Guardian:Impossibly high rent and debt is the reality for millions of young Britons

ruggedtoast

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/04/rent-debt-young-people-homelessness

Toby Thorn wrote his suicide note on the back of a bank statement. The 23-year-old took his own life shortly after moving into a flatshare with friends, stressed to the point of breakdown about student loan and credit card debts amounting to just £8,000. Only a short time ago, there might have been a functioning mental healthcare system to help young people like him, a safety net to fall back on. But that's not the country we're living in any more.

The fact remains, however, that almost a million young people are out of work and tens of thousands more are earning so little that they need to claim housing benefit to be able to afford to live in the places in the country where there are still jobs. This is not a future many of us would gladly choose.

Debt, student loans and housing insecurity. Never knowing when or if you'll ever have a roof over your head, or enough money at the end of a precarious working week to buy decent food. That's the reality of life for millions of people in Britain today, sapping our energy and sucking away our youth

Rent is at the centre of it all. Rent and the impossibility of paying it. Rents in some places in London have risen 20% in the last year, while wages for under-30s have fallen by between 6% and 10% in real terms over the last decade.

As long as house prices don't go down eh. Thats apparently all that matters now.

System

We need some more facts before drawing conclusions.

Student loans start being repayable if salary reaches the threshold level. If he wasn't earning that much then he can't have been weighed down by student loan debt.
Credit card borrowing is voluntary. What had he been buying, and why did he buy it if he couldn't afford it?

ruggedtoast

Clifford_Pope wrote: »

We need some more facts before drawing conclusions.

Student loans start being repayable if salary reaches the threshold level. If he wasn't earning that much then he can't have been weighed down by student loan debt.
Credit card borrowing is voluntary. What had he been buying, and why did he buy it if he couldn't afford it?

Nice.

Thats about the level of sympathy I have come to expect from the shrivelled humanity of this board.

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Nice.

Thats about the level of sympathy I have come to expect from the shrivelled humanity of this board.

He clearly had mental health issues, no-one sane takes their own life because of some student loan....:(

I have £115'000 worth of mortgage "debt". I don't see how 1 persons tragic story is relevant to the economy discussion.

CLAPTON

housing benefits increases rents that landlord can charge

the large majority of student live within an easy commute of an good university
by choosing to have two homes they have created a huge housing problem

it's pretty sick to use the situation of a disturbed young person in this way.

Generali

It's a bit sick making a political point from a young man's death especially given that mental health care in the UK, as in most countries, is of very low quality and always has been.

The Guardian is now the Fox News of the hard left: there is no concern for accuracy or any search for truth, they just want to sell a message.

ruggedtoast

Generali wrote: »

It's a bit sick making a political point from a young man's death especially given that mental health care in the UK, as in most countries, is of very low quality and always has been.

The Guardian is now the Fox News of the hard left: there is no concern for accuracy or any search for truth, they just want to sell a message.

I don't agree in the context of the whole article, maybe the quotations I pasted lost some of the context; however the lad committed suicide because he was worried about debt and didn't see a future where he'd ever get out of the hole.

The author then claims that a growing number of young people feel the same and are suffering from depression. Considering the cost of housing and lack of jobs it seems like a reasonable hypothesis.

GeorgeHowell

I notice that in the article the Guardian predictably makes it all Cameron's fault -- like we didn't have a housing shortage, nor high rents and house prices in high employment areas, nor youth unemployment including among graduates prior to May 2010.

The one saving grace regarding the Guardian is that surely it only preaches to the converted. Nobody who wants any kind objectivity or balance would subject themselves to its hysterical, bleeding-heart propaganda.

GeorgeHowell

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Nice.

Thats about the level of sympathy I have come to expect from the shrivelled humanity of this board.

What on earth does "shrivelled humanity" mean ? Perhaps it's the product of a mind shrivelled by embitterment and sense of grievance ?

ruggedtoast

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

I notice that in the article the Guardian predictably makes it all Cameron's fault -- like we didn't have a housing shortage, nor high rents and house prices in high employment areas, nor youth unemployment including among graduates prior to May 2010.

The one saving grace regarding the Guardian is that surely it only preaches to the converted. Nobody who wants any kind objectivity or balance would subject themselves to its hysterical, bleeding-heart propaganda.

Apparently you read it.

ILW

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I don't agree in the context of the whole article, maybe the quotations I pasted lost some of the context; however the lad committed suicide because he was worried about debt and didn't see a future where he'd ever get out of the hole.

The author then claims that a growing number of young people feel the same and are suffering from depression. Considering the cost of housing and lack of jobs it seems like a reasonable hypothesis.

Or just jumping to an unrelated conclusion that ties in with your own agenda?