Resentment of this generation

fc123

quantic wrote: »

I genuinely get the feeling a lot of people in their 40's to 60's feel good about their life because their house is worth so much and a lot of future generations can only dream of having it.

99% of people I know in that age group aren't really bothered at all.....and most definately don't feel good about their lives solely due to the price tag their home currently has.
Your generation just has different things/ different challenges. I only write this as I was going on about the wonders of the internet the other day (to a younger person) as it opens up the whole world to us and I was having a bit of a '...if only I had had the internet (as it functions now) back in 1987''.
Internet land gives a whole new set of openings/opportinities to many that just didn't seem possible even 15 years ago.

It slightly relates to Julieq's post on the way the world is really opening up for everyone and how the changes will affect all in the west.

quantic wrote: »

I don't know about anyone else, but I love the idea of my future taxes paying for previous generations pensions (which I won't enjoy myself) while they enjoy living in the kind of house (which I won't enjoy myself).

God, I'm Mr Sunshine today aren't I

Personally I wouldn't give those thoughts the time of day as you'll just grind yourself down and get miserable...and then it feels harder to move forward yourself.

Cash-Cow wrote: »

I bought my first house for about £44k with my wife, both aged 23 in 1992. If we were 23 now and on the equivalent salary of about £20k we could still get a mortgage on the same place. I fail to see what's changed.

I am in SE London and we could pretty much buy our 1st house now on the equivalent salary we were on back then. Unrenovated, no hols, cleaned the road with our tongues and all that.:)

fc123

cherylypop wrote: »

whereas previous generations seemingly could pick up a house while working part time as a lollipop lady but really life is too short plus most people I talk to struggled at some point. ................................. Pretty sure it will happen if we just ride out the storm.

The P/T lollipop lady could never by a house based on one P/T lollipop lady wage. She may have been able to do it with an inheritance or a partner but not solo.

It will pan out for you and riding out the storm is a great phrase for it. Done that a few times ourselves.

quantic

So the general gist of this is:

Every generation thinks they have it worst than the last one, each generation struggles with different factors, in the short term previous generations might seem better off but it will even out eventually and my kids will probably be saying they have it harder than me. Get on with it and don't worry too much about what everyone else is doing just concentrate on myself and my future.

I think the housing bubble is pretty much over now as we know it anyways, will be interesting to watch the University bubble next, kids leaving Uni with what is effectively a mortgage on their education, and they don't even get the house out of it! Well, I suppose that will probably be the thing that they say they have to deal with and I don't, just as I am moaning that previous generations didn't have to deal with these prices.

Thanks for all the comments so far guys, I am trying to educate myself somewhat, to become less narrow minded with these sorts of things because to be honest, its not really a topic that people get into in person often, I think its seen as somewhat vulgar to discus money in person, that and the fact that a lot of people don't age that I know don't even know the difference between repayment and interest only mortgage so the conversations are somewhat short.

mutter

quantic wrote: »

So my message to the previous 2 generations is, you want to try buying a house when average prices are 6-7 times the average salary. How the hell did some of you guys manage to screw it up?

This isn't the first recession in the history of the world you know!
My (then) partner and I thought we were well set up 25 years ago - mortgaged to the hilt admittedly, but our small business was doing ok and we thought if we worked like crazy, we might escape from our 2up 2down terrace and into something a little more palatial.

Well, come 1993, we certainly did escape, though not in the way we had dreamed of - double figure inflation and interest rates and a huge jump in the cost of fuel had taken their toll, our business lost the battle and we lost out house - the recovery had begun, but it was too late for us.

I have a lot of sympathy for the predicament of younger people at the moment though, it does feel like it's impossible for many of them to get out of the rental trap (my daughter is one of those, paying stupidly high rent makes it hard to save towards a mortgage - even if she could get one).
But it's also true that the main difference between then and now is the amount of stuff people have now - even though a lot of it is comparitively cheaper - and a lot smaller.
I'm pretty sure when we lost our home we had one tv, one video recorder, one stereo system and one phone - I'm not sure anyone could live on such basic gadget rations now!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

julieq wrote: »

To be honest, we were saying much the same in the early 1980s (remember the punks' "No Future"?). Every generation thinks it has it tough.

Sorry, but we've had a high relative quality of life in the past because we were a first world country largely able to keep the forces of globalisation out. You're now in competition with a billion Chinese for prosperity, and a great chunk of that will do what it takes in terms of self education and hard work to win. It has nothing to do with baby boomers or council house sales or anything at all locally, it's about evening out levels of prosperity into the whole world. Which is basically a good thing. Most of the world is seeing more opportunities and improvements in quality of life. There are always winners and there are always losers.

There will be people in your generation who succeed, and there will be those who don't. So instead of complaining how bad things are and hoping someone turns up with a magic wand to take things back to how they were in the 1970s, you'd be better off trying to get into the first group by your own efforts.

Well said,we all feel hard done by when we're starting out.
Speaking personally we may have everything we could ever want now we're older but spent years struggling with nothing to reach our goals.
It's no good blaming past generations (although every generation does) we're all victims of circumstance in the end.

abaxas

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Well said,we all feel hard done by when we're starting out.
Speaking personally we may have everything we could ever want now we're older but spent years struggling with nothing to reach our goals.
It's no good blaming past generations (although every generation does) we're all victims of circumstance in the end.

The situation is much worse today.

As in the past people wanted to change and improve it. Now there is a huge group of people who dont want it to improve, if anything for it to get worse.

Sickos is the word to describe them.

StevieJ

Some interesting statistics from the Blood donation service, really does highlight the selfishness of the baby boomer generation.

Just 14% of people who donate regularly are under 30, while more than two-thirds are over 40, according to new figures from NHSBT.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/young-people-urged-become-blood-donors-001301738.html

ukcarper

quantic wrote: »

So the general gist of this is:



I think the housing bubble is pretty much over now as we know it anyways, will be interesting to watch the University bubble next, kids leaving Uni with what is effectively a mortgage on their education, and they don't even get the house out of it! Well, I suppose that will probably be the thing that they say they have to deal with and I don't, just as I am moaning that previous generations didn't have to deal with these prices.

As all you have to do is pay back loan is pay 9% of your income over £21k you could just look it as a basic income tax rate of 29% then compare that to the basic tax rate of 33% in the 70s and you might feel a bit better.

abaxas

StevieJ wrote: »

Some interesting statistics from the Blood donation service, really does highlight the selfishness of the baby boomer generation.



http://uk.news.yahoo.com/young-people-urged-become-blood-donors-001301738.html

Maybe they cant afford to take the afternoon off :P

StevieJ

abaxas wrote: »

Maybe they cant afford to take the afternoon off :P

Maybe they are open untill 7.30 pm?