The Great Decline

My phono amp broke, it was quite old, a pro-jet one. I was determined not to buy some Chinese, far east replacement so I researched and bought a basic Edwards Audio amplifier for a bit over a hundred quid, made in the UK, I am sure I could have spent £20 or less on Ebay or Amazon. I am completely happy.

Similarly I will not pay slave wages and long distance shipping for a shirt or trousers made in Bangladesh or other sink that the UK clothing industry seems to like, supporting their gross overheads on the misery of factory workers working long hours in dangerous and dirty conditions.
 
Hagar said:
My phono amp broke, it was quite old, a pro-jet one. I was determined not to buy some Chinese, far east replacement so I researched and bought a basic Edwards Audio amplifier for a bit over a hundred quid, made in the UK, I am sure I could have spent £20 or less on Ebay or Amazon. I am completely happy.

Similarly I will not pay slave wages and long distance shipping for a shirt or trousers made in Bangladesh or other sink that the UK clothing industry seems to like, supporting their gross overheads on the misery of factory workers working long hours in dangerous and dirty conditions.
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Where do you buy your clothes? it must be extremely difficult to buy anything. Admirable what you are trying to do but honestly it's like a drop in a very vast ocean.

We have a local produce supermarket we support. But that's about it. They only sell local fruit and veg grown in the area and all the products in the shop are sourced locally from local companies. They even do fresh breads and stuff but it is a very niche thing and we obviously still shop elsewhere too as I couldn't live entirely off what they have to offer.
 
In an age of increasing globalisation, imperialism and nation building is bygone.

We should use Brexit as an opportunity to unilaterally allow free global trade, something which basically every economist has advocated for since Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations over 200 years ago.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Where do you buy your clothes? it must be extremely difficult to buy anything. Admirable what you are trying to do but honestly it's like a drop in a very vast ocean.

We have a local produce supermarket we support. But that's about it. They only sell local fruit and veg grown in the area and all the products in the shop are sourced locally from local companies. They even do fresh breads and stuff but it is a very niche thing and we obviously still shop elsewhere too as I couldn't live entirely off what they have to offer.
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I am no saint I still have clothes from when I worked and are badged as made in the far east somewhere, but I am now retired and buy far fewer clothes now than when I worked. I look for the artisan manufacturers and for clothes that will last, wool and tweeds. Things like underlayers and tee shirts are almost impossible to buy as UK manufactured but they do crop up occasionally. It is more expensive though and I can understand that a lot of people will not have the time or inclination to search them out.

It is a drop in the ocean however a small contribution to sustainability.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Actually they are here legally.

Amazon employ them as the most famous example.

As do yodel and my Hermes no doubt.

Where you are paid per delivery or targets which are so high that you need to be absolutely perfect to hit them even then you could only keep that up for so long before burn out.

Or do they come under a different legal viewpoint like minimum wage rather than slave labour?
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Those are categorised as '**** jobs', not slave labour :p
 
Psycho Sonny said:
UK's problem is for every £100 spent how much of it actually remains in the UK?

Our money is being slowly funneled abroad when that happens you don't really notice the effects until many years after or decades.

We like Swedish furniture made in china. We like Korean electronics made in china. We like German cars made in Germany.

What does the UK actually have?

Dyson has moved to Singapore.

We have maybe rolls Royce, Aston Martin, whisky distilleries and that's about it that is a global leader or brand name.

Ask anyone in Canada, America , Germany or anywhere what British products or services they would buy and I'm betting those three are about it.

So if for every £100 spent by UK citizens only £25 is retained within the UK and it's likely lower. Then it's only a matter of time this country is on its knees.

I give it 15 years max and there will either be riots or a nanny state ruled by the elite.

I didn't realise Spotify was Scandinavian until yesterday. How is the UK so lacking even in the digital age? They can't even get a world class service of some sort that people want to use?

Scotland will be fine. We have oil, wind power, golf courses, whisky, shortbread, tartan, porridge, irn bru. We don't need much as our population is only 5 million.

Problem with England is growing population and money flooding out of it.
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Yep
Virtually all of my cash is to foreign companies.
Etsy
Amazon
Spotify
Netflix
Samsung
Ikea
Lego
Aluexpress

What is there to buy from the UK? Nothing except supermarket stuff

And
We've relied on services. Which we are giving away a big chunk of that away with in brexit

The little person on the street hates the rich banker.. Forgetting that is fueling the rest of the country

I'd like to get out please .
 
413x said:
What is there to buy from the UK? Nothing except supermarket stuff
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You are so pessimistic its unbelievable really. Perhaps moving to Scotland and enjoying the future funded by north sea oil will be better for you. What could possibly go wrong with an oil based economy in the future?

413x said:
Etsy
Amazon
Spotify
Netflix
Samsung
Ikea
Lego
Aluexpress
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So if you moved elsewhere you wouldn't continue to use these global companies? Of course you would.
 
neocon said:
There should be an exchange programme so people can swap nationality. I bet there's plenty of people in Australia/USA/Canada that think the UK is nice and want to live here. I'll swap with them any day.
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That would be amazing. One can dream!
 
neocon said:
There should be an exchange programme so people can swap nationality. I bet there's plenty of people in Australia/USA/Canada that think the UK is nice and want to live here. I'll swap with them any day.
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If you believe that One World Government is on the cards, your nationality won’t matter.
 
200sols said:
You are so pessimistic its unbelievable really. Perhaps moving to Scotland and enjoying the future funded by north sea oil will be better for you. What could possibly go wrong with an oil based economy in the future?



So if you moved elsewhere you wouldn't continue to use these global companies? Of course you would.
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Is there much to be optimistic about?
I am working on a plan to get myself skilled into a skills shortage area for NZ in the next few years. Its going to be tough. Not sure if I'll manage it.

Australia is another option.

Not all of this is brexit related. Its just another big push. Scotland is an option if abroad doesn't come to fruition. At least that one will be dead easy


On the global corps...
Quite probably. Would depend on what the country had to offer. I expect I'd do a lot more domestic tourism where I want to go.
 
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