baby boomers ..confused

[ZackyVengeance]

how can a baby born in the early sixties be one?
baby boomer
nouninformal
plural noun: baby boomers
a person born in the years following the Second World War, when there was a temporary marked increase in the birth rate.

My husbands sibling are baby boomers born in mid to late 1950s. Yy to free uni, buying a house with some sort of glc grant in london for 12,000 and retiring from the civil service at 57 on a final salary pension more than i earn.

My parents are early boomers from relatively poor backgrounds. Accessing university was hard for many yes, but also less necessary. My dad worked his way up to a decent job that would probably need a masters degree now, without a single qualification . We have a similar lifestyle to them in terms of housing etc but it takes two of us working to do it, rather than one. I am glad to be able to work personally. I think it's generally good for people. But work stress is generally greater now I think, with presenteeism and demand for unpaid hours.

I'm a millennial but not saddled with the amount of debt students get now. I own my own property in the West Midlands which is a temporary thing due to work. I also have a well paid job.

I think it is very hard for millenials but I think people need to reconsider where they live, perhaps goon to uni to do degrees with vocational attachment and consider buying property as a couple/friends ass way to gain equity. It's not possible for all but a way to overcome these problems.

I'm technically a millenial having been born in 1985. I'm apparently lazy, entitled and feckless. Some of these sentiments have even been said on this thread. Now i know, and i hope others do too, that this isn't true. However if it were true then how have we become like that? We didn't raise ourselves with these values,we didn't create the society we were born into.
What I'm saying is that if it is indeed true that we are lazy, entitled and feckless the responsibility and blame for those attitudes doesn't rest on our heads but on the rads of those that came before us.
Just something to think about when people slag off the generation after them.

As for the boomers, the only thing that pisses me off, and it does for anyone regardless of their generation, is when people take credit for things that happened outside of their control. "I worked hard for everything i have" i don't deny you worked hard but the increase in your house value from 20k to 500k is fuck all to do with how hard you worked.

A very interesting point about reverting to Victorian/Edwardian wealth and income distribution.

I suppose one major difference is that we now have universal suffrage - incredible to think that until 1918 only about 60% of men were rich enough to qualify to vote. So as another pp said, those worse off will not necessarily just accept it. And universal education (I know we had it from 1870, but only up to age 14) will also keep a lid on the ability to revert to Victorian levels of inequality.

The main difference in wealth between generations seems to be housing costs and inability to get on the property ladder now. (Student loan repayment may be broadly offset by lower tax rates generally than in 70s and 80s). Strangely it may be that George Osborne will turn out to have played a reasonably significant part in putting a brake on that, by the buy to let tax changes! It will be interesting to see what effect they have as they come into force in April.

Brexit - Remain voters were said to be better educated that leavers - well they would be! More young people voted to stay.

Few baby boomers went to uni. Ime only the sons and daughters of solicitors and doctors went to uni.
Some of my class did teaching but primary school was a certificate not a degree, the rest apprenticed, secretaries, nurses etc
But they made sure that their DCs got degrees to get the best opportunities.

Yes skooba I think in early 60s it was about 5% of school leavers going to university.
Though as others have said you didn't need a degree to get into 'professional/managerial' work. Interestingly we are seeing some moves back to that with accountancy firms recruiting school leavers to train etc.

The early 80s were also very difficult for some bbers - I'm not referring so much to high interest rates but also unemployment - many who lost their jobs then were unemployed for long periods (Boys from the Blackstuff, gissa job etc). But people don't tend to think of that category when they talk about the bbers having had it easy.

I agree there is a huge difference between early and late bbers - but, just as much, a huge difference within each generation. Many bbers born in late 50s/early 60s who did not go to university, never bought property let alone a portfolio of it, no index linked pension!

I am Gen Y, I was born '91 and no I do not buy 5 mochas a day or go on holiday to Hawaii every year.

Instead at 26, I am just finishing paying my student loan off. Then DP and I want to buy a house which will take an estimated 3 years to save for a deposit (maybe less if we move in with his parent's, oh no but we're freeloaders then), we also want to get married and god forbid even have a family but we will be early 30s by the time we can afford to have children.

I am not saying baby boomers had it any easier, I know as a woman I have a hell of a lot more opportunities these days but no, we are not all entitled wannabe hipsters.

However, my parent's who are baby boomers, bought a house back in the early 90s on 100% deposit and my parent's weren't exactly flush.

House prices have gone crazy. I moved from a place that is within commuter territory, a terraced 3 bed house that hasn't been updated since about 1989 was sold for £375000 around two years ago. It was then that I thought we will need to buy slightly further north. Could see decent new builds being sold around the £200k mark. The very same area is now part of the commuterbelt. The same houses on one site started being sold 18 months ago for £190k which were bigger, our house which is slightly smaller, sold for £235 and was built just over a year later. That's a £45k increase in a year!

More so, I spoke to this man who is a neighbour, he's told me that he had a free appraisal with a local estate agents, his house is now worth £295000. His house has gained &105000 in less than 18 months. I can't figure out the percentage the value has increased by, but what the intention was, was that we would essentially buy in this estate when we could get on the property ladder.

Sadly, by then I didn't but we could afford it, with how quickly house prices are going up, I can't imagine how tough it would be for those trying to get property in a city.

I was born in 1944, one of the lucky few I guess not least because of free education post 18 and the feasibility of early retirement on good pensions.
I really worry about my grandchildrens future. I grew up in a world full of hope for the future , even my children, born in the early 70s, had a decent start with affordable university education and achievable home ownership.
Now the political situation world wide is terrifying, the divide between haves and have nots is as big as ever and all the good things we hoped for have trickled through the fingers of the greedy, power crazy fools who make the decisions.

Technically my parents and grandparents a boomers

Get to fuck.

Never has a single sentence made me feel so old!

Me too! One of my Grandads fought in WW1! I am only in my forties!

wettumwindy

I searched within a ten mile radius of where I live and the sorts of property available for £90,000 are one bed static caravans. I looked on a mortgage calculator and on a salary of £21,000 (so in the salary range of a new police, teacher, doctor, respectable professions) the maximum that could be borrowed with a £10,000 deposit is £85,000. Doctors, teachers and police officers are not failing to afford to buy a home because they are having breakfast in cafes.

i grew up in a council house. nice area... just looked and its worth 400 grand now....for a 3 bed housewow

I've benefited hugely from property increases. Our last one we owned for 5 years and it doubled in value. So that's not just a boomer thing.

10k isn't much of a deposit tbh.

Lending criteria is brutal these days.

Good point batteries, people old enough to buy up to the ?mid 2000s when 100% mortgages were available, would in general have found it easier to buy than those born later - and may well in due course make huge capital gains themselves.

Occupational pension provision may not be as good for that generation as for bbers though, and retirement age will be higher - so that is a big difference. Though on the other hand there are better maternity rights and pay, holiday pay rights etc than bbers had. On that it may be a bit more swings and roundabouts.

Where young people do seem to be undeniably worse off is in relation to housing costs.

The job market has changed so much - largely due to computerisation and automation.

The bank was a good go to for people with school qualifications but no degree. I would say most of those jobs are gone with online banking.
Secretarial work - gone.
Factory work - largely gone.

But the jobs that are there - plumbers, plasterers people aren't going for. If I remember rightly it was 7 years as an apprentice for a joiner. So 7 years living with mum on v low wage, but you could leave school at 15, or even 14 for early BBs. Raising wages has prob done for that type of thing.

So v difficult for the young generation today. It's global though - I'm not sure how things will work out.

I think the thing is with plastering, joining, gas work etc is that it needs intelligence. Especially if you're going to run your own business.

Back in the day when people 'knew their place' there were plenty of v intelligent people not going to uni, who became the skilled tradespeople of their day. Now, with any hint of intelligence being pushed towards uni, there seems to be a bit of a dearth of clever trades. Which is why the good ones are always so busy.

batteries I think that technology is working around that by having and Uber for everything. The app companies run the business and you do the labour, but of course you might make less money like this.

I was born in 82 & so my uni education was not free- literally just cleared my student loan. First 5/6 years I was earning min wage and bought house with DP couple years ago, outside of London where I have a long commute now. We were only able to buy due to an inheritance and my redundancy package - was still tough but we are the lucky ones. Had an all out row with my mum a few years before getting the house when she said (in frustration that we were nowhere able yet to buy a home and were forced to pay extortionate London rent) 'at my age we were in our second home'
Never mind houses were cheaper then, life was generally cheaper and they were in a cheaper part of the country..! At the time there was no chance of us getting in the property ladder and it was so galling to fork out so much rent!!! I really feel for our generation and the ones following.

We were born too late to be baby boomers but we are much better off than our baby boomer relatives are. We have savings, property, a holiday cottage, a lovely home, DH has a brilliant pension and we intend to retire early and help out our DC with house deposits. It is harder for this millenial generation but the ones I know are hard working, savers, not at all entitled and taking the opportunities presented now e.g. Lots of travel opportunities, technology etc.

older the labour itself is skilled though isn't it?

Have never met a thick plumber. Or gas man. Most of the ones I've used haven't been formerly educated but if they are any good, they are sharp. Plastering is a skill too - there's something about good plasterers. A combination of sense and artistic skill.

You can't have an app for competent building work

batteries I didn't mean the app would make them be able to do the plumbing! I mean it can advertise, help get clients, chase payments etc. the running the business part not the skilled labour.

If your not good and the admin stuff but are an excellent plasterer, that app could help you.

You can't have an app for competent building work

Building work is one of the (many) trades that will be automated in the next few years. Obviously there are some things that only a human can do, but with the rise of 3d printing technology and drones (being geared up to build skyscrapers) these jobs, along with plumbers and electricians, will become more and more scarce.

Yep we had it relatively easy but of course it didn't seem easy at the time.
100% mortgages on cheap houses but interest rates were huge. So although at the time it was a struggle, it was doable for many whereas not so much now. And now we reap the benefits of mortgage free homes.
Yes uni was free but parents had to contribute depending upon income. My parents weren't on a huge salary but had to pay half my student grant. They had to make big sacrifices to afford this for two of us. But it was still much better than it is today.

So yes relatively easy in comparison to today but not particularly easy at the time.