If you’ve spent any time at all on TikTok recently, you’ll have seen plenty of videos from young people despairing about life in the UK. Videos with captions like “Why is everything so expensive?” “Why is rent so high?” “Why can’t I get a doctor’s appointment?” are going viral every day. With no clear answers, let alone solutions, to any of these questions, many are opting to leave the country altogether.
Now more than ever, young people feel as though they are facing these challenges alone. Without the social and community infrastructure that was destroyed by austerity, they have nowhere to go for support. And the hypercompetitive culture created by neoliberal capitalism — reinforced by a toxic “hustle” mindset pushed by some of the most popular voices on social media — encourages them to blame themselves when things get tough.
It would be easy to dismiss these trends as the complaints of young people unused to hard work. But their concerns are borne out by the statistics.
In the wake of the financial crisis, the UK experienced the longest period of wage stagnation in modern history. A study by the Resolution Foundation showed that by 2023, this flatlining of wages had left workers, on average, £11,000 worse off per year than if precrisis trends had continued. The same study showed that UK workers were £4,000 worse off than their German counterparts due to wage stagnation.
When inflation was low, this crisis went somewhat under the radar. The worst affected were groups like private renters, low-paid workers, and those receiving social security, which had been subjected to deep cuts by successive governments. But when prices started to rise, the squeeze between low incomes and high costs became clear to…
Auteur: Grace Blakeley
