1st classes stamp delivery .... and uk future...?

[CORTINA]

The report of 1st class mail to be delivered over 2 or 3 days begs the question of how many less posties will then be needed in a few years time........

I also wonder what will be the mood of stockmarket next week .... Probably fueled by uncertainty of the fiscal cliff issue in the USA .

Bad or nervy news could well see an uneasy period of downward volitility... The longer the USA argue and squabble internally... markets will suffer ... affecting our pensions ....

Unfortunately greed and stubbornness will no doubt reflect the rich in not giving in to pay more and expect middle classes to bear the most costs.... Morally we have the same issue in the uk....

My thoughts are that the damage done from 2007 financial crash is after 5 years not just a matter of damage limition and restructuring... But is also creating a financial culture change to more each year on several different fronts... and less workforce in the UK in future years as Part Time worker volumes increase

Living on credit and job security of the past is now not the same option in fact the opposite to some. The bottom line is finances are getting less for the lower earners and the problem is creeping up the the wealth ladder into the middle classes.... As the baby boomers pass away in the next 15 years the following new younger generation will have far less financial ability by sheer lack of reduced prospects that are being experienced by many under 25s now...

The culture change to more part time working and many annuity pensions paying out less every year is reducing spending power to many retiring in the next 15 years .. And money hardly seems to becoming more plentiful in the coming years... If say 1 thousand new full time jobs paying income tax ...change to 2 thousand part time jobs that pay little or no income tax and probably claiming a low income benefit or whatever... Government tax revenues seem logically deemed to fall..... With any further cut backs made by government and increasing utilities costs will only compound the future problems and resulting financial issues.....

The bottom line is that the growing unaffordability of more and more people to buy a house and rents also a growing struggle ..... What is the answer ... To put spending power backing into Lower and middle classes pockets.. Simple answer but .. Will it happen... If so at who's expense..

We are going through a transitional financial culture change .... I think many will probably admit things must and will change in the next 10 years..... China may well be bigger than USA by then.. But that's another issue.

Oh how things were free and easy and stable in the 60s and 70s .. Plenty of work..save for a deposite for a 10k house, get married and financial stress 50% less than today... the good times and money in your pocket...and no credit cards then, and less debt.

RM will come under pressure to better its low profits at the expense of less full time workers usually the way CEOs way of increasing the profit margins ... making the remain workforce work harder...while under fear of losing their jobs.

Local anglia tv reporting this week that amazon in Peterbough is taking on 2500 extra workers for the xmas period, shows the continuing growth in packets this xmas.... its going to be a busy packet xmas period this year....and no doubt another drop in xmas cards......

The recession is hitting shops hard and how many more will follow comet after xmas and our pension annuitys paying out less every year.... the next ten years do not look good for most of us....

[fng]

LSE.RBS ?

[Godric]

Cortina you forget 1 other aspect of the UK ... in a few years time the UK may well be just England, Wales and N Ireland depending on the result of the Scottish independence referendum .... i believe it could go either way ... if people up here think the tories are a dead cert for 2015 in westminster folk will vote yes out of dislike and contempt of the tories .... America as you say is living on borrowed time with a deficiet of $16 - $17 trillion dollars or 107% of the USA GDP and they are still printing $$s without the assets to back it up ... they are due to do a Greece ... attacking Iran will only speed up that process as the US economy is close to flat lining as it is