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Author Topic: Recession  (Read 19659 times)

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aspinall_lover

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Re: Recession
« Reply #40 on: January 28, 2009, 02:38:17 AM »

Thanks everyone!!! It's gonna be hard........but.........we have our house paid for and our truck and car are paid for.  So that's a big help......but...we've got to pay utilities, taxes and insurance on the house.  Not to mention a couple of credit cards.  It's gonna be hard, but we'll make it.  Thanks again everyone........it's hard and tuff times.........
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aspinall_lover

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Re: Recession
« Reply #41 on: January 28, 2009, 02:40:30 AM »

.............however.............I am still keeping my internet service and cable TV.  I will do "with out" other things, but I've GOT to have these..........
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Bobber

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Re: Recession
« Reply #42 on: January 28, 2009, 08:40:08 AM »

That's bad news Aspie. Good luck to you.

Now, the situation over here is not really improving. A lot of people lose their jobs because banks are afraid to give credits. Don't blame the media (I work there!), blame the financial system instead.
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Bill Harry

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Re: Recession
« Reply #43 on: January 28, 2009, 09:57:58 AM »

I don
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Penny Lane

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Re: Recession
« Reply #44 on: January 28, 2009, 10:39:09 AM »

^  That is such a tragic and horrible story.  Last year I heard about something similar, with a man killing his wife, mother-in-law, children, and then himself due to financial difficulties. :'(

Aspie, I'm really sorry to hear about your husband's job.  I hope you guys will pull through.
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aspinall_lover

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Re: Recession
« Reply #45 on: January 28, 2009, 11:29:44 AM »

Thanks again everyone.  We will be strong.  And I just found out, too, that an old friend of mine that works for Target headquarters in the computer department lost his job after over 26 years!!!!  This sucks!!!!
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Ged

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Re: Recession
« Reply #46 on: January 28, 2009, 12:37:15 PM »

What must a persons mind be going through to do such a deed to his family thinking there is no way forward. Shocking but perhaps a look back into a society which existed with large families in old unsanitary courts, if only the people back then could see what even the poorest of us have now, they would surely think this is pure luxury.

As for governments messing things up and is it successive governments, none are better than the rest.

How can mortgage/insurance companies have a get out clause that your endowment policy may not reach its full value and the risk they undertake buying stocks and shares can go down as well as up. We all pay the first X number of years in management fees, that is, the insurance company having a person who is supposed to manage your account daily and move the money you pay in to the best growth possible yet we all seem to be getting amber or red light letters telling us the policies we hold may not/will probably not reach the desired amount to pay off our mortgages - money fro old rope for these companies who lend our money out to borrowers are higher interest rates - they should never be in a deficite position.

The government here are bringing in legislation next year that means anyone with a personal pension who could have got it at age 50 (which I am in 4 years) will not now be able to get it until aged 55. The idea is to keep people needing to work for longer as we're all living longer. Well, my pension certainly wasn't enough to mean I could retire anyway so it's of no consequence to me in that way but now means i'll have to wait longer but who is to say that in 5 years time they won't bring in legislation moving the age at which I can get it to 60 or 65 like the state pension.

I feel I was mis-sold this policy as I only took it on under those conditions and budgeted for the payout but as it's the government moving the goalposts and not a private insurance company, the ombudsman doesn't want to know so it seems they can do what they want when they want but they won't be getting my or my family's vote in future.

Only the rich get richer here for a fact. 90% of Britain's wealth is distributed amongst only 10% of its population.
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Bill Harry

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Re: Recession
« Reply #47 on: January 28, 2009, 07:24:24 PM »

When Gordon Brown was Chancellor he ripped the private pension scheme apart, grabbing as much tax as he could. as a result, what was regarded as one of the best private pension systems in Europe was destroyed. As a result, my private pension is only worth half of what it would have been.
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adamzero

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Re: Recession
« Reply #48 on: January 28, 2009, 10:23:19 PM »

So sorry to hear about your husband's job loss, A-L.   What sucks about this situation is that seniority and experience work against you in this market instead of in your favor.  It shows how bare-knuckled capitalism as practiced today is totally at odds with supposed "family values"  or "small town community values."

Can't help but thinking about Bob Dylan's "Slow Train":

"All that foreign oil controlling American soil,
Look around you, it's just bound to make you embarrassed.
Sheiks walkin' around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings,
Deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend."

It ain't coming round the bend any more, it's already here.
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DaveRam

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Re: Recession
« Reply #49 on: January 29, 2009, 12:01:59 AM »

Said on the news tonight 50 million jobs could go this year around the world , thats mind-boggling ?
The IMF said today the UK economy will be hit the hardest of the industrilsed nations , due to our big financial sector.
That twit PM Gordon Brown said we were best placed to ride out the worst effects of the down turn .
What planet are these people on .
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Penny Lane

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Re: Recession
« Reply #50 on: January 29, 2009, 12:37:06 AM »

Today I read that the US Postal Service may cut mail delivery from six days a week to five, due to economic problems.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1402300,w-postal-service-mail-cutback012809.article
(Chicago Sun-Times)
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Bill Harry

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Re: Recession
« Reply #51 on: January 29, 2009, 02:17:24 AM »

The British postal service is also downsizing and also may be split. The service has been disgracefully let down over the years and the local post offices almost destroyed. Why did the labour government move their payments to pensioners and others away from the post offices and into banks. The local post offices were a comfort to people and pensioners had problems with banks, some didn't even have accounts, others didn't have banks in their neighbourhoods. So the post office sector was literally vandalised. It was nothing to do with economy, but it seems that the labour government seemed to be the party supporting the very rich - that is why they wouldn't change leasehold laws in case it upset the lobbyists of the big landowners, they taxed the hell out of people on low incomes and let the very rich get away with paying very little. I don't know why people talk about the Tories as 'toffs', while labour has acted disgracefully in office. Look how the speaker has had his nose in the trough - just like the Labour lords. The Tory government was scuttled because of 'sleaze', but there has been far more sleaze associated with the current government.
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Joost

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Re: Recession
« Reply #52 on: January 29, 2009, 09:56:05 AM »

I think one of the worst things of all this is that there are a lot of companies that wanted to lay off people or cut on their salaries for years and have now found an excuse to do so... Sure there are a lot of companies that really are in deep trouble, but I believe there are also a lot of companies that just take advantage of this crisis to screw their personnel...
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Bill Harry

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Re: Recession
« Reply #53 on: January 29, 2009, 11:14:57 AM »

One thing I found annoying is that companies shut down lots of the call centres in Britain and relocated to India. When I began to contact either my bank or AOL or other organisations, I was put through to India. Not only did I have trouble understanding what was said, but I was given wrong advice, many times the people on the other side of the phone couldn't understand me, I had to spell things out at length and at one point, because I was given wrong information, I lost money from my account. What burned me was that they didn't relocate to India to make the business more efficient or easier for the client, it was pure greed because they didn't want to pay a reasonable rate to the staff at British call centres. I also must admit that the current automatic message services on companies is maddening. For two weeks I have been trying to get through to a certain company, but the automatic message system goes on for ages and doesn't include the questions I want to ask. It's almost impossible to get a human to answer you. When I ask for a customer services manager, the automatic voice tells me to hang on sometimes for ten or fifteen minutes, then invariably cuts me off.
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Penny Lane

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Re: Recession
« Reply #54 on: January 29, 2009, 02:36:57 PM »

Quote from: 1062
One thing I found annoying is that companies shut down lots of the call centres in Britain and relocated to India.

The same thing has happened in America as well.
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Penny Lane

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Re: Recession
« Reply #55 on: January 29, 2009, 02:38:21 PM »

Quote from: 1062
The British postal service is also downsizing and also may be split. The service has been disgracefully let down over the years and the local post offices almost destroyed.

Just out of curiosity, how many days a week do you get mail in Britain?  Five or six?
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Ged

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Re: Recession
« Reply #56 on: January 29, 2009, 04:38:20 PM »

Used to be 6 times a week twice a day, 1st class approx 8am if posted before noon the day before then a noon 2nd class service where the postage stamp was a little cheaper. Lucky to get 1 a day now by 10am and lucky to get any on a saturday too.
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Bill Harry

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Re: Recession
« Reply #57 on: January 29, 2009, 08:15:16 PM »

Our post disappears all the time. CDs, books sometimes never arrive. The post sometimes doesn't get delivered until the afternoon. When our postman's on holiday our post seems to disappear. We have found our post in a dustbin in the street, lying in the gutter and simply missing. The post office has employed all sorts of people, some who can't even speak the language, I think because they pay lower wages. There are so many temporary people. The newspapers have been full of stories of police going into postmen's houses and finding thousands of letters and parcels. The Royal Mail has simply deteriorated. - but the man in charge is paid a few million quid a year - and gets bonuses despite the bad performance and a new assistant has just been hired for him who only works two days a week and is paid two hundred thousand pounds a year.
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Bill Harry

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Re: Recession
« Reply #58 on: January 30, 2009, 01:28:52 PM »

Manufacturing industry in Britain has been whittled down and while the public sector, which generates the income for the country has shrunk, Labour has employed an ever-increasing army of bureaucrats and non-jobs
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adamzero

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Re: Recession
« Reply #59 on: February 01, 2009, 10:45:50 PM »

Quango.  That's a new word for me.  Quasi non-governmental organization.  

First, The Quango.  Then, Revenge of the Quangos.  Or is it Quangoes?  

Here a quango, there a quango . . .

And for a little Latin flavor, Quango . . . a-go-go
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