I got an email from one of the numerous blogs I follow and it had a bit of "good news" for me. The bit that concerned me was that minimum wage is going to rise by 50p.
According to the news, the National living wage, as it is called, will rise to £11.44 per hour. On the surface, it sounds like you're earning more money but if you look beyond the bullshit, you'll find that nor much has changed.
In fact, whenever minimum wage rises, it only points at an underlying problem that needs to be addressed. Hiking salaries for doing the same work will not do anything to ease the fact that purchasing power is dropping.
Increasing the minimum wage is a cosmetic solution to inflation. Another "nice" thing the government does is drop taxes by infinitesimal rates that makes very little impact to the lives of people.
According to the news, taxes will dropped at a rate where relatively high income earners will "save" around £450 per year in taxes. From where I'm standing, it just sounds like the government is also employing that negative anti-marketing reverse marketing technique that seems to work very well in rich countries.
I mean, not much has actually changed but the media will flood the airwaves with bits about how lovely it is that the government now takes "less" of their money. The average person will probably clap and celebrate this but but the reality is that not much has changed.
If you take a step back, you'll realize that increasing the minimum wage only means cost of doing business rises and all businesses that want to continue making profit will have to adjust prices to suit the changes.
So, the price of rent, food, heating and everything else will simply just rise. The question now is, how do you insulate yourself from this?
My answer is the same for everything in life; only buy what you need. I've noticed that in this country and I presume other first world countries, people tend to spend a lot on things they need and don't need. I wouldn't go as far as to call it wasteful but I would add that it's fascinating.
The society is optimized for wanton spending and advertisers shill that way.
Perspective
Don't get me wrong, I am not complain. This "situation* is still far better than where I'm coming from. In Nigeria, we don't have a regulated minimum wage and our government couldn't care less about your life.
At least around here, the government makes an effort, even if it is largely cosmetic. Again, from my perspective, life is relatively good in the UK, for the most part, so even a cosmetic change that maintains the status quo isn't a bad thing.
Naturally, there's always room for improvement but considering this is actually one of the top ten wealthiest countries in the world, it would take a mighty effort to achieve it. What I would add is that it's very refreshing to talk about first world problems as my reality.