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George Kerevan: A little hardship is no bad thing – ask the austerity generation

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Published Date: 20 November 2008
I AM unusual among my male acquaintances in that I like to shop. A little retail therapy goes a long way to dispel the blues. I'm also notorious for leaving lights on around my house, which friendly critics remind me is usually lit up like a Christmas tree.
Nor can I bear to throw anything away, even if I never intend to use it again. My wife has caught me removing from the dustbin old clothes that she has carefully consigned to oblivion.

This weird mix of habits betrays that I am of a certain age. I...



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  • Last Updated: 19 November 2008 8:48 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: George Kerevan
 
1

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 20/11/2008 09:52:35
The Clyde Model Dockyard in the Argyll Arcade in Glasgow was the nearest thing to heaven that loons of my generation could imagine - and I agree that most of the enjoyment had to be restricted to window-shopping. I can remember my father describing a 100-watt electric lamp as "a robber". It was the only one of that power in the house. And having been brought up with the ethos of doing without something until I could save up for it, I never ran into financial difficulties.

I can remember the first bananas and grapefruit to appear in the shops after the war, at a time when bread had to be rationed for the first time ever - it had not been rationed during the war. Holidays were the BB camp - and joy if one was selected for the advance party to stuff the canvas paillasses with straw. There was the odd surreptitious fag out of bravado - my smoking experience lasted for about two minutes at the age of 13, when I came to the conclusion that it was a mug's game, an opinion that I still see no reason to modify. Drugs were something that were prescribed in hospitals, and cars were so far above the financial threshold that they didn't even find a place on the wish list.

The point about the 1950s is that almost everyone was in the same boat. There is a vast difference between that era of material levelling and an affluent society where one half has its nose pressed against shop windows looking at all the things the other half enjoys and it cannot afford. That is not a healthy situation, and if a little more general austerity helps to correct it, it will not be a bad thing.

2

Itchy,

21/11/2008 00:06:01
#1 my standard of living isn't nearly high enough and this recession is all the result of government interventionism.

 

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