Aibu to think that "suspended adulthood" is going to lead to large problems?

[BlancheBlue]

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/22/young-people-living-in-a-suspended-adulthood-finds-research

Just this really. There was a telling comment about this article with the ever increasing age profile of parents the chance of children knowing grandparents is going to be remote.

I think lots of the boomer generation really fail to understand this. Whenever it is said it is tough for young people que loads of "well I worked my arse off and owned a house by the time I was 21" type comments.

gilly We've never been eligible for tax credits so I spent the best part of a decade forking out at least half my wages, 3 quarters at one point, on childcare.

I seem to remember we all moaned just as much when I was that age. Some things don't really change that much I guess. I don't recall that we blamed the previous generation though. I blame the media for that one. Seems a cheap way to sell newspapers.

Saggy my partner earns £18,000 p/a, I earn £15,000 p/a (I work as part of management in a pub chain). We bought our first home this year having saved for almost three years while I was at university. We paid £122,000 for a 3 bedroom terrace with a 10% deposit. If we hadn't have lived with our parents while saved, then we could have done it but it would have been more difficult. Conversely we have friends who don't want to buy and are renting. They like to spend their money on gadgets and so on. They admit they could easily save a deposit of £1000 a month, but don't (he's an engineer). They pay the same for their rent as we do for our mortgage.

I think you'll find scary that all of those places have big issues around housing too, as does Cornwall!

This article isn't just about young people in London, but all over the country.

The constant bleating of people saying that they think its doable is against what the majority of people's experiences are of this. No it isn't about wanting to live somewhere and not being able to afford it, its about wanting to live where your life is and not being able to afford it, or the economic opportunities are just not there.

Take for example a colleague of mine, early 30s, moved to London from the North East following his PGCE. Why? Because of the class he graduated from, in an in demand subject, 9 got jobs in the North East, that's how many openings there were in the entire area, enough for 9 out of 50 trainee teachers to get work in their area. The rest either had to stay put and wait it out, which would be more difficult once the next graduating class came along, or go to where the jobs were available. London and the South East had more of this so he came here.

Yes Sparrowhawk there may be jobs at 50k and above in other areas, but they aren't greatly abundant, far more economic opportunities are to be had in London, which is why people want to live here.

Imagine if we all upsticks to the NE and stole all the jobs - particularly those of us who are educated with skills! Everyone in the North would hate us even more - we wouldn't be those "lazy" people who can't/won't graft to buy their own house, we also wouldn't be "one of those wankers" with a 60k pa job who still can't get on the ladder, instead we'd be... one of those foreign (southern!) people who steals [sic] our jobs and now our houses!

And don't tell me it isn't so because I know plenty of Northerners who have moved to our area because the job opportunities are greater oh the irony!

Our first house was bought in 2003 on a 97.5% LTV mortgage and half our deposit came from writing a credit card cheque to ourselves. Six months later it had gone up 25% in value.

Of course it was easier then, and we were incredibly lucky that we were able to do this to get our foot on the housing ladder (we also know that it could have gone horribly wrong and bankrupted us for life, and we have also never been as lucky with house buying since).

I despair and feel so sorry for anyone trying to buy now that doesn't have family support or an exceptionally well paid job that allows them to put down a hefty deposit.

Smallfox I seriously doubt there were 9 vacancies for a particular subject in the entire NE and that the only place he could get a job was London - particularly given the wholesale shortages in teaching across the board. Although PE is an exception, and if he is a PE teacher he needs to retrain into a proper subject.

I'm sure Northerners are educated and have skills too!

And no one said otherwise. At all.

But if you significantly increase the proportion of skilled/qualified people in an area, without a corresponding upswing in employment or housing availability, the more skilled or qualified are not the most likely to see negative impacts.

mollie123 you are illustrating a large part of the problem. You bought an £8000 house with a £4000 income. By that token, we should be able to buy a £32k house as my husband earns under £16k.

We live in the West Country. I can promise you that there is not a single house available to buy within a 50+ mile radius for that price. There are lots of jobs available paying low wages though.

My son applied for upwards of 20 jobs last week (and got the first one he interviewed for). His travel costs to the next town, where the job is, are quite ridiculous, so I had a look at places to rent. There are 11. Two of which would be suitable for a young single man. They cost £500 per month for a studio flat. Council tax is another £180. He will be bringing home about £750 a month so he would be left with £70 a month for bills. This is not doable.

DixieNormas - that was entirely not what I said - what I said was imagine if southerners educated with skills move to the north -if I elaborated that would mean they would be competing with all the educated and skilled northerners! It would be a competitive market, possibly driving down salaries.

I can guarentee you that there were only 9 people from his graduating class got jobs in the North East. I interviewed him and had some correspondence with his course leader who confirmed.

"Although PE is an exception, and if he is a PE teacher he needs to retrain into a proper subject."

I'd suggest dear that before you critique others, you seek a proper education yourself, being wrong on all of the pronouncements you have made on this thread rather shows you up.

It's just basic economics, that's all. Our government have a lot to answer for!

Two things:

People talk about housing in Sweden like its some kind of socialist utopia. Renting here is a nightmare . To get a first hand contract with that security of tenure and low rent you need to queue. How long are those queues, you ask? years.
The queue for the grotty bits of my city is three years. For central Stockholm it's twenty five.
So people fight and get scammed for second hand contracts with zero security that cost multiples of those low rents. The rental system here is an utter nightmare. Anyone who can afford it buys.

Secondly, I'm uncomfortable with the boomer bashing. My parents are boomers. They scraped and scrimped for their house. Mum couldn't even get a mortgage unless her husband signed! They grew up with genuine poverty, rationing, and in Mum's case no heating no electric and a tin bath in front of the fire. Women were expected to leave work and raise kids. They now own their modest house and have modest pensions which they both worked their arses off for. when they moved in they had no furniture- every bit had to be saved for and it took years.
So let's stop bashing boomers and perhaps turn our attention not on our parents but on the political elite that is steadily asset stripping the country. They are the problem. They are the cause of the inequality we see.

t4 you are nothing but a troll - every few posts you through in insulting vitrolic about some group of people - bit bored are we? Get a life.

Don't worry about her, her ignorance is staggering, and thoroughly shows in the quality of her posts.

Hubbles - I agree - my parents didn't have it easy, sure it was different and I definitely wouldn't count either of them as working class, they grew up relatively well off. They had their own problems to face.

It's our government, the lack of regulation, and poor policies that are negatively affecting my peers. That, and all the OAPs, some of whom have had pensions for nigh on 40 or 50 years - that's what's costing the economy. My own grandfather had a council worker pension that was very generous for nearly 40 years!! The pension was longer than his actual working life!

smallfox I am not entirely unaware of the problems, as my 20 year old will be graduating next year, and we will either be funding his MA, or his rent when he starts working. I have told him to avoid London when he starts looking for work, as he will not be able to afford to buy there, and his chances of getting a job and getting on the housing ladder will be better elsewhere.

As for teaching jobs....it is subject specific as to what is around, and what openings there are. I taught outside my own subject which made me more employable, and if we hadn't moved abroad, then I would still be at the same school as teaching jobs in my subject in Cornwall are like hen's teeth. I suspect people get a job there and then stay until they retire, as happens elsewhere. One of ds's teachers in Brussels had been at the school 25 years.

As to what is doable...well, that depends on what the individual is prepared to do to make it happen. ' its about wanting to live where your life is and not being able to afford it, or the economic opportunities are just not there.', in which case, you work out what you have to do to get the economic opportunities, or to afford the lifestyle you want on the budget you have (or not). Just because your life happens to be in one place at one particular time, doesn't mean it will be there forever, or even should be. However, as a Forces child, moving was the norm for my family, so you got on with it wherever you were living, and travelled to see family.

There is a housing problem. Not just in the Southeast and London.

This makes it very difficult for first time buyers who are also likely to be saddled with student loans. Further down the road, this generation won't have the security of final salary pensions.

None of this is my "problem" I am sitting pretty on the London tube line in a four bedroom house with a lot of equity. But what good does it do me? I'd love to see house prices coming back in line with earnings. I think it is healthy for society.

I didn't pull myself up by my own bootstraps. Most people didn't. And this generation shouldn't have to either. We should run the system for the good of all. And, I think, a key function of society is to help the young get off to a good start, just as it is a key function to protect the old as they become vulnerable.

Every generation has experienced good things and bad things. Yes we could afford( just) to buy a house in our twenties, but we also had to contend with the 3-day week, high unemployment and sky-high interest rates. Many of us who are fortunate enough to be in a comfortable position choose to help our DCs by contributing to university fees and buying houses. We don't all spend our money on just on ourselves!

What happens Scary when your son is unable to avoid London because that's where more of the jobs in his field are.

Your point about people staying till they retire is true, the young man in my dept is the lead teacher in his subject and has made it there in 5 years by being very good at his job, according to him the vast majority of the teachers who got jobs in the NE are still class teachers, and will be waiting for years to get the next job on the ladder as there is little movement.

Every generation has experienced good things and bad things.

This is true. When the babyboomers grew up and needed housing the country went into a mass building boom. Green fields were plowed over and tiny villages changed forever. Was the older generation resentful? Did they grumble that this generation was being spoiled? Did they point out that they had only ever had an outdoor toilet and a tin bath in the kitchen? Not from what I can see. Meeting my DH's grandparents, they did go on about the war, but they seemed pleased to bits to have their children do so well and to have more than they did. It made the war seem worth it to them.

It makes babyboomers moaning about Starbucks and mobile phones look ridiculous.

I really don't see any baby boomer bashing on here. My parents definitely had their struggles and made plenty of sacrifices. I just see people getting annoyed at posters completely refusing to acknowledge facts about the difficulties that young people face that previous generations didn't. Today, going to university costs you tens of thousands of pounds but doesn't give you the advantage that it did 30 years ago when a relatively small percentage of people went to university. However, not going to university puts you at much more of a disadvantage than it used to when you could get a decent job with just good 'O' levels.
In some ways, young people are in a better position than previous generations but, in many ways, they are in a worse position and I just fail to see why some people are so determined to deny that even when that are faced with the stark statistics.