Any other millennials fancy a moan?

[MoscowMules]

I know everyone says, the generation before you had it harder, all the way back to the Crimean War probably.

But

Is anyone else who is a millennial just a bit fed up? Fancy a pity party?

I reflected this evening on things that have happened.

I was born in the very early 90's, so am pretty much smack bang in the middle of the millennials.

We've lived under pretty much unstable governments in adulthood. Mainly conservative.

We've had 2 global recessions

An illegal War

Brexit

A global pandemic

Housing Crisis

Cost of living crisis

Possible collapse of the NHS or if not collapse it continues to limp on with poor care

Russia invade Ukraine and global tension.

To mention but a few calamities, and now here we are, trying to raise Alpha Generation typically, in the midst of all this.

I just feel a bit like "wtf" how much more can we take?

Yes there were good things on a social level, we were the first to learn and grow from the internet and become digital. LGB rights moved forward with same sex marriage, education improved especially with the removal of Section 28 from the education act towards the end of some of our schooling.

But my god! What a generation to belong to and try and navigate in.

I totally accept if I'm having a pity party for one here tonight though 🤣

I suppose many of you are right, every generation has had its calamities, disasters and depression.

I think part of me just wishes we could get a break. Like there doesn't seem to be a "golden" decade coming anytime soon. No growth on the horizon, if anything like a PP has said Europe as a whole is in decline.

Will we ever get our "prosperity" years?

I'm a bit older than you and love a good millennial whinge! I don't know a single person of our generation who has bought a first house without substantial help from a parent. I just (at 37) bought my first house and despite a decent salary I needed help from my Dad for the deposit. Crazy private rent meant I couldn't save for a deposit until very recently. And I don't have an extravagant lifestyle - no fancy holidays or high spending on cars / clothes / avocado toast etc.

Sometimes it feels like my entire adult life has been on shifting sands, and that's been pretty scary at times. I have a lower standard of living than my parents did, despite having higher qualifications and a better job. The house I bought with a view to live in forever is about three doors down from and almost identical to my parents starter home. I will have to work really hard to pay off my mortgage before I retire, but appreciate I'm super lucky to have that option.

My biggest worry is the appalling decline in public services through my adulthood. Since I graduated (in 2008) it seems like education, health services, social care, housing have all slowly but surely become worse and worse.

On the other hand, there's lots of upsides to our generation - mostly stuff to reminisce over. I still remember when you did online flirting by throwing a sheep at someone on Facebook! 24hr computer labs at uni cos lots of people didn't have their own. Questioning why anyone would want an iPad when everyone already had a smart(ish) phone and laptop/desktop (I obvs have an ipad now in addition to the smart phone and desktop). I actually love how much technology has developed and think (despite the downsides) it has massively improved our lives.

I felt old at the weekend tho - my 15yo nephew was playing music "so old it's pretty much retro". It was Eminem! He was really shocked when I told him I had three albums on CD.

I’m kind of with you as there are expectations imposed on our generation which are not achievable. On the other hand, there are expectations that we should have the same expectations and not work as hard. At no point would my parents have the expectation that they were ‘incapable of working’ due to mental health conditions and expect to be supported.

In all honesty no, I don't think we're going to experience prosperity. I think Europe's time is coming to an end. Africa Asia are on the ascendant, South America will quickly follow and the ME already owns most things. Russia will find a way to benefit although it's a fucking mess so actual feelgood will be less widespread.

The average European is 40 years old and middle aged people generally do not do great things. Some African countries the average age is 16. They have a vast working age pool of talent to draw on.

What I think we can do is make things more equal within our populations and the countries that already do that eg scandanavia will have a less painful time of it. But the UK generally has a very poor record in this regard with assets stacked at the top end. So I am less than hopeful. Eg you talk about your father's final salary pension - great for him, but loads of his peers lost pensions in the early 2000s craze for acquisitions and mergers with no liability for continuing pensions. We've got a long history of shit like that going on that places like eg Germany and Belgium and pretty much all of central/northern Europe just would not tolerate.

Every generation has its challenges. My parents were born just before the war. Then austerity.

I had the Cold War, 3 million unemployed, AIDS, black Wednesday etc etc. i remember being told I wouldn't work full time when I left school as we'd all have to work a 3 day week. Imagine that, there's no point to working hard at school as I'm there will be no jobs.

Runaway inflation, strikes , power cuts (70s not now).

I'm sorry but I don't agree. Bad things happen in every lifetime. All the boomers and xers have lived through the same things as you and more (bombing by the IRA? How about the Cold War? Or 3 day week in the 70s, not to mention rampant sexism racism and homophobia)

Is not a competition as to who has it worse. Pretty sure you'd have been glad to be younger when covid hit. My 70yo mum and dad were terrified with good reason.

I think you have to acknowledge that life has improved which counters other shitty things that have happened. The standard of living now is sky high compared to my childhood (80s). People have so much more both of things and experiences and opportunities.

Tories have mostly been in power for the last century. You can blame them for the fucked up state of the nation (I agree) but them again its not unique to now. They experienced similar in the 70s.

It's all about your mindset. If you want to see the bad you will but don't go living up to the snowflake stereotype of thinking you're special and uniquely disadvantaged. You aren't.

Are we ever going to outnumber the boomer/older conservative generations though at the ballots?

Collectively the boomer generation is already outnumbered. The difference is that they get out and vote when they have the chance. We need proper turnout at elections. Only 67% of people eligible to vote did so in 2019 and statistically the younger you are, the less likely you are to vote.

You definitely should. Might be because today I was listening to kiss FM and they still play those 90s dance mashups and I can feel like its the 90s again.

God I remember at school when we had those projects and you had to learn and write about different civilizations like the Aztecs. And the teacher would staple your books together..and the only way to learn were from library books. And that was it whatever was in the books was all you knew 😆 and the library card had a book limit so id always hassle my sisters to add books on their cards for me 🤣

Haha jesus the memories.

To be honest this is the first time I really notice the decline phase of a recession. These cycles always happen. We will probably go through another one but when we are elderly. So I just don't bother focusing on the negative.

I just think wow I lived through that time when... like kids today will be like that time we lived through a pandemic to their own kids.

As an xer, just go away and stop gaslighting. They got they raw end of the deal.

We're in the same boat housing wise In a one bed flat that has increased in value 3x what we bought it for which in itself is disgusting but we can't get our foot on the ladder to buy a family home as they all start at about half a million round here and are unmortgagable to people in our income bracket so frustrating when you try do everything "right" to succeed and then life throws you a curveball like this isn't it 0

I was born in the 80s but don't really remember them. I watched a documentary the other day about the strikes in the 70s and 80s and it did seem like a very bleak time. Plus the cold war and threat of nuclear attack (which I had no idea about at the time as I was so young).

So times have always been hard.

My parents' generation, the baby boomers had cheap housing, free university and great pensions. The fact is, we can't afford to offer that to the sheer numbers of people now and that's just an economic fact.

Will we ever get our "prosperity" years?

With such intergenerational inequality & an ageing population unfortunately the answer is no.

Oh I don’t know OP. I’ve quite enjoyed my millennial life so far. Certainly when it comes to parenting I am in awe at how previous generations coped without some of the things I now take for granted. I love that we grew up without the internet taking over most of our childhood and that it was still normal to meet up with your mates in the estate to hangout without so much of the drug/stabbing fear we all have now. I managed to get on the property ladder at 24 with the shittiest property ever but learnt DIY via YouTube and sold for a small profit and moved up the ladder that way. Having said that I ignored the “you must go to uni or else you will fail at life” propaganda that was prevalent at my school so I understand I would feel a lot more aggrieved if I had racked up uni debt and struggling to get on the property ladder in my 30’s.

Living standards in the UK have been dropping since the 70s really.

The most ridiculous comment of the year so far.

Sigh.
Those were the days.

See, I'm a geriatric millennial (so at the older end) and feel I've had it pretty good.

My secondary, further and higher education were all under a Labour government (and I benefitted from various schemes due to being from a low income background).

I graduated from uni (first and last in my family to do so) and had just secured my first post-qualifying job before the financial crash happened.

Me and my peers are all pretty resilient, bright, hardworking (with some notable exceptions) and so far seem to be on the right side of history with regards to issues of social justice, Brexit etc. Those that want kids, mostly, seem to have them (though I think sadly we were led up a bit of a garden path about how long we could/ should leave it so I now have a surprising number of friends going through IVF or the adoption process). Many of us are child free by choice and if feels like we're the first generation where that is socially acceptable.

I do agree that the housing crisis has badly impacted our generation (particularly in the South) but when I look at my parent's generation and my wider family/ hometown/ school peers it was only really my parents generation that owned their own homes. Prior to the 80s every single member of my family lived in rented accommodation, it's really not that unusual - I guess the difference is that they had the benefit of social housing whereas most people who rent now are at the mercy of the private sector.

On balance, I don't think we've had it that bad - but then again I think that anyone who come of age before the financial crash should be lumped in with Gen X because socio-economically we have far more in common with our older peers.

As a millennial I've been exceptionally lucky...if you ignore the homelessness, single Mum period and job woes...
Things that have helped:
Inheritance - in my husband's family inheritance is skipped a generation.his Grandmother sold her house, money given to grandchildren to be a house deposit and the rest went on an extension at his parents so she lived with them in her final years. Without this, we wouldn't have a home now.
My intention is any inheritance I may get will go to my children to do the same.

House size - remember what most of us grew up in? A 3 bed semi, that now seems tiny? Yet it worked, thanks to social media everyone seems to think they need more or bigger spaces. I am exceptionally glad we've bought a house that is slightly tight as my teens become adults, but will be plenty big enough when they leave. So many friends have huge houses that will be excessive when the kids move out. The bills that come with it are also excessive. We need builders to build sensible sized family homes to support affordability as well as an end to second homes.

Politics - A few people have commented on Conservatives being to blame, that no other party is worth while and I 100% agree, BUT as crap as they are we don't have any extremists. My worry for a new party to deliver change can easily be summarised by Nazi party. We do NOT want extremists, we don't want people promising great changes because it is rarely the rich who suffer as a result.

Yes, life is tough, we have challenges that are different from the generations before and will be different to the next generation.
We also have some fantastic things and I'm quite excited to see what's to come next especially around conservation and eco living
Music however.... nothing will beat the 90s pop sensations!! 😂

I'm another one who did everything 'right' - very good grades / job / saved for deposit on flat in London and can't make it up the chain.

Also now realise the friends I made at the good university and good job have rich boomer parents sitting in £1m+ properties ready to downsize or waiting to step in to support with school fees etc - so generally a lot of my friends have gone up the ladder already, are paying less mortgage and do not worry about their pension.

Being a millenial with a working class boomer parent is crap!

(joining the pity party, I am lucky compared to others I know)

I was born in 81 so slap bang on the cusp of Gen X / Millenial.

This 90s nostalgia that you're giving me is just brilliant.

I agree with a PP that there have always been hard times. And the 80s was no picnic. Some of the political strife is comparable sure.

But never before has it been the case that two people working full time have potentially been unable to put a secure roof over their head. That is something that is new and is scary. If that trend of the gap between income and property prices continues where does that leave our currently young kids, or our grandkids?

That insecurity on its own has to have a massive impact across the section of society at the age of wanting their first home and it is impacting everything. If you can't afford a home do you bother with a wedding? Children? Or do you just work work work and hope that eventually you can get your home and start your life at an age where you might still be able to have a family.

It must be scary and hard. Especially if you don't have a family that can help. That divide between those with family who can gift a deposit and those without is just going to get wider.

I'm fortunate. I bought a flat in the early 2000s. Over the years I've moved , with H, a couple of times, and now we have our big family house. I don't know that I could have even started if I was born 10 years later.

This, except I’m on older millennial (‘84) and I hit 18 in 2002 so had a small taste of the good life where we were booming. I worked for a few years but then ended up as a single parent and had to claim benefits under a labour government.
Then 2008 hit. Then Tory’s came in. Then Austerity happened. and then I also started working in a public sector job.
I can undertake why everyone is striking, there’s only so long you can live under austerity and then wonder why, because it’s hasn’t improved anything at all.
i don’t know it we will ever buy a home living in the SE.
childhood was great though, I wouldn’t change that for anything. The 90s were a blast

I agree with @ZenNudist and @Crumpledstilstkin and @Nosleepforthismum.
I wouldn't like to have been born when my parents were born, or my grandparents.
Yes I couldn't afford the house that my parents bought at 25 now even
10 years older.
All of my friends in the north who have bought houses have done so without parental help. I started saving for my mortgage whilst at uni working part time at 18 and bought at 24 (yes the housing is cheaper but still saved over £15 grand at that young age)
I've worked as a nurse for the past 15 years and it has got worse over those years and we need a big change.
I find a lot of millennials around me love a good moan, very opinionated political (I don't trust any of them and don't believe in labour or Lib Dem's have our interests at heart either)
My friends who went to university to get a general degree (English, psychology and not going into masters, history etc) struggle more with jobs as schools pushed and pushed everyone to go to university and you'll all get good jobs! The ones who went into apprenticeships etc have done better and have done degrees specific to their jobs.

Yikes nobody has even mentioned that we have the impacts of climate change to grapple with. It's actually our generation who have become responsible for the ultra rapid transitions away from fossil fuels that we all need to make.

But yeah I get the pity party, as a shared owner of half a house that I can no longer afford to staircase up to 100% and am now trapped by a shit lease and exorbitant fees.

Isn't it just life and part of being human in a greedy society? I don't believe utopia can be achieved while humanity lives.

I'm gen x. Grew up on benefits. My mother is a waspie. I'd go to sleep listening to the news on the radio terrified of nuclear war. Ozone layer terrified me.

My 90s born stepsons have achieved more than I had at their age. One bought his first flat at 25 and now has a lovely house. He didn't even do a levels. My daughters childhood is wonderful so far but unless we, those in adulthood now, make major personal changes her future will be fucked from a resource and environmental perspective. That future scares me. Not her life in this present.

It is hard. It is shit. I believe it will forever be so but, this is your life.

the baby boomers had cheap housing, free university and great pensions. The fact is, we can't afford to offer that to the sheer numbers of people now and that's just an economic fact.

No because their cheap mortgages crashed the economy resulting in the first recession.

As for great pensions, I wish somebody could tell me why the richest demographic in the country, 75% of whom own their house with no mortgage, need free prescriptions, bus passes and fuel allowances. Plus the taxpayer funded social care they constantly demand.

Starmer has been a let down. Never thought I would see the day that a Labour leader wouldn’t support strike action when public workers are being treated so appallingly. He’s just trying to appeal to the ‘In OuR DaY wE jUSt gOt On WiTh iT’ types. Here’s hoping it’s purely for voting reasons.