The social impact of the cost of living crisis looks like it will be profound. Last week inflation went above 10% in the UK, 9% in the US and is spiking around the world. This week it’s predicted to hit 18% by January. Whilst it is talked about as a financial crisis; the real impact of the cost of living crisis is human and social. Shockingly, 1 in 2 people are already saying it is damaging their health. People are even stopping eating food that needs to be cooked. I believe implementing new social projects and social innovation can bring us together to help mitigate the challenges and damage to society.
The Social Impact of the Cost of Living Crisis Feels Like Deja Vu.
“Everything, everywhere is going up too much, all of the time.”
A cashier in the supermarket summed it up perfectly
The social impact of the cost of living crisis is giving many of us a sense of deja vu. It seems like things are now moving on so fast. The pace of change feels much like the start of the covid crisis. What was an emerging issue, is now looming into view in our daily lives. Whilst people have been worried about it for some time: 77% adults saying they were worried about it back in May. There was somehow a sense that many people were concerned, but refusing to accept the reality of it. People are still clinging to their current normal and hoping it was a case of battening down the hatches for a while.
Given the pace of change, we can wonder like covid, if this is another exponential problem about to hit. Where it suddenly becomes ‘everything, everywhere all of the time.’ The worry is that with no ‘r’ rate there will be no lockdown to get things under control.
Cost of Living Crisis Denial
I desperately hope I’m wrong, but, unless something changes the cost of living crisis looks set to dominate our lives over the coming months. The social impact may be felt in people’s lives for a long time to come. I suspect many of us have been at a point of semi-denial about it. Rather like Wile E Coyote (From the road runner) as he hurtles off a cliff. His legs keep running as if the ground below him was still there, but has disappeared below him. The numbers are there, we can see them but we somehow don’t process it. We worry but feel by talking about it we are making it real.
One thing we are in denial about is the thought that our government might come to the rescue. We may have been lulled into a false sense of security because of covid. Like the Wile E Coyote we are now looking down and realising we are no longer attached to anything stable. Even now if the government do come to the rescue it is looking increasingly likely that it will be to be too little too late.
Cost of Living is Also a Social Impact Crisis
We should be careful about getting too sucked into the media narratives about what the politicians are going to do to help us. Up until now it has been overwhelmingly considered a financial crisis. With financial causes and financial solutions. We are told if these financial problems are not dealt with it result in civil unrest and many people struggling to ‘heat or eat’. What seems hardly talked about and why I feel it is necessary to speak up is that this is increasingly already becoming a SOCIAL crises. We have put too much emphasis on the finances and not enough emphasis on the real cost being for the people in our societies and our communities.
There is ample evidence to show that poverty often leads to stress, worry, and what is described by psychologists as a ‘high negative affective state’. Where people get locked into viewing themselves and the world around them in a negative way. “Broaden-and-Build” Theory states: When we feel negative emotions like fear, sadness, and anxiety, we are more likely to narrow our thoughts and the options we consider for our next move.
Already it is becoming obvious from talking to my friends and family that people are really starting to feel the pain now and really cut back on their social lives. As people struggle there is a real danger of people withdrawing and becoming isolated from their communities. This stress can also be associated with short attention spans. Meaning people tend towards short term safe habits and disengage from the world outside. The impact directly affects people’s every day social interactions.
The Social Impact of the Cost of Living Crisis Will Hit the Most Vulnerable Hardest
Financial stresses also drive conflict and stress in families. 49% of families in financial hardship have nothing left after housing costs and energy bills. 90% of those living with a dependent child aged 0 to 4 years are somewhat worried or very worried. Creating potentially harmful and traumatic environments for children.
What’s more, the social impact is likely to be highest on all the most vulnerable groups in our society. People with disabilities (82% worried), those who are sick, old, unemployed, and people with mental health problems. They are not the feckless undeserving some politicians might portray them as. (Mindset is such a dangerous concept that it was only a matter of time before the powerful accused others of having the ‘wrong mindset’. Conjuring up the Orwellian ‘thought police’ of 1984) Implying the vulnerable are somehow to blame for their struggles by ‘incorrect thinking’. People are people and everyone has value.
New Social Projects in Our Communities to Help
I believe that whilst we can have very little control over the financial situation. We can influence the social side to at least mitigate the social damage impact on those around us. We need to be talking about what we can do, not what we can’t. This is where social projects fits in, if we can support one another. We need to come up with fresh ideas and change the way our communities function, so we can provide support to the most vulnerable. We can still help, we can still make a difference. The communities that will cope best are the ones that will adapt and shield themselves mentally and socially from the economic blows.
The Cost of Social Impact?
Ideas are free, creativity has no cost, we can still love and care for one another. We are all members of our community and we can all help. There is access to pretty much all the information and knowledge in the world available at low cost through the internet to help us. As we are all going through this together at the same time. We have access to people with similar struggles in similar situations all over the world and we can learn from other social innovators about how best to help our communities.
What better cause than helping people through the cost of living crises? But it won’t just happen, we have to organise to make it happen, social projects need leadership. We can see the people who are struggling in our communities and look how we can come together as a community to mitigate the pressures. If governments are no longer looking to help society, then maybe it is societies turn to step up with their own frontline leadership.
Maybe as covid drove communities apart, this coming challenge can bring us back together as communities. Helping one another and valuing each other as people. Re-growing connections and relationships that strengthen us all.
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QUESTION?
What do you think are the main social challenges will be from the cost of living crisis?
Other relevant articles on the cost of living and social impact:
Cost of Living Escaping the Race to the bottom.
The Cost of Living Crisis and the 4 Options for Social Impact Projects