Anne may be wishing to promote the Thatcher regime years and the open opportunity to buy council houses.... and that was a good deal no doubt.... very substantial houses with gardens were available at cut prices... But at the same time there was a huge recession.. so on the other side of the coin in the late 1980s early 90s people in private mortgages were losing their jobs. This was the issue with my first husband and me... we perhaps could have ridden the recession through if we had stayed in our first home.. But Ian as a welder was getting good hours as the company was flooded with orders from Saudi... then a political issue and poor foreign policy resulted in the loss of orders... This really caught us out... I was training to be a nurse and we had started to property ladder climb... Whosh bang whallop the recession resulted in the loss of the lot .. house, investments... So we were major casualities of the Thatcher regime... On the subject of selling off council houses there needed to be a replacement of more social housing.
Alongside this was the predicted growth in population and in the 80s the UN had forewarned all world leaders to build infrastructures to cope with the increase population to come.... and the problem is no one did.... The 2003 Slums and Resettlement report reads horrendous with lack of housing, poor housing and overcrowding then... goodness knows what a report now will read like.
Housing needs to be affordable and not way out of the reach of earnings for both home ownership and renting.
The housing prices are grossly inflated especially for the space they have. London prices escalated beyond the reach of the ordinary man and woman. But for price per land sq m Mumbhai is the most expensive place... We have in India the crazy situation of someone working but living in slums. I often would think how was someone coping with say working in a 5 star hotel with bathroom en suite to then go home to a slum with bathroom on street. That was the reality of some people living in the slums from what I saw in my time in India .. the Slum dwellers were not all unemployed but trying like crazy to get a living to get out of those slums. Many had given up a better life in the country villages and come to be trapped in the city slums.
Land becomes expensive and the building on the land is thus expensive...... shortage of building houses makes existing house prices soar.. and sadly we are seeing over crowded slums in the UK and over the globe... even Hollywood has slums... many cities see dramatic contrasts of streets of wealth and streets of deprivation.... We need to get this imbalance sorted out and quick as it is a recipe for disaster... and social discontent....
What are we doing when the basic of Maslows heirarchy of needs a Shelter is not met for all citizens?
I have put a photo in this post of Guy Standings book the Precariat as it is well worth a read to explain all the human stress about and the emerging class of those with unpredictability in life.
This is not just a one class happening but affecting the traditional middle class as well as the working class. There is less of getting in the groove of being in a company or organisation and growing in that structure to the retirement clock and pension. Have you noticed even the celebs with all their accrued wealth from performance and record deals have to be sure they are well brand marketed or they can fall from a sound well placed life of plenty to no contract no deals and possible loss of all.
The platforms for work and contracts have changed dramatically to on..the one hand save money by companies employing on short or zero contracts.... but on the other hand actually costs society more... in the unpredictability it brings.. The shifting of geographical locality to get work and new contracts and the periods of unemployment and needing social support.
Capitalism has shot itself in the foot ... as to get the profit margin it needs a consistent work force producing goods at a reasonable outlay, but it needs customers to buy those goods.... So the customer needs a firmer platform of predictable income to buy those goods.
Goddess Visa you shout! well no that is not the answer too as credit can only be given if you are in work with a good credit score. That score becomes a debt if you fall behind on payments and then you shift form a shining star of the Goddess Visa ......to a falling star.... You lose your place of worship of the Goddess visa...!! No card at all to fall back on... and how many of you are relying on the card to get you through the month... a very bad sign is when you are using the credit card to buy the monthly shop of food.... that should be coming out of a decent wage that covers for the cost of living?!
Guy Standing also comes up with a worrying shift from being a citizen to a denizen. A Denizen is when there is a subtle but increasingly overt shift losing Cultural, Civil, Social, Political and economic rights.... all from increasing insecurity... a major shift from the post war days I have grown up in where there was security of work and lots of opportunity. House prices within reach...
I was introduced to this book by John McDonnell my MP and now Shadow Chancellor..... I learn alot from his speeches in parliament and pick up on his references to help me understand more....
You can read more on Guy Standing and the Precariat on this link to Open Democracy...
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/guy-standing/denizens-and-precariat
But Marjorie who would have thought I could in one post mention Anne Widdecombe; Margaret Thatcher and John McDonnell... lol but you see why? A challenge to the Tories in their need to create policies to create stability for all and financial dignity for all and opportunity for all... but sadly they measure their policies by outdated modes and measures... It will take a progressive Labour party to readdress the inadequacies and help to stabilise the Procariat's precarious situation ... or will it demand an All Party coalition with very grown up ways of rising to challenges and not party politics play and theatre.. something the Precariat can do without ... we need lives stabilising to be able to plan a future and see a future and realise dreams and aspirations... to stop the world being in turmoil and create a world of peace and opportunity for all and dignity for all.... with all rights recognised for all.... with this respect for all...
