to think jealousy in endemic in the UK

[groovyrose]

It used to be if someone wanted something they worked hard for it to get it. Now people rather than working just look and moan at what others have and blame others for their shortcomings. The amount of anger I get thrown at me sometimes for being a professional buy to let landlord and born in the post war boom is disgusting.

[tomatodizzymum]

No I think moaning is. I live abroad the scale and level of moaning in the UK is always shocking.

[Fairenuff]

British people love to complain. And talk about the weather.

Complaining about the weather is bliss

[blue42]

You don't like people having a different opinion to you, they don't like you having a different opinion to them. Sounds like a perspective problem to me.

[GottaFeeling]

I don't think anything's changed.

I remember sitting in my Grandmother's kitchen c. 40 years ago while she moaned about how my uncle and his wife (her BIL) frittered money by eating out once a month....I remember because at 10yo I was thinking, it's their money....

The anger about landlords is because there are so many truly terrible ones.

[HelenF350]

YANBU. The number of BTL Landlord bashing threads on here are unbelievable.

[SansaUndercover]

I think perhaps the anger you get thrown at you is due to not understanding that being born in the post war boom gave you massive advantages over people born in, say the late 80s/early 90s. I am jealous in some ways of people born in this era as I feel like many things were easier for them.

I feel like I have worked hard- I worked hard at school and got decent grades, I was lucky to get some short term jobs and worked hard at them in order to save up and afford to go to uni- I still came out of uni in debt and will probably be paying back that debt for the next 25 years. I am lucky to have found a job, but many people I know have not found secure/full time employment, and I had to move across the country to find a job. Even then, I have accepted I will probably never be able to afford to buy my own house.

I don't personally hate landlords, my current one seems ok, and my previous one was nice- but equally there are a lot of crap landlords making a fortune and precious little is done about them. Equally, there are crap tenants too- I blame the government though, as they are the ones who should bring in better laws to govern renting.

So yes, I am jealous, and I do sometime moan about it- maybe that is some kind of moral failing on my part, but it seems more like a natural emotion tbh, when I know a lot of the things previous generations took for granted will likely never be available to me.

So YANBU to think people are jealous but YABVVU to think that it is possible for the current generation to get everything your generation got just by working hard.

[GottaFeeling]

Can you honestly say all your advantages are down to hardwork OP?

[WorraLiberty]

It used to be if someone wanted something they worked hard for it to get it. Now people rather than working just look and moan at what others have and blame others for their shortcomings.

With regards to buying houses, tons of people want one, tons of people are working hard, and sadly tons of people will probably never get one.

So it's not just about them having 'shortcomings'.

However, they are BU to take it out on you. Although if they got wind of you hinting that they're not hard workers, because they're not property owners I can kind of understand why they might.

[Beloved72]

"It used to be if someone wanted something they worked hard for it to get it"

Umm, no.

There have always been people who have had things handed to them on a plate. I know four people who have been bought a property outright by their parents.

"The amount of anger I get thrown at me sometimes for being a professional buy to let landlord and born in the post war boom is disgusting."

Problem is that the growth of the BTL sector has totally distorted the property market and utterly fucked things up for hard working YOUNG people, who have been priced out of the property market in order that people like you can have a comfortable retirement.

[duckandcover]

[Marmaladedandelions]

surely, we all do what's best for us and our families?

[usualsuspect333]

Goady McGoady from Goadsville.

[ilovesooty]

Pretty accurate usual

[chanie44]

OP, it isn't nice that people are taking out their frustrations on you. But, the younger generations are having a really hard time:

Uni tuitions fees, extortionate housing costs, no such thing as a job for life, ever diminishing employment terms and conditions....

To give you an example, MIL is a low skilled worker, who bought her council house, which has quadrupled in value. SIL does the same job, but will never be able to afford the same lifestyle as MIL.

[WorraLiberty]

Goady McGoady from Goadsville

This ^^

With a side order of goading, covered in a crispy goady coating with a cheeky little filling that oozes goadyness...

[SorryToDisturbYou]

In 1977 the average gross salary was £3570, the average house price 2.7 times that at £9700.
In 2014 the average gross salary was £26,500, the average house price 10 times that at £265,000.

It's not a matter of not working hard enough.

I acknowledge I'm lucky to be middle-aged and have bought in the mid-90's before prices went absolutely crazy.
Can you do the same?

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

The really scary thing is how quickly things changed. There is a grand total of 26 months between me and my younger brother. And those few months have made a colossal difference in our wealth.

Ps Anyone want to guess when we were born?

[Marmaladedandelions]

I'm intrigued, Mum? :)

[blue42]

OP also gets upset when people have the bare-faced cheek to give her non-Fairtrade coffee or tea.

Either a troll or on another planet if you ask me.

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

Yawn.

[WoodliceCollection]

Jealousy is the internalised expression of inequality, so it's not really surprising if it's higher in more unequal societies, although I doubt you have any objective evidence for claiming it is 'endemic in the UK' anyway.

Also actual ROFL at the idea that being a BTL landlord is 'hard work'. Have you tried getting an actual job?

[Hedgehogparty]

I like the accusation of "jealousy" here.
Too many people I know are working themselves into the ground just to stay afloat and pay rent to people like you . Then you post on here about their perceived shortcomings and lack of work ethic.

Huge numbers of people now will never own their own home despite working for decades. instead they are paying your mortgages .

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

Too often "jealousy" is used to shame people:

"My DH left me for someone else" - JELLUS!
"I think this advert objectifies and sexualises women" - JELLUS!
"So and so is a millionaire tax avoider while I'm on minimum wage" - JELLUS!

We need to reclaim "jealousy" as an honourable expression of fucked-off-ness at the unfairness of the world.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

Marmalade - I'm late 70s, he's early 80s. The months of our birth mean that there are 3 school years between us. I got a grant. He paid fees. I bought my first house in 2001 and benefited from the massive early naughties increases. He was still at university in the early naughties and didn't manage to get on the property ladder until mid naughties when the increases were pretty much over.