Seriously?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

There has also been mention of a probablt recession due to inflation and interest rates going up. Certain news sources are reporting this as we are definitely going into recession. More media manipulation of facts.

As for your German lady, if she can afford £15k for a new kitchen, i'm pretty sure she could still afford a grand for a very nice package deal on a holiday. What's wrong with her old kitchen anyway?

Folk were predicting a recession last year Dave, it failed to materialise. We have all (in the first world and new world) been living beyond our means for quite a while, much of this has been paid for by printing money (quantitative easing). Here in the UK even poor people have very comfortable lives (generous social welfare, big rent subsidies, free (at the point of delivery) health and education services, good pensions), far beyond what we can justify. One day we'll become poor enough to have to dispense with all the social welfare bunkum and have to start earning our way in this world again. That won't happen in my lifetime though (maybe not even in Dan's).

Anyway, folk have become used to getting lots of 'stuff' ('stuff' includes property, vehicles, material things, travel... ). People are no longer happy with a grand's worth of perfectly good holiday, but want to spend £5,000 on laying on a beach in Thailand and burning a ton or so of fuel in the process - that is what my German friend's problem was. I rather suspect there was nothing much wrong with her old kitchen (I don't know her house, but it is in an area where the oldest houses are only about 16 years, so the kitchen can't be more dated than that). Does she need a new kitchen? Not really; does she need to sit on a beach in Thailand again? Certainly not!

I see the base rate rose by half a percent today. It is still cheap compared with historic interest rates in the UK (when I bought my first house it was 12% - about the average in post war years, and at one point touched 15%). We have all got used to almost free money for the past couple of decades, but the music had to end one day.

One of the manifestations may be that ordinary folk stop wasting so much and feeling sorry for themselves - and maybe stop paying inflated prices for rustbergs that would have sold for a few hundred pounds a decade ago.

Just the musings of a middle aged man with a beard.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Folk were predicting a recession last year Dave, it failed to materialise. We have all (in the first world and new world) been living beyond our means for quite a while, much of this has been paid for by printing money (quantitative easing). Here in the UK even poor people have very comfortable lives (generous social welfare, big rent subsidies, free (at the point of delivery) health and education services, good pensions), far beyond what we can justify. One day we'll become poor enough to have to dispense with all the social welfare bunkum and have to start earning our way in this world again. That won't happen in my lifetime though (maybe not even in Dan's).

Anyway, folk have become used to getting lots of 'stuff' ('stuff' includes property, vehicles, material things, travel... ). People are no longer happy with a grand's worth of perfectly good holiday, but want to spend £5,000 on laying on a beach in Thailand and burning a ton or so of fuel in the process - that is what my German friend's problem was. I rather suspect there was nothing much wrong with her old kitchen (I don't know her house, but it is in an area where the oldest houses are only about 16 years, so the kitchen can't be more dated than that). Does she need a new kitchen? Not really; does she need to sit on a beach in Thailand again? Certainly not!

I see the base rate rose by half a percent today. It is still cheap compared with historic interest rates in the UK (when I bought my first house it was 12% - about the average in post war years, and at one point touched 15%). We have all got used to almost free money for the past couple of decades, but the music had to end one day.

One of the manifestations may be that ordinary folk stop wasting so much and feeling sorry for themselves - and maybe stop paying inflated prices for rustbergs that would have sold for a few hundred pounds a decade ago.

Just the musings of a middle aged man with a beard.

As you say Alan, that predicted recession didn't happen which bears out my point perfectly.

I also remember the interst rates of the early 80s, 15-16% was the norm but the big difference back then was that the utilities were publicly owned and we weren't paying stupid money to foreign powers for all our energy. For many, that is the biggest problem these days and jobs aren't what they were with NMW being almost mandatory alongwith zero-hour contricks (contracts).

This can (and often does) induce an attitude of "live for today", the Shania Twain song "Ker-ching" sums it all up very well. That was written ~25 years ago and proves nothing has really changed.

[Verse 1]
We live in a greedy little world
That teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly
Then turn around and spend it foolishly
We've created us a credit card mess
We spend the money that we don't possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So we're shoppin' every Sunday at the mall

[Pre-Chorus]
All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store

The first verse and "pre-chorus" gives the general flavour of the song but is increasingly true of peoples attitudes to money.

As for foreign holidays, i read somewhere recently the every Boeing 787 uses about 2 tonnes of fuel just taxiing before take-off. At a ball-park of 0.8RD that's 1600L or ~350 gallons - that would keep your Skoda quiet for a very long time!
When you said "burning a ton of fuel in the process", if you amortise that fuel for the flight across all the passengers, it proably is about a a ton per passenger for the entire flight but still a lot of fuel by any stretch of the imagination. The eco-warriors seem to forget air and sea travel when protesting about oil use and the emissions they produce, especially as they are not so strictly regulated as the cars we drive.

All that said, we are all guilty in some way of buying things we don't need. For example, i recently bought a pair of clear side repeaters and clear amber LED bulbs to go in them for my Jag.

Does it need them? No - it already has the factory fit orange side repeaters and standard 5W 501 type bulbs.

Will it improve the function of the car? No, see last answer.

Will they improve the value? Probably not.

Are they unique? Relatively speaking, only one seller seems to offer this mod/upgrade.

Will it improve the looks? IMHO, hell, yeah! This is of course a subjective view and others may disagree.

Bottom line is, yes, i (and the car) could have done without them but the overall improvement was worth it. It has clear front and rear indicators and the orange side repeaters made them look like an afterthought.

I suppose that's also why people all rush out to buy the latest phone that does little or nothing over and above their present phone but fills the world with discarded but still capable mobile phones. Just another symptom of the "Ka-ching" song lyrics.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

As you say Alan, that predicted recession didn't happen which bears out my point perfectly...

As for foreign holidays, i read somewhere recently the every Boeing 787 uses about 2 tonnes of fuel just taxiing before take-off. At a ball-park of 0.8RD that's 1600L or ~350 gallons - that would keep your Skoda quiet for a very long time!
When you said "burning a ton of fuel in the process", if you amortise that fuel for the flight across all the passengers, it proably is about a a ton per passenger for the entire flight but still a lot of fuel by any stretch of the imagination. The eco-warriors seem to forget air and sea travel when protesting about oil use and the emissions they produce, especially as they are not so strictly regulated as the cars we drive.

... All that said, we are all guilty in some way of buying things we don't need. For example, i recently bought a pair of clear side repeaters and clear amber LED bulbs to go in them for my Jag.

I agree Dave... we are all responsible, we can't just blame the government (any government, I don't mean any current administration). We all enjoy the benefits of living in this industrial society.

I was just thinking about how much fuel aviation does use: a 747 burns 11 tons of fuel/hour, a typical flight to Thailand is 12 hours and it carries 400 folk (assuming it is full). So, about 130 tons or 1/3 ton/passenger each way. The flights alone might waste 2 tons fuel/typical family just to sit on a beach that they could do at Hunstanton. To me this makes no sense, but most folk I know expect a significant overseas holiday every year. I rather suspect the environmental campaigners spoiling peoples' lives at the mo have been on plenty of hols between them. Ho hum.

Folk generally like to focus on tangible things that are easy to visualise rather than think about the bigger picture.

Ho hum

[BicycleBoy]

93 240SE Leicestershire £10k
https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1600633

[Othen]

Originally Posted by BicycleBoy

93 240SE Leicestershire £10k
https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1600633

Crazy

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by BicycleBoy

93 240SE Leicestershire £10k
https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1600633

'ow much?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

This 1989 motorcar looks okay, a little rougher than the Barge, but with quite good provenance.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166177915...Bk9SR6Ch9a2ZYg

If it went for 3 to 4 grand that would probably be fair.

The 1989 GLT saloon from Edinburg made £3,300; I think that was quite a fair price (for both buyer and seller). It was a similar quality motorcar to the Barge, which made £6,000. One might conclude the historic vehicle premium is worth about 80%, which is in accordance with our previous thoughts (50-100%).

It seems to me this was a good motorcar and a fair auction, which certainly puts into perspective the many bogus ones we see advertised for 5 to 10 grand.

[BicycleBoy]

89 Estate Scotland £9k
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225637139259

[Othen]

Originally Posted by BicycleBoy

89 Estate Scotland £9k
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225637139259

More madness.

[BicycleBoy]

Saloon rolling shell Leicestershire £300
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304996845681

Worth it for the virgos & leather furniture alone.