The Recession – A Simple Commoners View of the UK

The Recession – A Simple Commoners View of the UK

At the age of 23 my Dad was married to my Mother and they both had a mortgage on the property where I currently reside in... That was 1979. How things have changed from those days as for me it’s just not going right at all. 30 years... 30 years it’s all gone to pot and it’s just completely changed.

This is not an attention seeking post although it might seem like it; this is a stark reality warning for everyone just to see how tough it is for the young person in today’s world especially those that want to better themselves through further Education. Everything I say is finance related... And I urge you all to read this and reply if you have anything constructive to say or even your own experiences... I don’t want help, I know what I need to do, I just am unable to do it.

So here we go. Enjoy the read, it’s not good... it’s awful and this is the worst case scenario within this dark time... and no matter what the MSM say it’s a load of crap... because to be honest when looking back I should have seen it coming years ago... just we were all fooled to believing everything was hunky dory.

In the last year since I came back from University I have had one job. A temporary job at that and a job that was pathetic considering my own abilities; my parents always told me... “Go to University, get an education because you don’t ever want to work in a factory,” It’s alright a summer job, but a permanent job or a job where there’s no education to go back to... well... My first job when I’m out? I was to work where my Dad has worked for the last 23 years and it was only 3 months placement as a temporary operator which to be honest, it felt like three years. Since then I’ve been on the dole and having a degree in Media whilst currently doing plenty of voluntary work for a local community radio station it’s at least giving me something to do but I’m still waiting for a phone call to offer me a job to work elsewhere. I have until mid August to find a job or there putting me on a course... (Job Club) where I’ll be sent to work six weeks unpaid at some place and will be unable to continue with the radio show... My only chance to get the job that I want... stopped by the Job Centre... Pathetic... that’s what it is.

It’s been like this for six months now and whilst six months might not be a long time it wasn’t so long ago that I had just finished my A-Levels and was told that I had the world at my feet and the world is my Oyster. Now I know that they were simply spoon feeding us crap to meet targets and get more funding from a Labour Government that thinks targets should be the way forward when in Education it all depends on a number of factors. Six months is priceless... Its life... a day is priceless but now I know that my prime years will be struggling to get by... not meeting the people I should be meeting and going for a career that I should be doing... no, it’s simply this... try to get by. When it all sorts it out... how many graduates will want the jobs? This isn’t going to sort itself out today... but probably five years time... a good estimated guess, will they want a 28 year old who hasn’t done any paid work in the profession ever? Probably not...

Going back in time... after I finished my A-Levels I subsequently went to University, I moved in with a friend of mine whose parents owned the property and £20 rent a week was a steal yet I missed out on the massive social life that Students were so used to due to not being on campus. I didn’t matter, my friend was a right party animal and as I got there my friend entered a long term relationship which he’s still in. He just changed... the other lad was Estonian and was a complete boring sod which meant I was alone. After two years of getting stoned, drinking alcohol and losing the best thing that ever happened to me it suddenly got worse.

TBC



[edit on 16-7-2009 by Adono86]

Another lad moved in whilst the Estonian left. This was a lad notorious for owing people money, he didn’t pay the bills and before he moved in they switched them to my name, coincidence? I doubt it... I couldn’t find a part time job to help with his raking up the electric and gas meters; then he invited his friend to live with him, my friend whose parents own the house didn’t mind at all, he’s not the one whose liable for all of this, nor are they. Whilst I was away at University doing a project with some Blonde rich bimbo, he just rinsed all the hot water and made himself at home. He did get me a job though... and it’s not like I had any choice either... £15 a night, six hours support DJ-ing, well below minimum wage, when really I was just doing half the night because he wanted an extended fag and couldn’t be arsed. Not something I wanted to be doing in my final year of University.

To cut a long story short, when I left I was owed £420 by one lad, I owed my parents £250 to help bail me out with all the bills, I owed my mate £500 and the lad who had moved in with the other lad demanded £150 for abandoning him at his job. Then there was Sky Digital which I knew nothing about as they had put in my name when I left the premises. £250. I had no more student loan instalments, maxed out my overdrafts and it was safe to say I was on the floor in my own piss, snot and blood.

A year on and I still have my maxed out overdrafts. I’ve paid my friend off, I’ve paid my parents off, I sorted Sky Digital out but I’m still owed £420 and that lad is still demanding £150 off me, funny how his best friend owes me money and he wants his fictional money... scammers... you get them in life, so beware.

When looking back, my friend’s parents owned the property and had given him £10k of premium bonds and a car for his 18th and 21st birthdays. He didn’t pay rent and got more of a grant that I did due to his Dad being retired despite being loaded. The other two were DJ’s and were self employed and never paid tax which they often bragged about. They all had cars and I didn’t. I couldn’t afford and whilst the DJ’s claimed to be on £24k a year (more like £16k with paying no Tax) it was very unfair to be the odd one out. They all had girlfriends too... they could afford to and I was the brunt of their jokes whereby in the end I couldn’t be arsed to even do anything with University as I just wanted out... it should never have been like that.

The girl of my dreams is at the same University I was at, yet she started as soon as I left. She went down to Staffordshire University to follow her dreams of being a forensic scientist and yet whilst with me being on drugs didn’t help with me and her not talking my situation didn’t help either. She packed it in and ran straight into the arms of someone who looks like a Birdman. Only difference is he has a car and a job... oh and parents who are on a lot more than my parents. So she’s just finished her first year of computer science at Huddersfield University, she plays it safe now... not the ambitious girl I once knew despite losing all the time she came back twice as stronger... that’s why I like her... She’s a complete Geek as well, usual World of Warcraft and computer game bollocks when I was into all that stuff when I was four years old. I grew out of it by the time I was 16. When I was with her I would never ever think to ask her if she wanted to watch Star Trek or play computer games or collect Warhammer. I used to do all that, I gave it up because it was not attractive... yet she’s now into it and I feel as if I’ve blown it. And if I bring up my old habits which I’m more than entitled to... she’ll think I’m stalking her!

TBC

Now I was no perfect Angel, hell no. I was a c**t to the people who were c**t’s to me, and I didn’t have a short fuse either... I had let a lot slip. I threw a chair at the guy who owed me money because he couldn’t get off his arse to take me to University. I did this because it was raining and I had no money because of him and I had an exam that day, he even said he would take me the previous evening. In the end I had to ask my mate who saw pound signs and charged me £2 for his troubles... He put it on the tab as usual.

I left there with nothing but a piece of paper with 3rd class honours degree and 7 and a half stone of body weight with a lot of unfair debt... the Drinkers degree it will forever be known as... I wouldn’t mind as I didn’t deserve a great degree but I got screwed over by the Blonde Bimbo at University for my radio project. She got 68, I got 57. Give me 68 I’d have got a 2.2. But she claimed to do all the work whilst go on Holiday within the middle of the shows thanks to her farther who bought her everything, Yet I’m the Breakfast show presenter and she’s now a holiday rep. Yeah they got that one wrong. I’m hoping to prove them wrong one day...

Maybe University wasn’t for me, or maybe it’s the biggest con that’s going in the UK. One in Forty Graduates was the last estimation I heard about getting the job that they had been trained up for. That pretty much one out of a whole class, we had 44 in ours.

So here I am... A year later... What’s changed? I don’t smoke weed anymore, I have my mind back and sharp as ever, I hardly drink, I don’t spend money I have not got... yet I’m unemployed but I work voluntary as a Breakfast Show presenter for a Community Radio Station. I have the talent... it’s Funny that when you come bottom of your class but when you look at your ability on actually doing the job and not learning irrelevant crap it seems to look like the marks are upside down. I think I’m average it’s just that people think I’m pretty good. I got 68 for my Radio Project... Or I should have done, they don’t hand out 70+s whenever... otherwise they will get inspected and they don’t want that.

But that’s me... I see the girl of my dreams a very distant dream and a memory that makes me cringe. My so called friends are gone but I’ve got new friends but the only way up is so they say if there was a chance of going up. I’ve applied for a lot of jobs but so far got nothing... my Mother could lose her job and probably will when Plastic man Cameron comes to power and my Dad has just finished a 3 day week where he works... at that Factory, winter hours but it’s next summer that he’s worried about. Manufacturing jobs in the UK? Hell that’s a bloody luxury if you ask me. I look on the jobs pages... JobsToday.co.uk... 27 pages worth of jobs in West Yorkshire... shame only two out of 270 of them are suitable for me. Am I applying? Yes! Will I get the jobs? No... Driving Licence preferred but not essential so it says...

I’m living off £100 every two weeks... the interest is growing on my student overdrafts and there charging me... the bastard banks are charging me. I can’t afford to pay them off. It would take me 12 weeks of having nothing to spend when on Job Seekers to pull it back... and that’s not counting the pending future charges that they will no doubt charge from their poxy computer system and I’ll have to stop paying rent to my parents... I can’t do it. The bastards... the bastards... the f**king bastards, how the hell am I supposed to get somewhere when there doing sh!t like that? I can’t... I’m waiting for the letter that says there taking me to court...

TBC

There is nothing out there and yet I look back on the people I once knew I just think it’s so unfair. There’s the rich boy and former good friend of mine who is still living in a utopian bubble under his parent’s financial asset protection whilst studying a Law degree. The two DJ’s, one getting Married and who has sorted himself out with his debt at my expense whilst the other is getting by and blatantly taking advantage of my former friends utopian bubble whilst smoking weed to his heart’s content. And the girl... swept away by a lad who is not attractive but on £30k a year with his own place, his own car, and there moving in very soon. They will be married in a few years time, it’s a shame she can’t see that his Dad who worked in I.T and owns the company got him the job after he’d done his studies and she works part time where he used to work.

So welcome to the real world people especially for all you young posters on ATS. Welcome to the cruel mean world... it’s not what you know, it’s who you know and you need some really trusting friends if you want to survive out there in that big bad world.

I’m still a breakfast show presenter and I absolutely love it. I absolutely love it. My week starts on Monday and ends of Wednesday. Thursday to Sunday are sh!t... because I’m stuck inside and bored to death... On the show I get messages and plenty of phone calls everyday requesting songs and the current owner of the station is shell shocked that were getting so big. Community Radio... and were getting thousands of listeners. Shame it doesn’t pay... Shame there’s still no phone call “We want you! Come and work for us! We think you’re amazing!!!” There just isn’t...

My younger brother though... he has no education... and he’s not had a job in a couple of years and thanks to my Dad he’s got a placement back at Crosslee when he wasn’t supposed to because he walked out two years ago. My Dad spoke to his boss and they said they would sort it out, he rings them up and he gets through to Anna who is Polish. She doesn’t give him the job... she’s saving them for her kind. I had that at Nestle... “Sorry, no jobs,” then the Estonian Bloke rings up... “Yes, we have jobs; can I take your details so we can arrange an interview?” It’s so unfair. Luckily my Dad did get it sorted... but look at those that were fobbed off due to not knowing anyone? Not what you know but who you know...
Where my Dad works they have indeed invited me back, I haven’t decided on it yet as I’m hoping to get an interview date from the council for a job that I’m more than qualified to do... shame it was two weeks ago when I handed the application form in and it said “we don’t notify you if you have failed in your application” They say wait a month... but I know full well that two weeks is pretty much the cut off point.

There is a way out you know... if I had £4.5k to spend. Train2Game... which is a work from home computer games design course. I spoke to a career’s advisor (salesman) and spoke to him for two hours and he said that if I really wanted to go for it and put my mind to it I could do it... just, I’d need a job. £4.5k... I just don’t have that kind of cash... It’s all legitimate as well as Bedfordshire University has taken some of their modules onboard for their courses but I just don’t have the cash... It’s a pipe dream... I can’t even afford to pay it in instalments.

It’s not just that, I can’t afford to do anything. I can’t afford a girlfriend, I can’t afford a car, I can’t afford to take driving lessons, I can’t afford to get a provisional licence, I can’t afford to renew my passport when it runs out in 2012, I can’t afford my own place, I can’t afford new clothes, I can’t afford basic food, I can’t afford basic hygiene products, I can’t afford to get the bus home from the studio so I walk 8 miles back in whatever the weather.

TBC

[edit on 16-7-2009 by Adono86]

At the end of the day I’m just one person and I guarantee you I’m not the only one nor the most worse off person in the UK or the world. My parents are keeping me afloat at the moment, like they did at University when I they brought me shopping and food every week. My former friends parents look after him, the girl of my dreams boyfriends parents are looking after him, and even the tw@tty DJ who owes me £420 quid and has scammed his parents off countless times with cash... they still look after him. Parents are compelled to help us... but I get the feeling that even this makeshift bubble that I’ve entered in, it is about to burst very, very soon... give or take a year... Then what? “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” they say... yet it’s not a bridge over a stream... it’s over an ocean. And whilst I’ll be in the sh!t even more, those people I once knew I’m guessing will still have it alright.

Dog eat dog out there in that big bad wide world... Please, please let Aliens blow us all to bits so maybe I can survive it and start again in a bartering world...

I wouldn’t mind but I even applied to join the Royal Navy... Did the Psychometric test, did the interview, could run the distance under the time required to pass the BARB test yet when going for my medical they brought my records up... meningitis at 3 weeks old? I got over it and I can do sport... ok, but what about the knee? The Knee? Yes the Knee... It says here you received a two footed tackle on your left leg and your right Knee took the strain... let’s have a look at your knee.... *it bends* *click...* Bones are rubbing together, it’s slightly swollen, your other knee the same? Yes... *click* you need an operation... six month waiting list, six month rehab... both of them... two years... possibly four before we can take you back, five before you can join... it’s not worth it... Do I have five years? She’ll be married by then... I’ll be nothing.... I don’t have five years... Safe to say I failed my medical... old Sunday League Football injury came back to haunt me... Damn...

So what do I do now? Keep plugging away... that’s all that I can do... despite deep down I know It’s not going to get me anywhere...

Welcome to hell... This is what hell is... Take what I’m saying very seriously... this is not a piss take. I wish I was and it was so different... but I’m not... Be prepared...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End Of Rant!

You sound like a right little "£"$£%!!

Just because you have a degree (a degree in the media!!!) does not mean you have a right to a well earning so call ' high flying' graduate type job straight out of uni when you still (obviously) have a lot of maturing to be done.

Hard work is the only way to get anywhere in life and I learned the hard way.

Grow up and stop moaning.

hang on a second... i made mistakes; I know that... but I'm doing the job unpaid and i'm not getting anywhere. So dont even talk about hard work, you dont even know what hard work is. Would you get up at 5am every morning for nothing? no... you wouldn't.

Now i'm not saying I'm supposed to be on 40/50k a year, Hell no, I dont deserve that, But i'm entitled to a job. Which unfortunately I aint gonna get.

But yeah, a degree in media, i dont even need a degree in media to do what I want to do... that's why it's a con... the biggest con there is. And unfortunately you get the tossers out there that scam you.

So shut up man, I hope you dont ever end up in a situation like I am, it's not nice not being able to see no future!

I've been in a situation like yours in the last recession.

4 years unemployed living in a #hole in Crodon sleeping on a rolled up piece of carpet.

I do know about hard work.

So good luck.

[edit on 16-7-2009 by NeoSocialist]

you say you learned the hard way, fair play to you but i'm currently learning the hard way but I would put a substantial amount of cash on a bet that you probably didn't have a recession to contend with when you did it... now honestly answer this... would you have got somewhere in a recession after realising your mistakes? I'm guessing no...

I dont even deserve a job considering my antics... and i'm not the only one in this situation... but it's all screwed up in the UK.

I dont think you've read the whole thread have you... read it... and understand the financial side of it...

the last recession is not like this recession...

as for the rolled up piece of carpet in Croydon, well... again well done to you for getting out of it. But understand the finances... please... There weren't polish taking the jobs back then, it wasn't a world economy back then, everybody didn't get to go to university back then... understand that.. and look at the young person these days.

Pretty much everyone on my course has not got a job and got debt up to their eyeballs... if they do have a job, it's not what they want... and you get people milking it or living off their parents?

My co-presenter is a cleaner part time with no education... alarm bells are ringing... they've been ringing quite a while now.

[edit on 16-7-2009 by Adono86]

Okay.

My business went down the drain in 1993 costing me £20k. I had to get a job on a local farm shovelling # for next to nothing before discovering my vocation in life for £1.20 an hour.

Since then I have struggled with severe depression, resulting in a stay in the local mental hospital.

I kept on going despite numerous setbacks and now I am relatively successful.

I know what hard work is.

If you are good, your opportunity will come.

Just don't give up.

i'm not giving up Neo, i just cannot see a future and i know there aint going to be one for five years. And I dont think i'm the only one... and £1.20 an hour... I know what that is... It's a joke if you ask me.

Originally posted by Adono86
i'm not giving up Neo, i just cannot see a future and i know there aint going to be one for five years. And I dont think i'm the only one... and £1.20 an hour... I know what that is... It's a joke if you ask me.

It was in Prague, the £1.20.

The Polish are not taking all the jobs by the way, they have mostly gone home due to better economic conditions. Don't use hard times as an excuse to be racist.





[edit on 16-7-2009 by NeoSocialist]

it aint racist pal, it's a fact from experiance.

i ring for a job, they say no jobs, the estonian i live with rings up 5 minutes later, he gets an interview.... what does that tell you?

my brother rings for a job and my dad has sorted it out that he's gonna get it, he dont get a job cos a polish girl is on the other end, they eventually sort it out thanks to my dad but c'mon man. He was lucky, what about those who didn't know anyone...

Easter Europeans are brilliant workers, always turn up... do two jobs all week and sleep at the weekend... give credit where credit is due, there lovely people all with a hidden agenda... to help there own in any way they can... It's human nature.

The Easter Europeans are favoured over the Brits/Asian population... purely through reputation... when they got someone incharge of hiring people... who they gonna go for? Well... look at what I said? It's human nature...

Easter ??????

Time for bed I think.

I hope things get better for you, I do really sympathize.

Again, if you really believe in yourself the opportunities will happen.

I don't mean to patronize you.

Good night!

well the Prague £1.20 is ok considering the cost of living over there at the time... I thought it was Croydon, Crodon is indeed in Prague... what the heck were you doing? and I'm sorry it didn't work out.

But gone are the days where you can get a job and hard work will take you to the top. My mums uncle is rich working for Black and Decker, he travels the world, and he started at 16... now retired and an ace pention, My dad has done 23 years at a factory and was supposed to be a supervisor 10 years ago but was demoted for no reason to favour an inept person who everyone hates... why? because she's well up the arse of the lass who is useless who happens to be a marketing director and is married to the new director of the company.

It's not what you know... it's who you know... and that's just one case, there's thousands more.

and easter... yeah it's late...i'll edit that out as soon as i post this ( maybe i'll leave it so other people know what your talking about) thanks for the support and i do mean it and I hope your doing ok, but remember, it's a different ball game these days compared to 10 years ago... it will be a different ball game 10 years from now...

and sadly not all the polish have gone home... those that are staying want to stay here indefinately... an there's a substantial amount of them...

[edit on 16-7-2009 by Adono86]

[edit on 16-7-2009 by Adono86]

It did work out !!! I learnt to be a chef !!!! That's what I'm saying, it was worth it for the experience!

well i was wanting to be a soldier until my knees failed me...

experiance is priceless but if my dad like anybody over 50odd gets laid off from there job, what are the chances of them with all that experiance getting another job? You can be over qualified for a job you know... they either see it as a stop gap until you find something else or a threat to their own position... besides who would want a 52 year old working for them, they would think they know it all (and they probably would) and would know more than the 30 odd year old supervisor... who would want someone like that?

Answer... nobody... they'd take on eastern europeans or a kid fresh out of high school... that's if there is any jobs going... is there? nah... not in manufacturing... if it is it's only temporary... like the job I had and my brother has just got. December time just before x-mas he will be unemployed again.


[edit on 16-7-2009 by Adono86]

I think I know where you are coming from, but I think you are looking at this through black tinted glasses. I'm not bs'ing you here mate, I've been there. I didn't voluneteer or anything like that, but the flat, university (didn't do media), debt etc, all sound very familiar. I bet there are other similarities too.

You are not going to like my response, it doesn't get easier unless you put the effort in. If it takes four years to raise the money to buy a DJ set (just an example) by working 60 hours a week in Tesco at night, then that's what you're going to have to do. The movie solution whereby someone spots you and you are whisked off into a new exciting life where you are a newfound sensation and everything works out great, like all the great movies in the eighties (your age fits), that doesn't happen very often. At all, and probability says that it won't happen to you, or me for that matter. But setting a goal, formulating the plan to achieve said goal, that will work, you will achieve your goal. Whether it works or not is dependent on your goal and the plan to attain it, but with time and a good plan, it will work.

Another thing, the drugs will have had an effect mate, weed especially will give you these feelings. Doesn't happen to everyone, so when people say "I smoke weed and I'm not like that," they may well not be, but it can affect people in the way you are portraying. If you have binned it, good man, if not bin it, and no, one every now and the is not ok! Drink too, same thing. I bet you find after you have a drink you get anxious and start the old brain drills, stressing over that girl.

I know exactly what you're talking about and I feel for you. I know what you mean about not being able to see a future, but trust me on this, there may well be magical solutions to fix it, but they probably won't happen to you. Goal, plan, time, and determination will sort it out.

If you want any help with it, no problem. I now work over seventy hours a week, I have commitments that occupy two days, I have no "life" but I will soon. It's like going to the gym, you don't see anything for a while, quite a while, but then you notice a change, and it spurs you on and you keep going. The trick is to persevere through the next phase of monotony, keeping the goal in mind and reminding yourself of what you've achieved already, it will change again. Like leveling up I suppose.

Good luck buddy and seriously I can't stress this enough, goal, plan, determination. You will come out of this with what you seek, but unfortunately because of the infinte variables of life it will happen to you later that your peers. If I sound patronising or condescending I apologise, that it is not my intention.

Just wanted to add about the parental situation, know that one too. Mortgage isn't paid up and the income that barely suppers the family unit is on the brink of collapse. It's everywhere, all I can say to you is, sort yourself out and let them worry about themselves. They're more than capable, they've done alright so far. You're right about the whole employment thing, youth over experience is the perogative of HR, younger staff are more pliable, have less opinions and less responsibilities. It's a bugger but it's the way it is.

I hope your dad keeps his job mate, the manufacturing industry is in the preverbial at the moment, Jaguar have just laid off three hundred jobs. I hope the recession is over soon, but we both know that it won't don't we. It will though, eventually, and things will get back to "normal". Or, as some on ATS believe and more secretly hope for, the world will change and become completely different, either by NWO, disclosure, mass death, WW3, alien invasion, zombie viral pandemic, whatever Armageddon you choose, and we will all have far more interesting lives living in a new world. Probably as part of some resistance a la "V" or some kind of Reign of Fire, 28 Days Later, I am Legend kind of scenario...(that was very David Mitchell!)

Would be good, probably not going to happen though.

Best of luck to your dad.

[edit on 16/7/2009 by Sendran]