LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
But what I was thinking was - 4,000 more potentially out of work. A few might set up successful cottage industries themselves. Good for them if they do. But with the majority highly likely to be swelling the ranks of the unemployed, there are steadily fewer customers with money to spend on anything but the basics, so less custom for the wares of anyone setting up on-line. It's looking pretty bad to me.

Gilly wrote:
I have the same nagging suspicions as you, but I'm stubbornly trying to maintain a 'glass half full' view of the situation.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
Indeed. And Abs brings his qualitty of posts with him.

Hope2 fk he sticks around.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
We're fucked

andyh wrote:
No, my rose tinted specs are staying on. It's all lovely - kittens, fairies and sparkles...

Seriously, it's fucked up isn't it.

yeah, we're fucked.

No-one spending anything, so more and more consumers get layed off.

Gilly wrote:
In all seriousness they will be. And this will have a knock on effect.

OTOH I see HMV and what they sell and do as detrimental in the long term.

They ate up every local retailer of so many industries: games, books, music, movies etc that I cannot see their departure as a loss.

I do sympathise for those now out of work but I don't think they were really benefitting from their employment.

I know young lads and lasses that worked under such conditions. What they told me was not even a Grace & Farthings situation.

They certainly were not the same animal as that which began decades ago.

Tescos of the media market and now the bigger sharks (Tesco/Amazon) ate the smaller.

Andy's Records, Tower Records, Virgin Megastore et al went the same way.

But yeah, this is a symptom of deterioration.

No doubt.

I just can't take it seriously at the moment.

Although people are being laid off, I know a lot of people who's businesses are doing well (mainly garages) and who have well paid jobs. The recession doesn't seem to be affecting them. They are getting new cars, going on holidays and even getting pay rises.

One one hand I think we're fucked, on the other, I think we're being whipped up into a media fuelled hysteria about it all.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:

Hmmm with youth unemployment hitting as much as 50% in some parts of the EU I would definitely not say thats just media frenzy

The UK has a huuuuuge public sector, if the govt decided to cut back you could see some nasty unemployment levels.
Austerity and all that.

What we're missing is manufacturing jobs. Its mostly just services.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
Quite possibly...it strikes me (from a conspiratorial pov - ofc ) that we've been a bit programmed about the whole thing as well.

Take what happened with Woolworths. That was a big shock for everyone, but just looking at people's reactions to this news today is what has really worried me.

This isn't normal and certainly isn't something we should just be shrugging at and accepting, imo. Particularly if it is something that has been planned and prepared before by those in the know for some time (which I seriously suspect it has).

Talk about taking it lying down.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
Indeed there is a lot of "talking down" the economy.

My school is fully booked up and this year Dundee will be FULL of Italian students even more than the 900 I manage last year in the space of six months.

Just maybe, we don't need HMV no more.

It's all about the "law of the jungle" until it affects the big businesses.

The "economy" they talk about is all about what affects shareholders, managers etc.

Why?

Cos they write that crap

I really don't know what to think. I keep hearing about how everyone is having to tighten their belts and all the doom and gloom stuff, but judging by many of the people I know, things don't seem that bad. Granted, I know a fair few people who have been made redundant.

I think teachers are about the only people left with a safe job for life and pension. Even most civil servants, nurses and council employees are shitting their pants. Mind you, the council office employees can fuck off. We should have got rid of that particular gravy train years ago, but they continue to take the piss with their fat redundancy payouts.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
Not economically or physically.

ipods killed HMV Why download in the comfort of your own home, when you can go to HMV in the depths of winter in the snow
I wonder if there'll be any shops left in the high street at this rate.
It's not just downloads, it's online shopping, Amazon, ebay, etc. Will we ever leave our houses again?
I kind of like HMV, they've been around for years.

you kinda missed the point, my friend

not cold weather

cold socio-economic-political ideology

nothing colder than greed

except subjugation

which is just greed (lust) for power

and its only result is greed for dominance

and the ultimate dominance is others suffering and death

sub zero wins

fatality

mikey mikey wrote:
Really? They are doing alright, and they get automatic pay rises for length of service, paid holiday, paid sick leave, pension and they still have a Union. I've never met any qualified teachers who can't find a teaching job either.

I'm gutted that I didn't do a teaching degree before the tuition fees increase.

Both my sisters are teachers and they are strapped.

I am a teacher and I am strapped.

In all honesty.

Greed from whom mikey? Business?
If they're phasing physical media out, and more consumers are downloading, buying cheaper online, then it would follow that a store like HMV would suffer a big hit.

Mr. Wolf wrote: I am sorry. I was talikig about the greed of big businesses and te CEOs of companes like HMV.

What were you addressing?

And I was talkin about a much larger scale greed than this one business.