To think the past is being misrepresented on here?

I think this thread has highlighted one of the major differences. For those who grew up in a slum, 4 to a room, ice on the windows, no food etc the majority won't be living like that now & they will have grown up and been able to get a secure job & housing. Whereas now if you grow up in poverty it's harder to escape & your chances to own a home depend on whether your parents did. It's becoming more important than income.

"in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, home ownership rates for 30 year olds with parental property wealth were – at 40 per cent – twice that of young people whose parent did not own a home."
"This gap has since grown so that recent home ownership rates for 30 year olds with parental property wealth are – at 25 per cent – almost three times that of those without parental property wealth."
"As well as greater home ownership, young people with high levels of parental wealth are 74 per cent more likely to have a degree than those without parental wealth, and typically earn over £500 more per month . Both of these factors increase your chances of home ownership."

I'm 60. Growing up we had no car - we walked everywhere - miles every day in all weather. We had no phone until I was 17, no central heating ( ice inside windows at home and at uni halls, where men and women also queued to use the mixed sex shower cubicles - no en-suites.)

Mental illness was untreated and neuro diversity or SEN just name called by pupils, teachers and parents: thicko, weirdo, lazy, clumsy etc.

Sexism was appalling. My mum wasn't 'allowed' a job by my dad, as it would emasculate him, even though we were always in debt and she cried herself to ssleep. Bosses pawing you was just a fact of life.

These days luxuries are way cheaper and basic essentials arealmost out of reach. I think the rocketing cost of housing is immoral and should have been controlled in 1980s.

Home buying was MUCH easier in the 80s - 00s but has become progressively harder because of the growth in population, home grown and immigration. Basic supply and demand.

You ignored wage stagnation & changes to lending after the 08 crash plus QE which inflated assets

One thing I'm absolutely 100% certain about is that the music in the 70's, 80's and 90's - pre- Simon Cowell era - was amazing. Music now is completely trashed. Hence why there are radio stations named after those decades, because the music was so great.

The past is always seen with rose-tinted glasses.
Those yobs harping for the 'good old days' never seem able to define which era they want to return to... pre-nhs/antibiotics?, when men and women were disenfranchised? When we hard lords and serfs? When we had no sanitation? No real means of transport? Working in service because of one's station in life? No free education?...

Born in 1953. UK in the grip of post war austerity.i remember a friend getting a tv, with a tiny screen, about 6 inches square, and inviting neighbours round to watch it. No central heating. Dad would get up first to light a coal fire. No double glazing so, yes there was ice on the inside of the windows, frozen condensation. The tile surround of the fireplace got hot, and I loved putting my feet on it to warm them. It was good to see improvements. Mum used to do all the washing on a Monday. The earliest I remember was a top loading washing machine with a mangle attached and a separate spin dryer. We didn't have a fridge, a pantry, so shopping was a daily nevessity. We dud have a vacuum cleaner, but no fitted carpet so the carpet could be taken up and hung over the washing line a beaten every now and again. Coal fire, so lots of coal dust. Things did impove as new equipment came in. I remember when freezers started ti become available and stand alone freezer shops, selling frizen food and freezers started to open. I left school in 1972, after A levels. Only a small % went to University, so I left home and moved 100 miles to London for work. Lived in a hostel with 4 in a room, all strangers, then moved to a flat with shared rooms as we couldn't afford to have separate rooms.i can't remember if we couldn't afford heating, or we preferred to spend our money in the pub, but we thought it was warm if you couldn't see your breath when you got up. Inflation in the 70s hit over 20% and unemployment over 3 million. DH and I managed to buy a tiny flat as first home. But it was an hours commute from our jobs, couldn't afford anything nearer. Couldn't afford a car, so commuted by bus. No furniture, so spent £5 on a second hand cooker, and another fiver on a second hand sofa bed. Just after we moved in we got an unexpected bill for £60, which was a fortune, so we both got part time jobs in the local pub to pay it. That was hard, but we got to know a few locals from that so it helped us settle in. We got married just as we bought the flat, no money so our honeymoon was a week in a flat above the clubhouse on a Caravan park in Westward Ho! It is still there, called Broddicks. It was shite, August and rained. But very memorable as on the Tuesday Elvis died, and the caravan park was full of aging Ted's reading their papers in tears. This was well before karaoke was a thing, but for the rest of the week the entertainment was cancelled and replaced by tearful old people (old to us, they were probably in their 30s and 40s) getting up and singing their fav Elvis numbers it was bizarre. I think shortly after we married mortgage rates hit 17% There were few fixed rates then, and most mortgages were only available from building societies. There used to be a monthly meeting of the societies to determine mortgage rates, and we used to dread the news that the rate was going up again. It used to take effect immediately. As others have said, there were lots of benefits, fewer bills for starters, no mobile phone contracts, no streaming bills, no subscriptions that you can't get out of. Houses were cheaper, but we bought a new build after our flat, no central heating, the kitchen was just a formula worktop held up by a metal pole, the garden was a bit of top soil spread over the ground with just wire fences separating ours from the neighbours. So a lot more basic than today's. There is no way we could have contemplated buying a property on just one wage. It took both our full time wages to pay the bills with not a lot left over.

Although Uni was free for us whereas now it costs a fortune, the maintenance isn’t enough to cover the high rents these days and students pay 9% interest on the loan

I went to uni when it was free, plus a living grant that enabled you to live as a (very poor) student. I will eternally be grateful for that.

On the flip side, certain specialties were (unofficially) completely off limits to females. There was no ‘no women’ policy but also no chance whatsoever of any woman getting a training spot in certain specialties, and there was absolutely zero you could about it. I know of women my age who retrained in other specialties later once the environment changed but they had remained single or no kids and had the time and $$ behind them to do it. I didn’t as had kids so didn’t have time/resources to do it, but had landed pretty well in something, but would not have been my first choice initially.

This is my experience. Happy haylcon days of singing? drama, art and poetry at primary school. Then almost unlimited freedom at secondary, smoking tolerated from yr9 up really. In the pub from yr 11. Saturday job at 14- different world.

I battle over this with my 3DC all in their 20s. Perception is all. The message they get from social media is that everything is terrible and unfair and getting worse.

The biggest change is surely information and constant connection. Constant entertainment. Constant surveillance. Constant advertising from whoever it is trying to sell you something by making you feel you need the thing.

I think the best thing we had back in the day (I am 60) is a sense of hope and possibility. We are much more cynical now. And we could move out at 18!

I remember ice forming on the inside of my bedroom window, but I wouldn't describe it as a 'horror'. Getting up in a cold room was mildly uncomfortable, but it was warm in bed, it was warm downstairs and it wasn't common then for kids to spend huge amounts of their waking time in their rooms.

I can remember playing out with friends. I can remember letting ourselves in after school when parents were at work. Lots of things felt better then than they do for my grandchildren now. There was never any choice of what to eat - meals were what was on offer with nothing else in the cupboard if you didn’t like it.

'The past' - was hugely diverse!

I was born in 62. Both parents worked. Lived in a council flat until my parents bought it.
I can remember having limited food available at home. Only having heating in the living room.

Gen x here too but pre student loans.
The oldest gen xs were born in 65 so would be young grandparents so maybe more capable of help at 59.

My parents left their country to move here so I have no idea really if older generations helped out much. Everyone I knew was the same. The older generations were left behind so I suppose I have never experienced either way of working.

People left school if they wanted as soon as they turned 16 ( on the day in fact ) and didn’t even have to take their Olevels but not at 15 in the UK.

I'm 60.

Buying a home was no easier in the 60s. Most people rented. It became much easier in the 70s with the deregulation of the mortgage market. Home buying was MUCH easier in the 80s - 00s but has become progressively harder because of the growth in population, home grown and immigration. Basic supply and demand.

Life in the 70s was much less affluent for many. Ice on the inside of windows every winter, poor quality food, things such as clothes, white goods, furniture were much more expensive. No ready meals, no microwaves, much less imported food. No McDonalds. We had a chippy and when I was 12, a Chinese takeaway ( very exotic). Music came on vinyl or the radio. There were 2 TV channels when I was a child and 4 when I was at uni.

As a child I had one pair of shoes at a time, never more. Clothes came from jumble sales until I started working weekends at 13 and could buy a few things myself.Holidays were a week in Torquay/Weymouth if you were lucky. I first went abroad (Spain) when I was 18.

I was lucky and went to a grammar school, then won a place at university, but only 10% of people went, and fewer women. We FOUGHT to get in. I got a grant which covered my halls room and half my bus ticket. Nothing for books, clothes, food, and there were no student loans, the banks simply wouldn't lend to you if you didn't have a job. So as a student, you either had wealthy parents who supported you, or you worked in a bar or shop. Or you dropped out. I worked 5 nights a week in a pub while studying.

Discrimination was widespread. If you weren't a healthy white male, life could be pretty awful. Fewer jobs needed a degree, much more training was available, plus night school etc. Our school got a computer when I was about 14. The IBM PC arrived when I was 22. The internet didn't exist. Phones were on street corners not in your pocket. 😁

Most people didn't go to university though. Those were the days that you could leave school at 15 and get an office job.

I think every generation has had it's challenges and every generation has it's perks.

I'm gen X and I think that's tough in some ways. First generation to get student loans and have to repay them while expected to save for pensions, our own children's university education, and generally having to have two parents working to survive. "The sandwich generation." I think those in my generation who are already grandparents also tend to feel they need to give a lot more support to their children than we ever got from our parents. Of course there's always going to be exceptions in every generation too.

Although Uni was free for us whereas now it costs a fortune, the maintenance isn’t enough to cover the high rents these days and students pay 9% interest on the loan !

Everything is relative of course, but if you compare life now to how it was in the late 90s/00s/10s, then things are worse now than they used to be. If you compare life in the 50s to Victorian times, people had it better in the 50s. Victorians lived better than people during the middle ages. Etc.

I think it's swings and roundabouts really. As a child in the late 60s ,I envied my friend her chopper bike! She envied me my own bedroom. School was good and we learnt French at 9. Now more children have phones and are quick on the Internet. Times change and whereas you would be either factory fodder or clever and work In a bank . now more chance at uni or to become an influencer or whatever

I actually found it really hard, or at least some aspects of it. I found composition difficult and really didn't have anyone to ask advice of at hand. It was my lowest mark at 67% and I know it's because I struggled alone with that bit. I should probably have gone to a different school where it was offered.

Gosh. Music by post sounds really weird.
I thought my sons doing music practice by zoom during covid was unusual but by post completely tops that !

No we didn't. I did do music but it was by an external provider and I did it by post. It was a special arrangement made by the school since they didn't offer the subject.

Did you have music?

We didn't have drama. The only arty subject was just that, 'art'. One of mine did clothing design, which involved so many diverse types of clothing and costume design. I'd never have had the interest but didn't have the option anyway.

Yes we had technical drawing which is the same as design and technology now. We had the usual art and drama as well. I didn’t think our school was that different to others tbh.
Maybe it was