What did the Boomers ever do for me?

[Nomama]

In the interests if balance, you understand!

I shall start with the Ford machinists:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_sewing_machinists_strike_of_1968

Equal Pay Act 1970

My thanks to you, Baby Boomers. Without you I couldn't have earned the same honest day's pay as the man working next to me. Hell, I couldn't even have got the job in the first place.

Now this generation needs to thoroughly break the Glass Ceiling!

Garlic- why not stay? Think full frank debate is healthy, something our politicians cd take on board.
I don't think upcoming generations are any more entitled than others beforehand were when young. Yes, post-Thatcherite consumer culture drives it all but people are necessarily short-termist- better the coffee & city break today as there will be no nice 2-bed flat -let alone a family house- tomorrow. Why be sensible when, to be frank, your generation are screwed financially?

And of course way back there was Supertax "I'll tell you how it will be: there's one for you, nineteen for me, cos I'm the Tax Man"

we thought our children would have broadly the same as us only better, we weren't thinking "Me, me, me"

No, not at all. But many of my generation seeded the destruction of our parents' ideals when they bought BT shares and council houses. When they re-elected Thatcher despite the already evident division between Gordon Gekko's "masters of the universe" and ordinary people. When they ignored Neil Kinnock's speech ... which I will paste here

If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you.
I warn you that you will have pain–when healing and relief depend upon payment.
I warn you that you will have ignorance–when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right.
I warn you that you will have poverty–when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay.
I warn you that you will be cold–when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don’t notice and the poor can’t afford.
I warn you that you must not expect work–when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies.
I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.
I warn you that you will be quiet–when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.
I warn you that you will have defence of a sort–with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.
I warn you that you will be home-bound–when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.
I warn you that you will borrow less–when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday–
- I warn you not to be ordinary
- I warn you not to be young
- I warn you not to fall ill
- I warn you not to get old.

x-posted with garlic. Twice. Agree with much of what she says.

So what are younger generations doing for the next generations? What should we Babyboomers have done differently when we were younger?

Interesting thing about tax, Nomama. British people have not really minded paying it. Because we believed it was going to the wider improvement of our society, health and security for later generations, and a secure old age.

Now look at everyone whining about the taxes they pay, low as they are. And interest rates! If you can get a loan, they're unbelievably low.

"Whining"

Your average wage will not provide enough for a decent pension or home ownership.

Erm what's not to wine about.

But your generation are not screwed financially.

The current 20 - 30 somethings are far more Generation Jones than any who have gone before. So many 'things' to have and do. So much expectation of leisure etc.

Previous generations looked forward to 'things' in retirement and worked towards them. Today there are huge numbers of things, credit, communication, travel, consumerism is rife. Have today has replaced save up to have it tomorrow.

I was looking back at a number of threads and cruises, cars, homes etc are regularly held up as things Boomers have in their retirement. I stopped to think...

... today's generation has hundreds of pounds worth of communication devises, renewed yearly, on its person every day - no matter how rich or how poor, the vast majority of people have a mobile phone, tablet thing etc. Teens get cars at 17, put on parents insurance etc - I don't think we had a car until we had been married for about 5 or 6 years.

There is so much in our expectations that have changed, stuff we are all blind to. Boomers have phones, tablets etc, yes... but have not had them for long and certainly wouldn't feel bereft without them. So they have been bought after the essentials were garnered. Today's generation has them now, always, and,as far as I can see, the monthly payments for them are what I saved every month in order to buy a car, get a deposit, etc etc.

This generation, like every generation before it, has vastly different expectations than its parents and grandparents. Different ideas of what is a need and what is a want.

I have a question for the Babyboomers,actually two.

Should we feel entitled to have what you have if you are so deserving?

What do you expect us to do to ensure it happens?

You want us to prop up the NHS you didn't pay enough into as you didn't figure out people would be living longer and medicine better and you want us to fund universal benefits for those that don't need it whilst losing benefits you enjoyed.

Our taxes and NI can't be cut in two,what should we do?

I was born in 63. The only thing I had for free was university.

There were no jobs when I graduated. Housing was cheaper, but there were no jobs to pay for the purchase of them. We lived in fear of a nuclear war. There were a few highly paid people in London and that was it. Regan andnThatcher were in control. They were bad bad times. Totally agree with Garlic that Thatcher is at the root of all this inequality.

I've worked all my life paying NI to support people,older than me. I didn't buy in the housing boom (no job) so no huge equity for me. I have had to pay to support ds through university so no ability to build up any savings. I have one holiday a year, and will have to work until I'm 67. I don't know anyone wo can retire or has retired at 50.

I think the younger generation has been screwed by successive governments, not by the Babyboomers. However, I feel I was screwed by Thatcher and her selfish policies

Look to the average wage, then, Petit, and look at Kinnock's speech.

If you pay little tax, then the society you envy cannot be funded with its free education & healthcare. If the taxes paid by everyone go to top up low wages, then that's even less funding for a healthy society.

Do you want a Starbuck's now, where you will complain with your friends about how my generation has failed to provide for you - or will you do something to alter the course your government has set for you? Because, if you don't, your children will not have security and your old age will be agony.

Tosh Nom my 3 won't have a car,they'll be lucky enough to have lessons as we'll be paying for the shortfall between uni fees,living expenses and loans(which you had provided) whilst paying a mortgage.

I really think some bbers live in cloud cuckoo land.Pensioners spend more on consume rambles than everybody else as they have the wealth.

I am just in the baby boomer generation but I look a lot younger!. My generation were lucky in some ways, but this idea that we all sailed through life on a wave of lifetime jobs, generous pensions and housing wealth is bollocks. The view that we all did it on purpose knowingly shafting our children's generation is just bizarre and divisive.

When I left uni, there was a recession and unemployment was rising rapidly. This was at the end of the 70's when we had just been through a miserable decade of strikes/3 day week etc.

Then we lived through periods of sky high interest rates when many homes were repossessed. Also, those of us who bought houses years ago whcih have shot up in value haven't made any money, because we are living in those homes.

What the current generation has that we didn't is a) freedom - to travel, to take whatever job they can regardless of their gender, to marry who they want regardless of gender b) everyone has a lot more stuff and society is far more consumerist. In the 60's and 70's shops were open 51/2 days a week, few people had a car or foreign hols - there were just a lot less opportunities to spend.

House price inflation came about largely because of credit liberalisation and women's emancipation financially. Boomers did not forsee the consequences and all generations today benefit from the upside of easy credit as well.

Final salary pensions have died not because of individual selfishness, but because an expanding state saw pensions tax relief as a cash cow and with growing life expectancy and poor stock market returns, they simply became unaffordable.

I'm not asking for sympathy and I worry how my son will fare in the future, but please don't blame the boomers like there was some generational conspiracy theory.

Starbucks,pmsl seriously you think your average family has the time and money to sit in Starbucks.

the NHS you didn't pay enough into

Untrue. It has been targeted - along with social housing - for privatisation since 1979. Since 1979, public funds have been diverted to private pockets. It's ideological.

Every single survey has shown Brits are happy to pay more tax for a better society. They still do - but the majorities are far narrower now than in the '80s and '90s.

Garlic we'd like to do something.

You tell us what to do.

Soooooo you paid enough into the NHS,really!

Really interesting points at 13:17, nomama.

LePetit, please read the IFS links upthread.... no-one seems willing to comment on my post re the IFS info, maybe because it directly contradicts some of the 'known' ideas about pensioners! There is also some interesting info on how individual boomers are using the NHS.... not as expensive as you think!

And before anyone shouts, Thatcher was not a boomer, nor were the majority of people who voted for her. She and they were much older and, if they were like my Nana, truly believed that she represented the best for hard working individuals... they were brought up without a benefits system and did not understand how consumerism would play out.

My Nana was a staunch Thatcherite and hearing her talk about how Thatcher would save us from debt as anyone who worked hard would be able to reap the rewards of their work was truly weird, given I had no work and very little hope of a future, The Bomb was very real to us then. But she was honest in her beliefs...

I kind of hope you don't hide the thread Garlic as I find your post interesting. But then I haven't read the whole thread myself so don't know how bad it gets or hard to read for those who are in or near the boomer generation and, like you and I, have been fortunate in some ways. Though life is never all good for anyone is it?
(Not just for Garlic) ... Ill-health and bereavement can raise their ugly heads for us and those we love at any time, irregardless of other circumstances, and tend to put a lot of other things in perspective

Petit, we don't pay £300 a month to the NHS, £300 to the Education department, £200 to the Infrastructure fund, and so on. We paid our taxes & NI and our government decided what to do with the money.

I didn't even vote for the bastards.

Still not hearing any suggestions.

We all work(harder with more stress as there are more 2x wp) and pay taxes.

So is it unreasonable to expect the same as you?Let's have some suggestions as to how we can have it please?

Still not hearing any suggestions.

Are you very young? Or a grown-up still expecting to be spoon-fed?

Badger your MP.
Sign petitions.
Join a union.
Go on demonstrations.
Get yourself informed.

I did all of them. That's how you got paid maternity leave, equal rights, changes to the rape laws, and other stuff. I still do them all, except for demos (disability.)

Petit, remember I am NOT a Boomer.

And you won't have a shortfall for Uni fees as your kids won't pay them until after they have completed the degree and are earning! I linked to repayment sites, I linked to the IFS that state quite baldly that many boomers are still living in poverty, others are working longer, living more healthily and costing the NHS less - those expensive rambles save the country money!

Does no one actually read information any more?

There is a shortfall between living expenses and loans.All parents I know are having to top up,those working in unis on here have mentioned it being a worry as soon only the very rich will be able to go.

I am not young,there is nobody to vote for.Our local Tory MP couldn't give a shit,he is to busy chasing the grey vote- which benefits you.

Does no one actually read information any more?

And there you have it.