Average household income is higher than £31,000, where are they getting this from?
The article also claims that average incomes have only gone up by 7.4% in 20 years. Who wrote this?
Sea-Caterpillar-255 on
20 years of intentional policy to make people worse off has made people worse off? How did that happen?
GuyLookingForPorn on
The fact the Tories don’t carry this blame with them is shocking.
LemonImportant7040 on
We are essentially Japan but worse no matter how hard policy makers try to make meaningless economic indicators such as total gdp look good.
Wages are stagnant and in real terms we should be at about the same place we were 20 years ago, the difference? Japan didn’t had 10m+ people in that spam of time so their housing is even cheaper in real terms compared to 20 years ago meanwhile ours is taking more and more out of our salary.
I would argue the British government’s tacit approval of businesses using housing as an investment also matters however without the demand from the extra people they would lose money. Thats why you don’t see this in Japan despite having one of the most liberal “foreign and business house buying policies in the world” me and you can with very little paperwork buy a 20k home in tokyo.
According_Judge781 on
2005… I wonder what big event(s) occured since then to set us back.
“More immigrants!!” – flag painters
vividpup5535 on
I wonder if anything has been going on the past 15-20 years to cause this?
Oh yes, we voted right wing and cut taxes on the rich whilst freezing pay for everyone else.
pajamakitten on
With more women than ever in full-time work too. I remember being a kid in the 90s and almost all of my friends had mums who worked school-time hours only. Now having both parents in full-time work is a necessity and families are still worse off, mostly because of childcare fees.
2L84T on
A bit like families in India before and after the Raj? Sucks.
Dissidant on
Food banks have always been about, but only since the 2010’s on the absolutely industrialised scale we see now
Used to be a small stock room at the back of a community hall, or church building, used sparingly if someone was exeptionally struggling, they might had lost their job, be fleeing DV, lost their home to fire/flooding etc
I’m not knocking the good work they do, as I’ve volunteered myself for them before, but they were never intended to be a means for people to survive week on week, through out the year
Same with warm/heat banks, literally designated places to go get warm in a cold snap (luckily its been mild)
But in the UK, in 2025
Care fees aside I’m debt/mortgage free but not because I’m particularly well off (came from fuck all) but because even in better times I was careful/frugal. Never even took a holiday, was supposed to do something for my 40th but it went fubar because of all the restrictions of the time (and pandemic, which like others I worked through, throwing finances in air)
I legit don’t know how many people are even managing, I’ve had a few conversations with my siblings about it and basically said if things get bad they always have a place to sleep at ours, but alot of people don’t have that. They do solid jobs as well, stuff like education and care, should be the last people looking over their shoulders
Be lying if I wasn’t honest about being concerned about what happens if my health impedes on my work anymore than it is as well, luckily am self employed so have made it work till now
Its not just worse off financially but QoL, like the utter state of public services now, paying more for less
shauneok on
Can confirm. Earning more than I ever have, barely feel better off.
15 Comments
Yep, most of use are far worse off, and it’s only going to get further decline for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile those at the top are far, far better off then 20 years ago.
Funny that.
Makes sense. Wages have been stagnant since around 2008. Working as intended.
This is what happens when we keep getting Tories and austerity! Time to reject red, blue and cyan Tories
I feel 20k worse off than five years ago. My pay has gone up by more than that in the time but my quality of life has barely changed. I’m very lucky to have what I do, but damn does it feel like what I get should be going way further.
> “A typical household today would be £20,000 richer had incomes continued at the rate of growth trending in 2005”
Very disingenuous, what the article is actually saying is that the average family is £20,000 worse off than some hypothetical world where we are £20,000 better off.
Realistically with 2008 and Covid, I can’t see a world where the UK would have been this rich.
> “typical family income today would be £51,000, but is instead £31,000.”
Average household income is higher than £31,000, where are they getting this from?
The article also claims that average incomes have only gone up by 7.4% in 20 years. Who wrote this?
20 years of intentional policy to make people worse off has made people worse off? How did that happen?
The fact the Tories don’t carry this blame with them is shocking.
We are essentially Japan but worse no matter how hard policy makers try to make meaningless economic indicators such as total gdp look good.
Wages are stagnant and in real terms we should be at about the same place we were 20 years ago, the difference? Japan didn’t had 10m+ people in that spam of time so their housing is even cheaper in real terms compared to 20 years ago meanwhile ours is taking more and more out of our salary.
I would argue the British government’s tacit approval of businesses using housing as an investment also matters however without the demand from the extra people they would lose money. Thats why you don’t see this in Japan despite having one of the most liberal “foreign and business house buying policies in the world” me and you can with very little paperwork buy a 20k home in tokyo.
2005… I wonder what big event(s) occured since then to set us back.
“More immigrants!!” – flag painters
I wonder if anything has been going on the past 15-20 years to cause this?
Oh yes, we voted right wing and cut taxes on the rich whilst freezing pay for everyone else.
With more women than ever in full-time work too. I remember being a kid in the 90s and almost all of my friends had mums who worked school-time hours only. Now having both parents in full-time work is a necessity and families are still worse off, mostly because of childcare fees.
A bit like families in India before and after the Raj? Sucks.
Food banks have always been about, but only since the 2010’s on the absolutely industrialised scale we see now
Used to be a small stock room at the back of a community hall, or church building, used sparingly if someone was exeptionally struggling, they might had lost their job, be fleeing DV, lost their home to fire/flooding etc
I’m not knocking the good work they do, as I’ve volunteered myself for them before, but they were never intended to be a means for people to survive week on week, through out the year
Same with warm/heat banks, literally designated places to go get warm in a cold snap (luckily its been mild)
But in the UK, in 2025
Care fees aside I’m debt/mortgage free but not because I’m particularly well off (came from fuck all) but because even in better times I was careful/frugal. Never even took a holiday, was supposed to do something for my 40th but it went fubar because of all the restrictions of the time (and pandemic, which like others I worked through, throwing finances in air)
I legit don’t know how many people are even managing, I’ve had a few conversations with my siblings about it and basically said if things get bad they always have a place to sleep at ours, but alot of people don’t have that. They do solid jobs as well, stuff like education and care, should be the last people looking over their shoulders
Be lying if I wasn’t honest about being concerned about what happens if my health impedes on my work anymore than it is as well, luckily am self employed so have made it work till now
Its not just worse off financially but QoL, like the utter state of public services now, paying more for less
Can confirm. Earning more than I ever have, barely feel better off.