Do baby boomers feel guilty about shafting younger generations?

ukcarper

How sky high are house prices 3 bed terrance southeast dec 1972 £11,000 same house now £200,000 increase 18x approx average salary 1972 can't find out exactly but about £1.5k average salry now £25k 16x.

SingleSue

I'm just enjoying being called a youngster!

On topic, my parents had to scrimp to get their mortgage and pay it when my dad had his accident, they have had to scrimp and save over the years to provide enough savings for retirement, always going without the expensive holidays, cars and gadgets..I wouldn't exactly say they have had it any easier than any 'youngster' today.

Yes, it is hard to get a mortgage today on one salary like my parents did but dad put in the hours to ensure they could.

carolt

Cleaver wrote: »

My parents were both born in 1951, so right in the middle of 'boomerness'.



Fully agree with you there.




Again, agree with you. I guess what I was trying to say earlier in the thread that these are not necessarily factors which determine your 'quality of life'. It's an immeasurable thing: some people will see not owning a house and having student debt as two factors which dominate their life and hold a lot of resentment because of it, others will see 'quality of life' in a variety of other things and will not see home ownership as a priority, or even something to care about.

I guess I should bow out of this thread, as I just can't empathise with the main point raised in the first post. And I think that's because myself and my friends must be different from the norm. Pretty much all of my friends who have wanted to buy a house (I'm 29 and most of them are around the same age with boomer parents) have done so, some with help from their parents and some without. The ones who haven't bought a house are not bothered about that because they are still not 'settled', i.e. are travelling, are still studying, are having fun renting with friends in London... etc.

I think my friends and I know that some aspects of life are harder for us than our parents (you've pointed these out well in your post) and some stuff is 'easier' or 'better' (both rubbish terms to use) than it was for our parents. But I'm quite happy to concede that we must all be different from the norm if the norm is resentment for the boomer generation from my generation.

No, I don't think resentment towards boomers is the norm - because, as I said, that suggests blame, which I think most people are too logical to do. There is some resentment towards...fate? maybe, for being born in less fortuitous economic conditions, though. But it's not personal.

I suspect your experience of lack of experience of the downsides of high house prices stems partly from your age - once those of your friends who are still happy renting/travelling etc decide to settle down and have kids, then being priced out may be something that concerns them more. It would certainly be sad if they wasted their 20s stressing about it, though - and anyway, depending where they live, how much they earn and which direction house prices go, they may not need to stress anyway.

carolt

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I think you are all a load of moaning minnies/michaels.

Yes, our houses have increased in value (although I know many who did not have the money to buy a house). Yes, SOME of us (by no means all, nor even the majority) have decent pensions (but women and part-timers were disadvantaged in these).

So what? We were just the ones that happened to live through those times. Your generation will have advantages that ours never had (equal employment and pensions opportunity for one thing, equal pay and far wider access to education). Your children will probably grizzle about your lot having it cushy.

So what do you think we baby boomers should do? Give it all to your lot now?

I think it's totally true to say that there are swings and roundabouts in all this.

My parents are far too old to be called boomers - born long, long before the boom - but I'd never suggest that they had it easier than me. As a woman, I am forever grateful for the fact I was born after modern moves towards equality had ensured I could have equal access to education, work etc, and modern edicine had provided pain relief in labour (not to say increased the likelihood of not dying in labour), pain relief on a monthly basis etc etc etc.

My parents lived through the 2nd World War - my mum was an evacuee; my dad came to this country as a penniliess refugee without which he would certainly have been killed.

Of course I have it better than them in many ways!

That's not to say that one can't desire a scenario in which young families have enough room to grow up in, without that being somehow a terribly rude demand.

Thrugelmir

Always worth thinking through the written word ......

Willetts - the Tories’ universities and skills spokesman - estimates that no less than a third of all UK pension benefits are held by those aged 55 to 64.

Hardly surprising. I entered my first pension scheme at 18. (Though not in this age group yet). So whether I retire at least on a comfortable pension has always been in my own hands.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

carolt wrote: »

There is some resentment towards...fate? maybe, for being born in less fortuitous economic conditions, though. .

Carol, the only people with the slightest case for being resentful are the very young. People between the ages of 18 and 25, who are now of potential house buying age but being blocked by absurdly high deposit requirements.

Almost everyone older than this has had at least one opportunity to buy on very favourable terms, but chose to take a different path in life and so has only themselves to blame.

30 year olds were of working age (post uni even) in 2002, and had access to far cheaper house prices AND 100% mortgages at seriously cheap rates.

35 year olds were of working age (again post uni if thats what they did) in 1997 and had access tothe exceptionally low prices right after the biggest crash in history, when houses were lower than they were in any other comparable economy.

40 year olds had access to the absolute trough of the last crash, and access to cheap money, and a good 5 years of earning power behind them by the time they were at that point.

The only thing you have any right to resent is your own poor decision making. The opportunities to buy a house extremely cheaply were there. You failed to take advantage of them.

Oldernotwiser

ukcarper wrote: »

Quote:
Originally Posted by ukcarper
I'm afraid I can't agree with that I bought at 22 in 1970 as did a quite a few of my friends

I'm sorry it should have read 1972 and I lived and still live in Surrey

I grew up in Surrey as well and there's no way I could've bought a property there at the start of the 70s.

Even in Hertfordshire, where I was living in 1972, a 1 bed flat cost 5 times my income and a year later (despite a decent salary rise) that multiple had gone up to 7 times.

Seriously, did you have a lot of help from your parents or a very well paid job?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I grew up in Surrey as well and there's no way I could've bought a property there at the start of the 70s.

Even in Hertfordshire, where I was living in 1972, a 1 bed flat cost 5 times my income and a year later (despite a decent salary rise) that multiple had gone up to 7 times.

Seriously, did you have a lot of help from your parents or a very well paid job?

This post should be required reading for all posters who think people in the 70's had it that much better than today.

Oldernotwiser

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

This post should be required reading for all posters who think people in the 70's had it that much better than today.

It might have been easier away from the south east, I suppose; that was my original point.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

It might have been easier away from the south east, I suppose; that was my original point.

It still is today though.....