That boomers should should avoid criticising younger people when..

[TeaCake5]

They are the "the worst users of drink and drugs"

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/23/wednesday-briefing-baby-boomers-worst-drinkers-and-drug-users

I guess they can afford to with housing not being a problem for them - people in their 20s and 30s have no spare money for drink and drugs!

I agree that people (of all generations) need better budgeting skills. But all the budgeting in the world isn't going to fix a national housing crisis. Houses are many many many times more expensive than they were a few decades ago and a lot of people are simply priced out of the market - and stuck with shitty, insecure and increasingly expensive private rented places.

There has been asset stripping going on for the last 30 years.

The changes that have been made to state pensions means that younger people will get a higher state pension.
The Government has been pushing people for decades to have private pensions. But lots of people my generation lost lots of money in private pension schemes. There was serious mis selling.

In every generation there are winners and losers. What most do not understand is that our middle class has got much and much smaller.

What we need to do is fight for everyone to get as good a deal as possible. And don't believe the myths, there is plenty of money, its just concentrated with the very wealthy.

Fifty years ago, most people rented. This was changed temporarily when social housing was sold off. It was asset stripping and meant more people owned their own homes.

The issue is NOT boomers vs millenials. It's the whole sorry state of society being run for the benefit of a tiny minority rather than for the good of the many

^This!^
And....those that are benefiting convince you it's all for your own good or best for the country....and people are daft enough to believe it.

I think education is a right to 18 mother but it's a privilege after that, as it's not compulsory or always necessary to go to university. There are great (and lucrative) careers to be had without a degree, so one could argue that having a degree isn't a prerequisite for the workplace.

You can choose for your kids to have the loans - that's down to you, but we didn't want to saddle ds with debt, and we didn't have to. I think you'll find that the legislation has as ever been written with enough wriggle room for things to be changed, and that loans will only ever be written off if all the relevant conditions are met - so missed payments, the SLC taking you to court etc, not changing addresses with them, will all be deemed to have broken the contract. You need to read the legislation and the small print very carefully. I've seen enough stuff changed by SI as opposed to going through parliament, to be very wary.

Gottagetmoving I stand by my post in 1980 population of the UK was approx 55 million, in 1990 it was approx 56 million. In 2017 there are in excess of 65 million people living in the UK. That's not propaganda it's math. Nor am I ignorant.

Loving this grandparents looking after kids rubbish.

I don't know anyone whose parents look after their kids!

Let's face it, BB'S have different priorities.

This usually includes holidaying, Pilates and eating out.

And why do over 60's or whatever the cut off is get free bus passes?

My parents, who have three pensions, house paid off and two brand new Audis have a free bus pass

Why?

I'm a xenial (sometimes called the lucky ones) between Gen X and the millennials. I think we both worked harder and have had it easier than my parents ( pure early boomers). 110% mortgages with no deposit anyone (circa 2001). Equal pay for equal work, workers rights and being young enough to really "get" digital technology. However I worked 10-13 hour days throughout my 20's, my generation abolished the lunch hour and invented the breakfast meeting. This would have been unthinkable to my parents. They also would have dinner parties on a Thursday night in term time. I literally cannot imagine having time to do that. However my children are much better travelled than I was, but they also work harder at school .....

In my bank they wear t shirts not NatWest is it? DFiL was a Captain Manwaring type Bank manager with them, and very comfortably off. We left NatWest last year on account of the t shirts and loud music. DFiL must be spinning in his urn.

Well my grandma grew up eating tiny amounts while her mum cleaned houses to feed her four kids because her husband died in the war. Zooming forward to my mum she cycled everywhere had no foreign holidays and a coffee out was a treat. Zoom to younger me. I waitressed to support myself till I got an office job which paid me £12k pa. then interest rates went up to 15% and I had to move back home. My dad worked till he died at 78. I've worked my arse off to get a property which I was scared of losing in the credit crunch. My kids will have massive student debt but will have excellent accommodation at uni. The job world will be hard but any money I manage to keep will go to their property deposits. In short we're all hard up have hard times and fight to get through them whatever the bloody generation. Too easy to hate isn't it! As they say the more the change the more the same thing!

I think young people are being screwed over by help to buy schemes too. Often people can only buy through one of these schemes as people can only afford to save a 5% deposit. However, in my area small 3 bedroom new build terraced houses on the help to buy scheme are being sold at 140k yet a 1980s house of the same size can be bought for 100k.

Curious as to how the boomers saying that millennials shall have to provide for their own pension will feel when we pay less NI as a result of not getting a future state pension... which means that they'll lose their own state pension.

The state pension is one big ponzi scheme and it always has been.

Also we have yet to mention how many jobs were quite cushy and for life. Fil was a telephone engineer. He rushed round his jobs and finished every day by lunchtime*

My exh was a telephone engineer, from 1972 till the day he retired.
He never, not once, finished early. If he finished his jobs he rang in for another and would often stay late to finish jobs off.
This was in the NE Region. Maybe other areas were different.
Or maybe attitudes to the job differed.

And why do over 60's or whatever the cut off is get free bus passes?

I'm pretty sure I've read that it's more cost efficient to have it as a universal benefit than it is to administer it as a means tested one.

my parents are baby boomers - modest house, modest cars, modest pensions, for which they've worked hard all their lives. I begrudge them nothing. They saw real poverty, the end of rationing and had nowhere near the educational or work opportunities my generation has.

Both grew up in poverty - the outside loo, tin bath in front of the fire, no electricity type of poverty.

What I begrudge is the social contract that generation built, and the one before them fought and died for, being torn up to benefit a tiny minority of the already rich. That's what people need to get mad at - not comfortably off pensioners. You need to be spitting mad at a world where sub living wages are paid and topped by tax credits. Where zero hours contracts are the norm rather than a niche thing for casual workers. When workers rights are being eroded... etc etc etc.

I'm a millennial in my twenties and live in an expensive part of the South East. I don't agree that we have less than our parents/grandparents. Myself and my friends have all bought houses over the last few years, and still manage to have foreign holidays, day trips and eat out on a regular basis. Yes we have to work long hours, budget and can't go on as many holidays as we want, but I think we have and do far more than our parents did at the same age and I have no complaints.

Not all baby boomers had the same advantages or disadvantages though. I was born in 1958 so I guess I'm a baby boomer (and a WASPI) but when I ready about boomers' life opportunities it always sounds more like my mum's generation than mine. Rationing was over before I was born, my school-leaving age was 16 as it still is now, and outside toilets belonged in the distant past, or to the slums, of which there were still a few.

We weren't rich by any means, but we had every modern appliance going thanks to my ace electrical salesman dad who won washing machines, hoovers, TVs and electric irons for all the family through being top salesman every month. But he wasn't that well paid, and we looked better off than we were. And I've not done that much better than my own parents did.

I'm not retired, and won't be now until 2024, but as a late parent I have two young millenials, and it really scares me that their prospects seem even lower than mine. Although in some ways I'll be glad that they can't afford to leave home as I need them to help pay off the mortgage. Yes, I have a final salary private pension that I'm trying really hard not to touch (could have taken it at 55), but once the mortgage is paid off, my XH expects that we sell the house so he can get his 50% and buy another home for himself. My pension won't be enough to buy him out. So rather than reaching 60-ish and retiring with a 2nd home, I'll be trying to take out a second mortgage to buy half of my current home, if I'm lucky.

So what if some of us drink - whatever gets you through, eh?.

FloweryTeapot - obviously different areas, different rules - or ways of breaking them! Fil's workmate had a fancy woman whom he'd meet in a caravan several afternoons a week for a few years. Fil was a better husband (crushed man) and was up on his allotment every afternoon. These two very hard workers bought houses, supported SAHMs and retired at 60 with generous pensions. And to prove that lack of hard work pays, both men are still going at 95.

thefairyfellersmasterstroke
I was born in 1958 into a house with only an outside loo. In a terraced house in S Wales but not a slum.

Mother it was a 5 year integrated undergrad degree and masters at an English uni. They decided not to fund it anymore- fine- but trying to retrospectively claw it back years later like that really wasn't!

They backed down in the end and graciously allowed me to remain in the same terms as I originally took out (i.e. the standard contract) but I had some seriously sleepless nights till they did.

And to prove that lack of hard work pays, both men are still going at 95

Blimey that's 35 years worth of pension! And it's a pretty good pension from BT. (So I am told by exh. Perhaps I took a wrong turn somewhere )

Gottagetmoving I stand by my post in 1980 population of the UK was approx 55 million, in 1990 it was approx 56 million. In 2017 there are in excess of 65 million people living in the UK. That's not propaganda it's math. Nor am I ignorant
It's not a surprise. Governments know the population increases. It's their job to plan and get things right. I didn't dispute population increase but that in itself is not the reason there are shortages.
Only a small percent of this country is built on. We are a wealthy nation. If there is a problem it's because we are being screwed over and not because the population is not doing enough.
Plenty of land, plenty of money but bad governing and the government throwing the blame at the tiny amount of people who need support and for people living longer.

rather than bagging the boomers or millenials maybe it would be more constructive to criticise the super rich- the ones who own so much of the world for doing bugger all?