Defeated and trapped. Young look on in despair at The Kingdom of the Boomers

ruggedtoast

MrRee wrote: »

In that case these Boomers have squandered a golden egg, and cannot be helped I'm afraid.

It didn't take more than 1/2 a brain cell to become very wealthy if you were born after WWII ..... things just fell into place.

Even those in Council Houses couldn't fail to become rich beyond their wildest dreams due to the 50% discounts they were given by Maggie Thatcher.

So, in essence, I have zero sympathy for those Boomers who failed ..... every Baby Boomer should now be sitting on at least £750,000 in assets and equity and cash.

Yes. The boomers really got it handed to them on a plate. Thats what I believe.

Terribly unfair on the youngsters these days that have to work hard to earn their crust and still may not make it.

CLAPTON

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Yes. The boomers really got it handed to them on a plate. Thats what I believe.

Terribly unfair on the youngsters these days that have to work hard to earn their crust and still may not make it.

UK based youngsters today are some of the richest and most privileged that have ever existed in the history of the world.

Cornucopia

CLAPTON wrote: »

UK based youngsters today are some of the richest and most privileged that have ever existed in the history of the world.

True, but as we know happiness is affected by relative wealth within society.

moneyinmypocket

The young don't know how good they have it. I'd happily trade wealth to be a young man again. Problem with the young is they have had it to good and so have no metal

ruggedtoast

moneyinmypocket wrote: »

The young don't know how good they have it. I'd happily trade wealth to be a young man again. Problem with the young is they have had it to good and so have no metal

They have metal iphones. My goodness, with your vim, verve, vigour and rare work ethic you would be King of the young people in no time.

BobQ

MrRee wrote: »

In that case these Boomers have squandered a golden egg, and cannot be helped I'm afraid.

It didn't take more than 1/2 a brain cell to become very wealthy if you were born after WWII ..... things just fell into place.

Even those in Council Houses couldn't fail to become rich beyond their wildest dreams due to the 50% discounts they were given by Maggie Thatcher.

So, in essence, I have zero sympathy for those Boomers who failed ..... every Baby Boomer should now be sitting on at least £750,000 in assets and equity and cash.

Consider the possibility that a lot of these people you have no sympathy with were just trying to buy their house. There were a sizeable minority that saw house buying as an investment strategy (trading up, doing up etc) or a cash cow (spending equity), but most just wanted to pay off the house they had.

Those who failed (in your terms) also include those conned into buying a house they could not afford, or who found 15% mortgage rates or unemployment meant they lost everything through no fault of their own.

ruggedtoast

I have often wondered if the wealthy boomers, pockets jangling with cash and cars and houses, look down on their impoverished boomer brethren who have failed even to access the cash escalator that buying a home in the 70s or 80s guaranteed.

It seems to me that a young man pulling a lever in a Mattesons factory in 1975, splurging briney pate paste into large tubes, could by 2014 be an older man still pulling a lever but with a large amount of amassed equity and miles of pate behind him.

ska_lover

MrRee wrote: »

Sadly the young today want everything but don't want to do anything to get it ......... everything is instant, sadly success isn't - it takes years of effort and endeavour ... something generally missing from Gen Y.

It's our fault, we told them that they can have what they want - without telling them that you have to work to get it.

That said, they have had the biggest financial help from the boomers than any generation in history .... certainly, I have invested £1,000's in the next generations future. A helping hand us boomers didn't get!

May I enquire - How many young people do you actually know? You make such a generalised statement about the entire Generation Y - that one can only assume you know each and every one of them, personally?

GeorgeHowell

Cornucopia wrote: »

True, but as we know happiness is affected by relative wealth within society.

That is certainly the line that the Left peddles, in order to justify reducing everything to the lowest common denominator and prioritising how the cake is sliced over how big the cake is. Base human emotions such as envy can certainly be exploited. But a more realistic and sophisticated approach is to confront the fact that there will never be equality of wealth and income, and that welfare policies should represent a safety net, not a means of redistribution based on the politics of envy. I believe that people are generally much more accepting of this in the USA. S things can be different where the national cuture is different, and where damaging left-wing political parties do not get into office.

Generali

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

That is certainly the line that the Left peddles, in order to justify reducing everything to the lowest common denominator and prioritising how the cake is sliced over how big the cake is. Base human emotions such as envy can certainly be exploited. But a more realistic and sophisticated approach is to confront the fact that there will never be equality of wealth and income, and that welfare policies should represent a safety net, not a means of redistribution based on the politics of envy. I believe that people are generally much more accepting of this in the USA. S things can be different where the national cuture is different, and where damaging left-wing political parties do not get into office.

Better to get 1% of something than 10% of nothing!:money: