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short answer....Brexit and a political class that hates the populace And an economy that doesn't really manufacture anything. I know that others will have more

short answer....Brexit and a political class that hates the populace And an economy that doesn't really manufacture anything. I know that others will have more statistics than me but Britain isn't really known for producing anything is it.

kcartlidge 3y ago
We (the UK) manufacture less and less, but most sources would still put us around 7th, 8th, or 9th largest manufacturer in the world (eg random results [1] and [2]). Wikipedia has the UK as the 5th largest exporter here [3]. I don't accept the accuracy of these sites (on such a scale the numbers probably aren't exactly right) but it should be in the ballpark. In brief, we do manufacture a lot of things (though often despite and not because of government policies). [1] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-countries-with-the-highest-industrial-outputs-in-the-world.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-countries-with-the-hi... [2] https://themanufacturer-cdn-1.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/14113928/Britain-is-the-9th-largest-manufacturer-in-the-world-by-output-EEF.Make-UK-Factcard-2019.jpg https://themanufacturer-cdn-1.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom
cameronh90 3y ago
Brexit is only the last few years, whereas this has been an ongoing situation for decades. Brexit probably hasn't helped but didn't cause it either. I can't view the video, but honestly I think characterising millions of Brits as "broke" is probably misleading. I grew up (and still know many people) in this part of our society. Broke in the UK doesn't mean the same thing as broke in the USA or most of the world. Broke here typically means: although you may not work or have any money left at the end of the week, you still have food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education, kids, a bank account, a car, etc. You can exist in this twilight state for your whole life, having never had a job from leaving school all through to retirement. If you do have a job, it's probably informal or low skill work, possibly under the table. It's not an enjoyable life, but it's comfortable enough that, for many people I know, they don't have any real motivation to change it. Certainly not enough motivation to get an education, move to a city and get a 9-5 or start a business. Some demographics of the UK native population have worse life outcomes than first and second generation migrants from poor countries. As someone who has managed to break out of that demographic, there's a real crabs in a bucket mentality. I was discouraged from following the path of education and a white collar career, because, as poor working class folk, our mortal enemy was The Manager. Now that I have joined the ranks of The Managers, I am now the enemy.
- nortonham 3y ago
  you're talking about a mentality among people, and I'm not in a position to dispute that. But if you do watch the doc you will hear the stats they site about poverty. It's pretty damning. Brexit has certainly made things worse. And broke is becoming more and more accurate.
  - candiodari 3y ago
    Well, sure. But this has existed for a long time. The last documentary was about 'generational poverty', 10 years back or so, pointing out what the GP said: families who haven't had a job in 4-5 generations. That this large group exists hasn't been news for a very long time.
raincom 3y ago
You don't need to manufacture anything if other countries can swap their manufactured goods with importer's sovereign currency and if importer's country can dole out money to everyone to cover healthcare, housing, and food. Of course, the second order effects such as housing inflation, healthcare inflation, etc, across that country.
- psd1 3y ago
  Maybe, but the advantage of manufacturing over, say, financial services is that it creates working-class jobs.

kcartlidge 3y ago

We (the UK) manufacture less and less, but most sources would still put us around 7th, 8th, or 9th largest manufacturer in the world (eg random results [1] and [2]). Wikipedia has the UK as the 5th largest exporter here [3]. I don't accept the accuracy of these sites (on such a scale the numbers probably aren't exactly right) but it should be in the ballpark. In brief, we do manufacture a lot of things (though often despite and not because of government policies). [1] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-countries-with-the-highest-industrial-outputs-in-the-world.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-countries-with-the-hi... [2] https://themanufacturer-cdn-1.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/14113928/Britain-is-the-9th-largest-manufacturer-in-the-world-by-output-EEF.Make-UK-Factcard-2019.jpg https://themanufacturer-cdn-1.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom

cameronh90 3y ago

Brexit is only the last few years, whereas this has been an ongoing situation for decades. Brexit probably hasn't helped but didn't cause it either. I can't view the video, but honestly I think characterising millions of Brits as "broke" is probably misleading. I grew up (and still know many people) in this part of our society. Broke in the UK doesn't mean the same thing as broke in the USA or most of the world. Broke here typically means: although you may not work or have any money left at the end of the week, you still have food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education, kids, a bank account, a car, etc. You can exist in this twilight state for your whole life, having never had a job from leaving school all through to retirement. If you do have a job, it's probably informal or low skill work, possibly under the table. It's not an enjoyable life, but it's comfortable enough that, for many people I know, they don't have any real motivation to change it. Certainly not enough motivation to get an education, move to a city and get a 9-5 or start a business. Some demographics of the UK native population have worse life outcomes than first and second generation migrants from poor countries. As someone who has managed to break out of that demographic, there's a real crabs in a bucket mentality. I was discouraged from following the path of education and a white collar career, because, as poor working class folk, our mortal enemy was The Manager. Now that I have joined the ranks of The Managers, I am now the enemy.

nortonham 3y ago
you're talking about a mentality among people, and I'm not in a position to dispute that. But if you do watch the doc you will hear the stats they site about poverty. It's pretty damning. Brexit has certainly made things worse. And broke is becoming more and more accurate.
- candiodari 3y ago
  Well, sure. But this has existed for a long time. The last documentary was about 'generational poverty', 10 years back or so, pointing out what the GP said: families who haven't had a job in 4-5 generations. That this large group exists hasn't been news for a very long time.

raincom 3y ago

You don't need to manufacture anything if other countries can swap their manufactured goods with importer's sovereign currency and if importer's country can dole out money to everyone to cover healthcare, housing, and food. Of course, the second order effects such as housing inflation, healthcare inflation, etc, across that country.

psd1 3y ago
Maybe, but the advantage of manufacturing over, say, financial services is that it creates working-class jobs.