No pay rise? Blame the baby boomers' gilded pension pots

wotsthat

jacko74 wrote: »

I could give you a whole page of anecdotal evidence to back up my opinion that the boomer generation had (and still has) it far easier than anybody else before or after them.

I wouldn't swap being Gen X to be a boomer.

I think I'm part of the luckiest generation ever despite leaving school to join Maggies Millions.

gadgetmind

jacko74 wrote: »

pretty much their whole adult 'working' life was one long lucky break.

And the huge number of people my age who are deep in poverty got these breaks too, because it's automatic and guaranteed?

Thrugelmir

jacko74 wrote: »

if they could be a little more humble and just admit that not only did they have it extremely easy compared to just about any other generation

Post war, rationing etc etc. So so easy wasn't it. That generation had more in common with the Vikings than today's want it now wannabes.

gadgetmind

Maybe the boomers had an advantage, but I'm not sure it was that great a one. As I was born in '63 I don't really count as a boomer to most definitions, but I'm sure many will tell me I had it easy. Ah well.

Lots of Millennials are also doing well (and some can also spell it!) so I suggest that those struggling look a little closer to home when striving for an explanation.

ukcarper

jacko74 wrote: »

Bob I'm not trying to wind anyone up, I'm just offering my opinion based on my personal experience, maybe I'm just unfortunate in the type of boomers I know but I absolutely stand by my description of them.

I could give you a whole page of anecdotal evidence to back up my opinion that the boomer generation had (and still has) it far easier than anybody else before or after them.

I find it ironic when I frequently hear boomers bragging about what cushy working lives they had, yet as soon as you suggest to them that they had it easy they start foaming at the mouth and insisting that their lavish (early) retirements are funded by 'a lifetime of hard work'... they clearly don't know the meaning of the phrase compared to how hard their parents and children's generation had/have to work, with nothing like the same level of rewards to show for it.

I don't actually begrudge anybody getting a lucky break I just wish the boomers would have the decency and honesty to admit that pretty much their whole adult 'working' life was one long lucky break.

How can you tar everybody born between 1946 and 1964 with the same brush it's just ridiculous, someone born in 1970 has more in common with a boomer than someone born in 1990. I really think you have no idea what life was like for an ordinary working person in the 60s and 70s.

PlymouthMaid

I must be a boomer (1962) but I definitely don't feel like it. No pension to speak off just a couple of piddly pots from jobs long past. Private pensions were not really a 'thing' when I was young enough for it to be affordable. The job market never seemed easy to me as my timing was always off eg trained as a teacher as the Government flooded the market with NQTs so ultimately I have ended up in a poorly paid teaching role with no pension as the rules covering new teachers' induction years were harsh and unfairly applied in a period of oversupply (too boring and irrelevant to go into).

It seems to me that the generation before me did so much better and now have lots of disposable income whereas if my generation has much money, it is swallowed in either uni fees or care home fees. I don't know anybody in my age group who could be classified as a 'boomer' so perhaps the cut off point is earlier than the 1960's born folk.

Conrad

jacko74 wrote: »

I don't think there would be any 'boomer bashing' or 'playing the blame game' if that vile generation weren't so smug, self-righteous, arrogant and entitled... if they could be a little more humble and just admit that not only did they have it extremely easy compared to just about any other generation but they also screwed future generations by breaking the social contract and bankrupting the economy to award themselves ridiculously generous pay and pension packages, then there wouldn't be so much resentment towards them.

The post war years was a period whereby Britain was one of the few international trading advanced nations able to exploit such a position but in time the pressures of competition from places like Japan and S Korea meant there was less to go round, we had to tighten our belts and thus reduce pensions as customers like you have a choice to buy form firms with lowest costs. You would not pay more for insurance or ink so as british workers can enjoy bigger pensions would you, so it is ludicrous to imply the party go could on.

In any event it was nothing like you might imagine. I recall my older relatives back then had no foreign holls, few luxury goods, one old suit, saved for everything, had very much more basic home interiors, the living room suitE was the one you got when you married and the one you died sitting on.
If you want you can be as frugal as they and save some money to stick in your pension.

I run my own business and meet young people all the time doing very nicely thankyou. For example the Albanian who now owns two houses and a fried chicken shop brining in £18k per week. He came here 10 yrs ago with nothing. What's stopping you?

Thrugelmir

PlymouthMaid wrote: »

It seems to me that the generation before me did so much better

Fighting or living through a war?

Conrad

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Fighting or living through a war?

These whiners now fail to understand how frightening it was living through the Cold War, three day weeks, rubbish piled uncollected, old damp Tenanments the norm from Notting Hill to Nottingham, moths holes in your clothes, outside loos and a washing room to get hot water from to bring to your tin bath inside the house (my in laws had one until about 1975), rabit meat and corned beef, 3 boring TV channels with songs of praise and big daddy wrestling, no food in pubs, no choices, strikes, fairly grim and grey really.

gadgetmind

Conrad wrote: »

rabbit meat and corned beef

Both of which I've eaten this week as they are now "in" again!