Is this a good deal?

[The Tall Luthier]

Ahh, the good old years the 1970's, 20% inflation, 15% mortgages, fuel rationing , 3 day week, power cuts , national strikes and what have we got in 2024 - 3% inflation and 5% mortgages and WFH .

You're bang on the money here WelshGas, every era has its own challenges and consequences.

In the 70s the unions had more power than ever, making industry inefficient .
In the 80s govt smashed the unions and peace reigned - the consequence is now an abundance of zero hours contracts making life chaotic for the poorest.
They also sold off all our nationalised industries and that made us feel economically stronger for a while. The consequences are no controls over pricing and quality, sky high bills through a lack of investment and a deluge of dividends.
In the 00s we had an economic boom fuelled almost entirely by house price inflation and second mortgages. Now we have house prices that are twice as expensive relative to wages, so a 5% mortgage rate feels like 10%, and 8% mortgages feel like 16%

No-one wants to deny you the misery of living through the 70s WG. I am simply pointing out that the largest economic issue, the elephant in the room, the policy that has been ignored is an ever increasing number of triple locked pensioners that need to be funded by an ever shrinking population of workers, wherever their offices might be.