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!

People keep falling for it!
They do indeed. If we keep voting for a bunch of Old Etonians over and over again...

Re student loans: Five years after I graduated SFE decided they would no longer award student loans for my degree. They applied this retrospectively and I got a letter giving me 28 days to repay £20,000.

I took legal action, fought it and won. But it was a horrifically stressful time. They clearly thought themselves above the law and they are a fucking nightmare to deal with.

I wouldn't touch them again with a barge pole, for me or my kids.

But younger people will have a higher state pension than most people my age.

If it exists at all. Which it may not.

No matter who you blame there is only so much that can be taken from a pot and too many people are in this country taking. Housing and employment crisis are to do with the increased number of people.

@brasty the link is comparing Gen X to Milenials, so no, gen X didn't start work at 15 and work on Saturdays as standard.

No matter who you blame there is only so much that can be taken from a pot and too many people are in this country taking. Housing and employment crisis are to do with the increased number of people

Propaganda has done a god job on you!.
It's bad economic management and money being spent in the wrong areas.
More people pay more taxes. Extremely rich people are getting away with paying too little.
It's not taking to pay rent on a council house. It's not taking to take health care we contribute towards.
We are a society and that means we take care of less able and vulnerable people.
It alarms me the number of people who would go back to the lowest paid having no education, no healthcare and no housing.
To blame the number of people for the housing crisis or anything else is ignorance.

I can't believe how many people either don't give a shiny shit there is a ticking time bomb, or can't see the wider social situation situation.

Anyway, I hope all you nay Sayers are right. I hope the youngsters DO shave.hugher earnings (inflation and cost of living adjusted), better healthcare, better housing and better opportunities for social mobility. That would be a bloody good thing for the country, for everyone.

If you genuinely think that is the path for the current youngsters, fab.

I can't believe how many people either don't give a shiny shit there is a ticking time bomb, or can't see the wider social situation situation.

It'd require admitting they're part of the problem. Nobody relying on a state pension has paid enough in to cover what their life expectancy is right now. Very few older people with health needs will pay in enough to cover their health costs. People forget about social care altogether.

I wish we had a system like Singapore's (which is excellent and has massive benefits for carers) but we don't.

I'm a xennial.

5rivers7hills

I think people need to stop hoping for/Expecting government help. The existing social system of NHS and pensions won't exist by the time I retire. I have decided it up to me to fend for myself.

mother I imagine you'll be a bit pissed off too if it turns out your son's debt would have been wiped out in the future. No, we won't; as he doesn't plan to go into a highly paid field, we were well aware that it might be written off. However, I do not trust that the Ts and Cs won't change, and whichever way you slice it; this is a debt, which will affect mortgages etc, and I would rather he started with a clean slate.

What is the point of paying interest on a debt that you don't have to incur in the first place?

My parents bought their first home 35 yrs ago (at the grand old age of 40yrs) for £33k

Yes at 40 years. People like me lived in shared digs for years - no one expected to buy a house even, no one I knew. Turned out DH climbed the ladder at work and we managed a small 3 bed semi, we were still in 3 bed semis years later but fortunately (in some ways, I have no love of the SE) we had moved to the S east of england where head office was and the price went up hugely.

I do think we should be considering refunding fees for degree courses that benefit society in general, such as nursing/medicine, STEM subjects, and academic subjects including languages and humanities provided a graduate commits to 10 years post qualification public sector service. Fees on eligible courses would be incurred (not necessarily charged) during training, but retired at the end of the contracted period. If someone who qualified under such a scheme opted out of the public service, then their outstanding/unserved ratio would be payable like any other unfunded degree. It would also help deliver a stream of qualified people in disciplines in short supply, and discourage or restrict Mickey Mouse subjects.

The idea that millennials aren't working from 16 must be a class thing, because everyone I know worked part-time from 16 or younger, throughout sixth form and uni too. I started working at 13 and I'm 23 now so on the younger end of the Millennials (depending on whose guidelines you follow. According to Statistics Canada I'm in Generation Z ).

The only ones I know from uni who didn't work are from very middle class families. Everyone else had at least done waitressing by the time they'd started uni.

What are Mickey Mouse subjects, Sock?

I am not sure what I am classed as
Born in 1963
Hope to retire next year with my hubby, mortgage free, large detached house with good pensions
I know we are lucky, and things are not easy for youngsters
But ........ They never were, saving for a deposit has always been tough , takes years but it can be done
I am not sure what some mumsnetters expect my generation to do? Sell up , give it all to charity and live in a tent!!
Hey might even go to Uni when I retire , I won't ever need to pay the loans back

God forbid plebs go to uni and get a degree....fail to invest in the young and see where it gets you...

ALL young people should have access to high quality education. That's not a degree for everyone. A degree is not a one size fits all thing. What we need is different but high quality options, not degrees seen as best and more physically based stuff as second class.
We need a system more like Germany where fewer do degrees but more do good quality vocational streams that result in skilled training in engineering, electronics etc.

Just saying everyone go to uni isn't working - we end up with far too many kids with no useable skills who are then doomed to poorly paid jobs.

What are Mickey Mouse subjects, Sock?

It's anything that doesn't give the student the full benefit of what a degree should be. That leaves them with no useable job skills. Or without a level of literacy or numeracy that allows them to get a decent job.

So astrophysics for example is a 'good' degree because although you may not end up as an astrophysicist, you will be numerate/literate to the point you can enter several different careers.

motherofdragons about three years ago. It rumbled on a while.

I too was born in 1963. Ordinary house. No pensions at all. Business disaster meant most of our money went south. No inheritances to come. Will be working... forever. Not able to give much help to dcs.

So there is not a One Year Fits All. Otoh, I had free university education, dole in holidays, and... the most important thing of all - 80s music (stick that in yer smashed-avocado lattes!).

Young people should be scared, and angry. But not with older people. Because that is completely effing pointless: every generation can blame the one before for the state of the world, can't it? The important question is: what do we do now? I'm amazed we haven't had riots on the streets about the housing situation.

every generation can blame the one before for the state of the world, can't it?

Yeah I'm sure the baby boomers were furious with the previous generation who only managed to defeat the threat of Nazism and fascism, increase living standards beyond what anyone thought possible, build the welfare state, the NHS, etc.