How can people be so greedy?

Badger_Lady

Right - I'm going to have to storm out of this thread now. I'm embarassed to be in the same demographic as some of the other "youngsters" here... :mad:

sjw101

At the grand old age of 30 I still consider myself to be a youngster(ish). The point i was trying to make is that it is not people being greedy. My house would not have risen in value as much, had we not spent long hours renovating it. Yes it would have risen anyway and yes because of that we are lucky, but many of our friends chose to go to uni or have a good time socialising, buy new cars etc etc. We all make choices in life an we all have to live by them good or bad. It may not be fair that prices are now beyond most people but it is also not fair to point the finger and people who quite diservedly have benefited from this

Broken_hearted

Turnbull2000 wrote: »

How many times do you hear 'I worked hard, therefore I'm entitled' in this forum? It's almost an excuse to fu*k over today's youngsters. Pathetic.

Most people today work very hard, but circumstances and luck have created this housing 'apartheid', not one's effort and commitment.

Youngsters get criticised for a supposed sense of entitlement for material goods, yet the older generation have a sense of entitlement which is bordering on sinister - hoarding property and maintaining high prices.

I'm 28 so one of those younsters you claim to have been beeped over, yet I had no problems buying a house.

Turnbull2000

Broken_hearted wrote: »

I'm 28 so one of those younsters you claim to have been beeped over, yet I had no problems buying a house.

And not forgetting the 'I'm-alright-jack' attitude prevalent across seemingly all ages.

Have a look at this peeps. Makes interesting reading...

David Willets MP - Social Justive Across the Generations

Kaz2904

I've just read the whole thread. I'm 30 and bought a flat when I was 23. I had DD that year and finished uni the following year. We paid £50000 and had to pay £360 a month. This crippled us and we both had to work full time.
Fast forward 3 years we had one of each and no outdoor space. 2 bedrooms and neighbours who complained daily about childrens noise (running around during the day type noise).
So it was time to move. We had gutted the flat and replastered the whole thing. New bathroom/kitchen/windows roof repaired etc. We made a £49k profit on what we'd paid but probably spent £15k doing the work.
Our new house cost £140k (needed everything doing to it again including hot water/heating). So we still had to both work in order to pay the bills as we doubled our mortgage.
This meant that we were unable to afford childcare anymore so I had to go onto nights. It has been really hard but it's nothing like as bad as it must be for anyone trying to buy now.
What happened to the average age of parents?
My Mum was 23 when she had me and 21 when she had my sister. They owned their own home. Strangely enough it was an ex council house.

Stevie1

Microstar wrote: »

Erm, I'm certainly not. I own several houses outright. When the time is right I'll be selling them and moving abroad to let you lot get on with it. I'm trying desperately hard to convince my kids to think of a future abroad too.

I agree, Britain is so over-rated :shhh:

neas

I see i've touched on a nerve with this thread. I believe there are two extremes here... those For and those Against the core argument.

Seems vested interest is coming into play maybe?

Benefits_Blagger

Microstar wrote: »

I love all these 'holier than thou' responses. Life IS tougher for youngsters these days and there has been a massive transfer of wealth to older people (and I write as an 'older person').
I went to university in the 1970's all free and paid for and we got unemployment benefit in the vacations if we didn't take a job!
In the late 1970's my graduate friends and I mostly got good jobs (not so many graduates about then) and bought houses. Interests rates were high, but so was inflation. So the mortgage debt shrank fairly quickly and a lot of the costs of the house were paid for by the rest of society. And then there was MIRAS (anyone remember that?)
This wasn't enough though. So we voted in governments that cut income tax and sold shares cheaply in the 'privatisations'. Remember Sid? I found him and made a fair bit - not to mention Amersham International, BT et al.

I look at my son now, who is about to go to university. He has similar interests that I had at his age and he's at least as bright and hard working as I was. But things are so much tougher, more competitive, and the older generation expects these kids to pay for their pension and save toward their OWN pensions.

excellent post, good to see one of the "older" generation admitting the reality of the situation.

margaretclare

Microstar wrote: »

Erm, I'm certainly not. I own several houses outright. When the time is right I'll be selling them and moving abroad to let you lot get on with it. I'm trying desperately hard to convince my kids to think of a future abroad too.

So, to use a term that's been much used in this thread, you are 'shafting' the land of your birth. You are one of the people responsible for the situation under discussion.

Ever heard of something called patriotism? I think of a quotation from a foreign President: 'Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask rather what you can do for your country'.

That's not a bad ideal to live by.

Margaret

neverdespairgirl

ixwood wrote: »

I think it's funny people moaning about older generations having it easy and ripping us off. Anyone over 50 probably grew up without electricity, central heating, holidays (nevermind foreign ones), cars etc and left school at 16 to do manual work.

Don't be silly - someone who is now 50 was born in 1957-8, and by then almost all houses had electricity! Holidays - foreign holidays unlikely, UK holidays were normal. My father grew up in a working class family in Liverpool, and went on regular summer holidays to Wales. He left school at 18, and took part in the huge expansion of university education in the 1960s, becoming the first person in his family to stay on past the minimum leaving age, let alone get a degree.

He first went abroad aged 17, to work in a youth hostel in Germany between school and university.