Why the baby boomers shouldn't feel guilty

ash28

BobQ wrote: »

We obviously failed to teach history in a way you could understand. My grandmother used to tell me about her experiences between the world wars. This great welfare state you say was started in 1911 had not evolved to the stage where she could get medical treatment for her severely disabled son without being humiliated by the well to do parish committee. For example they could not appreciate why a 12 year old unable to walk needed a wheelchair.

I think they are confusing he welfare state as we know it to a scheme introduced in 1911 - where workers and employers paid national insurance and got dole, sick pay and healthcare - the only problem was that for healthcare it was only the worker who received the healthcare, not the family. My mother was born in the 1930s and her mother and siblings had to pay for visits to the doctor.

suburbanwifey

ruggedtoast wrote: »

and now cripple the country with their demands for healthcare and pensions.

Are you serious? I am not a baby-boomer but I find your comment wholly unfair! They earned the right to healthcare after a working life of paying tax and national insurance - their healthcare isn't free, just like yours or mine isn't, they were paying tax and NIC all their working lives for that healthcare, as we all do today!

Pensions? you moan about the pensions they earned their whole working lives for the right to a pleasant retirement? wow!

The jealousy of the young against previous generations astounds me! Who said the world was here just for the young? (and before you take a crack at me I am young) Advertising, movies, general TV, it all seems to think the world revolves around the 20 something brigade. Wrong! and its wrong to penalise the baby-boomers because you are all jealous that they had it easier, its not their fault, blame Labour! and immigration and Gordon Brown! Labour always trash our country and it usually takes at least a decade for the Conservatives to sort out the mess they leave behind. History has merely repeated itself, ask the baby-boomers, they'll tell you.

They earned the right to healthcare and their pensions! :mad:

suburbanwifey

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

I do not have a problem with baby boomers having 80% of the wealth, what I do have a problem with is 70 or even 80 year olds in huge 4 or 5 bedroomed houses when 30 working something year olds are unable to rear families in anything bigger than 2 bedroomed shoeboxes.

You are forgetting that those 70 year old's worked hard to pay mortgages (at higher rates most of the time than we all pay nowadays) on those houses, they worked for those houses! They owe the young today nothing, they lived their lives, most of them working their butts off to own what they do. You all seem to think they had it much better than we do, they didn't, most of them are only now enjoying what they have and have the time to enjoy it. They earned it, they deserve it!

As I said in an earlier post of mine. Me and my OH are not boomers but we have done well in life, with NO HELP from no one! NO parent handouts (we both don't have any) no state handouts (never claimed a benefit our whole married life) no nothing! we have both worked our butts off to get what we have and we do have (or I have, he's a technophobe lol) the iMac, iPad, iPhone, I have it all! but you know what? we worked hard for all of it. Our 2nd year of marriage we had porridge for our Christmas dinner, we had NO MONEY and we managed, we didn't have a decent Christmas for the first 6 years we were married as we were so skint.

We earned our beautiful house, all the nice stuff we have, the life we now have and worked damn hard for it. No one gave us a bean and that is just what a lot of the boomers did, worked their butts off for everything they have and they earned the right to pensions (paid in all their lives just as we have, whilst others cream the system with benefit after benefit, tax credits, child benefit, nursery fees etc. etc. etc. its paying out all this crap to millions that has crippled our country! the work-shy, the claimers, the parasites of the UK!

The boomers are the generation I got my standards from and having an iPhone or a Blackberry is no excuse to not be able to afford a house or a good living, I have had those for a decade now, I was one of the first to get a Blackberry I think and I have been a Mac user from Day one. I'm not boasting but I am trying to point out that we earned it all by working hard as the boomers did in their day. We didn't have foreign holidays for years, we didn't live the *rich* life 20 somethings seem to think they deserve nowadays and no Government gave us anything we didn't earn. I want to cry when I see what gets taken off our earning in tax and NIC contributions, we support lots of unemployed out there when no one ever supported us.

I'm glad the boomers have it good now as they didn't have it good in their day! They earned it all.

ruggedtoast

suburbanwifey wrote: »

Are you serious? I am not a baby-boomer but I find your comment wholly unfair! They earned the right to healthcare after a working life of paying tax and national insurance - their healthcare isn't free, just like yours or mine isn't, they were paying tax and NIC all their working lives for that healthcare, as we all do today!

Pensions? you moan about the pensions they earned their whole working lives for the right to a pleasant retirement? wow!

The jealousy of the young against previous generations astounds me! Who said the world was here just for the young? (and before you take a crack at me I am young) Advertising, movies, general TV, it all seems to think the world revolves around the 20 something brigade. Wrong! and its wrong to penalise the baby-boomers because you are all jealous that they had it easier, its not their fault, blame Labour! and immigration and Gordon Brown! Labour always trash our country and it usually takes at least a decade for the Conservatives to sort out the mess they leave behind. History has merely repeated itself, ask the baby-boomers, they'll tell you.

They earned the right to healthcare and their pensions! :mad:

Nice rant, but revenue raised via tax and NI isn't stored up for the claimant who pays, its used for the people who are currently claiming.

Boomers outnumbered their elders and funded them comparatively cheaply, they now want us, a smaller poorer generation who they outnumber, to fund them lavishly.

I would have thought that was common knowledge amongst most reasonably well informed people, but then I got to your rambling Daily Mail invective about immigrants, Labour and Gordon Brown.

And I'm, not entirely sure you aren't a boomer-troll anyway. The bit about iPods is a bit of a giveaway.

ukcarper

crash123 wrote: »

The biggest problem I see is that in 1993 a 3 bed semi was about 50K now the same semi is 180k. Wages have not increased proportionally.
If they had you would be able to have the house and a few gadgets just as we did.

It’s ok quoting 1993 but that’s not when most boomers bought their first house you people have just got to accept that the mid 90s was the cheapest houses have been compared to wages since the war and not the norm.

vivatifosi

ukcarper wrote: »

It’s ok quoting 1993 but that’s not when most boomers bought their first house you people have just got to accept that the mid 90s was the cheapest houses have been compared to wages since the war and not the norm.

It's also fair to say that a lot of Gen Xers bought their first house in the early to mid 90s when they were at their cheapest, but apparently don't get criticised for it.

I don't get all this "boomers bad, Xers good" stuff. If you want to get on, you have to make the most of your life, whenever you are born and whatever hand you are dealt.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Boomers cheeks should burn with shame. They have plundered the wealth of the entire world, filled countless landfills with their rubbish, polluted oceans with their unsustainable manufacturing, and now cripple the country with their demands for healthcare and pensions.

Few school leavers now can look at their future with anything other than glum despondency. Chances are whatever they need is being c0ck blocked by a boomer.

Edit. Merry Christmas.

Oh woe is me.
Its terrible to feel so sorry for yourself,whilst blaming your own shortcomings on other people.
Stop whinging and grow a pair,get out there and make your life better like most of the oldies had to.

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Personally I don't feel that any generation should feel guilty about a period they lived through. It's pretty much beyond our control what period we live through and how that period pans out.

On the other hand, the argument is just as silly when it turns around to suggesting another generation has it better due to ipod etc. Again, the same thing applies.

However, on saying all of that, I do think recognition is important.

Recognition that one generation has it better, in terms of prosperity in many ways, than any other living generation has, and will. That generation is called the babyboomers. The recognition is important, as it would go some way to dampening the resent from other generations.

This, however, does not seem to be happening. For you look at any meetings for blocking building, and it's the same generation there opposing it as it may spoil their view, or have them slowed down on a road due to more traffic on the network...taking them 30 seconds more to get to the supermarket. Have a look at pensions, and the same generation is making darn sure they get their payouts, but making sure the younger generation not only pays for it, but pays more for it.

I feel this is the problem at the moment. A generation that recognises the problems, but makes sure they don't suffer the problems. It helps that the current policymakers are also of the same generation and also want their votes.

I remember an interview on our local news, where the building of a large complex of houses was being fiercely fought. The opposition won, and thats houses for near 200 familes gone, aswell as jobs etc. The interview had one who wanted a house and one who was opposing. Upon asking where houses should be built, the opposer just said "anywhere thats not around here". That said it all to me. It wasn't about the building, it wasn't anything to do with the environment, it wasn't even opposition to building. It was sheer selfishness. Couldn't care less, so long as it didn't in any way whatsoever effect them.

While we've got 20% youth unemployment, there was more time, effort and money spent making sure those coming up to 60 didn't have to wait just a year more to draw their pensions, as it was "unfair". Of course, everyone else can work 2-5 years longer, stuff em.

So feel guilty? No. But recognition and chipping into the solution would be nice instead of coming up with a caveat for every solution proposed for a select group.

I accept some of your points but I don’t think it’s correct to say all nimbys are babyboomers. A lot of the complaints seem to be directed at house prices but a lot of boomers myself included bought at or near the peaks in the 70s and 80s so have not benefited as much as people think. I would imagine most of the people moaning about boomers now would have done exactly the same as the boomers did and most of the people moaning about youngsters wasting money on Ipods etc would have done the same if they could have. I suppose one of the differences was they couldn’t because of the lack of easy credit.

PS I think the biggest problem facing young people especially ones without a degree is a lack of opportunities, that is the main if not only real advantage I had back in the 60s.

ukcarper

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

You always get some numpty who comes along and goes all drama queen, of course nobody would suggest that your forcibly make anyone do anything. We have a tax system that can be used to encourage people like the ones I am suggesting, more so the ones that might also have a second home by the sea or in the country. And then after they have been heavily taxed and want to stay put, good luck to them. This is not a socialist or commy thing, it is a moral and commonsence thing.

I’m not sure why you should be heavily taxed for living in what has been your home for the majority of your life.

ukcarper

dlk wrote: »

Every generation could probably look on in envy at certain aspects of other generations lives. Yes it was easier for baby boomers to buy houses and yes they'll have good pensions from an early age. However general financial living standards now are far and away better than even 20 years ago. It's only comparing yourself with other people right now that makes people feel poorer. Somebody on minimum wage or benefits now has more disposable income than the majority of boomers would have had 30 years ago. Similarly basic state pension now offers a much better living standard than most boomers would have enjoyed during there early working lives.

I'm 36 and will have to wait longer for my pension and my house cost £272000 whilst 10 years earlier than I bought it, it was probably be about £80000. However I didn't have to work my !!!! off in terrible conditions from age 15, I've been travelling to most areas of the world and enjoy all the mod cons of modern living. An eighteen year old now may find it difficult to buy a house etc but I'd definately swap with them and have all the life choices now afforded to the young and opportunities handed on a plate.

I’m not sure what percentage of babyboomers have such good pensions I do but none my friends from school (that I have kept in contact) do.