Thursday, August 14, 2008

Batman and the downturn

We went to see Batman - The Dark Knight last night at Bluewater. Well, we went, but we couldn't get in because the cinema was heaving with people and all the performances were sold out.

Now, I thought we were suffering a downturn, straitened economic circumstances, etc. I have to say that Bluewater was humming when we arrived at 7:45pm last night, shoppers and cinema goers milling about in their thousands.

As we couldn't see the film, we went to one of the bars for a drink. Again the eateries we passed through were doing good business with people queuing for tables.

As ever when the headlines scream that we've never had it so bad, the picture on the ground is always more mixed. Some people are undoubtedly struggling because of rising fuel and food prices. But most people are not. we're paying more for basic commodities, but those items account for small amounts of our total spending (less than 15% according to a recent analysis by David Smith in the Sunday Times) and so the majority of us still have cash left over for entertainment as I saw at Bluewater last night.

Hopefully, I'll get to see Batman at the weekend...

2 comments:

Wulf said...

We are a very spoilt culture - the average standard of living is so much higher than it was 30-40 years ago and yet people still don't realise that they are rich.

simon said...

How true! Things that were once luxuries are now necessities and we feel resentful if we are made to live without them! Meanwhile on the other side of the world, more people than ever are living on $1 a day...