Generation Whine

ILW

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

But, if you're FTBs, you're not going to be buying somewhere to bring up a family in, are you? You're going to be looking for a 1 or 2 bed flat and move in a few years after (hopefully) a couple of pay rises.

Just as it always has been, I truly cannot understand what all the complaints are about.

ukcarper

What about ex council properties they are generally cheaper of my boomer friends who still live where we were all born 2 live in ex council houses and one is in social housing.

Graham_Devon

ILW wrote: »

Just as it always has been, I truly cannot understand what all the complaints are about.

That's because you are unwilling to think out of the box.

Only willing to put people into neat little boxes and make a generalisation about them.

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

What about ex council properties they are generally cheaper of my boomer friends who still live where we were all born 2 live in ex council houses and one is in social housing.

They command a fortune round here. They always had the biggest plots, really solidly built, and what seems, to be very very good views.

Absolutely ideal family homes....it's what I spent my teens in.

Certainly not cheap. At least not here. I believe in cornwall, ex council houses command a premium. Sure that was on location location

ILW

Graham_Devon wrote: »

That's because you are unwilling to think out of the box.

Only willing to put people into neat little boxes and make a generalisation about them.

This thread is a comprison between current and previous generations.
In my experience the previous generations who wished to buy would move into grotty areas because that was what they could afford, many of the posts from would be FTBs seem to suggest that they do not think that is something they should do. Who are the unreasonable ones?

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

They command a fortune round here. They always had the biggest plots, really solidly built, and what seems, to be very very good views.

Absolutely ideal family homes....it's what I spent my teens in.

Certainly not cheap. At least not here. I believe in cornwall, ex council houses command a premium. Sure that was on location location

I think Devon and Cornwall present different problems to most of the country in the part of Surrey I came from ex council properties are by far the cheapest.

julieq

So it's more difficult now? So what? 40 years ago we weren't in brutal competition with the rest of the world for prosperity, and we had things relatively easy. You don't get a nice life just for turning up, ultimately you have to take the cards you're dealt and the situation you inherit and get on with things rather than whining that your parents had it better.

If you swing this round and look at it from the perspective of someone in China or India, they are having things better than their parents in all probability. That's partially because of good timing, but it's also because they're prepared to do what is necessary to become skilled and valuable within a global economy. Rather than demanding something as a right just because their parents had it. They will fight very hard to succeed and stay successful, because it is a hell of a long way down if they fail.

The fact is that this country IS going to the dogs. That's not because of immigrants. It's not because of the unwaged abusing the benefits system - that's a small proportion of the benefit spend. It is because the great mass of the population have become lazy and flabby and incapable of making the effort to improve themselves. We almost make a virtue of it, listen to any local radio station at the weekend and you'll hear a celebration of slacking and incompetence as if it's something to be aspired to. People are expected not to like working and be desperate to get to the weekend, when they'll fail to manage even the most basic DIY tasks. And there is the idea that problems are somehow the problem of someone else, whether that's baby boomers, aspirant WAGs with a maxed out credit card, immigrants, corrupt MPs, bankers, baggy chavs or the long list of the betes noires of those who want prosperity to be delivered to them free of charge. It's the savings account mentality, the idea that you can get safe returns without effort or risk, and ultimately it's doomed to fail.

Unless we start to celebrate excellence and congratulate success - in any field - rather than muttering that things aren't fair and it's the fault of someone else, we're just going to slip off further into a spiral of decline. Sitting on a forum and gloating over the signs of a double dip recession in the apparent hope it'll punish those who have managed to be successful by taking a few risks and return to some golden age where you could slack and not have to work too hard and still get a house and final salary pension is pretty nihilistic.

Graham_Devon

julieq wrote: »

Unless we start to celebrate excellence and congratulate success - in any field - rather than muttering that things aren't fair and it's the fault of someone else, we're just going to slip off further into a spiral of decline. Sitting on a forum and gloating over the signs of a double dip recession in the apparent hope it'll punish those who have managed to be successful by taking a few risks and return to some golden age where you could slack and not have to work too hard and still get a house and final salary pension is pretty nihilistic.

What risks have people taken by gaining from HPI?

The people who took the risks are now pleading with the BOE and telling them not to up interest rates as it will cripple them. The people taking risks overloaded agents with enquries to sell properties before stamp duty went up.

HPI was the no risk, no lose venture, remember.

It was risk, that saw RBS on the verge of collapsing within 2 hours, remember.

All this thread appears to be is one generation having a go at another generation (both ways). There is so much more to it.

vivatifosi

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Personally, I think it's somewhere in the middle. I think it's more difficult now. BUT, it's not only more difficult, but the type of home has also changed. So you end up paying much more now for a much smaller place in general.

My place for instance was pretty expensive. But you could walk end to end within a few paces. It's absolutely tiny. Plus, because it's so tiny, they have had to use the main bedroom for the airing cupboard to be housed, and small, but deep wardrobe (meaning you can only really use one rail and behind it is useless).

That basically means that 3 walls of the bedroom are unuseable for furniture. One wall has 2 doors, another wall the main door, another wall 2 small windows.

Lounge is the same. Have to use half the lounge as a walkway to the kitchen, plus it has the front door. So again, a lot of the very small space is unuseable anyway.

This is my biggest gripe. It's not just the price. It's what you can actually get for the price. I've got no where to store an ironing board. It has to sit behind the door int he bedroom. No cupboard high enought to store it. Same with upright hoovers.

Graham, its been like that for years. To say that this is just an issue for people now is wrong. The minimum space standards for houses were removed at some point in the early 1980s. My first house was 368 sq ft because it was a new build in the late 80s. That's tiny, especially when you consider part of that was taken up by a big staircase, so its not even all useable like in a flat.

I've had a bedroom that was too tiny for furniture that had the airing cupboard in. My lounge was 10ft x 12ft but had a staircase in. When my nan first visited (there was no furniture in) she said it was a lovely hallway! She nearly keeled over when I told her it was the lounge. This isn't a new thing.

You just need to adapt. Get a decent book on storage as there are always places you can put things - bookshelves at a level above door frames for example, you can also buy ironing boards that are smaller or fold down. There's a solution for most problems.

About the only difference in "my day" to now is that I only wanted a 15" telly and there was plenty of room for that. I may have struggled a bit more if I fancied a 32" LCD to find somewhere it could go as like you there were no sodding walls once one had a sofa against it.

Oldernotwiser

Graham_Devon wrote: »

That's because you are unwilling to think out of the box.

Only willing to put people into neat little boxes and make a generalisation about them.

I thought this whole anti BB thing was one vast generalisation anyway.