Do baby boomers feel guilty about shafting younger generations?

Radiantsoul

Malcolm. wrote: »

I feel the young of today shouldn't be paying for gold plated unfunded public sector pensions, which they can only dream of receiving, if that's what you're asking?

Presumably we could have a society that offers higher pensions for all. The reason we don't is that people want to retain more of their income now.

Radiantsoul

Kohoutek wrote: »

Exactly. The current unfunded liabilities of £2 trillion is a lot of money, particularly in a bankrupt state with a ruined economy!

I suppose it is a burden, but it is small compared to that paid by those who had to fight in the First World War

Kohoutek

Radiantsoul wrote: »

Presumably we could have a society that offers higher pensions for all. The reason we don't is that people want to retain more of their income now.

A society where everyone saves sensibly towards their retirement isn't really compatible with a economy where services and consumer sectors make up 70% of the economy. High levels of household savings works in places like Japan where they a world class manufacturing sector to compensate, but we don't.

ukcarper

Kohoutek wrote: »

Exactly. The current unfunded liabilities of £2 trillion is a lot of money, particularly in a bankrupt state with a ruined economy!

You won’t have to worry though because as you keep telling us “the end of the world is nigh”

no_fat_chicks

Cleaver wrote: »

And let's have a look at Gen Y. When Mummy and Daddy offer to pay for Uni, did they turn it down because the money being used for that was got through high house prices? When the dear little one had a gap year travelling to Peru, Australia, India and South America and the parents helped out, did they actually decide not to go because they felt uncomfortable where some of that money came from?

Cleaver wrote: »

I think you're expected to sell it, downsize and give a chunk of the money to a 22 year old who can then have 6 months 'finding themselves' in Indonesia.

Cleaver wrote: »

And in your eyes that is the fault of a generation who decades ago generally worked hard, knuckled down and were pretty sensible with their money?

Good to see you can make a reasoned argument without resorting to daft generalisations.

Cleaver

Kohoutek wrote: »

There aren't the blue collar jobs there were for baby boomers. In the 60's and 70s' manufacturing was what, about 60-70% of our economy? Now it's about 13%. Add to that Labour's devaluation of the education system and relatively high levels of immigration and the current situation is very tough for many young people.

I guess I would agree with you that employment seems somewhat harder to come by nowadays, although I have no idea what the percentage of manuafacturing jobs that makes up the economy really has to do with anything. There are a number of jobs available to the youth of today that weren't available to the boomer generation: telecoms, IT, PR, services and retail are all massive industries which didn't really exist 30 or 40 years ago in the same way. My Dad worked in a factory when he was a student, I worked in call centres, bars and offices. Same sh*t, different generation.

You're right, life is very tough for youngsters nowadays. And the factors you raise are true around Labour's handling of, well, pretty much everything. I have no real clue how immigration has much of an impact, but I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you.

And still, I don't really see how the blame for all this lies at the feet of boomers. The reasons for this situation are multiple, complex and various. Saying "the young are stuffed because boomers have houses that are worth a lot" is dumb and simplistic.

Kohoutek

ukcarper wrote: »

You won’t have to worry though because as you keep telling us “the end of the world is nigh”

What are you referring to? My predictions on energy? Peak oil is real unfortunately, as horrible as it sounds. People can continue to debate climate change, but the simple fact that we depend on non-renewable energy resources on a plant whose population is rapidly increasing is a fact.

Cleaver

no_fat_chicks wrote: »

Good to see you can make a reasoned argument without resorting to daft generalisations.

Oh, and the original atricle was a reasoned critique of the problems face by our younger generations with no generalisations was it? And I think you can probably see that the comment about the person expecting to downsize and the money to my cousin was... a joke.

Born between 1970 and 2000? Then you’re stuffed, pal. Accept it.

Yep that’s right, they’re all happily sitting in their luxurious houses bought many moons ago for the price of a pack of peanuts, and raking in their stupendously-generous pensions.

And you’re paying for it, young mug, through higher taxes and that eye-wateringly large mortgage.

Cleaver

Malcolm. wrote: »

I feel the young of today shouldn't be paying for gold plated unfunded public sector pensions, which they can only dream of receiving, if that's what you're asking?

Oh, I completely agree with you there. I think public sector pensions need to be hauled in because they are unaffordable. I think this is the fault of government, policy makers and public sector organisations rather than the people actually receiving or paying in to the pensions.

ukcarper

Wasn’t income tax higher in the seventies?