Bustonomics!
Is it all part of some great plan? Make everything soooo expensive that little businesses can’t survive? There I was in Camden, Italian restaurant, Thursday, only one other couple in the place, surprised to be sharing their amorous encounter.
Where is everybody? I asked.
‘Busy at weekends, And Fridays. Usually. It’s tough. Hey – we’ve been here 13 years. Chap over the road, by Blues Kitchen, he was there three months. Fitted it out an’ everything. Very nice, it was. Shop ‘round the corner, over there, been three different tenants last year. Went bust – all of ’em. Hope we last next 13 months.’
And all the empty shops. Everywhere.
This has got to be a plan. It can’t just be incompetence. It’s too systematic. Interest rates suck up any whiff of the little guy’s discretionary spend – if income tax, NI, and vat haven’t already extinguished any urge to go out. Inflated council tax and uncontrolled council salaries for the top (in salary, not talent) people further bleed tax paying residents. Fuel bills, water bills spiral upwards. And if you want your brown bin collected – yeah, right. £75 a year and we might even turn up. (Nah, jokes. Just leave it in the street).
And then the shop, the cafe you’ve dreamed about owning. The pet shop. The butchers. Rent. Rates (council tax again). Electricity. Gas. Waste management fees (council tax again). Pushing up your prices. And HMRC squeezing, squeezing. Cos you’re little. Nothing you can do. Can’t even ring them. While the big boys whizz their cash (from electricity, gas, water, interest payments – you name it) out of the country at the press of a button, no withholding tax, nothing. Millions, tax free. Whooooosh. But the little guy? Squeeeeeze. More and more. Nah. Too much like hard work. Literally. Not worth the candle.
And staff. If you can find them. Or one. Young people today have a much better grip on reality than old farts like me. We worked all the hours, employed, paid seemingly gazillions in tax but still had some left to buy flats, houses, holidays, meals out and keep the heating on. And have children. But now, thanks to our masters of the universe, younger folk perceive little such hope. Their work has become transient, fleeting, discretionary.
But ‘discretionary’ works both ways.
Many younger folk work now only when it suits them, when they need to. Especially if they’re good at what they do. They live with fewer ties. Times I’ve heard ‘Done enough for the tax man this month’ from the discretionary generation. (Productivity? Oh please Jeremy, you made your bed). They feel no support from society and expect none. And they feel the same towards society. Good luck getting them to join the army. Or vote. And as employment becomes more discretionary, it demands more cash. £150 here, £225 there. All in notes. No tax. Like the good ol’ days on Petticoat Lane. But hey. Silver lining. These guys can afford a bit of discretionary spending! Turns out, they also spend it in Italian restaurants too. Abroad. It’s cheaper.
by Chris Parkinson
image by Inessa Marianska