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@clintsmoker
it's hard to judge each recession seeing how ways of recording unemployment etc have changed but this one doesn't seem so bad. Ok, i have a job so that makes my life easy. i also live in london and not a harder hit northern community. I remember the thatcher recessions and they really did seem to effect communities in a harsh way. i work in education and have very close contact with families in newham (supposedly one of the poorest areas in this country, poverty being relative of course) and non of them, be they on benefits or working all hours god sends for minimum wage could possibly be described as destitute or starving. in fact many of them have bigger houses than me, more cars ( big 4 wheel bmw's too) and mobiles. of course i'm not denying the recession but i'm having a hard time finding it. perhaps this is because since the late 70's and 80's a lot of people have seen a massive improvement in their lifesyles and financial security thanks mainly to capitalism. this recession is also massively self inflicted by over borrowing whereas the late 70's and 80's were just proper grim and had a lot to do with poorly run state owned industries and a welfare system that was out of date even back then.