Freeze All Food Prices

[poster342002]

Well sorry if you take it as offensive, but I still think this "crisis" is more aimed at the middle classes than the lower classes...

That just smacks of the disengenuous NuLab way of downplaying the problem's existance at all. "It only middle class people who are bothered by this" is often wheeled out to confuse, obfuscate and deflect criticism of situatiosn that are affecting the worst off.

 

[In Bloom]

The point was, as I was also saying above, is that I think this crisis is more concerned that richer people are feeling the "squeeze". Poor people have always struggled to pay for, well, everything, yet there has never been a "crisis" because of that has there? I'm pretty sure the Netto shopping budget has not risen to the same extent as the Sainsbury's middle class shopping budget, which will have become considerably more expensive for the type of people that are on that budget - ie the people the papers/government/every political party that wants a vote care about...

I couldn't say about Netto, since there isn't one within walking distance of me, but food prices have definately gone up and I find your dismissive attitude towards people who are saying that rising food prices are a problem for us, despite not having a massive food budget already, a little insulting. Have you considering maybe listening to what people are saying instead of telling them that their experiences are just wrong?

 

[Belushi]

Well sorry if you take it as offensive, but I still think this "crisis" is more aimed at the middle classes than the lower classes...

Why? working class folk are just as likely to be hit by rising prices as the middle classes, and with much less room for cutbacks.

Having to start shopping in Iceland rather than Waitrose is no real hardship, having to choose between food or new shoes for the kids is.

 

[Udo Erasmus]

Rises in food prices, council tax, utilities bills, and the general cost of living are a genuine issue. Let's agree and move on.

My original point is what kind of practical demands can we raise to campaign on?

 

[Belushi]

I'm lucky in that I'm single and earn a fairly decent salary (though nothing spectacular) but remember all too well when I was poor and even an extra £2-3 quid a week on food would blow a hole in my finances.

 

[poster342002]

Have you considering maybe listening to what people are saying instead of telling them that their experiences are just wrong?

Ne Labour have spent their entire time in office doing this, though. It mirrrors the strategy of raleasing endless satistics "proving" things are better when people's day to day experiences tell them they're not.

"see- you can't be worse off. This sheet of paper says so."

 

[In Bloom]

My original point is what kind of practical demands can we raise to campaign on?

A bust fund for shoplifters

Seriously, I'm not sure this is something that can be campaigned against directly. If cost of living is too high, we'd be better off fighting for higher wages than making silly demands for price freezes that we have absolutely no way of imposing.

 

[8ball]

Wasn't it only a couple of months back everyone was panicking about an 'obesity timebomb'?

No pleasing some people . . .

 

[poster342002]

A bust fund for shoplifters

Seriously, I'm not sure this is something that can be campaigned against directly. If cost of living is too high, we'd be better off fighting for higher wages than making silly demands for price freezes that we have absolutely no way of imposing.

Thing is, we have just about as much chance of successfully obtaining higher wages - very little.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Suddenly I remember a cartoon I once saw that was reproduced from an old socialist or trade union publication from early in the 20th Century. There is a ladder leaning against a wall in an interior. The foot of the ladder is in deep water. At the top of the ladder is a man in a top hat and tail coat. In the middle is a man in a suit and bowler hat. At the bottom of the ladder you can just see the head and shoulders of a man in a flat cap emerging out of the water.

The caption reads "Alright chaps, just take one step down."

 

[CyberRose]

Of course rising food prices effect everyone, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that this crisis has come about all of a sudden because the papers and political parties care about it more because the middle classes are feeling the squeeze. There wasn't all this crisis talk when middle classes were ok and the lower classes were still struggling.

Rises in food prices, council tax, utilities bills, and the general cost of living are a genuine issue. Let's agree and move on.

My original point is what kind of practical demands can we raise to campaign on?

Yes I can agree and a solution I'd put forward is raising the minimum wage to an acceptable level which will help alleviate the burden of the lowest paid. Price control hasn't been very effective in the past and leads to other problems further down the line. Increasing subsidies will also mean money is diverted away from elsewhere and the shortfall would need to be made up, also causing problems further down the line. Raising the minimum wage would pass the burden on to businesses rather than society as a whole...

 

[poster342002]

Wasn't it only a couple of months back everyone was panicking about an 'obesity timebomb'?

No pleasing some people . . .

The suspicious part of me wonders if that was a way of softening us up for the coming crises...

Ceausescu once responded to a food/price crises in Romania by saying that Romanians were all too fat and ate too much, anyway. North Korea runs TV adverts warning how people that eat more than one meal per day run the risk of exploding.

 

[kyser_soze]

Rather than a price cap, what about a margin cap on specific goods and services? Limit the maximum amount of profit that can be made on a basket of basic hhold items by the supermarkets and institute price protection subsidy for the farmers -so then the only people being squeezed would be the supermarkets, and I'm pretty sure everyone round here would be in favour of that...

 

[poster342002]

Rather than a price cap, what about a margin cap on specific goods and services? Limit the maximum amount of profit that can be made on a basket of basic hhold items by the supermarkets and institute price protection subsidy for the farmers -so then the only people being squeezed would be the supermarkets, and I'm pretty sure everyone round here would be in favour of that...

Now that could be a step in the right direction. I would go further and enforce this by nationalising the supermarkets and the entire food-production chain in the national interest.

 

[kyser_soze]

The suspicious part of me wonders if that was a way of softening us up for the coming crises...

Yeah, because the fact obesity has been a public health issue since the mid-late 90s was all done with the foreknowledge that oil would be at $150 a barrell in 2008.

 

[poster342002]

Yeah, because the fact obesity has been a public health issue since the mid-late 90s was all done with the foreknowledge that oil would be at $150 a barrell in 2008.

But the sudden manufactured "moral crises" over it was rather well-timed, you've got to agree? And as I say, other countries' pwoers-that-be have stooped to this sort of tactic, as I pointed out. Anyway - bit of a derial.

 

[CyberRose]

Now that could be a step in the right direction. I would go further and enforce this by nationalising the supermarkets and the entire food-production chain in the national interest.

As much as that solution might work, it's hardly a realistic solution for today's political climate is it? In what, less than two years time we have a very realistic chance of having a Tory government to guide us through this economic crisis...

 

[poster342002]

As much as that solution might work, it's hardly a realistic solution for today's political climate is it? In what, less than two years time we have a very realistic chance of having a Tory government to guide us through this economic crisis...

Interesting how our politcal climate is rigid, inflexible and unbending even in the face of such a crises.

 

[George & Bill]

While I may not be starving to death, I (and plenty of people I know) are struggling to make rent from one week to the next, despite a fairly minimal food budget. It seems to have gotten a lot worse in the last few months.

I think it depends where in the country you are. Where I can still eat for very little money if I need to. I struggle to pay my rent, but that is because rent is so excessive - and also on the rise.

 

[poster342002]

I think it depends where in the country you are. Where I can still eat for very little money if I need to. I struggle to pay my rent, but that is because rent is so excessive - and also on the rise.

But that's just it - an ugly theme emerges of relentless rises in everything to he point where people simply do not have any money to pay for them anymore, nomatter how many economises they make.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Oh, well, thanks for that. Do you have any other blindingly obvious banalities you can patronise us with?

 

[kyser_soze]

It's also worth remembering that oil prices seem to be stabilising around the $125 mark. If this is the case, all the other associated price rises (many of which have happened as a result of hedging against possible price volatility in the oil markets), should stop, commodity price inflation should slow and a new, if higher, set of equilibrium prices will result. Then you start talking about what a good salary increase will be.

 

[audiotech]

Yeah, because price controls have such a brilliant and successful history every time they've been imposed anywhere haven't they?

One word - cartels.

 

[audiotech]

It's also worth remembering that oil prices seem to be stabilising around the $125 mark. If this is the case, all the other associated price rises (many of which have happened as a result of hedging against possible price volatility in the oil markets), should stop, commodity price inflation should slow and a new, if higher, set of equilibrium prices will result. Then you start talking about what a good salary increase will be.

Please elaborate on 'equilibrium prices' and what you mean by that? I can then have a good laugh to cheer me on my way like.

 

[kyser_soze]

Where a price settles down relative to demand vs supply.

And cartels are only ever successful for the cartel. Price controls don't work, they've been shown not to work many times, most recently during the SE Asian recession following the currency devalutations when several states attempted to institute price capping and found they ran out of many goods to sell, and/or created greater medium term instability in production costs, which ultimately led to more poor people not getting anything to eat.

 

[Teaboy]

It's also worth remembering that oil prices seem to be stabilising around the $125 mark. If this is the case, all the other associated price rises (many of which have happened as a result of hedging against possible price volatility in the oil markets), should stop, commodity price inflation should slow and a new, if higher, set of equilibrium prices will result. Then you start talking about what a good salary increase will be.

Except EDF Energy have today announced another massive price hike on gas and electric, expect the others in this so called competative market to follow suit shortly.

 

[Belushi]

Did anyone see the posh bird on BBC Breakfast this morning advising on how to economise, apparently we have to stop buying so much bottled water and its okay as its become 'cool' to shop at Aldi or Iceland

 

[fractionMan]

Did anyone see the posh bird on BBC Breakfast this morning advising on how to economise, apparently we have to stop buying so much bottled water and its okay as its become 'cool' to shop at Aldi or Iceland

lol

 

[CyberRose]

Did anyone see the posh bird on BBC Breakfast this morning advising on how to economise, apparently we have to stop buying so much bottled water and its okay as its become 'cool' to shop at Aldi or Iceland

See! That's who my comments have been aimed at!

 

[A Dashing Blade]

Except EDF Energy have today announced another massive price hike on gas and electric, expect the others in this so called competative market to follow suit shortly.

Energy markets are rarely (never?) competative (one reason being infrastructure costs). No-one with more than rudimentary knowledge would seriously suggest otherwise ('cept a politician I guess).