Tell me this is not the best country in the world

Hectors_House

Cakeguts wrote: »

I don't think you need worry about having no one to leave it to what with the cost of nursing care most people won't leave anything much to family members.



Don't forget that by not having children you have saved the cost of educating them and the cost to the NHS.



I think you will find that two people working who don't live in the London area will finish up in your position at retirement age as long as they live the same kind of lifestyle as someone born in 40s, 50s and 60s when people were more frugal.



You can't compare your lifestyle to young people who have bought new cars on finance and have expensive mobile phones because older people were born in an age when there wasn't as much disposable income so they learned really young only to buy things they need rather than things they want.

Thanks for your reply Cakeguts.

Yes, through sheer dint of age we’ve avoided the expensive phones and cars. Our cars were always secondhand and I’ve never bought shoes or clothes full price.

In fact most thing don’t get bought until they are in a sale ( I grew up in Australasia where you had to wait a year for new films to reach the cinemas and at least five years for TV programmes so I’ve never been someone who needs the news things as soon as they come out.

I hope that what you say about two people outside the London bubble being able to do OK in their old age. Home ownership was never easy at any time and takes a lot of sacrifice and a big risk but if you’re willing to take the plunge it’s only fair you should be mortgage free before you retire.

Kentish_Dave

triathlon wrote: »

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48637484

About half of my huge family now own second homes, we are living in a world where my parents could only once dream of when they first moved to England.

I’m really not following your line of reasoning there.

Yes, I love the U.K., and it’ll always be home in my heart, but I’m living in Amsterdam now, and that’s wonderful too.

I’m fortunate that through my wife we’ve a home in the Pyrenees, and that too is amazing, as is Eze, where we have family.

A cynical person would think that threads like this are about boasting rather than asking questions, but it’s genuinely not clear what you are boasting about. Have you a doctorate, have you a rowing blue, have you any patents to your name, can you run 5k in twenty minutes, have you saved a life?

I am not seeing any achievements in these boasts, so just din’t Understand what you are trying to be about here.

kabayiri

lisyloo wrote: »

Possibly asylum seekers.
If they are at risk of war or violence then they might not want to be among their own people and that might explain why they exhibit trauma or mental health issues.

I don’t think we are blameless in our foreign policy and selling weapons, so are we morally in a position to turn a blind eye to the results?

I know a Polish lad who lived in a tent in the area.

It is doable. The climate is mostly benign.

After visiting Poland in winter a few times, I would not be saying that about pitching up a tent outside Krakow !

chucknorris

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

can you run 5k in twenty minutes,

At what age? You have to consider age, you can't just ignore age and list a time for all ages. I could easily run it in sub 18 mins when I was 18 (maybe even 17 mins), but now I'm 61 my PB this year in park runs is 23.13, but that is cross country, and not run on an athletics track, so the surface is inferior, it isn't flat, and if you are not the elite, you lose time at the start (because there is no individual timing, you start behind the starting line, and that time is lost).

westernpromise

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

Yes, I love the U.K., and it’ll always be home in my heart, but I’m living in Amsterdam now, and that’s wonderful too.

I lived in the Netherlands (in a very smart part of the Hague) in the mid-90s and I have to say I thought it was an absolute dump. Dog scat everywhere, and although you could buy pornography around the clock (I never saw the smut shops closed), you couldn't get a pizza to take away after 8pm. Has it improved?

phillw

Cakeguts wrote: »

Don't forget that by not having children you have saved the cost of educating them and the cost to the NHS.

That is a rather short sighted view. Without an ever increasing number of people paying taxes then the pyramid scheme collapses. Thanks to Farage and Rees Mogg ending free movement we'll be moving to private pensions and an insurance scheme for health care, so maybe it won't be as much of a problem for so long.

I met up with an old friend who moved to switzerland and he thinks the UK is terrible in comparison, the UK has too much gammon & too many flag wavers.

Mistermeaner

westernpromise wrote: »

I lived in the Netherlands (in a very smart part of the Hague) in the mid-90s and I have to say I thought it was an absolute dump. Dog scat everywhere, and although you could buy pornography around the clock (I never saw the smut shops closed), you couldn't get a pizza to take away after 8pm. Has it improved?

Since the invention of the internet !!!!!! is readily available 24/7 pretty much everywhere. So I am told

No need to go out and walk in dog $$$$ to find it

StevieJ

Nice windup triathlon

ExremelyCautiousSocialist

Cakeguts wrote: »

There is always going to be inequality. Someone with two incomes in highly paid jobs and no children is always going to be better off than someone who earns the same but has been married and divorced 3 times with children from each marriage.

The question is should the childless couple fund the lifestyle of the person who has children from 3 different marriages?

The society set up needs to evolve. Nobody should be having kids they cant afford or look after to a high standard - this includes the care giver having good physical and mental health. Its mentally scarring for a child if they have to take on too much responsibility too soon.

Takedap

ExremelyCautiousSocialist wrote: »

The society set up needs to evolve. Nobody should be having kids they cant afford or look after to a high standard - this includes the care giver having good physical and mental health. Its mentally scarring for a child if they have to take on too much responsibility too soon.

People's circumstances change. Jobs are lost, marriages break down, illnesses happen. Or maybe no-one should have kids eh? Just in case?