UK from a lower base is following the decline of its big brother the USA. Some cities will obviously do well but most are losing and will continue to do so.
The scary thing as well is that people are literally killing themselves trying to get into this country and are given all manner of rights and funds. Something is very broken indeed.
Same in most of the world. Anywhere that was poor already yet had open shops 10, 15, 20 years back - now looks like this. The level of poverty of the area pretty much dictates how many shops are gone - and how many can be repurposed. Wealthier areas still have empty shops, but they change purpose relatively quickly - 6 months, a year, 2 years. Online shopping has done this. The job prospects in poor areas will be working in warehouses for the online shopping giants. People that once worked in brick 'n mortar shops are now "human robots" in warehouses. Thing is, the way the world is moving with robots and AI, 10 years from now, there'll be NO jobs in warehouses like Amazons - the non-human robots will be doing all of it. What then?
I disagree. Online shopping has not done this - I'm from Stoke but moved to Gran Canaria permanently in 2016. We made a video in December, Living in Maspalomas, comparing life, homes and the high street with my native UK. We have fibre optic internet with 92.5% coverage of the island, close to the UK 97% , we have Amazon and huge out of town shopping centers. Average wage here is much lower than the UK. Yet our high streets are booming. Please explain your reasoning.
@@GranCanariaUncovered It's partially done it. There are obviously many other aspects at play. When an area becomes poorer clearly not as much shopping is done which will have an impact on retailers profits. Add to this the collapse of many large retail outlets over the decades - Woolworths, BHS, Debenhams to name but a few - and you end up with a perfect storm. When that type of rot sets in, it becomes self-perpetuating. Comparing Gran Canaria to Stoke seems a little bit disingenuous. I'm lucky to be living in a relatively affluent part of the UK by comparison to Stoke. Our High Street is doing OK. I'd say we're both right in a way - I over generalised about Online Shopping. That is just part of the reason.
@@matthewtrow5698 I didn't mean to be disingeneous, it's just that those are the only two places I've lived in so they are the only comparison I have 😉 I don't think you could call San Fernando Maspalomas, where i live, an affluent area. If you look up my 'what's it like living here' video you will see most people live in small flats in tenament blocks, with the washing hanging to dry out of the (small) windows. Sure are some nice houses here also in the video but then there are some nice houses in Stoke-on-Trent too. National minimum wage here is €1080 per year as of 2024. That's way less than the UK. The unemployment rate in Stoke (just googled it) is 4.3%, I couldn't find an exact figure for Gran Canaria, but Tenerife is 16.9% and Canary Islands overall is 15.2%, The Canary Islands are amongst the most deprived areas of Spain. I don't actually know the reason for the death of the high street in the UK but I can say the same factors that are usually quoted also apply here and the statistics suggest the situation should be worse here. Yet I stand by the fact our high streets are doing just fine, anywhere on the island. You don't generally find large retail outlets on them, you have to go to the out of town shopping centres for that, but they are full of independent retailers, cafes, bars etc. I documented that on video. Whatr other reasons do you have? It would be great to determine if the same factors apply here or are something unique that can explain this paradox which so far baffles me
@@GranCanariaUncovered I don't know mate, I lived in Johannesburg South Africa for 25 years of my life and cannot bring this discussion nor argument to that region - mostly because I haven't lived there for 18 years. I can give you MANY reasons, but they are contentious, to say the least. Stoke was famed globally for pottery. It also had a huge amount of other industry in decades and centuries past. It now has nothing. Rock all. All gone. So much of Britain has suffered the same - and it's DECADES in the making. We're talking 60, 70, 80 years of decline. But it's online shopping .... 😆
Because the white working classes are surplus to requirement now, they're a legacy cost from an industrial economy and their services are no longer required. A migrant from Sierra Leone will work for a pound an hour and live with ten of his countrymen in a one bedroom flat. A white working class Englishman will not.
@@b-92s25 they can invest in a lot of things, like for example industrial parks with free zones, tax free- incentives, they can do a lot of stuff in order to stimulate-attract private investment,industry, energy, r&d, you name it, tbh thats why it's called a government in the end, right? If they just ignore parts of England, it's like they don't even exist on the map, you get a deprived-depopulated area, just like in 3'rd world countries.
@@b-92s25 they can invest in a lot of things, like for example industrial parks with free zone, tax free- incentives, they can do a lot of stuff in order to stimulate-attract private investment,industry, energy, r&d, you name it, tbh thats why it's called a government, right? If they just ignore parts of England, it's like they don't even exist on the map, you get a deprived-depopulated area, just like in 3'rd world countries.
@@blackvirus9 But when the South is full (as it almost is) London will set their sights on the North. By that point all of the property will have been snapped up by investors for peanuts. Indigenous will have died off, or will be moved out to large estates, and the Cities will become playgrounds for the rich, much Like London.
As daft as it sounds why not? The place needs people to put it right. Skills could be learnt , the place made habitable. Refugees /Asylum seekers could there fore be seen as making a positive contribution.
What an awful video, only filming the closed buildings! Try and focus on the positives (of which there are plenty) in the mighty City of Stoke on Trent