to feel pissed off with selfish 'baby boomer' generation

[hermionepotter]

this was in response to a newspaper article where people surveyed wanted interest rates to go up. I could be BU I know. But it won't be those paying massive mortgages and debts who'll be wanting rates to go up, will be older people wanting interest on their savings and sod everyone else. So am I BU?

I think it's fairly well established that we are getting poorer so yes, the babyboomers, as a generation, have been the wealthiest ever.

Since more tax is spent on free bus passes and winter fuel allowance for pensioners (and these are not means tested so whatever their income pensioners receive them) than is spent providing tax relief for childcare (an expense that is required for families to work) there does seem to be something wrong. I'm not saying these benefits should be removed entirely but I do think means testing might be a good idea. Of course the middle class pensioner is a reliable Conservative voter so things aren't going to change soon...

I don't think we are going to see house price increases like the boomer generation so most of us won't get access to that "free money". Those of you who are saying you scrimped and saved to get your first rubbish home that you had to do up yourself are missing the point - if you did that today you just wouldn't get the same return and I don't think it would be a good thing if you did as that's what has priced so many young people out of the market.

There's a lot of mixed messages on this thread (though not all from the same people) - move to where the work is, live with your parents to save a deposit, move to where the houses are cheaper - these things can't always go together. I've had to move very far away from my family for my DH and I to get work and because it's somewhere with lots of jobs it is somewhere with very high house prices. I do however have a colleague in her late 20s who has just bought her first home on her own by saving money - it's tiny and in a bit of a dodgy area but it has been possible for her so it is still possible for some young people to buy their own homes.

I'm 34 and graduated with about £9K of student loans. I was staggered when the new grads at my work told me how much they owed - for most of them it's over £40K. I feel less lucky than the previous generation but luckier than the one's that are coming behind me - it's possible but getting tougher and tougher.

This country did once have fantastic stock of social housing, then Mrs Thatcher brought in Right to Buy and a lot of it was sold off.
Much of it is now in the hands of private landlords.

Housing Benefit was introduced so lower earners could afford to rent.
This has pushed up rents.

50 years ago the wages of a low paid worker could just about pay the rent, food and all the household bills. It may of been a case of first up, best dressed if there were a lot of DCs but it was doable.

What went wrong:

Too few jobs.

Too much erosion of collective bargaining.

Too much red tape.

Too much privatisation.

Too little investment in employees by employers

And I'm not left wing [wing]

I have said this before and will say again that winter fuel allowance could easily be linked to pension credit so no extra work for DSS.
Ridiculous that it hasnt been done .
Get rid of free bus passes .

I am so called babyboomer and worked for 40 years until my DH became ill . We live on his pension and pension credit. I wont get mine until 67 . They shifted the goal post with no time to make the shortfall up.
Have spent any savings on my children to help them through these tough times . I know how hard it is for your generation and it is awful.

But dont tag us all as having it easy . We didnt and dont now.

Sad that this becoming an ageist /generation divide.

askbasil funny- you can't seem to cite any rioting, yet I'm the obtuse one?

The original national pension scheme act was in the early 1900s (1908?), so well before BBers born.

SERPS was introduced in the early/mid 70s- this was done by the generation prior to the BBers, who would only have been 30 at most at the time.

pax- surely it was BBers that benefitted from Right to Buy?

You would be shocked at the length of wait for social housing for young people now.

Too little investment in employees by employers

Very much so wet- the education system is expected to provide workers, trained en masse by the state to work, not employers training people whilst paying them as happened previosuly.

too few jobs
well- surely this will be affected negatively if interest rates rise? Small businesses will not be able to invest, nor pay their creditors, will they?
Low interest rates are surely better for businesses aren't they?

I thonk what AskBasil was hinting at was that people were prepared to fight for their hard-won rights. The Poll Tax riots for instance got rid of that tax.
Unions used to fight for better pay and conditions. Their role has largely been replaced by EU directives etc. However, they are no substitute for an active union in a workplace. I was dismayed to see what my work colleagues gave up without a fight.

People are too politcally apathetic. A lot of them think the election is a beauty contest that's run every 4 years.

I can't understand how mortgage rates going up will help the general population though; so many people are already on the bones of their arses, that if rates go up, they will be repossessed.

How will that make things better for anyone?

I'm a FTB by the way, biding my time to get a mortgage until I can see which way things are going to go. I'm still mid 20's, so young(ish) for a FTB.

It's impossible to debate too few jobs without opening up the immigration debate and why these jobs are being taken by incomers instead of the longterm resident workforce. I don't intend to have that debate as things tend to get very heated.

Yes, you are being U.

Every generation has their own experience.

My parents went through the war. On the continent.

They never blamed us for the shit that went on then.

Get over yourself.

I also sympathise with people not wanting to live in wrecks/rough areas. Because a lot of people want a good house, in a good area (and this is key) near a good school for their kids. If you get your kids into a good school they're more likely to do better at exams, and be able to go on and get a better job. There's a reason house prices rise around Good Ofsted rated schools!

The effects of double-digit interest rates were mitigated by MIRAS (a tax perk now only available to buy-to-let mortgagors)
Just sayin like ...

VV, the original pension was set at grim sub-subsistence levels - hardly the BB'ers retirement with dignity levels.

Chunderella I don't think it was just numbers. One lever of negotiation the boomers had which we don't, was the spectre of communism.

Everyone forgets now, how genuinely frightened the capitalists were, that people would turn to socialist solutions if they didn't deliver. So they delivered.

They don't need to worry about delivering anymore. There isn't a powerful alternative.

I still don't understand. If interest rates rise much; a lot of people will default on their mortgages, and the banks will repossess.

Those houses will only be worth what people can afford to pay with interest rates taken into consideration, so could be worth less than the loan the bank provided initially to pay for the house.

Critics of the help to buy scheme have already argued it's creating a housing bubble.

So surely, it's not in the banks' interest for rates to rise?

Vworp: Right to Buy was introduced in 1980.
It was usually the BB parents who benefitted and bought their houses.
The longer they had been a tenant the cheaper the purchase prise.
My aunties and uncles all bought their houses, as they had all been council tenants for almost 30 years.

There was a shortage then of social housing, but the Tories wanted to get rid of it all. Free enterprise and all the shit that comes with it!

Disagree Chunderella about it being a numbers game.

Us 50s kids will remember the 70s when choas was wrought on many by very few.

Vroop I know as my dad just missed doing NS as he was at university and then it was ended whilst he was there and was born in the war. I was pointing out that people were not well off and had to do as they were told. BB is a bit sweeping as everyone is different. I was born late 60s so probably more post bb.

Never been rich, just about able to 'get by' . No social housing available so had to move far away from family to get affordable accomm. Today I still drive a 13 year old car, so don't tell me all about the good times we are supposed to have had. Some did but others did not. Never had a holiday abroad either and can't afford meals out.

Interest rates can't remain low just so that some people who borrowed too much can keep their houses. It is not just about that. Being this low is not a good thing for te country

If interest rates rise; house prices will nose dive, because a house is only worth what someone will pay for it

That will help no one, apart from first time buyers.

but also the fact that millions of men had fought and knew how to kill (and not a few of them managed to bring weapons back home with them too!). So they had to be placated, in a way that people don't when they've not had that same experience.

That's an interesting take on the Homes Fit For Heroes initiative.

It will help more than first time buyers it will mean people can move to get a house to suit their family. It is a good thing for prices to correct. If younare looking at your house as a home and can afford the repayments then what it's worth is irrelevant. Why should those who borrowed too much be rewarded?