… to think that no one wants to speak up for the younger generation?

[SnowBells]

I don't know what it is. Maybe political correctness gone mad.

Pensioners who are already wealthy get winter fuel allowance, etc. Each time this kind of stuff gets mentioned on things like Question Time or something, people shout and whistle, showing complete disregard for the subject, and no real debate can happen.

I am not talking about the pensioners who aren't well off. But a huge proportion of pensioners did profit from the higher house prices - something not likely to happen for the younger generation.

Our kids have to pay to go to uni. My generation will retire much, much later. We also have to pay for inflated house prices.

And yet, there will be people who say 'but we've paid our taxes'. Well, we pay taxes and our kids will, too, but we are likely to get A LOT less back. I just feel there's a huge generational wealth divide. And I wonder why no one wants to discuss this properly? Why do people want to stop a debate before it has even had a chance to happen?

Everyone will die. Your legacy is the next generation. So why not speak up for what essentially will be your only legacy?

expat - we lived in a 1 bed flat until 38.

And? I lived in one until I was 34. Big deal. Plenty of people live in shacks all their lives. Doesn't mean it's a good thing at all, especially in places with great disparities between rich and poor. And in a place where relatively little if the land is built on and which has a large number of unoccupied dwellings.

but we already import 30-40% of our food requirements. should we build on more farmland? if not where does this extra land come from?

Plenty of brownfield and homes that are unoccupied. Shoddily-built, overpriced rabbit hutches are not the answer.

I think the way youngsters are unsupported in this country is an absolute disgrace. I wouldnt set 1 generation against the other tho ie its not pensioners' fault. Theyve paid their dues, done their work..why shouldnt they get some comfort? Theyve lived through life, most that complain have yet to reach their age. Why are we looking at what pensioners get and dont get anyway?

This government and society is creating a lost generation of youth, youths that are bad are touted as an example of ALL youths. Not the same for adults, who arent all tarred with the same brush at all. Its so dumb..who do they think will be the teachers, doctors, parents, carers, lawyers etc of the future? It really is backward-thinking. Seems to me a lot of people want youngsters to carry the can for a broken society and rubbish government policies they had no hand in creating. Whilst adults squabble and sections of the working class turn against each other (as futile as that is)..what about them? I have heard friends completely diss youths..more around the theme of EMA/Uni grants..we were at college and Uni together back in the day, and we managed because we got grants. In fact at the time I was at college (decades ago!) I got a free travelcard, also book allowance. As for Uni - no fees/student loans to re-pay either. People who have benefitted themselves dont want others to benefit. Rubbish mentality.

Morgause - I don't want it to happen to me or you.

I am 50 and it may well happen to me I am sure of it. I am sure when I am 85 that the crisis will be so acute (because the boomers will have just about died by then) my generation will suffer the aftermath.

If you're 50 you ARE a boomer (just), MoreBeta. Feeling despised yet?

twofingers - yes I know I am right on the cusp of boomer and Generation X. I can see both sides of the story. As I said above I think it is about attitude more than age.

Boomers really really annoy me. I have always felt out of step with other 'boomers'.

Boomers really really annoy me. I have always felt out of step with other 'boomers'.

What a stupid thing to say. Not all boomers think the same. Stupidity really, really annoys me.

Morgause - are you a boomer?

As I said, its the 'boomer' state of mind not a whole age group I am out of step with.

WTF is a 'boomer state of mind'? Who judges this? (You, presumably.)

If you'd read the thread and my previous contribution you'd know I am. I'm not aware of a boomer state of mind.

Here's what I said earlier

*We are also the generation who fought for (and still fight for) equality for women, LGBTs and other minority groups. We marched and campaigned for better health care, fairer benefits and compensation for those damaged by industrial injury or drugs that should never have been on the market.

Do not demonise an entire generation for the actions of some. Not all of us voted Tory.

Some of us looked at how the world was in the 60s and didn't like what we saw. We didn't whine and blame the previous generations we got off our backsides and organised campaigns to try to make society better.

Happy to hand the baton over to succeeding generations, if they can be arsed.*

"boomer state of mind" = I paid in, I worked hard so I deserve it, nothing but the best for me, the younger generation are feckless and lazy (and spend all their money on expensive coffees) etc etc etc

"Retirement" was never meant to last 30+ years was it?

twofingers - look up the thread at what other people are saying and you will see examples of what people feel uncomfortable about. Its about a generation that took out more resources than they created.

Perhaps the first and only generation that did that and stole their children's and grandchildren's future. I feel very annoyed for that reason.

I am OK. I did well out of life. I am not sore about boomers for myself. I am right on the cusp. I am though annoyed about the mess they will leave my children.

Morgause - it is not about being a Tory.

Labour voted through huge unsustainable wasteful spending increases and promised pensions that could never be delivered.

Labour and Tory are just as much to blame.

Fortunately, I don't know any boomers with that state of mind. Maybe you should change the company you keep, Procrastinating.

MoreBeta, if you're concerned about the mess 'they' will leave your children, I do hope you demonstrated against student fees and are actively campaigning against the many things Mrs DeVere mentions in her post. (There is always a 'they' isn't there? But it's never you...)

It seems to have escaped a number of people on this thread that 'baby boomers' are the parents of the next generation and are equally concerned about their futures, too.

Here's an interesting 'baby boomer fact' about unemployment... Bloody entitled baby boomers trying to find work... pulled the ladder up behind them, etc, ad nauseum...

I don't think Labour and Tory are equally to blame, MoreBeta. Labour weren't responsible for the wholesale closure of grammar schools (diminishing the prospects of working class children) or for selling off LA housing (which has partly led us where we are today where home ownership is seen as everything and fair rents and secure tenancies are a thing of the distant past). They did introduce student fees, admittedly, but it was the current government that tripled them.

You are indeed fortunate twofingers.
Here is one I think:
www.saga.co.uk/saga-magazine/2014/march/over-50s-uk-economy.aspx

Has Melanie Phillips been reading this thread?

How utterly illogical and nasty.

I was a child in the 70's and 80's so apologise for the fact that I was probably more concerned with the fate of the Blue Peter garden and Live Aid than actual proper current affairs, but clearly I have missed something.

I can definitely remember 3 million unemployed, playing ghosts during the power cut, very few women working (is that better work life balance?…), negative equity, CND, hardly any cars, and Elton John marrying Renate. Clearly I now realise that all this other stuff going on was just a ruse to cover up the secret meetings of the baby boomers where they deliberately plotted not to pay into defined contribution pension schemes even though they hadn't really been invented yet so that they could shaft their children. I suspect they even ate mushroom vol au vents while they were scheming, the scoundrels!!!!.

Sadly social mobility is going to have to slow down. We are a tiny island with limited scope for expansion. Unless we build on every last piece of green belt then our growing population is only going to see one outcome.

You asked what I expect your generation to do - here's a great example. Stop peddling this absolute nonsense. Less than 2.3% of the UK is built on. What formula exactly did you use to determine that 2.3% is the exact limit after which we should no longer build to support excess population?

Why is the UK being an island relevant at all? Do you think non-island countries somehow geographically expand and contract proportionally to the population?

The generations before you built whole new towns to ensure you had sufficient room and affordable homes - just look at the policies they voted for en masse:

stephentall.org/2014/02/19/18-posters-in-which-the-conservatives-promise-to-build-more-houses-the-last-one-appeared-in-1979/

Yet all we hear now is "they aren't building any more land", "we live on an island", "what about the green belt" and of course "but it will lower the price of my house". Yet another example of the boomer generation pulling to ladder up behind them on opportunities their predecessors put themselves out to provide for them.

Overpopulation is a problem on a global level - but the way to deal with it is not to pretend young people don't exist and give them nothing to realistically aspire to, condemning them to a quality of life much worse than your own. House the people who are here now and implement policies to prevent further population growth - simple.

Actually joven where my boomer parents live there were two possible places where there were plans for new houses, both developments were
opposed NOT by the boomers but by the young home owners on the street and that is a fact as I was at one of the meetings - my parents were all for the development as they hoped it would lead to a better bus service in the area.

And another planned housing estate is being apposed again not only by young people but by young people who live in local social housing worried about not enough school places and services like GPs - again I was at the meeting so I saw for myself who was opposing.

I didn't meet any boomers who were worried about their views and house prices at any of the meetings I went to

As I said earlier, population is declining in Europe, the birth rate is less than replacement rate. This is happening in other developed countries. so overpopulation is really not the perceived crisis many think it is.

morgause I don't think your generation can take the credit for womens rights, most of the hard yards were done by the generation before the boomers (for whom I have massive respect) and given that it is the boomers in power now and we are experiencing a massive pornifcation of culture, rising misogyny and dismissal of feminism, I don't think that generation are doing a great job.

My generation are not 'whining', and I don't see anyone who 'can't be arsed' they all work a minimum of 50 hour weeks (if they are lucky) with no job security, a great deal of stress from an expectation that staff will always be available at any time of day or night, they are paying off student debt, desperately trying to save a deposit for a house, delaying starting a family because they hsve no stability and just can't afford it. And this is because of the actions of the boomer generation.

morebeta hear hear!

One final word, when some of you complain about the feckless yoof, remember who raised them, you guessed it, the boomers!!