Why would you need high wages to raise taxes? Obviously it would be less painful but it's not a pre-requisite. Now that the market discipline is back in the narrative, actual humans are going to need to brace themselves.
Your figure for average salaries seems about right but a bit on the low side. https://digitalpublications.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefings/Report/2022/3/9/ce765259-d82e-4db7-8ecf-802683f7e56b
Not sure where you're getting the £35k figure from but i've not heard that quoted as low pay. (although i did hear an mp, peter bottomley i think, complaining that £80k wasn't enough to live on).
Outside London and the South East, Scotland has relatively better paid jobs than rUK.
So even if the low paid can or will be spared any of the pain, it won't insulate Scotland.
I'm not sure i share your view that interest rates were necessarily kept artificially low. They were what was needed for a low inflation environment. I'd say it's more that growth and employment were suppressed to keep inflation low and asset prices high. But the exact cause and effect is less important than the facts of what happened.
There's a straight line from Osborne's frankly lunatic austerity and brexit continuing through from brexit to basket case.
I think you're right that a lot of retail is currently "zombie" status and will almost certainly take a final headshot shortly.
People have been saying that car loans are the next subprime for about 8 years now, but they've been getting crazier. They're all neatly bundled into opaque securitisation vehicles just like a 2007 CDO would have been, for added domino rally effects.
Is it too late to start being a prepper?