Musing on misery

Standing in a muddy field in the rain whilst the dogs searched for something to throw up on my bed later - I did some calculations based on some facts I read in the papers in the last few weeks.

The cost of living for single people is approx 40% higher than couples and families. Food is almost 50% more expensive, running a household approx 70% more expensive - the only concrete discount being a 25% reduction on the council tax. Benefits, forget it. Mortgages are almost totally out of the reach of anyone single until they are approx 30 years of age - it takes that long to save a reasonable deposit ( at the cost of a social life ) - assuming that you are not already saddled with a student debt - which is estimated to reach an average 25k this year. Figures claim that you will be 100k better off over your lifetime with a degree, but this is very misleading - you lose 25k straight away via debt and whatever interest you pay, and are 3 years of earning potential down - at least 50k - so over a lifetime that's about 3k PA better off, not exactly a 'whoopy fucking do' moment.

If you cannot get a mortgage - you lack financial and psychological security it offers. If you earn enough to get a mortgage - which is at least 35k PA and 25k of savings, you probably live in a metropolitan center where you could never afford a house or flat anyway.

If you have a vocation and want to go to college, you need the financial support of your parents - if not, you need to work - meaning that you cannot devote yourselves to your studies like the better situated students, who probably have already had a better school education, thus better grades - and more material advantages - such as better student housing and a car. Peversely - the 'new' middle class parents of the last decade who capitalised on the increase in property and the 90's boom - are now pretty cash strapped and looking forward to a beak retirement - so they can't help. The only ones with money are 'old' money who already had assets pre '80s, the more 'traditional' middle class types - thus education is increasingly leaning towards a social class bias that we should have seen the back of after the last war. In may ways, it's back to the 1930's. Working class students cannot afford to go to college, if they are 'uppity enough' try, they get poor results and are sunk by debt and never achieve property ownership - are forced to take jobs that are on a lower skill scale ( and pay ) and perpetuate the class divide. Middle class students who have had a more comfortable and cosseted upbringing will continue into college, get better qualifications simply because it's easier for them - and progress into better jobs. Result - the 'professions' continue to be the domain of the middle classes.. Doctors, managers, science, Civil Service etc - all middle class professions. Working class students may persue their vocation to such dizzy but poorly paid heights as teaching and nursing where the motivation is not money, but love.

We have a poncey, suited posh boy Prime Minister with a nice but dim not-so-posh boy sidekick to fag for him and an opposition who lost power because they got drunk on the temporary glamour of being pseudo middle class ( among many other things ) and were soundly slapped down - mostly by their own peers.

Where does this leave us... I mourn the loss of aspiration - why bother, hard work and ability are worthless, the only way to get what you want in life is to sing your soul away to Simon Cowell, fuck a football player or distort your body into circus freak proportions for the magazines..... It's like a Victorian Melodrama, no wonder the re-boot of Sherlock worked so well - it's all so fucking familiar.