State Pension Costs

treliac

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

...................
And what about nurses - trying to heave some 15 stone bloke out of a bed when they are 65 or 68? Imagine having to have a shave in a certain area of your body by a nurse who looks as if she's got Parkinson?.........

Interesting and highly skilled work your OH does. On the other hand, it seems a shame to lose the skills and experience of many years, while they are still functioning well.

There is probably always going to be tension between younger and older workers, which will be heightened when jobs are scarce.

Do love the mental image conjured of the shaky nurse at work

Guess we're motivated by our love of our work and/or our need to earn (which doesn't look likely to reduce in future years). If we get past it but still work on, others may need to manage risks if they arise.

Sad to say, not many of us are in control of our own destiny but are driven by need of some sort or another and fate or opportunity decides our outcomes.

treliac

bo_drinker wrote: »

Yes and those of us without kids have been paying for this lot..... So the binge drinking toe rags will have to dig deep when I'm of pensionable age.

Will there be many left after you've paid for their terminal alcoholism, drug addiction and knife injuries?

Sapphire

kennyboy66 wrote: »

I think by raising the age to 68 and making equal men & womens retirement ages, that at least there is some recognition. However it is being done ridiculously slowly.

I would also start the move to 70 as a retirement age now maybe by increasing the retirement age by 1 or 2 months each year (if it was 2 months, a man aged 53 now would have to work to 67).

I would also increase employers compulsory retirement age to 70.

In order for this to work there would have to be a massive change to the ageism that exists in the workplace – otherwise many of the people you refer to above would be left destitute, contrary to what some posters on this thread are ignorantly (or maliciously) implying about 'baby boomers'.

Sapphire

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

I think you're confusing baby boomers with pensioners. My parents grew up like you describe but they are 68 and 71.

My boyfriend's parents are baby boomers though, in their mid 50s I think. They most certainly had holidays, both went to university, and your comments on food are pretty wrong: http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/seasonsandcelebrations/howweusedtoeat/1960s/

"The growth of air travel meant fruit and vegetables could be flown in. Tomatoes from the Canary Islands became available during the winter. Avocados began to appear in the shops."
"By the mid-1960s, immigrants from Hong Kong had set up Chinese restaurants and takeaways in almost every large and medium-sized town in England."

Er, no, he is absolutely correct in what he states. As children in the fifties we grew up with no hot water, no central heating, frost inside the windows, paraffin heaters, thick fog outside the windows, eating simple food like brains and corn beef, holidays in caravans in the UK, three children in a small room (two with bunk beds, one with a fold-out bed), and so on. This situation was by no means unique. My siblings and I were happy – I think wealth was measured differently than it is now, when it is the amassing of material things that seems to be the sole object in many younger people's lives.

Today, people's expectations are so much higher than they were even ten years ago (well done the labour 'government'). Buying a property at the age of 21 or thereabouts seems to be sole aim in many people's lives, when they don't actually know what real hardship is and are envious even of people who have worked incredibly hard all their lives, and are now having to provide for their unfortunately very spoiled children.

vivatifosi

Sapphire wrote: »

Er, no, he is absolutely correct in what he states. As children in the fifties we grew up with no hot water, no central heating, frost inside the windows, paraffin heaters, thick fog outside the windows, eating simple food like brains and corn beef, holidays in caravans in the UK, three children in a small room (two with bunk beds, one with a fold-out bed), and so on. This situation was by no means unique. My siblings and I were happy – I think wealth was measured differently than it is now, when it is the amassing of material things that seems to be the sole object in many younger people's lives.

:T:T:T

Well said Sapphire. While the comments are being thrown around about baby boomers in the 1950s and 60s, I can remember the curtains sticking to my unheated bedroom window until I left home in the mid 1980s and caravan holidays were definitely the order of the day prior to that. The whole Me, Me, Me greed thing is much more recent, how quickly people forget. Still, its much easier to blame everyone but oneself for poor life decisions.

Further, to suggest that the older generations have had it much better in term of pensions is also rubbish. A relative of mine died much poorer after Maxwell stole his pension, something that just wouldn't happen now. A friend of the family had to fight for years to get his Dexion pension reinstated after paying in for the majority of his working life. Prior to the 1990s even final salary schemes often didn't grow in line with inflation, so even now, people with an old pension could retire and live for many years with their pension being a smaller and smaller percentage of what they need to live on. Baby boomers aren't all going to retire into an easy life.

Problems with the pension system in this country - both private and publicly provided - are not new, but that's no reason to fail to take responsibility in planning for our own futures.

Thrugelmir

My summer holidays were Hastings, Broadstairs, Woolacombe.... 2 weeks on the beach!

Sapphire

Thrugelmir wrote: »

My summer holidays were Hastings, Broadstairs, Woolacombe.... 2 weeks on the beach!

We went to Portsmouth, Brighton and Bournemouth, but didn't really start having holidays until around the sixties. I can remember enjoying rockpooling with my brother and sisters.

Later, in our teens and even early twenties, we went to Devon (Lynton and Lynmouth area, which was utterly beautiful), and stayed on a caravan on a farmer's land – we did this for several years. We went for long walks, starting out early in the morning and coming back in the evening. A fantastic time...

kennyboy66_2

Sapphire wrote: »

As children in the fifties we grew up with no hot water, no central heating, frost inside the windows, paraffin heaters, thick fog outside the windows, eating simple food like brains and corn beef, holidays in caravans in the UK, three children in a small room (two with bunk beds, one with a fold-out bed), and so on. .

"No hot water"

We dreamed of having any water at all.
We'd scrunch up a newspaper, and dip it in rainwater to wash ourselves.

"Frost inside the windows" - you were lucky. We had holes were the windows should have been, where the wind used blow through and cut you in half.

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you

Sapphire

kennyboy66 wrote: »

"No hot water"

We dreamed of having any water at all.
We'd scrunch up a newspaper, and dip it in rainwater to wash ourselves.

"Frost inside the windows" - you were lucky. We had holes were the windows should have been, where the wind used blow through and cut you in half.

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you

I think you are talking about the Middle Ages here. Are you a time traveller?

Thrugelmir

kennyboy66 wrote: »

"No hot water"

We dreamed of having any water at all.
We'd scrunch up a newspaper, and dip it in rainwater to wash ourselves.

"Frost inside the windows" - you were lucky. We had holes were the windows should have been, where the wind used blow through and cut you in half.

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you

I used to hate visiting my fathers parents when I was a very young child. They lived in Wandsworth in a 3 bed terrace house back to back with no bathroom. To bathe a metal bath was brought in to the kitchen from the rear courtyard. The toilet was outdoor in the corner of the courtyard which was concreted over.

They were real working class people. Died at 63 and 62 respectively , today they would appeared to be 90. Diet. medicine have improved so much.

Sometimes you forget just how much things have improved and moved on. Yet we still complain.......:rolleyes: