The bottom line is that almost without exception, we are better off than our parents, and our parents are better off than their parents before them.
You mean have more things that they can buy really That is primarily down to globalisation. The question really is do more people fall down too far in terms of income. I'd say comparing with certain post war periods more do and it's increasing. It had been increasing without the current additional problems. Less pleasant for these people as they can't take advantage of the more things to buy aspect or have to buy cheap. There is also the street cred aspect that doesn't just relate to kids. This encourages people to spend more.
you might say especially on their kids but that is only part of it.
Politicians are good at appearing great etc so lets take a couple.
Covid - while cheap it looks like Az wasn't the best one to use. I wont blame Boris for that. It's the sort of problem that can crop up in an area like that. Lock down decisions have been questioned - too late. At the other end of the scale China that has relatively short ones. What would be the most economically effective.
Recent mutual protection deals with a couple of Scandinavian countries. Neither of them are military slouches. What chance is there of Russia attacking before they are actually in NATO. What can we offer that they do not have - nukes maybe? Weapon sales would be beneficial if they bought but another subject really.
What has the UK done to help Ukraine - sent them weapons and maybe some money to keep their gov running as the USA has. The UK and USA have been involved with Ukraine since 2014. We are cutting Russian fuel usage as quickly as we can - well most are doing that as well. We are fortunate very likely to being down to having our own gas and oil. Why did Russia get added?
Travelling around to show support - various bodies show that there is support. The rest is just politicking. It's good for politicians their populations see it.
Finland and NATO. They hope that their parliament will agree to joining in coming days. Be rather surprising if they didn't. Most of their population want to join. The statement is for them - yes we are doing it. This is typical politicking. Something they have to do,
The EU - it's protectionist to help keep it's industries running. It applies tariffs and controls and provides a large market for goods. It retains a positive trade balance. That may decline> Ours went negative a while ago as did the USA. They were fortunate to have enough manufacture left to do that but they also have a wide variety of food items. That has been protected, not sure how much these days.
It seems we still hope to sell some manufactured goods to the EU. To do that we will have to meet their rules which is still a little like being in it. Some sort of check will always be applied to establish that we are meeting their rules. Nothing unusual about countries doing that - aiming for more of it here. Delayed again. They say due to increased costs.
Manufactured good do not grow on trees. There are often significant costs involved in coming up with them before they are sold. Higher sales spread that cost over more units. An aspect of both globalisation and the EU. The USA has a lot of people in it. That helps too.
I can't see the EU matching that in some ways - too much infighting but it will still help.
