Renting in your 40's and staring into the abyss

Sapphire

lisyloo wrote: »

One thing I do agree with you on is:
That's why now I'm both lucky and grateful to have good health, I save, plan financially, insure, work at my marriage etc. etc. oh and family planning too (whod'thunkit).
If readers don't have income cover past their employers sick pay then this should be a wake up call to consider how they want to live should they fall on hard times. If you put yourself at the mercy of the safety net then expect exactly that.

I agree with your sentiments. For myself, I've always tailored my life to what I can achieve, and if I want to gain something in life I work to be able to afford it – a strategy that has proved successful. I expect nothing from anyone and have never taken benefits. I agree also that having children – especially when the world is so over-populated – should be carefully considered, and engaged in only if you can afford it. However, what do you do about dysfunctional people, and those who have been taught over the last few decades to expect benefits of various sorts, courtesy of others who often don't take any benefits, to fund their lifestyles?

Sapphire

Generali wrote: »

I used to get round the (c)rush hour problem by negotiating a very early start and finish. I was the first into the office, even at Goldman Sachs which takes some doing!

Tried that – didn't work. Also, being in a managerial position and working with other people, I needed to be in the office during regular working hours.

Generali

ruggedtoast wrote: »

The problem with that is that everyone sees you leaving early, but hardly anyone sees you arriving early.

I switched to earlies for a while because I am too tight to pay for parking so wanted to get in before the free spaces had gone, did a full day plus and still got people ribbing me when I was out of the door at 4.

Then you get people who stroll in at 10 with a Starbucks, spend half an hour making porridge and looking at cats on the internet; who then leave at 6.45, with a full lunch hour - who have a reputation for "putting the hours in".

Jerks.

I found the reverse. I'd sometimes arrive just a few minutes before anyone else but when I left I'd make a half apology and they'd say, "Oh that's okay, you were in first".:cool:

Thrugelmir

ruggedtoast wrote: »

You didn't read past 'mendacious'. You know nothing of fiona's plight.

Plight? If she was out of work, had children with special needs and cared for elderly relatives I'd hold a different view. She's in a far better place than many people.

Sapphire

lisyloo wrote: »

There are options available which you won't consider do don't expect sympathy.

Everywhere is busy these days. My home is Wiltshire and sometimes people can't get a doctors appointment for 3 weeks. Their is a chronic lack of investment in infrastructure everywhere. My friends outside loaning are always moaning how much Money London gets for infrastructure. People outside London cannot often use public transport.

For your information, I neither ask for nor expect 'sympathy' from you or anyone else. Earlier on I simply made statements about infrastructure in London not being able to cope, and you've somehow latched onto my personal travelling habits. I can assure you I've tried various methods of transport during a lifetime of living and working in London. The Tube has always been pretty vile, but trains and even buses are now so overcrowded and hot that in recent years I have almost passed out three times while travelling in the rush hour (kindly given a seat each time by men), and I have seen others faint several times.

It seems you are objecting to my focus on London and that's your actual beef. I'm sure other places in the UK have infrastructure issues, but I have not experienced them so cannot comment on them. I only know about the infrastructure in my own region, and it this gets much worse due to more people being shovelled into it, there's going to be a complete breakdown.

I could also start in on hospital care. My father, for example, had a stroke a couple of months ago and was in St Thomas's Hospital. Half the patients on the ward were of African, not UK, origin, one was of the OP's hated 'boomer' generation (no doubt taking up a much-needed bed according to his world view). Again overcrowding, with foreigners using up our infrastructure courtesy of taxpayers. (That's leaving out the question of affluent foreigners buying up rubbish 'luxury apartments' in London like sweets, which could be built in a more appropriate way and used for housing the indigenous population, going a long way towards solving the lack of homes, which was what my original points were relevant to.)

chucknorris

Generali wrote: »

I found the reverse. I'd sometimes arrive just a few minutes before anyone else but when I left I'd make a half apology and they'd say, "Oh that's okay, you were in first".:cool:

When I worked in Germany (way back in the 70's/80's) the Germans used to greet everyone with a handshake, so when you got in you went up to everyone to shake their hand and say good morning. So I used to make sure that I was in early, otherwise if you were in later, it was a real task to do the rounds, especially when you were working in a large team.

michaels

chucknorris wrote: »

When I worked in Germany (way back in the 70's/80's) the Germans used to greet everyone with a handshake, so when you got in you went up to everyone to shake their hand and say good morning. So I used to make sure that I was in early, otherwise if you were in later, it was a real task to do the rounds, especially when you were working in a large team.

They have hot-desking here and a deliberate under supply of desks so on days where most people are in you have to wander through the whole building tryign to find soewhere or even go to a different site - this is a good incentive to come in earlier on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays!

I was only trying to point out to Sapphire that not all London transport infrastructure is overcrowded all the time.

Those who claim never to take anyhting from the state only seem to consider cash benefits, we also benefit from street lights, law and order, defense, rubbish disposal, health services, education etc. N many cases it would be possible to buy the service privately rather than making use of te state provision, unless you always take the private alternative then it is a lie to calim you never 'take' anyhting paid for by taxpayers.

remorseless

Sapphire wrote: »

Again overcrowding, with foreigners using up our infrastructure courtesy of taxpayers.

Is this including foreigners (i.e. non British passport holder by birth) that are contributing to the UK tax system fairly in the same way if not even more than a non-foreigner?

At the time of the UK census, conducted in April 2001, 8.3 per cent of the country's population were foreign-born.[2] This was substantially less than that of major immigration countries such as Australia (23 per cent), Canada (19.3 per cent) and the USA (12.3 per cent).[3] Figures for each census since 1951 are given in the table below. In 2005, the foreign-born population was estimated at 9.1 per cent, compared to a European Union average of 8.6 per cent.

okay there are foreigners in the UK, and so what?

wotsthat

I spend the odd week working in a French factory.

In the morning there are about 18 people who if female have to be kissed twice or, male to male, have to receive a firm handshake. People who work in a different part of the factory entering the department have to circulate going through the same rigmarole. Mercifully once it gets to about 10am a cheery 'bonjour' seems to suffice for new arrivals.

lisyloo

and you've somehow latched onto my personal travelling habits

Well it would be lovely if I/we could help wouldn't it :-)
I'm sorry that hasnt' happened. I found central London really quiet before 8 this morning (between 1 and 4 people on the lower decks of my bus).

It seems you are objecting to my focus on London and that's your actual beef.

I don't have a "beef" personally, although I do live in both places so I think I have a good basis for comparison.
Coming from the country, I think the transport system in London is absolutely fabulous.
I don't deny it's crowded and sometimes unpleasant at peak times, but if you try driving through the center of (say) Bath or Bristol at peak times, you will find long delays, difficulty parking and high parking prices as well as all the costs of maintaining person transport (MOT, tax, service etc.) so I don't think Londoners are particularly hard done by in comparison as far as transport goes.

Infrastructure has problems everywhere, Doctors, NHS dentists, roads, transport, housing, schools - all of it and I agree that a lot of it is down to immigration.
Some reports say that immigration is beneficial and certainly there are desireable immigrants like dentists, doctors, nurses etc.

I agree with you that foreigners buyers of London property should have to pay a large tax charge or not allowed to buy property at all in certain places.
I certainly have a "beef" with the long term dysfunctional unemployed (I don't mean people who've fallen on hard times) taking property in central London where people who are contributing to society could work.

The problem is as you say differentiating between the genuine cases and the dysfunctional and then (as you say) what do you actually do with the dysfunctional.
I think we agree on many things.

So out of interest, would you vote to come out of Europe?