For some reason everybody i speak to seems to think once (if ever) the defecit is cleared and we are fully out of the downturn, then spending will go back to normal and all the pay cuts and squeezing of budgets will go back to how it used to be....never. They are here to stay now.
Sadly, I think you're absolutely right, but not necessarily for the reasons you think.
What we're effectively seeing now is a East-West reset.
Let me explain that.
We're being reset back to where this country should be before this crazy reliance on credit took a hold and destroyed everything. Far too many people have been living far beyond their means by a heavy reliance on credit. That credit has now effectively dried up and someone has to pick up the tab for all this debt now sloshing around.
In the past governments have relied on an ever increasing GDP growth - increasing GDP growth = more exports = more money for business and more tax income.
The problem now of course is that there is no GDP growth and even worse there's a negative balance of payments deficit. In other words, we're importing far more than we're exporting (the credit fuelled consumer boom is causing that) which means a huge amount of money going out of the country. Where's it going? China mostly, on cheap electrical imports.
So as this country's GDP retracts (and everyone's standard of living with it) China's increases hence the East-West reset going on.
We're going backwards and China is going upwards, primarily because this country is simply not able to compete with the cheap imports of the far eastern economies.
And there you have it in a nutshell!
And the answer to all this is?
Well a lot of people think this country has already gone beyond the point of no return, but there's two things that desperately need to happen before anything can get any better -
1/ An exit from the EU. The EU is one of the causes of this country's many problems. Including the massive influx of cheap labour from the EU, one of the things pulling down the standard of living here.
Don't take my word for it - look at Norway, a non-EU member that has one of the highest standards of living in the world. The population of Norway have twice been polled on EU membership and have twice rejected it.
2/ A change in the voting system to Proportional Representation so government can finally become accountable to the people who elect it.
Neither of these two things will ever happen, simply because the politicians and government who wield the power won't ever let them happen. It's not in their interest to, because it brings an end to their gravy train and for once in their lives they'll have to do what's right for this country and the population who live in it rather than themselves and their business buddies.
If it carries on as it is now, it will only ever get worse.
This country hasn't had any other government other than a Tory or Labour one since the end of the second world war - whatever problems it has now have been caused and inflicted by BOTH parties, they're both as bas as each other, so why an earth do people keep voting for them?
Sorry, rant over!