to ask if you're pissed off with the Baby Boomers?

[DamFineBeaver]

Because people who are currently young-ish adults (MN's main demographic?), and younger, will be paying for the lavish lifestyle they've enjoyed?
The money borrowed for their nice big pensions will be paid back by us and our children.

Does this mean they shouldn't spend so much time in Tenerife?

summerworld - you are generalising about younger people working harder. I see many youngsters working PT and bringing up families. In low-paid jobs that don't involve much stress, responsibility or travel. They get free childcare provided and tax credits. I have spent my life working FT, with no benefits from the gov other than child maintenance which has now been removed.

I agree housing costs are prohibitive.

It also riles me when OAP's go on about having paid tax all their lives so they deserve free bus passes etc - and then finding that it was only the husband who worked. But that is no longer the case with younger baby boomers - we haven't all lounged around bringing families up and not working

I think some ppl are missing the point.
Every generation has its variables. And BBs range not only widely in age but in experiences.
But I think what pisses some ppl off is that there were many ppl who benefited from low house prices and social mobility meaning that someone with a mediocre job could afford a v nice house and pay it off well before retirement. Good for them. However, many of those same ppl refuse to acknowledge their timely good dortune and will berate the younger generation for being frivolous by buying ready made food. As though a mo frugal lunch budget would mean th too could afford a 4 bed detached house on one single, just above average wage.
This is not true.
Food is very expensive. The cost of living is high and making apacked lunch will not drum up the means to buy a house.
And ues, i am a bit sick of hearing from some women who never went out to work defnensively stating "we worked hard for what we had" ok. admittedly they would have worked hard in the home given the more limited domestic appliances, but no. Yo did not work hard for that house. You were fortunate to hae been living in a time when your husband's pretty average wage could support your lifestyle.
This is not the case now. There will be no cruises for my generation. That is just luck. But dnt pretned its because i didnt work as hard as you when you never had to leave your kids to work and pay the mortgage.

There will be no cruises for my generation.
Oh there will be plenty of cruises for the 1% - of every generation. Who are having a high old time while we bicker about who worked the hardest.

The first type of tax credit were the 1990's afair, but it was Family credit and not like the current tax credit system.

I agree ther is a lot of generalisation here and all generations have those that benefit.
I have benefitted from my generation, I'm not a bb, but have done quite nicely. So have others from my generation. some haven't done as well, some have done even better.

People have blamed Boomers for Thatcher. When she was first elected the oldest Boomers were 33 and the youngest were 15.

She got in on the back of the pre-WW2 generation. The Boomers are the generation which protested against her.

I didn't protest against her. I was relieved that the chaos that was Britain at the time she was first elected was going to be sorted out. I was only 15 so couldn't vote but remember being revolted by the stink of the local town with all the bin bags waiting to be collected. Let's just remember how dire a state the country was in.

Whatever she did later on (and I don't dispute that) she was a breath of fresh air at first.

Abra1d, fair enough. My point was really that there weren't enough Boomer voters to have foisted her on the other generations if they didn't want her.

Exactly, floisme!

And anyway... who wants to go on a bloody cruise? I can't think of anything worse!

Abra1d - and power cuts, i remember a lot of my childhood pre thatcher were based in candle light. And wasn't there really high inflation eating into people's savings and wages?

I enquired once about getting a phone line installed in my flat and was told it would take a month. this is england i'm speaking about, not some third world or communist country. can you imagine waiting a month now?

I don't know how many people take cruises, but as far as I think there are quite a few current threads where people from my generation (30-40) are talking about skiing holidays and private schools. I am sure that neither the private education system nor the skiing industry are planning on going out of business any time soon.

dreaming where is this "free childcare" younger people are getting now, because I'd like some of that!

If you are referring to wtc then you are very much mistaken- it only covers a fraction of the cost. The cost of childcare being the highest in Europe.

Whoppee doo to is young 'uns!

Jackie, just how much childcare - free or otherwise - do you think there was for the boomers when they first started having families?

This Monty Pythonesque who-had-it-the-worst contest is going to get us nowhere. Times were different then. Some things were better; some things most certainly were not.
The End.

I think the power cuts were the early 1970s (3 day week). May have happened in the winter of discontent as well. That's when the rubbish piled up in some cities. Lots of industrial unrest.

Yes and the phones. Not only did you have to wait to have one installed you had to have a party line with the house next door.

The only childcare available to me in 1980s was a childminder. I had 3 DC and could not afford to pay a CM. There were no nurseries at all. In the city there were a few attached to schools but in the villages children started school in year1, in the term after their 5th birthday. No pre-school or reception year. Until they were 5 children stayed at home with mum. There were pre school playgroups. These were in church halls. They were mornings only, and often organised by mums themselves. DC had to be out of nappies before they were allowed to attend.

nagynolonger DH's job was never secure once Mrs T got elected. It wasn't just the miners and steel workers who lost their jobs. Entire industries went under all across the country. Engineering, boot and shoe, textiles very little remains. To top it all they sold all the utilities and council houses. That's the main reason there are no homes for families and only lower paid service/retail jobs.

That's just normal reality of life now that non BBs have to cope with.

One of the things that annoys me most about some BBs (not all, and its not even that they like to blame Margaret Thatcher for all the supposed things that ever went wrong in their lives) is that the taxpayer should subsidise whole industries so men and a few women should have a nice easy job for life and never be troubled by moving home for work, like many people have to do.

There would be more industries and businesses if the BB generation hadn't insisted on unprofitable terms and conditions, or if they had been more entrepreneurial and set up businesses. But no, they not only expected to walk into a job, they expected an entire industry that they and their friends could walk into.

And the fact that its not provided is Someone Else's Fault.

I've always had to move for work, most of my friends have too, and I see no reason why adult men (which is what most miners were) should be provided with work or their industry propped up by the taxpayer.

LOL at a nice easy job for life!

Do you really think working in a mine or a steel works or a factory on piece work was easy.

Dh was fine he did get made redundant but set up his own small business. I guess many did. The tax pay still had to foot the bill for all the unemployed. It's all very well saying get on your bike but there were no jobs. School leavers, graduates, those made redundant there were no jobs for them.

No, of course its not a bloody piece of cake - but what jobs are? Especially what jobs you can get locally, with no qualifications?

I am sick of hearing about the nobility of bloody miners and steel workers. As if no-one else in the UK ever worked hard. At exactly the same time, there were scores of female workers doing jobs just as difficult, unpleasant and hard, but in other fields. This is the whole basis of like work - men have traditionally dominated industries that are protected by collective terms and conditions which give them an advantage, whether that be in pay or job security, or some other aspect.

We still have local authorities arguing against like pay for like work - despite the fact that we now have job assessments to compare them. Tens of thousands of predominately female cleaners and canteen staff assessed as having jobs the same value as council painters, decorators, gardeners, etc but paid much, much less and with none of the generous overtime payments.

Yes many baby boomer women worked just as hard as their husbands for much less money. It should never have taken as long to get equal pay. In what way are the bb responsible for that?

nagy We still don't have equal pay. Just because the BBs experienced some unpleasant things, doesn't mean no-one else does either.

So Chandler, does this mean you agree that some boomers have had a hard time too?
Good, then maybe we can all move on.