# Politics and News > World Affairs >  Average income back to pre-crisis levels

## cable2

I was chatting with a mate from London, who let me know about latest BS from the British government.. '_you never had it so good_' you Brits......  :Smiley ROFLMAO:  

have your income gone back to pre-crisis levels _?????_



*bbc-blocks-dark.png*

*Average income back to pre-crisis levels, says IFS*


*Average household incomes are back to where they were before the financial crisis, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
*
However the think tank also found that incomes for working age people were still below their 2007-08 level, after adjusting for the impact of inflation.

Only over-60s will have higher incomes this year than 2007-08, the IFS report said.

That is partly because pensioners have been protected from benefit cuts.

Living standards have also risen more slowly than after previous recessions, the IFS concluded.

It said this was mainly a result of weak growth in earnings for those in work, but it said tax increases and benefit cuts, as part of the government's actions to reduce the deficit, had also had a negative impact on average incomes.

"It's astonishing actually that seven years later incomes are still no higher than they were pre-recession and indeed for working-age households they're still a bit below where they were pre-recession," IFS director Paul Johnson told the BBC.

But those over 60 have fared much better than younger age groups.

State pensions are "triple-locked", which means they have risen by inflation, earnings or 2.5%, whichever is the highest.

As a result many pensioners have seen their incomes rise by a relatively generous amount.

However pensioners are typically at the lower end of the income scale.

*much more to read:* http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31711854

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## Trinnity

yeah sure

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Parabellum (03-05-2015)

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## lostbeyond

It is not a lie, the average british income has gone back to its old "high" level.  The top 1 % of British earners earn 100 times more than then.  Everyone else doesn't.  So, average restored.  WHEHEHEHE

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cable2 (03-05-2015),usfan (03-05-2015)

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## FirstGenCanadian

These things would not be a problem, if people really understood how money works.  But thanks for the thread @cable2!  Its always good to continue to drum into people's heads, how raising the minimum wage, and or raising taxes, and or cutting benefits, doesn't work.

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## lostbeyond

> These things would not be a problem, if people really understood how money works. But thanks for the thread @cable2! Its always good to continue to drum into people's heads, how raising the minimum wage, and or raising taxes, and or cutting benefits, doesn't work.


It seems that people are happy to cut their own throats if you tell them to on national TV.

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## usfan

Yeah, its just number spin.. like watching wheel of fortune.  Spin the wheel, make the claim.

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cable2 (03-05-2015),lostbeyond (03-05-2015)

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## QuaseMarco

Propaganda.

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## cable2

> Propaganda.


that's what this site is all about......  :Smiley ROFLMAO:

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## squidward

at 2% inflation, one needs 14% higher income after 8 years in order to maintain the same standard of living. 

Thank you FED.

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## Anders Hoveland

> at 2% inflation, one needs 14% higher income after 8 years in order to maintain the same standard of living. 
> 
> Thank you FED.


Actually inflation eats away at the _government_'s purchasing power. For everyone else, prices basically automatically adjust. The burden of inflation basically falls on the government, that is what an economic analysis tells us, surprisingly. 
(However, this is still a cause for concern because do not forget, in the U.S. the "FED" is not the same thing as the U.S. Treasury.) Think about all that money being used to manipulate interest rates, when instead it could have been used for something more productive. Or think of it this way, taxes could lower if it was not for inflation (by about 10-14 percent I have calculated).

I also do not like the idea that people cannot store a hoard of paper money without it quickly losing value over several years. Perhaps this is why the U.S. government tried to ban the private ownership of gold for 41 years (So much for Constitutional protections, btw).

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## squidward

> Actually inflation eats away at the _government_'s purchasing power. For everyone else, prices basically automatically adjust. The burden of inflation basically falls on the government, that is what an economic analysis tells us, surprisingly.


government prints what it needs. The people lost 14% of their purchasing power in 8 years, and that's just using the government target of 2%.

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## Neo

> Propaganda.


This is typical spin, wages are nothing like pre-financial crisis. Wages are down, taxes are still high, the killer of course is National Insurance payement. On a typical week I pay nearly £120 PAYE tax, over £70 national insurance. The employers have been well advised, they have reduced overtime hours, many contracts of employment have been changed without notice. The end result you do not notice, after a certain time it matters not that you notice as in law they can do it. The goal for employers is to make everyone a sub contractor, this means they do not have to pay anything to a pension scheme that was introduced in 2010. Many companies are offering new workers company contracts outside of the official Union graded financial contracts of employment, rates are reduced, pension schemes neglegable, many at 1% of basic hours.
The government in the build up to the election will offer little tax  incentives in the forthcoming budget...too little too late.

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