[Puffer Fish]

Many elderly people in the UK are struggling to live. Inflation has cut into their savings.

2.1 million UK Pensioners are living in poverty
A third of over 60s say the cost of living crisis has impacted on their mental health

video:
Britain's Forgotten Pensioners | Dispatches | Channel 4 Documentaries
by Channel 4 Documentaries

There are some shocking things in that documentary that will really hit you emotionally.
They interview one elderly couple who cannot afford to turn the heat on and are cold in their apartment much of the time. She says she does not bake much any more because it is too expensive. The electricity price is horrendous, she says.


two other related threads:
Elderly falling into homelessness
Worrying statistics about American's retirement future

[Istanbuller]

Socialistic and Keynesian economics make people falling apart. We need full scale capitalism and libertarianism to empower people again.

[Cartertonian]

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all. John Maynard Keynes.

Given that both capitalism and libertarianism are based on the premise of not giving a fuck about anyone other than oneself, how would your ideology help these and other vulnerable people?

[Tainari88]

Given that both capitalism and libertarianism are based on the premise of not giving a fuck about anyone other than oneself, how would your ideology help these and other vulnerable people?

I have to say Cartertonian there are advantages to living in the tropics. For sure. I was born in the Caribbean. And there if the lights go out and you have no heat or air conditioning, especially at night? No biggie. You can always sleep it never gets very cold. The same here in this part of Mexico. But when I lived in Colorado if you got stuck in some week in February like this month? Where it hits sometimes -20 below zero Fahrenheit or -28.8889 Celsius you better have some heating system or risk your pipes bursting and you dying overnight. It happened to two people I knew in Colorado. The guy froze to death. He thought he did not need to put on the heat and save from his measly government check and he died.

The UK needs to protest hard the price hikes. They need to insist the government take money from the coffers and help families with children and old people.

[Puffer Fish]

Given that both capitalism and libertarianism are based on the premise of not giving a fuck about anyone other than oneself, how would your ideology help these and other vulnerable people?

You are correct.
However, we can also look at how some of the policies that have been coming from the Left have contributed to the problem.

Not to sound like a broken record, but immigration policies have been responsible for pushing up the price of rent in many cities, and leading to housing shortages.
And then the "Green" environmental policies making electric power more expensive. Which includes government policies trying to prevent new buildings from being fitted to be able to use natural gas, causing more people to become reliant on electricity for their heating needs.

But also to be fair, it also sounds like some of these new apartment buildings were not the best designed when it came to heat insulation, with metal door frames, concrete floors, and a glass paneled balcony door that lets the warmth escape. Something that regulations from the Left could mitigate. (Although there is also a trade-off because that could lead to making housing even less affordable, or possibly even lead to increased fire danger)

[Puffer Fish]

There is also inflation. Typically (but not always) inflation is higher under a Leftist government because they want to spend more money, and find it more convenient to get that money from printing more of it. (Well, that's true in the U.S. and Argentina at least)

Inflation tends to hurt the elderly and retired more than the rest of society because they already have all the money they earned over the course of their life in savings. And inflation eats away at savings in bank accounts.

(Inflation could almost sort of be viewed as a tax on savings)

[Skynet]

UK wanted to leave the EU because of immigration but now they have similar immigration from India instead of Poland.

The current crisis is just because the Brexit.

In +/- 10 Years they should vote again if they want to join the EU

[Puffer Fish]

Millions of pensioners will lose winter fuel cash

Millions of pensioners are set to lose winter fuel payments this year after an attempt to block the cuts failed in Parliament.

The government won a vote on the plan to restrict the payments to all but the poorest pensioners by 348 votes to 228 - a majority of 120.
52 MPs did not take part in the vote, including some Labour ministers, but it is not yet known how many had deliberately abstained or were absent from Parliament for another reason. Only one Labour MP voted against the government.
Dozens of Labour MPs were reported to have been planning to abstain in protest at the cuts despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves urging them to back the government.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5r07kw24no.amp , 10 September 2024


Unfortunately the vast majority of apartments do not have any fireplaces. And even if they did, wood burning has been banned in the entire region surrounding London, and around certain other bigger city areas in the UK. Of course those just happen to be areas where the majority of the population lives.
(a map of "smoke control areas" where wood burning is banned can be seen here)

[Potemkin]

Millions of pensioners will lose winter fuel cash

Millions of pensioners are set to lose winter fuel payments this year after an attempt to block the cuts failed in Parliament.

The government won a vote on the plan to restrict the payments to all but the poorest pensioners by 348 votes to 228 - a majority of 120.
52 MPs did not take part in the vote, including some Labour ministers, but it is not yet known how many had deliberately abstained or were absent from Parliament for another reason. Only one Labour MP voted against the government.
Dozens of Labour MPs were reported to have been planning to abstain in protest at the cuts despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves urging them to back the government.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5r07kw24no.amp , 10 September 2024


Unfortunately the vast majority of apartments do not have any fireplaces. And even if they did, wood burning has been banned in the entire region surrounding London, and around certain other bigger city areas in the UK. Of course those just happen to be areas where the majority of the population lives.
(a map of "smoke control areas" where wood burning is banned can be seen here)

Keir Starmer is clearly a Red Tory.

[Puffer Fish]

Keir Starmer is clearly a Red Tory.

Maybe the Labour Party just doesn't like the idea of giving subsidies to something that contributes to Global Warming?
With the comfort of the low income elderly taking a backseat to the Environmental agenda, which is taking more of a priority here.

I know the Left typically has a hard time saying no to any proposal for something free, but maybe we should try to analyse this mathematically?

The U.K. is currently running a budget deficit. Cuts have to be made.