I will break it into 3 parts: 1) Economic Downturn For Years, 2) Zero Control Over Your Job, and 3) Health Versus Wealth.
Part 1: Economic Downturn For Years
Well, in actual fact, if you knew in advance, if you had forewarning of what was going to happen in the economy, that there was going to be a major downturn, would you have done something about it? It's like saying would you have taken some precaution against an event, an illness, if you knew it was possible or likely to occur.
We would think that we would do it, but in actual fact most people don't. They just live for today and they ignore the warning signs. In fact, from the early 1990's I was very much aware that the Western world was going to go through an economic boom.
The Baby Boomer generation after World War II was so big that it was reaching its peak spending power by the time they reached their 40's and that's when they had children and they large houses, their biggest expenses and also their biggest income. And so they can afford that. And that is why we had the boom.
Part 2: Zero Control Over Your Job
If you look at the economy, and just go and look up the amount of debt in the United Kingdom at the moment. What makes United Kingdom different to some of the other countries is that there is so much private debt. It's made up of business debt, it's made up of financial debt in the financial sector of which the UK and London is a prime base of industry. It's also personal debt, not just the government did you hear about. In fact, it even is equivalent to Japan about five times GDP is what the level of depth here is in the United Kingdom.
Part 3:Health Versus Wealth
Now if you're of the generation that is retiring, the Baby Boomers, you're going to be one of a large magnitude of people retiring at the same time, requiring health services, being a drain on the economy. Now I took a clipping out of a newspaper from early 2012 where the Japanese minister says this to the elderly population of Japan, "Just hurry up and die!"
Now you think that's a bit over the top and it can't happen here. Well just think about the amount of resources that will be used in the United Kingdom as the Baby Boomer generation lives longer. Now the average lifespan of a woman in Japan is 88 and then they live quite a healthy lifestyle, but not contributing.
So you can't really assess the past 20 years with the next 20 years. You're going to have to do it with open eyes, with a different vision and understand that we're going to have to change the rules and part of that is asking yourself the question, "Can I rely on my job?", "Is it secure", or, "What can I be doing in my spare time perhaps to create my own business?", or just sit back just watching TV or just watching time tick by and doing nothing it and then realizing it's not getting better in a hurry.
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