Inter Gen politics

IronWolf

BillJones wrote: »

But is that so? We know the basket, and we know the calculations. People often complain about the measure, but we rarely see a reasoned argument about what basket would be a better measure.

Easily so, just use RPI instead of CPI and you're already at a more accurate measure.

Graham_Devon

The post-war baby boomers did not have it so good after all, according to new figures that show they earned significantly less at middle age than later generations.

But earned more, earlier.

Workers' wages peak in their late 30s, official data shows, unlike the mid-1970s when people were paid the most when they were aged in their late 20s.

The article doesn't mention this, as it's obviously an article with an intended outcome.

Today's generation earn less at a younger age and more at middle age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28141574

antrobus

ukcarper wrote: »

Isn't that what I have just shown.

Shown what?

The OP clearly refers to analysis based on data for real wages, so inflation would be irrelevant.

Incidentally GDP per capita is a real measure as well.

antrobus

IronWolf wrote: »

Easily so, just use RPI instead of CPI and you're already at a more accurate measure.

I disagree. CPI is a more accurate measure of consumer price inflation than RPI.

ukcarper

antrobus wrote: »

Shown what?

The OP clearly refers to analysis based on data for real wages, so inflation would be irrelevant.

Incidentally GDP per capita is a real measure as well.

Perhaps I'm not making myself clear I agree with OP, as prices have fallen in relation to earnings people earn relatively more.

I agree GDP per capita is a real measure.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

But earned more, earlier.

Workers' wages peak in their late 30s, official data shows, unlike the mid-1970s when people were paid the most when they were aged in their late 20s.

The article doesn't mention this, as it's obviously an article with an intended outcome.

Your quote doesn't tell you that. It says their earnings peaked at an earlier age - it tells you nothing about whether they earned more or less.

The way I read it is that they earned less to start with, achieved lower peak earnings and that peak was achieved at an earlier age. Not a great set of circumstances.

Probably explained by recent increases in university education (later entry to the labour market) and more manual labour in the '70's (if you have to rely on selling manual labour then physical peak will be late twenties and there's a limit to how much more productive you can become).

michaels

I would have thought the increase in the purchasing power of incomes relative to everything else except.housing plus the restriction in housing supply exactly explains why house price to earnings ratios much higher than historically are supported by earnings.

Generali

antrobus wrote: »

I disagree. CPI is a more accurate measure of consumer price inflation than RPI.

Without looking too deeply into this I suspect that the GDP deflator has been used. CPI is a measure of the change in the cost of living, the GDP deflator is a measure of the change in the price level (inflation) or at least is meant to be.

wotsthat

michaels wrote: »

I would have thought the increase in the purchasing power of incomes relative to everything else except.housing plus the restriction in housing supply exactly explains why house price to earnings ratios much higher than historically are supported by earnings.

Still comes as a surprise to some that a wealthier nation spends more money on nice things rather than hoarding extra gruel for a rainy day.

ruggedtoast

What complete borlax. And boomer propaganda too, makes a change for the Telegraph.

They have chosen to compare the youngest imaginable boomers with the oldest imaginable Gen X, and even then:

The figures do not take account of other factors the baby boomers benefited from including the long property boom, free university education and more generous final salary pension schemes unavailableto many who came afterwards.
Significantly it is also not able to predict whether, younger people who came of age in the last decade will also continue the trend towards higher pay.

And what about Millennials now? What about them? Shafted thats what they are.

£50k of debt to go to university to get the minimum required qualification for a temp job filing, while they live in a squalid house share with Australians.

It. Makes. Me. So. Mad. :mad:

Listen, I'm a child of the 70s, I am well aware that 'things' are much cheaper now then they used to be. I was reflecting this morning that its actually quite hard not to spoil my own son because everything is so available and cheap.

You can make a kid fully obese with £2 a day to spend on godawful sugary snacks, whereas I remember the collective national juvenile wailing when penny sweets went up in price 500% because the pound was so weak, which was the end of the Saturday walk to the sweet shop.

It was difficult to get 'square eyes' back then because there would only be one family television showing 4 channels and children's shows were on for two hours a day if you timed it right and it was a weekend.

I remember very well the shame and indignity of wearing hand me down clothes from other kids because we couldn't just go to Primani and spend £10 on a new outfit, and then handing on those clothes again. People darned for god's sake.

But the thing people had then that they don't now was affordable housing and social housing. They had a place in society where they belonged. Somewhere to identify with, to peg themselves to and say 'this is where I live'.

People now are faced with awful private rental conditions, no hope of getting a council house, and buying being a pipe dream.

I know two early career doctors who cant find a 2 bed flat they can afford to buy in a not horrible area of Zone 5 or 6 in London. Doctors. What in the hell chance does a 'normal' young person leaving university have; or older Gen X's who faced with the prospect of being excluded from parenthood by age just went for it and are struggling to raise kids from one 6 month AST to the next?

This is what turns people to prozac, not the fact that the only thing on at 2am is Open University and you can only have Fanta as a treat.