ChinaReader

That being the safest way to win votes, because the have-houses outnumber the have-not-houses at present. And as long as the political mindset revolves around winning votes, the focus is on small changes and not really changing the status quo; rather than on making a better country. Democracy - initially intended to give the masses nominal choice then make all the decisions for them. Now a way of paralysing decision-making through political manouvering and pandering to the media. Still, maybe it'll work in Iraq.

This global workforce sounds serious. Why haven't you mentioned it before dnd? Anyway, to respond to your particular assertion, isn't China, in your opinion, the exemplar of the global workforce phenomenon? Becuase if they are, they have an emergent middle class. Who buy homes in places like this.

Look up "Lean Manufacturing" in Wikipedia - it isn't all about making people redundant. It's also how Toyota contine to grow and are stuffing the rest of the automotive industry. 150,000 redundancies because of lean is, I would guess, union scare-mongering at the idea of change. And partly because the Western car-manufacturers hate change, they'll lose to Toyota and Nissan.

Stopping paying rent = great grounds for kicking you out so he can sell the liability house... not the best plan, surely...

Isn't this taking the fun out of the debate! I mean, now that prices are actually visibly lower now than last year in some places, there's no more argument to be had about whether prices will drop or not. Phooey.

Smoker, by any chance?

I'd vote against a split (better a larger club than individualists, imho), but your first statement explains the second. No surprise that an English person, faced with better economic prospects (in theory, from not supporting the other regions) would want to offload the costs. It's self-interest that makes up people's minds on things like this, and stuff the bigger picture because I'll be dead by then!

Of course, if you decide you overreacted and that you didn't actually express you views, opinions or values accurately, or expressed them in a manner that you wouldn't normally have adopted, apologising is no compromise of character, just a correction of unintentional excess.

"This year ... already" and "YoY" are contradictory statements. Either "already this year" means the growth in the period 1st Jan 2007 to 28th April 2007, or "YOY" gives only 1/3 weighting to that data, and 2/3 weighting to last year's data (which no-one would contest was upwards). So, is your point that prices have gone up a lot this year already (source?), or that prices went up a lot last year (undisputed, but not hugely relevant in refuting this kids article)?

Sorry to join the party late, but isn't Actual prices more interesting than inflation-adjusted prices? If you're looking at how many pound coins you'll need to save to buy a house, the inflation adjusted historical data is the less relevant trend. Isn't it?

The Chinese will... And they already do: But there are only 1.3 billion of them...

But then: 10 x [salary] may only be equal to 3 or 4 x [salary + on-target bonus], if this is offered to "wealthy people" who work in e.g. finance...

I think they got a lot more than that:Obtaining extra compensation of 900,000 yuan (US$116,000) as well as a house with the same amount of floor space, the couple hailed across China as "the hardest holdout homeowners" agreed yesterday to move out of their old two-story house in Chongqing after a struggle that lasted more than two and a half years + a few other frills if you want to read the rest of the article. Link

I was told China is already making quiet grumblings each year (at whatever international convention on cooperation in internet use) that they aren't satisfied with the current system. All the projections show they'll eventually have most internet users, but the current system doesn't support them using their characters in URLs. The other countries have so far convinced them not to go "well fine, we'll make our own then", but human patience is ever a finite resource... It is a little disturbing dnd.

Ain't that the truth.

Thank you for recounting your situation, and particularly the insight into construction and retail. I think people sitting tight in secure jobs is one of the things that increases the desperation of the unemployment, even though by percentages the numbers aren't as stark (see below). If you're in a bad position, it gets really bad, as there isn't the same turnover of jobs/vacancies. And if you're employed, you're scared of losing your place in an oversupplied market.

No-no, your opinion is perfectly clear. Of course, the populace just woke up on election day and thought "well, the Tories have done an excellent job, really improved the country in every way imaginable; but let's be fair and give Labour a chance, for no particular reason". Or was it more like "please, no more atrocious Tory government - who else might win? Ok, Labour it is then"?? Let's not pretend the Tories didn't deserve to (and need to) get voted out last time. It's just a shame what filled the gap. Of course. Completely unbiased. Bastion of truth. Yeah - because the Tories are anti-Europe So much sarcasm - so little time.

Give it a rest! Who have we to thank for our education, our cultural upbringing, our understanding of society, and the provision of vast quantities of distractions and red herrings? Oh yeah, "you" lot. No generation is solely responsible for any of the mess. I blame the Tories and the Daily Mail readers. In the good old days they would've <rant, mumble, grumble,...>

Isn't that usually: "The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly." Then the interviewer calls in the statistician and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The statistician says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four." Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "What do you want it to equal? He gets the job." Maybe I just know more accountant-haters than economist-haters.

You have to get ahead of it to stop it - Only analogy that springs to my mind it to think runaway cart... you can run up behind it and try and drag it backwards, which will slow it down slowly. Or you can get ahead of it and be the brake... only problem being it might squash you and keep going. Anyone got a better one?

Ah ok. Paranoia. So, please can you buy a house and then the rest of us can benefit from the ensuing rate rise. Cheers mate. One for the team.

Yes. And I'm independent of my boss too. Unless he fires me.

Isn't it!Laurejon, anecdotally, the application process for medicine was still pretty rigorous when my peers were applying, so I think you can trust doctors 26 or over, imho. Of course, if you've got some more concrete evidence of the demise of good medicinal education in 1985, I'd love to see it. This doesn't narrow down your options much.

Another thread said they'd accurately predicted the last three rate rises. But I can't find it, and I don't have another link to back that up.

He can raise it in revenue streams, but can he raise it in cash? It's one thing getting a slow bleed from people, another to get 166 quid from every person (or 500 quid per household) to pay the debt-collectors.