hold me back....

Several news media cause me to sigh wearily on a regular basis. Rarely do they make my blood boil, but today the Daily Telegraph online managed it, with one quote.

The article, entitled 'Financial crisis- how we're learning to love austerity' started harmlessly enough. A 40 year old mother of three (administrator by profession; hubby is a civil servant) is musing on the fact that, despite the credit crunch (IMHO, aka Robert Peston led doom and gloom), the inhabitants of Wandsworth High Street (which, in my day, was a dump) seem to be coping as usual. Says Mrs Jones:

"..the shops are still busy, everyone's wearing shoes, and no one's chopping up
furniture for firewood."

(no, that wasn't the quote that got me, although it is Telegraphian enough to send the humours into imbalance). She does however, plough on relentlessly, slowly displaying her attitude to finance, thus:

"for families like the Joneses, with apparently stable jobs and a
relatively small mortgage, the menace is harder to pinpoint. "Our pensions have
been clobbered, but we don't plan to cash them in for at least 20 years," says
Mrs Jones. "I'm finding all this doom-mongering hard to take."
In fact, Mrs
Jones is more prepared than she realises. "My friends and I do talk about the
shocking rise in food prices, how a £75 Ocado shop buys you half what it did a
year ago. We used to roast an organic chicken once a week; now it's once a
month.
"These days, I scrutinise price labels and mend clothes rather than
throw them away. It's actually very satisfying. I look back at how we were
living with meals out, five-star holidays, weekly manicures and I feel slightly
sick at our decadence. I feel I should have been storing the cash away for a
crisis, except it seems there is no safe storage place." "

So the blood temperature is starting to rise, slowly, as Mrs Jones' profligacy and self absorbed lifestyle starts to become evident.

The article continues, explaining that sales of sewing machines have shot through the roof, and they bring on one of my heroes, good old money saving expert Martin Lewis (here I must declare a conflict of interest- never a day goes by without I visit his site. It is a lifeline). He explains that collecting vouchers to reduce the cost of spending has become fashionable, morally acceptable, challenging. So far, so good. As the facts and figures are disclosed, the article closes with the quote that sent me over the edge. No disrespect to Martin Lewis for this. I am sure he speaks the truth.

"Not being able to feed your children, worrying about job security and
whether your savings are safe is hell on earth," says Martin Lewis. "But for
many of the post-Thatcherite generation who never learned to reuse or recycle, a
bit of austerity can be fun. They feel they've mastered a new skill."

Let's reflect on the last two sentences. For many of the post- Thatcherite generation, a bit of austerity can be fun.

Fun. Let us not forget that it is the "post- Thatcherite gimme- it- now- how- much- can- I- get?' generation which has created this mess in the first place, with it's selfish values, desires for more money, immoral bonuses, bigger houses, faster cars, plusher lifestyles. It's the post- Thatcherite generation which has brought the banking and financial systems of this country to it's knees, ensuring another recession (I've lost count in my lifetime) threatening pre- Thatcherite levels of unemployment, and will bring misery and hardship to millions in this country in the months ahead, as homes are repossessed, families are thrown onto the streets as the post- Thatcherite generation saw no need to replenish the social housing stocks so willingly sold off, and public services are inevitably cutback.

Those, whoever, who deserve to suffer most, will not, because to those people, austerity is not a necessity, or a lifestyle, but is fun. Good-oh.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3225886/Financial-crisis-How-were-learning-to-love-austerity.html