Why the baby boomers shouldn't feel guilty

StevieJ

ILW wrote: »

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

I should imagine most started work at 15.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

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.

Its just a case of what goes around comes around.
Who do you think paid for your education when you were at school and your medical care when you were young,the very people you don't want to do your bit for now.
What a brattish attitude.
With people like you bringing up the next generation be careful,you reap what you sow.
God help you.

Graham_Devon

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Its quite hilarious realy,a bad case of the sour grapes.

I'm starting to lack sympathy with your posts now.

Just the lack of council housing compared to the babyboomers day has changed the landscape significantly.

There really does need to be some sort of understanding of the massive changes in the landscape compared to two generations before you simply suggest anyone discussing it is simply moaning, or has sour grapes. That doesn't have to be the case. Theres so much that has changed that I feel you wish to simply ignore and cast a generalistation on everyone else due to your own ignorance.

Yes, there certainly is a case that people can do better for themselves. BUT, and this is the important point. It's so much harder to do that now due to the lack of jobs, lack of social housing etc. You surely must understand that?

Graham_Devon

ILW wrote: »

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

Youth unemployment is over 20%.

Employers now want experience. It's a minefield out there. Long gone are the days when you could walk out of school and into a job within walking distance of your home.

What do you expect a 16 year old to do? You tell them.

ash28

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Youth unemployment is over 20%.

Employers now want experience. It's a minefield out there. Long gone are the days when you could walk out of school and into a job within walking distance of your home.

What do you expect a 16 year old to do? You tell them.

It was pretty much the same in the 1980s - most people have been here before - they used to stick the kids into YTS in the hope that employers would keep them on after the 6 months - they usually didn't. It is crap for the very young they are the first to suffer in periods of high unemployment.

If my own children were around that age now I would be encouraging them to stay on at school and go to university and study Mandarin or similar.

In the 1980s it was Japanese.

Graham_Devon

ash28 wrote: »

It was pretty much the same in the 1980s - most people have been here before - they used to stick the kids into YTS in the hope that employers would keep them on after the 6 months - they usually didn't. It is crap for the very young they are the first to suffer in periods of high unemployment.

If my own children were around that age now I would be encouraging them to stay on at school and go to university and study Mandarin or similar.

In the 1980s it was Japanese.

It wasn't really the same though was it. At least in the 80's you had council houses. At least jobs were more local.

As I say, so MUCH has changed. Everyone seems to concentrate on one single thing and ignores the rest.

I truely believe the biggest thing thats made todays generation as it is today is the benefits system rewarding having children.

You can't just get a council house any more. You have to get knocked up first.

CLAPTON

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Youth unemployment is over 20%.

Employers now want experience. It's a minefield out there. Long gone are the days when you could walk out of school and into a job within walking distance of your home.

What do you expect a 16 year old to do? You tell them.

as a fair minded sort of chap; maybe contrast this with the early 1980s

Rinoa

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Youth unemployment is over 20%.

Employers now want experience. It's a minefield out there. Long gone are the days when you could walk out of school and into a job within walking distance of your home.

What do you expect a 16 year old to do? You tell them.

The minimum wage is clearly too much. For a 16 yo it's about 25% of average earnings. When I started work I got less than 10%.

Does a 16 year old really need £145pw?

Graham_Devon

Rinoa wrote: »

The minimum wage is clearly too much. For a 16 yo it's about 25% of average earnings. When I started work I got less than 10%.

Does a 16 year old really need £145pw?

Hang on.

So on the one hand, you want to see their wages cut.

But on the other, you want to hear less of the problems, and want to see them strive to pay their own way?

£628 a month and you feel thats too much?

ukcarper

yorkshirekev wrote: »

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.

It’s nice to read a balanced post I agree rents are high but back in the 70s there was very little good quality private rented accommodation. Lots of people lived with their parents until they got a council house (which was not quite as easy as some people think) or had saved enough for a house.

I agree the worst problem is employment and that is where I think I really benefited leaving school a 16 I was able to get a job with good prospects with a company willing to spend a lot training me.

With pensions most boomers will have worked almost 50 years before they get their pension.