No idea who this chap is but he's got a point. Last time I looked to have any chance of being able to get a mortgage to buy the house my parents have I would need to earn at least £145K. My Dad wasn't particularly senior or doing anything well paid. He got a job at Courtaulds out of school and stayed in the same job until they closed.
The thing about one person always being at home is often overlooked. My Dad would walk through the door to a home cooked meal every night and by 6pm he'd be sat in front of the TV or off out with his evening to himself. And he certainly wasn't spending his weekends doing batch cooking, cleaning, washing etc.
Has to be a factor in the rise in mental health issues, there's no downtime for people. No time to enjoy yourself, relax & recharge.
A while back I listened to a podcast that expanded on this. They suggested that we're creating 'non-jobs' for the sake of people being employed. Just pushing money round in a circle. People paying out for childcare, petcare, cleaners, gardeners etc because they're at work and don't have the time for those things but barely making enough to cover the cost.
It’s the basis of Mosleyite / Keynesian economics, the principles of which came from Italy and Germany in the 1930’s and to a degree the USA during the Great Depression. Namely, the cure to unemployment is public works (rail, the Hoover Dam) which sets to work the unemployed at the government expense.
However, the difference with these made up jobs provided nowadays is that there is no national asset at the end of it. Keeping childminders and gardeners busy by extension is fine, but to what eventual benefit?
I’ve been astonished to see the lack of brains in Westminster in my recent (at times more close up) times. No clue. Invest in infrastructure such as tidal power and put people to work for an eventual upside
Mental health is a tricky one. Much mental health historically was undiagnosed, take veterans from WW2 for example. This doesn’t necessarily mean that issues are on the rise, just that it is identified more. There are, undoubtedly, some now who use “mental health” as a reason to not work.
No doubt many here don’t agree, no problem, it just provides evidence of mental health issues.
