Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms EU Referendum quiz; find out how much you know

Wages of the bulk of the population are falling in real terms, that is to say they are not keeping up with inflation.

The middle class, small business owners that have traditionally generated the wealth and employment, has been squeezed to near bankruptcy. The new middle class are the executives, middle management etc. of large companies that are always reducing production employees and/or moving production off-shore. These people, marketing managers, advertising managers, etc. are getting ever larger salaries, fly business class (hate that expression) and stay in 5 star hotels, but they produce nothing. Often they are appointed not because of what they know but who they know. To pay their outrageous salaries the number of workers who actually produce something is reduced or production moved to where it costs less and incredibly the retail price of goods is increased. We all know that a pair of shoes made in a lowcost country may cost £10 or £15 landed and sell for £100 to £150.

This whole effect also spills over into the public service where in order to cover increased costs, and pay all the consultants (so that no one can actually be blamed for a wrong decision (it was the consultant's fault, we followed the best advice available, etc.)) taxes must be increased and services reduced.

At the end of the month the majority of people have no discretionary spending money and everything is bought on time payment.

The result of all this is that the economy runs down and people stop buying anything but the necessities of life. This means less employment and more companies that close or move production off shore.

An ever downward spiral.

There is no easy way out. The greedy and influential are certainly not going to make any decision that will reduce their income, company margins over actual costs are not going to be reduced. One solution would be to re-instate trade barriers but that is a two edged sword and would not benefit the multi-nationals, so it is not going to happen.

In this climate it is not a surprise that unscrupulous politicians seek to place the blame somewhere and win popular support. People in an unhappy financial position become easy victims of the rhetoric.

Whatever you decide think very carefully about it. The cost to each UK taxpayer of being in the EU is not so great and is well known as are the benefits and disadvantages. For me personally the benefits outweigh the disadvantages but if for you that is not the case do you really want to take a leap into the unknown?

The cost to the UK taxpayer of not being in the EU is completely unknown and the benefits of Brexit I believe are largely illusory. Increased employment and an improvement in the economy is not going to be a likely result.