to think the biggest threat to this country is war between generations

[suziepra]

In modern UK the young have to look forward to a backbreaking amount of debt as even to be a pa you need a degree. Then once they graduate they will be lucky to get a decent wage and only a tiny amount of people under 30 (3% of homes win last six months were purchased by under 30s) will be able to buy a houses. They will probably have a miserable time stuck at home during their 20s and 30s finding it difficult to start a family. Then they will have to work for the rest of their lives. Whereby watching their parents who bought cheep homes, retire in their 60s and enjoy 20 years of retirement. Yes I know there are exceptions to what I said, but this does seem to be the norm in the south east. I can see things going nasty.

And even if younger people arnt buying mags that run benefit bashing stories , they are usually featured on the front covers (I always see them when standing at the till) so they are hard to avoid and the influence is still there.

There are also tv programmes like Benefits Britain which I don't watch but ive seen comments reweeted into my Twitter feed and a lot of them have been tweeted by younger people. Ive even seen comments saying that ppl should be gassed.

So im fully aware what some young people think.

If people put less energy and time into hating other people and they're lucky breaks (whether that be because of their generation or their background) and more time focusing on their own lives then I imagine everyone would be a lot happier and probably a lot more successful.

Yes, property was cheaper 20 years ago. We know. Nothing you can do about it so we just need to focus on what we can achieve.

*their not they're

I think this thread is really quite nasty. I'm a Gen X, the Boomers are the ones just above me.

The majority I know are still working, supporting their dc/dgc and some are skirt. Very few are on cruises, or sitting in big mortgage free houses. Even those that are, are a product of the socio/politico/economic times. They aren't personally responsible for it, so why are people being so nasty about them.

I have dc struggling with student debt. I am appalled that our younger generation are in this situation, I think it is a terrible product of our greedy me me society rather than any baby boomers. I agree with the poster up thread who said the housing problems started in the 80s under Thatchers government. I saw it happening house prices rising at ridiculous rates and never coming back down. But this was the result of government policy not a bunch of now OAPs

well said madsometimes, my parents were quite well off but never threw money around. they both came from humble beginnings born during ww2.

my dh's parents were really hard up and his father was made redundant several times.

they live frugally now.

Is also say that the baby boomers do not have the monopoly on hardship.

I hear a lot of 'we didn't have smart phones/ TVs/ computers sort of arguments and I know growing up that we had very little money at some points.

But DP and I left university with student loans, with career develop loans and lived in gritty flats fur 10 years before we managed to buy. We had very little money .

Phones/ computers are a necessity now. You cannot expect young people not to have them. They are now a basic requirement.

And let's face it - once you are £30,000 in debt at 21, £30/month fur phone makes fuck all difference.

But I don't think this generation of pensioners really get it. They don't get the fact that DP and I will have to work until we are 70 to lay off our mortgage. They don't get the fact that we may not be able to support ourselves in old age, let alone afford a holiday.

while the pensioners in question live, mortgage-free in houses that my generation will never be able to afford.

This makes no sense. 30 years from now the baby boomers willve dead. Who do you think will live in their houses - bunnies?

This makes no sense. 30 years from now the baby boomers willve dead. Who do you think will live in their houses - bunnies?

Here in the US, there's enough empty and abandoned houses to give a home to each homeless person. There are houses that were built and then never bought. It's cheaper to keep them priced high and empty than it is to lose property value on the surrounding houses by lowering prices to make them more affordable. It's stupid, but that's what happens.

Orange I was born in 73 so Im Gen X too.

I agree about the policies that caused this.

Phones/computers are a necessity to apply for jobs.

I wasn't alive when Alexander Graham Bell invented the phone but I cant help wondering if when more people started to get landlines later on if the previous generation said "we never had that"

Its not really the fault of the current generation that smartphones were invented

I have to say Steeleye that your total ignorance of British social history is almost laughable. Madsometimes hits the nail on the head. I don't think much of your education...paid for by me. Unless of course you were privately educated, in which case your parents should ask for a refund.

But of course, you won't give your inheritance from the sale of the family home to charity, will you?!?!

I certainly don't feel like going on some kind of murderous rampage because I've got student debt and can't buy a house. I'm definitely not going to declare war on my parents - although they're generation X, maybe I would've done if they were baby boomers

I can't understand this attitude of blaming people for the era they were born in. It'd be nice if baby boomers stopped suggesting that we have it all so easy with our technology - a smartphone can't clear your student debt, or help you get onto the property ladder, or avoid the fact that we'll probably be working until we die - but at the same time, we should blame the government, not the baby boomers.

darkest you know what a minority of outspoken, privileged young people think. That kind of attitude is rife on forums like The Student Room, where there's constant competition - not to be the best academically, but to be the most right wing, the most Conservative, to have the most radical ideas (and unfortunately, despite their complete lack of social skills, these are the next generation of politicians no change there then ). Most young people my age are increasingly more liberal, and many are very balanced - they accept and understand that benefit fraud is an issue, but nowhere near as widespread as the media claim. Many of us were raised on benefits.

Funnily enough it's largely middle class young people who make all these claims on Twitter.

also the affordable homes. who will get them. will our own young people? I doubt it.

often big old houses get pulled down and flats put no. more concrete, less parking.

The homes might stay empty and high when the boomers die, bought as investment vehicles with no intention of anyone ever living there. Just as much of Chelsea is. Hiding the ill gotten gains of billionaires.

I don't think its the biggest threat but it is an insidious creeping threat. But I think most of the "privileged" generation are likely to be dead before it really hits home, or "benefit" from children hanging around them, giving them plenty of attention, hoping to be first in line for an inheritance, because its their only likely route out of relative drudgery (even if they have a decent job).

PIL for example. FIL retired at 53 on a final salary pension scheme, MIL at 60 on the same. Teacher and computer repair man, neither have degrees. They own a large detached house in an affluent suburb, two holiday homes abroad, two cars, a motorhome and a caravan. They benefitted from at least three family inheritances themselves, but constantly complain about not having enough money, how difficult things were when they were younger with a short phase of high interest rates and not having received enough inheritances. Yet they remind us "not to expect anything from them". We absolutely don't want anything - I would refuse, they annoy me that much, but they make such silly financial decisions that I doubt it will be possible. They like to control their children on this basis and don't like that DH and I have our own lives separate from all of this.

OP I think you've fallen for the divide and conquer tactics that are employed by politicians and the media.

The main things such as house price rises, zero hour contracts and the devaluing of degrees etc have been caused by government policy and big companies taking advantage of employment loop holes. The only baby boomers that are to blame are the ones who signed the policies.

Personally I'm happy to keep supporting the BB pensions - I think the only way we can hope to have pensions by the time we retire (at least 40 years off for me) is to continue to vote to support them.

I have two sons, one at uni and one in his second year at work after uni.

DS1 has reasonable job. He can't afford to buy in London but could buy almost anywhere else in the country. I would anticipate that if in due course he marries someone in a similar position to himself they will be at least as comfortable as DH and I were in our late 20's. The repayment on student loans is quite affordable.

DS2 works hard and even if he ended up with a low paid job he will be able to afford to live independently outside London.

There is no shortage of work for anyone who is prepared to be flexible about what they take.

My boys have two grandmothers, both broke and in need of more care than they get, hardly superboomers.

The jealousy and resentment is horrible on this thread.
But some people always look at enviously at what others have.

My DD is 34, left school at 18, works, lives in the SE, had a mortgage at 20, now divorced and is working 60 hours per week to pay the mortgage. She does some work from home so gets up at 5.00am and stays up late so she take and pick up her DCs from school.

She never ever whinges about being hard up.
Her house is the cheapest, smallest house in the shittiest area of town and she just gets on with it.

Out of the SE there are many old cheap houses for sale, but everyone wants to live in a Naice house with ensuites, more loos than anyone needs and in a Naice area.

If the Naice people invaded the shitty areas then they would become Naice too.

I don't think it'll be anything like a war but I do expect as this current generation of teenagers grows to take power, they will be far less likely to be sympathetic to the boomers who have given themselves unaffordable pensions and borrowed money that they're having to pay back.

Already we're seeing the current generation of kids being far more right wing than ever. They're not stupid. They know there won't be any final salary pensions or cushy union protected jobs for them when they're older.

Personally I think the boomers should hang their heads in utter shame. Piling so much debt onto future generations so we can have things we otherwise can't afford is bad enough already. But to keep moaning about it being not enough and wanting to borrow more is even worse.

I know one young person who got 80k compensation age 25, 5 years ago.
His parents hoped he would put it towards a mortgage.
He pissed it up the wall.
Hopefully he doesn't whinge about not being able to buy a house.

NiceGuy: Right wing is useless.
We have a housing crisis because of right wing policies.
The Thatcher Right to Buy started all this crap.

This thread stinks.
I never realised that there was such hatred of over 55s from young people.

When my DCs were young we were hard up. We had free milk tokens.
I had quite well off friends and neighbours, who had nice holidays, news cars and new clothes. We stayed with friends if we could afford the petrol, had a 25 year old car and clothes were all from jumble sales.
I was never jealous of my friends.

Why do people assume that people took cushy pensions in full knowledge that it would create debt for younger generations?

Honestly if someone said to me "here's your full salary as a pension, don't worry about the cost, we can afford it" 40 (or even 30 / 25 ) years from now I wouldn't sit down and work out whether they had done their calculations properly, I would bite off their hand to take it and live a life of Reilly!

The problem is politicians who promised great things to win votes in the knowledge that they'd be long gone by the time the proverbial hit the fan. Blaming your average pensioner is just silly.

I agree pax - I think it just shows how effectively politicians can shift blame from themselves to other people. Divide and rule never goes out of fashion it seems...