Are you optimistic about the future of the human race or pessimistic?

[Proddeh]

But no one needs to be really poor, or bordering on poverty. Wealth can be spread around better, that's what minimum wage is all about, and higher tax bands on the rich.

You see, I've always had my doubts about this.

When I started work I was on £3.15ph and others I knew where on £2.80ph, I had enough money to give my mum £35 a week rent and the remainder was left for me to do with as I pleased. A couple of years later I was on £8300 per year, this is when me and my partner brought our first property, a one bedroom starter home which cost £53,000 and I believe the interest rate was at 7-8% at the time. It was tough to begin with but I got pay rises and things got easier, after a couple more years I was on 15-20k per year and I had a lot of free income left after all of the bills had been paid. All of this was prior to the minimum wage.

Since the minimum wage was brought in I have found my wages remain static whilst the cost of living has risen sharply. I'm in a fortunate position where I have paid off my mortgage but I really feel for the current generation when they are trying to get a foothold on the property ladder.

I actually think the minimum wage has done more harm than good and it was nothing more than an illusion. Prior to the minimum wage people would suffer a rubbish job because they would be compensated for it e.g.

I was on £3.00ph but others I knew were on over £4.00ph working on a production line (a job I tried and truly loathed).

So since the minimum was introduced, why would anyone stay in a rubbish job if they could get parity somewhere else? It seems to me that these are now the jobs that many refuse to do.

I firmly believe that the introduction of the minimum wage has actually had a negative impact; the price of everything has just gone up to compensate for it. The employer has simply passed the added cost to the consumer, and then there is the sharp rise in property prices which I have no doubt has been aided by the increase in the average wage (in addition to banks handing out potty mortgages, e.g. 4x joint salary, but that's another argument).

It would be interesting to see research concerning the expendable income of someone back then compared to now, because I believe it would show the average person would be worse off.

 

[Yaayuh!]

I'm neither. I'm hopeful about a few things but disappointed in others. What happens, happens and i can't predict otherwise. I'm just going to make sure i spend my time well.

 

[Edrof]

We need more Homo Sapiens Sapiens out there.

 

[shoes]

Bit of both - I think my lifetime and my children/grand children's lifetimes will be full of progress, wonder, development both socially and technologically. If we make it that far then Israel will start a nuclear war and we'll wipe ourselves off the face of the planet. Otherwise this will happen sooner.

 

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

Realistic.

A mass extinction event is highly likely to happen in the next million years. Probably much sooner.

Either we colonise other planets, or we sit around waiting for the end.

 

[Curio]

Probably 30% optimistic and 70% pessimistic. Can't stand this joke of an economic system and the big, greedy corporations. I hope it all collapses and we can start again after LEARNING where we went wrong. That will probably mean horrible times in the short term though, and that makes me nervous as I have a 6 month old baby. I just feel like it all needs to crash and burn, we need to struggle for a while, then pick ourselves up smarter and better than before.

 

[Radiation]

I can't decide but what i don't get is why humans insist on doing business as usual and don't try to come up with better systems or some sort of ultimate goal and actively work towards it, we've gotten quite lucky in many ways because natural progress has gotten us so far in a relatively short time tahnks mostly to science and technology, everything else has had to be dragged along to keep up and some stuff even fail at doing that, we haven't seen anywhere close to our potential but real change doesn't seem to occur unless forced, at some point it may be too little too late.

I see most of our problems coming from greed, waste and corruption, though a lot of it is just apathy and ignorance as well, i would like to see us move towards a technocracy/direct democracy and resource based economy.

 

[GreatAuk]

I think humanity's future holds high technology, mainly peace, and no catastrophic single events as far as I can see. But I do see lies becoming more prevalent everywhere I look. Or maybe it's just that I'm just getting older.