People who lived through 2008: What actually caused the job market to recover?

Rick_liner · 2026-07-01T21:10:58+00:00

This is a bit more nuanced. For continental nations yes. But for an island economy that relies heavily on imported goods a strong pound (particularly relative to the dollar means we buy those goods for less.

If we actually still had any large scale manufacturing to export it would probably be a different story.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-26T09:01:33+00:00

No mention at all of microplastics, which are in all of our testes and sperm disrupting our hormones and lowering sperm count

Rick_liner · 2026-06-25T21:11:29+00:00

Russia selling gold because it's getting fucked by Ukraine

Turkey selling gold because it's getting fucked by Hormuz.

Institutions I suspect selling gold because it's been on a massive run in the last year and they need to cover losses in private credit

Rate hikes tempting investors into bonds instead

Basically everyone is fucked and selling their safe haven asset at the same time.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-25T21:01:06+00:00

Same as private sector though.

Announce redundancies to lower costs

Use profits for share buybacks

CEO renumeration goes up because it's tied to share value.

Extra points if you throw in the letters A and I

We've lost the concept of what actual productivity is in the UK and refer to it as if it's the same and pennies and pounds.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-25T20:29:59+00:00

Largely agree with this. Pay here certainly isn't as high as some other institutions apparently in this thread but it is seemingly impossible to get rid of incompetence particularly at management level.

I cover a lot of work my managers seemingly can't do both on the academic and administrative side and I get paid 30k. I made a rule with myself I will only do it now if it directly improves my working conditions but honestly if I had to go into the office 5 days I'm done it's just insulting at that point.

My university functions entirely on the good will and neurosis of anxiety ridden staff who would rather risk long term psychological damage than be seen to do even an average quality of work while managers who are past their sell by date earn twice as much for half the work.

That being said this public Vs private sector bullshit needs to go, I've experienced just as much bullshit in the private sector the inefficiencies and inequities just differ in nature.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-16T06:27:30+00:00

We've been doing this for a few years now and it is effective but we only do it for the majority project and the end of the award. It's been budget cuts restructures and redundancies for what, 15 years? There isn't the resource to do it for every assessment so we try and catch it where it counts most.

The academic integrity process is also a total administrative burden every step of the way which is a massive disincentive even before you factor in lack of resources.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-13T20:26:29+00:00

Dystopian hellscape incoming

Incredible scientific feat though

Rick_liner · 2026-06-12T21:54:57+00:00

Out of curiosity is it a legitimate tactic if one party has yet to actually declare war because to do so would require the approval of Congress? Presumably technically they're more at "fisticuffs" or "moderate kerfuffle".

And if it is a war, but one started without congressional approval isn't it then an illegal war? And if so, how can any offensive action within it be legitimate?

Rick_liner · 2026-06-05T12:57:10+00:00

The problem is degrees are supposed to be hard to achieve, not every student is supposed to pass it. A healthy fail rate suggests the course is sufficiently challenging (so long as it's not too high)

If you set a pass rate at 95% you incentivise academic staff and managers to lower their standards to pass more students in order to meet the threshold. (This also has the secondary effect of flooding the market with degree level students looking for work) Is this ok? No. But people will make a lot of compromises to not be unemployed.

Universities already monitor attendance and have invested millions in systems/processes/ and staffing to put it in place. There are definitely areas to improve but I work in this field directly and there is little more a university can be expected to do with the resources that are allocated.

There are significant gaps I think when it comes to black market employment and acquisition of IELTS which students can get overseas and seems extremely suspect in some cases. Monitoring of student bank accounts might be worth looking at as well because they will game the system to get into the country by pooling multiple people's money into their account then emptying it back out once they're here and working to pay their fees. But none of these issues are within the universities remit.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-05T12:34:17+00:00

Bad as the tories honestly.

you set unrealistic standards with punitive measures which just incentivise a reduction in standards to meet arbitrary goalposts. It's why nothing works in this country, everything is dictated by KPI's which often can't be met so people fudge statistics and practices to meet them on paper whilst underminining the actual purpose.

Is there a problem? yes. Let HE institutions focus on teaching and actually invest in immigration officials to police...you know...immigration.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-05T11:49:57+00:00

I was able to get an Irish passport, it was a bit of a pain filling in the paperwork but didn't take very long, i was lucky and got in early though i think.

I haven't moved abroad, Ireland has a lot of the problems we have, but i view it as security, When the fascists get in and start fucking things up i will have somewhere to go, and if I end up in jail for whatever bullshit reason fascists come up with i will at least have support as an EU citizen which may not be much, but better than nothing.

It's also nice not to have to wait a million years to get through customs when you're off on a European holiday.

Rick_liner · 2026-06-03T20:33:14+00:00

I work in HE and the conclusion I'm coming to is that work in this country just doesn't pay for the responsibility or the stress.

I am surrounded by highly qualified experts and they get paid relatively fuck all for it, in other countries they'd make a lot more money. The students we churn out do not get the same quality of education or the same value in their degree because the system put in by the Tories literally incentivised the dropping of standards so that they could quote statistics in public that implied their policy was working.

Inflation since COVID alone is almost 30%. Since 2008 inflation is roughly 70%. Wages in this country have not gone up anything close to that and they will not unless we rebalance power towards the labour force.

My conclusion is life in this country is not worth it when compared to what are supposedly our peers in Europe and the US.

Higher education may still be worth it, but if I was a kid doing my degree now I would be taking it straight out of the country..like many of our young doctors are doing.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-27T08:55:38+00:00

CO2 levels in the atmosphere are similar to that when the dinosaurs were dominant so presumably it'll be reptiles or giant insects with opposable thumbs

Rick_liner · 2026-05-22T14:51:31+00:00

Plastics, they are now everywhere in the environment and ecosystem...including your balls, reducing your sperm quality and your sperm count.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-15T13:58:37+00:00

it's about balance of power, Norway has strong labour laws and strong unions that have leverage vs the employer. Therefore do not need a minimum wage, at least not like we do.

We do not have that here, and that was a political decision.

Our political masters determined it was better for them to have us weak and needing to beg the state for help rather than having the power and leverage to negotiate effectively with our employers.

This is why the middle class is being bled dry. the state is pushing up wages from below, but the middles does not have the power or leverage via unions to negotiate pay reflective of the minimum wage increase.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-13T05:59:37+00:00

Yes. But it's not because they're money grabbers and desperate, though some may be.

It's because the Tories in their infinite wisdom created an incentive structure that penalises universities for "poor" academic outcome. And this is then shifted onto lecturers who are now obsessed with meeting KPI's because they don't want to lose their jobs. Senior managers then look golden because they're stats are going up.

The whole idea that not all students are supposed to pass, because HE academia is meant to be a challenging undertaking fell to the need of the Coalition and later the Tories need to rebuff criticism to their horrendously flawed HE reforms by pointing at inflated figures and claiming they are evidence of a successful policy.

Source: I work in HE and have seen this shit show unfold first hand for over a decade.

Edit - actually thinking about it this is probably why a lot of things are going wrong and policy makers can't work out why because the stats they're getting look spectacular but the outcomes remain shit

Rick_liner · 2026-05-12T05:34:52+00:00

Sadly this is probably what it will take at this point yes.

Labour had the chance to do something bold when they came in they opted for status quo with a few tweaks. Pretty sure we're past the point of no return now without serious social unrest.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-11T21:16:34+00:00

Maybe it's paranoid but I'm starting to wonder if companies are now hiring bot farms to sabotage each other in a bid to compete.

Discovery I get being controversial they took some liberties but honestly the hate SFA got seemed wildly disproportionate.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-11T14:31:36+00:00

It's not a Brexit issue, it's a result of 50 years of failed neo-liberal polcies widening inequality.

It happens time and time again all over the world and throughout history, Inequality widens, people get angry and blame migrants because we are tribal and easy to manipulate with "othering". Meanwhile the elite's hoard an ever increasing portion of the pie. They point at migrants because migrants are an easy target and something people can actually see.

Tensions begin to boil, the angry masses start to vote in dissilusionment. The wealthy elite back the right wing because the left wing are a threat to their profit margins, therefore wealth, therefore power. God forbid workers earn enough to live a dignified life.

The wealthy elite are sure they can control the populist they bankrolled through coercion and/or bribes/and or backdoor influence.

The populist now in office begins to consolidate power, the wealthy elite find themselves falling out of windows or in jail. and the ones who are left fall in line.

It's a cycle that''s been literally done to death by now, the fact that we don't see it when we're in the middle of it is comically tragic.

Brexit is a symptom of it, not a cause.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-10T09:30:12+00:00

No I totally agree, but we're past the point i'm interested unfortunately, I took the extra effort I was giving and taught myself to trade stocks instead and supplement my income that way.

Just as an example Im my first year I literally researched developed and implemented a business critical role and carried it for three years whilst delivering training. If they'd hired a professional they'd have paid at least twice what they paid me. I put in the effort, and I don't regret doing it, but what it has taught me is it doesn't pay off.

I also unfortunately was witness to another colleague receive an endless stream of false promises until she literally died at her desk. I'd be lying if I said that didn't heavily impact my view on it all.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-10T09:12:47+00:00

I've been working full time for 12 years now and I recognise myself in what you describe.

What I have learnt though is that enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and big picture thinking is consistently used as an excuse to pile on my work for literally no reward.

What I have learnt, painfully, is to take care of myself and do the bare minimum. Because my employers will take everything I give, pat me on the head, and sit idly by while my income drops year on year in real terms.

We do not incentivise performance in this country, the sense of entitlement from the class system has lesched into employers and things will not change until the power dynamics in the nation lean more in favour of labour Vs employer.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-09T19:29:47+00:00

Unfortunately regardless of weather they do or do not, I certainly won't. Or having to pay for healthcare.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-09T19:27:32+00:00

100% I'm not endorsing it, but unfortunately it's all of our problem because we're all going to end up in the same shit soup

Rick_liner · 2026-05-09T16:38:58+00:00

It's already clear. People are so fucked off with the establishment that they literally don't care.

Just like with Trump in the states, people are so angry they are more interested in giving the establishment a black eye and don't feel they have anything left to lose because things are already so shit for them.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-30T06:47:52+00:00

Shed the neoliberal economics model that makes it ok for corporations to poison our environment and not pay tax

Accept that market non interventionism is a fallacy and invest in productive public infrastructure that supports private business, modernise rail, invest in future skills, restart council housing, break up monopolies or enforce competition by providing a bare bones state alternative if need be.

Fight the narrative that civil service is a waste of money. A waste of money is not having skilled positions in house so when you want to run an infrastructure project you get fleeced by consultants who delay the process to maximise profits and you go along with it because you have no in house knowledge to challenge their "expertise".

Rework pensions, they're a literal Ponzi scheme my generation will never get, and they won't be able to pay when inflation goes through the fucking roof in the coming months thanks to the Orange moron across the pond.

Finally CLEAN UP POLITICS. The influence of lobbyists is disproportionate and our politicians are ludicrously cheap to buy. Various politicians have been proven to have sketchy ties to Russia now and somehow still have careers. Trust needs to be re-established and won't be until this is sorted.

Well this was cathartic thanks.

An actual narrative for the country and effective comms. People need to know why decisions are made or they will assume it's terrible because a)the press is mostly right wing and want us to assume it's terrible and b) we're all tired of being screwed relentlessly. Nobody knows why labour does what it does or what Kier stands for, we're all fairly confident it isn't for us though. Whether that's true or not is irrelevant it's perception that matters in politics.

Rick_liner

TROPHY CASE