Stealing from your children

macaque_2

A few thoughts for those obsessed with high house prices.

Will we always be so obsessed with keeping house prices high, and will they ever be permitted to fall back to more reasonable levels?

These are the questions many people are asking after the latest manufactured, gravity-defying, taxpayer-sponsored recovery in the housing market.

And the answer appears to be a resounding ‘no’ - at least if the government/ banks/ civil service/ European Union have anything to do with it.

But in the end, house prices have to come back to earth.

Can it change? Certainly those in charge – working to short-term timetables – have no interest in making it so. Re-inflating house prices represents the path of least resistance, and inevitably proves a winner with more elderly voters.

But at some point that debt has to be repaid, or the lenders – banks, bondholders, homeowners looking to sell their houses – must take a financial hit on their investment, whatever the consequences.

Debt cannot be rolled up and inflated away forever without people noticing, after all, at least not without younger generations feeling increasingly cheated.

http://www.citywire.co.uk/personal/-/comment/morning-line/content.aspx?ID=403425

DaddyBear

You will notice Macaque, that the bulls on here are mostly infertile and thus don't care about future generations.

chris_m

Bulls that have been "done" are called bullocks, I wonder if it's just coincidence that that name sounds similar to what they keep spouting ;-)

IveSeenTheLight

macaque wrote: »

Stealing from your children

On the contrary, you could say I am providing for my children.

One day they will inherit my estate, although not necessarily when the good wife and I die.

I don't expect either that my children will be "priced out" of property.

I intend to teach them that they will get out of life what they put into it.
That everything is within their reach if they work for it.

Only today, I heard a story about a school kid who had a 100% attendance. Going to school and working hard even when he was ill.
I doubt he will find life as tough as some make out on here

Kohoutek

macaque wrote: »

Stealing from your children

The whole idea of debt itself is taking or 'stealing' from the future - buying things today with tomorrow's money. You need people to capable of taking out and servicing bigger and bigger mortgages to sustain rising house prices - I'd question whether either is sustainable in the medium term given financial sector reform may require higher capital requirements/tighter lending standards, and growth in wages (i.e. ability to service debt) is likely to be more modest in the next ten years and than the last.

Generali

Kohoutek wrote: »

The whole idea of debt itself is taking or 'stealing' from the future - buying things today with tomorrow's money.

It's not as simple as that though. If you borrow to buy a house then you have to repay a mortgage but you cease having to pay rent and you have an asset, albeit one with a debt secured against it.

If you borrow to invest in a company then you have, hopefully, a stream of income from that company and/or a future capital gain to allow you to service and eventually repay the debt.

Not all debt is bad.

Person_one

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

On the contrary, you could say I am providing for my children.

One day they will inherit my estate, although not necessarily when the good wife and I die.

I don't expect either that my children will be "priced out" of property.

I intend to teach them that they will get out of life what they put into it.
That everything is within their reach if they work for it.

Only today, I heard a story about a school kid who had a 100% attendance. Going to school and working hard even when he was ill.
I doubt he will find life as tough as some make out on here

If only it were that simple for everybody. I really hope your children don't have to learn the hard way that this isn't always true.

I wonder if that child with 100% attendance ever went in school suffering from cancer, cystic fibrosis or meningitis. I wonder if he ever went to school the morning after he had to flee his home with his mother after violence from his father, or if he dragged himself in each day despite having bad parents who never taught him the value of education, helped him with his homework or even woke him up and gave him breakfast.

PasturesNew

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

On the contrary, you could say I am providing for my children.

One day they will inherit my estate, although not necessarily when the good wife and I die.

Nobody wants to wait until they're 60+ to inherit from you.

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I don't expect either that my children will be "priced out" of property.

You must live in a cheap area then. Most don't.

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I intend to teach them that they will get out of life what they put into it.
That everything is within their reach if they work for it.

I would refer you to #3 above.

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Only today, I heard a story about a school kid who had a 100% attendance. Going to school and working hard even when he was ill.
I doubt he will find life as tough as some make out on here

It must be nice in La La Land .... he probably needs 100% attendance as he's actually the school bully, so can't have a day off or the other gang might move in on his marks.

Running_Horse

I steal from my daughter every day. Sweets, crisps etc. She'll thank me for it one day.

But seriously, I envy the opportunities she will have in education, travel, careers, and relationships. I work long shifts in a factory so she won't have to. And although I can't (and won't) buy her educational or property advantages, I will do everything in my power to ensure she is in a position to take advantage of every opportunity available. Most people don't know where house prices will be in one year, never mind twenty years when she may be thinking about buying.

System

DaddyBear wrote: »

You will notice Macaque, that the bulls on here are mostly infertile and thus don't care about future generations.

I do like they way you lot try and find various reasons for which to wish for cheaper housing, when we ALL know that the primary reason is either you don't earn enough, or you're tight.

I'll just MEW all my free money back out again for my kids deposit, there, problem solved. I'm providing for my kids, shame you lot can't really, what an evil bunch.

IveSeenTheLight

Person_one wrote: »

If only it were that simple for everybody. I really hope your children don't have to learn the hard way that this isn't always true.

I wonder if that child with 100% attendance ever went in school suffering from cancer, cystic fibrosis or meningitis. I wonder if he ever went to school the morning after he had to flee his home with his mother after violence from his father, or if he dragged himself in each day despite having bad parents who never taught him the value of education, helped him with his homework or even woke him up and gave him breakfast.

I'm not sure how to respond to this post.
Not all children are abused, mistreated or malnurished.
Indeed, I believe that the children of today have far better opportunities than the generations before, although I do concede that the ethics installed into our children are not as good as our previous generations.

The child with the 100% attendance may not have had major health issues such as cancer, cystic fibrosis or meningitis, but the radio report did ask if he ever got ill such as having the flu.
He replied that he had, but wanted to "just get on with it"

If the generation of today had a similar attitude and adapted to the reality of harsh life, then we would be seeing a different attitude in the country and indeed on these boards.

Not everyone is as impoverished as you make out and there are cases of those that have been making choices to better themselves.

Whatever life throws at you, you have to adapt, work through it and get on with life.
Moaning about how hard life is or how you have been treated will not resolve the problem.

[ISTL steps of the soap box with no offence intended but frustrated that people use the harshness of life to whine]