Why the baby boomers shouldn't feel guilty

worldtraveller

LilacPixie wrote: »

Some of the opinions spouted in this thread are bizzare. Do some people really believe that just because you reach a certain age you should then lose an asset you worked hard to pay for? In my parents case they extended their home to meet the needs of their growing family with my dad doing alot of the work himself. Yes his home is larger than mine and yes he has a significantly nicer car than I do but when he was 30 he drove an Austin Princess.

I wouldn't worry about it Lilac. It's largely jelousy from a generation of people that have spent what they don't have on cheap credit for the past 10-15 years, have saved absolutely nothing as a buffer for the bad years, and are now coming to realise that living on planet earth is not the big party that they thought that it would always be, but, which has instead, dare I say it, "boom & bust" cycles.

Unfortunately a lot of people were brainwashed by the last, profligate government, to believe that it's all for the taking, forever, and that the "I want it, and I want it now" & "Keep up with the Jones's" mentality, is the right one, unlike past generations that didn't even know what a credit card was and, on the whole, were taught not to spend what they didn't have. Sadly, those of us that have seen it all before, booms & busts that is, several times in our lives, are probably laughing at their ignorance, and have no sympathy whatsoever. One thing is for sure though, they will probably learn, as we did, and maybe not make that big mistake again.

olly300

worldtraveller wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about it Lilac. It's largely jelousy from a generation of people that have spent what they don't have on cheap credit for the past 10-15 years, have saved absolutely nothing as a buffer for the bad years, and are now coming to realise that living on planet earth is not the big party that they thought that it would always be, but has instead, dare I say it, "boom & bust" cycles.
.

Unfortunately a lot of people have been brainwashed by the last Government to think that it's all for the taking, forever, and that the "I want it, and I want it now", "keep up with the Jones's" mentality is the right one, unlike past generations that didn't even know what a credit card was. Sadly, those of us that have seen it all before, booms & busts that is, several times in our lives, are probably laughing at their ignorance, and have no sympathy whatsoever. One thing is for sure though, they will probably learn, as we did, and maybe not make that big mistake again.

Another generalisation.

I know from previous threads some of the young moaners where at school/university until 5 years ago or even less.

Unfortunately for the university students they were sold a lie by the last government.

Graham_Devon

olly300 wrote: »

Another generalisation.

That's what this entire thread is about, isnt it?!

worldtraveller

olly300 wrote: »

Unfortunately for the university students they were sold a lie by the last government.

Surely that's one of my main points. Why on earth would anyone really believe what a government tells them about the economy & job prospects, when they will manipulate that same economy, as much as possible, to remain in power?

Why would anyone really believe why a load of pointless MPs & Ministers of the Crown, advised by a load of pointless, overpaid, ivory-towered economists & analysts, have a clue about what's happening in the real world? :whistle:

Butterfly_Brain

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

No minimum wage
No equal pay
Hardly any maternity rights until the 1980s
Unequal treatment for Pensions
Ditto..mortgages
Ditto...taxes


There's a few things we COULD have whinged about but didn't. We jsut got on with changing them.

Not to mention that the lowest tax rate was 33% pa plus high interest rates.
There were no tax credits or nursery credits, if you had a baby you looked after it or relied on parents to help out while you worked part time, but there were jobs, we have lost so many manufacturing jobs in the last 30 years. Most people didn't go to university, they started work at 15 and are still working now .....so blame the Tories, labour and Lib dems for that............ not people who have worked hard and saved all of their lives.

grizzly1911

olly300 wrote: »

Another generalisation.

I know from previous threads some of the young moaners where at school/university until 5 years ago or even less.

Unfortunately for the university students they were sold a lie by the last government.

Being propagated by this Government.

It is successive Governments who have turned us from a nation of thrift to one of spendaholics. All they have ALL done is allow us (generally)to max out credit to keep things afloat in the last 30 years whilst the underlying economy has been allowed to crumble.

Not everyone has, some have been careful, and they are now being punished by devaluation of 20 -30% in the last 3 years or so.Their purchasing power being eroded to once again keep the critical host alive.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

worldtraveller wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about it Lilac. It's largely jelousy from a generation of people that have spent what they don't have on cheap credit for the past 10-15 years, have saved absolutely nothing as a buffer for the bad years, and are now coming to realise that living on planet earth is not the big party that they thought that it would always be, but, which has instead, dare I say it, "boom & bust" cycles.

Unfortunately a lot of people were brainwashed by the last, profligate government, to believe that it's all for the taking, forever, and that the "I want it, and I want it now" & "Keep up with the Jones's" mentality, is the right one, unlike past generations that didn't even know what a credit card was and, on the whole, were taught not to spend what they didn't have. Sadly, those of us that have seen it all before, booms & busts that is, several times in our lives, are probably laughing at their ignorance, and have no sympathy whatsoever. One thing is for sure though, they will probably learn, as we did, and maybe not make that big mistake again.

Its quite hilarious realy,a bad case of the sour grapes.
What I find realy bad though is that they expect everything and now without working their way up like the past generations did.
When I was a twenty year old I certainly did'nt find it strange or unfair that I could'nt afford a house or had no savings or that older people nearing retirement had both of these things and were much better off than me.
You just took it they had been around longer than you had to get all these things and aspired to get them yourself.
I pity a lot of the youngsters who feel the way they do as they must take their attitude to other aspects of their lives.

yorkshirekev

I agree with most of the responses suggesting that my generation do need to do more to help themselves and simply work to achieve these goals. I do feel a little uncomfortable as I do think that the goalposts are moving somewhat.

1. Rent is very high in many parts of the country. This eats up a lot of income that could be used more productively. The BTL community are doing very well out of this and it is quite possible that we are going to see a lot of our generation stuck in perpetual renting. Particularly those who have got burned with easy credit.

2. Competition in the workplace. We are now competing with the best and brightest from many different countries for a pot of jobs that is not increasing. Even to get a minimum wage job can be quite arduous. Temporary and agency contracts abound and this has harmful effects on security and ability to have any means to live within.

3. Pensions. Taxes will have to go up in the medium-term future to pay for present pension obligations. However, I see pensions eroding for new entrants, increased retirement ages (who is to say they will not get into the mid 70s or higher). I am 28, what will my retirement age be? At the moment I would be inclined to say death.

There is no point getting into a funk about what other generations will receive or have built up. In golfing parlance they have read the greens as they see fit. We will have to accept what is ahead of us. Most will not ever be able to own a home for instance as more and more people will own 10/20 homes to supply them with income.

We can work as hard as we like, but maybe we just have to accept that there are limits to what we will get. Clearing the decks of all consumer debt would be a good start. Advise our children (if and when we have them) how to do a better job than we did.

I see myself as already failed in a sense. Credit rating shot to hell, useless university degree (English Language and Literature anybody?) dead end admin job in what is effectively a field in West Yorkshire. Thousands of pounds worth of consumer and student debt. I just want to sort this mess out and give my future children the tools to do a better job at life when I have. If I have to work 2/3 jobs then so be it. Maybe that is the key, we have to be more selfless and give the next generation the tools they need to succeed. Sorry if it seems gloomy, but it really isn't the boomers fault. We have not adapted to the situation well enough.

ruggedtoast

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Its quite hilarious realy,a bad case of the sour grapes.
What I find realy bad though is that they expect everything and now without working their way up like the past generations did.
When I was a twenty year old I certainly did'nt find it strange or unfair that I could'nt afford a house or had no savings or that older people nearing retirement had both of these things and were much better off than me.
You just took it they had been around longer than you had to get all these things and aspired to get them yourself.
I pity a lot of the youngsters who feel the way they do as they must take their attitude to other aspects of their lives.

There are a lot of people in their 30s who have worked all their lives, have student loan debts, and can neither afford a house, or will have much of a pension to look forward to.

Those people have enough to contend with supporting their own families, without the added burden of paying for your retirements and endless demands for medical care. If you'd actually left the country with any money rather than a vast deficit there might not be so much ill will towards your generation.

It seems to have escaped the vast majority of moral pundits on this thread, but the recent governments are mostly comprised of baby boomers. The people in charge of the country are baby boomers. The people who have amassed 80% of what is left of our wealth are baby boomers, the people who had free education when we have to pay are baby boomers, the people the baby boomers moan about being on strike in the 70s were largely baby boomers, the people that younger generations now have to mortgage themselves to the eye teeth for their retirements are baby boomers.

ILW

ruggedtoast wrote: »

There are a lot of people in their 30s who have worked all their lives, have student loan debts, and can neither afford a house, or will have much of a pension to look forward to.

Those people have enough to contend with supporting their own families, without the added burden of paying for your retirements and endless demands for medical care. If you'd actually left the country with any money rather than a vast deficit there might not be so much ill will towards your generation.

It seems to have escaped the vast majority of moral pundits on this thread, but the recent governments are mostly comprised of baby boomers. The people in charge of the country are baby boomers. The people who have amassed 80% of what is left of our wealth are baby boomers, the people who had free education when we have to pay are baby boomers, the people the baby boomers moan about being on strike in the 70s were largely baby boomers, the people that younger generations now have to mortgage themselves to the eye teeth for their retirements are baby boomers.

The vast majority of baby boomers had less free education than the current generation X. most started work at 16 or 17.