Marxist Corner

Indeed,
Apart from the fact that the Government does not dictate interest rates (thank God), does directly dictate the FTSE which, let's be honest, in the 100 index is more influenced by international factors by the nature of the corporations therein.
I presume your pension is primarily private, which would then be market linked.

So in reality your vote would only count on social and ideological grounds, issues that do not affect you, living in the EU as you do.
I think that's right.

Interesting, I’ll have a read of that. With all due respect to francegas I’m sick of hearing about how it’s all about just working hard. It harks to a bygone era. If you’re a millennial from an under-privileged background life is hard work just to stay afloat if you can’t get on the housing ladder and are stuck paying 50%+ of your wage on rent. And it’s only going to get tougher for their kids.

My Apologies Gassy. I just don't see France as a socialist country that follow socialist principles. I see socialism as a concept that has not been fully tried tested and successful anywhere. If it were so great why are there no "real" socalist countries today. ( que a barrage of insults from others). I do enjoy my life style but "socialist" or left wing France hasn't given me that I got that opportunity from the UK. As I've said the state of France has not provided us with €1 of help . During lockdown our income here was €0 because my wife despite working for 12 years paying into the system and paying all her taxes "didn't qualify" due to the type of contract she had with the (Governments) Education Nationale. How is that looking after residents.
When we moved to France the President was Nicolas Sarkozy who presided under the UMP party of the centre right.
Again Gassy apologies didn't mean to offend you.

I am! I’m sick of the lack of compassion in this country from those who have “made it” because they were around when it was easier to “make it” and who have no sympathy for what a struggle life is in the modern era where jobs and housing are very insecure. Not only that they vote to make things even worse. I posted the data up thread that shows that millennials have it worse than their parents. Inequality is rampant and it’s fuelled by government policy. CV and Brexit are going to make it even worse.

In some ways I’m lucky, I smelled which way the wind was blowing a while back so I’ve taken care not to bring kids into this sh** show so at least I am only responsible for myself because that’s hard enough these days with what it costs me just to live never mind actually save or keep myself entertained and I’m also lucky that I went to uni just before student fees got ramped up on steroids. I’ve got a few quid in the bank after years and years of saving, nowhere near enough for a house deposit but it could all be wiped out on CV if I lose my job.

I feel so sorry for the kids coming through now who don’t have anything, at the mercy of the most heartless Tory government we’ve ever seen with mass unemployment and Brexit round the corner. What hope have they got? They are our future tax payers too- working to top up the pensions of the people who put them in this sh**. There should be a lot more anger than there currently is. The French wouldn’t stand for it.

The housing market deserves its own thread.

A rentier class is being created purposefully by the housing crisis and landlords around the world and it's going to have huge implications.

Exactly. It’s policy. It’s by design. Look at Jenrick giving the green light for 1,500 luxury apartments on the isle of dogs which was against their own advisers advice because they should be building affordable/social housing.

Picture the future, who is going to pay the cost of pensioners living in private rents? It’s going to be the tax payer and you’re going to have the likes of francegas renting out their houses to pensioners and complaining bitterly that their tax goes on paying these pensioners rents when the money is going into their back pocket from the public purse. It’s a bubble waiting to happen unless rent caps are introduced and it’s made more affordable as in other European countries.

Oh, now you've done it!

3 pages in and the residents of Marxist Corner plotting a revolution!

TV made a sitcom about this back n the 1970’s.

To be fair Theresa May’s government did put in place policies to make BTL less attractive such as paying capital gains on profits and reducing how easy it was for landlords to evict so it’s not the money printing machine it once was. That’s stopping prospective speculators from getting into the game but it isn’t solving how the likes of Fergus Wilson have swathes of the housing stock in their grip and can lay down arbitrary rules on who lives there.

To give you an example of how this has broken Britain if I lose my job because of CV I can’t afford to pay my rent where I am, I have to leave and go somewhere else. I don’t have family I can live with, my friends have no space, social housing is a non-starter because I am a white male ergo not an endangered person. So where do I go? I have to move to a cheap private rent somewhere but how do I do that with no job? The vast majority of private rents do not accept people in receipt of UC. So despite me leaving my previous rentals immaculately and never missing a rent payment I will be locked out of housing and possibly homeless because of the arbitrary rules the private sector can levy and because of a lack of social housing.

Makes you proud to be British doesn’t it?