Do people understand that many of us have lived through high periods of unemployment?

[marymarkle]

There are major issues for young people today with zero hour contracts and high housing costs. But I do get a bit fed up with comments that state that life is much harder for young people now that ever before.

I left school during the Thatcher year. Unemployment was very high and outside London whole communities were decimated by this, I still remember a classmate just before we left coming into school excited because they had secured a job in a factory. Jobs were very hard to get, reaching a peak of 10.8% unemployed in the early 1980's, and that was with them fidding the unemployment figures. And there was no MW, wages were often very very low. Yes house prices were cheaper, but that only benefited those already doing well.

I remember it as a very grim time in our country. While the City was booming and people earned massive bonuses, street homelessness soared, use of illegal drugs soared, as did crime. And many adults in their 50s who lost jobs during this time, never worked again. It was a grim time economically to be young.

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I mean they can try to apply for better jobs but there isn't an obvious route out of poverty for them especially if they want a family while still reasonably young

We all aspire for our children to have better lives than we did.

Agree with PP that housing is the biggest issue for young people. This shows "real" house price costs for the last 45 years. I haven't looked at rental statistics, but I expect there's been even more increases. Wages have not kept up. We
In 2018 house prices were on 8 X the average salary - the highest on historical record.

Job security is the other massive factor which will only get worse with increased automation. I foresee we'll have to have some sort of universal basic income in the future.

Also, young people seem likely to have Brexit inflicted upon them - which statistically they did not vote for - and for which there is a reduction in the economy for every scenario, even the softest Brexit.

My kids are young, but I'm very worried for them and trying to build up savings etc to help them in the future.

Oops, didn't post the image.

The housing issue could be helped by the appropriate authorities taking ownership of all the empty, abandoned properties.

Refurbish them and use them as housing stock for those in real need

But then again, there would be moans and groans about that as well

In the UK property is a major source of wealth. It is demonstrably harder to get on the property ladder than it was before to start to build that wealth. As others have pointed out there are highly educated and skilled people starting their careers in worse financial positions than the 16 year old school leavers of the 80's.

My father left school at 15 in the 70's and got a factory job that paid well, those jobs just don't exist any more.

I think families should help each other out. I work with several young people wanting to settle down buy a place, can't, but their parents have money.
Old people don't need money, young people do.
We down-sized and gave our son £200k to buy a flat, and don't regret it (though miss the roomy house we had!).

I was born in 86 and back then my parents used the child benefit money to start saving to buy a house. 3 years later they'd bought their own home.
I'm now 33 with a 7 year old, single working parent and have to use the child benefit to either buy things my son needs or some of it helps towards food or paying a bill.

Every generation has highs and lows but what annoys me is the older generation looking down on younger generations and acting like we need to grow up and be mature like they are.
We have grown up and we are mature, we're just skint

Zero hours are a plague on modern society. There was always piece work: a fixed rate for each item produced. In the early 60s, I worked a summer in a small family run factory East End, London, making ironing boards. One worker put the legs together, beside him another fixed the legs to the board, my job was to lay the felt and board cover and tack the framed asbestos heat resistant rest for the iron. Behind me the whole was trimmed and finished by an other. Each of us were paid a different rate which caused extreme tension, as initially as a learner I could not keep up to speed..I was a top earner by the end of Summer and am probably "asbestos positive". The Labour Government introduction of Tax Credits created the modern poverty wages slave such as evidenced in the service/supply industries. Additionally, this policy killed free collective bargaining which Trades Unions traditionally exerted in obtaining workers rights. The future for the upcoming generation is not bright.

Zero hours are a plague on modern society

It depends on what type of zero hours contracts.

Dd loves that she is signed up to several agencies and has the pick of shifts. She can put herself down for 0, 1, 2 or 3 or even 7 x 12 hour shifts per week if she wants.

She has been to one interview that offered her zero hours contracts but said she could only work for them and had to be on call from 6am-midnight.

As she has other things going on she told them no.

My DS had a job in a local food packaging factory.
It was zero hours contract, Agency work.
They had to turn up at 5.30 am for shift, be at the gates, get chosen or not for shift and either work or go home. The agency had pickers.
The other workers fell exclusively in to two groups.
Eastern European men or Pakistani/Afghan men. All immigrants, all in desperate situations or brand new here with no English.
If you got a shift. You worked until the job was finished, could be a 4-6-12 hour shift.
If you didn't get a shift, unlucky you are sent home.
It's local to us but isolated enough to need a taxi from most places, no busses so if you had no shift and no car it costs you just to turn up.

It's like a Catherine cookson novel about the Jarrow Docks.

Another DS another real job.
Door Knocking to sell full gas boiler and central heating systems. At the door, from a 17 year old on the spur of the moment.
He only got commission if he sold one.
He was supposed to buy a new suit, work five practice shifts for a trial run, no pay.
He didn't start that job.

I disagree that zero hour contracts are a plague. They suit lots of people, students, second earners etc.

Tax credits just created problems and a sense of entitlement. People were working out how much extra they would get if they had another child, what the min number of hours work netted the most, quit work,refused overtime etc. It showed just how lacking a work ethic many had.

Easier to blame it on others than take responsibility. Costs will always change generation to generation but it's the choices we make that shape our lives.

Old people don't need money, young people do.

Wow! I hope you don't need help in your old age then! So people who've scrimped and saved all their lives should just hand over their cash to youngsters then? I'm sure many do, but it isn't a 'right' of younger people to have it on a plate without some effort!

mobyduck their parents may feel their dc have a home with them. There is merit in passing on capital to one's dc from an IHT pov. I can certainly see the benefit of downsizing to a smaller home relatively early to limit care fees too. Far better they be restricted to a small flat rather than the value of the family home.

The problem is when zero hours contracts replace proper jobs. I saw this happen at a place I worked. The new zero hours recruits were treated like shit for wanting to know what there hours would be in advance so they could plan study and appointments.

"Limiting care home fees" also limits choice. I'm not prepared to spend my last days in some shit hole because I've handed my assets over to my kids. And that's why it's ridiculous to say old people don't need money, hopefully I'll never need £50k a year for a care home but I may do. No young person needs that.

I can see the care home fee thing being a dilemma. In hindsight my late DGF held off going into a care home until after his grandkids managed to get on to the property ladder but that's not going to be in everyone's control.

I'd hate to see my children/grandchildren unable to buy a home will my money was being spent on care personally.

Wait til you get there. I'd have hated seeing my parents in the kind of place the council would have deemed fit for them if they hadn't had any money.

I'm just glad we got on the ladder so my poor DGF felt able to get the care he needed. Horrible as it sounds I'm also glad he didn't live too long in such poor health.

Tax credits are actually a subsidy to the employer so they don't have to pay a living wage, housing benefits ditto for landlords.

I too have lived through periods of mass unemployment but at those times there was a social security net sufficient that food banks were not necessary and controls on how much could be charged in rent. Also working one hour a week did not count as "employment" There has always been casual work but the widespread abuse of ZHC's by employers who use them to minimise their own costs and keep the workers in line is shameful. Ditto the numerous employment agencies that have sprung up that rake off workers wages.

Snowflakes have a sense of entitlement and understand very little. IMO

When JC gets the keys to No. 10, he will deliver what he has been promising 😳

ZHC will be a thing of the past and the Living Wage will be the minimum wage

Only problem I see is trying to persuade businesses to stay in business and employ people 🦄

One of the big differences today is young people being able to live on the money they earn. Whether they rent or buy if a couple with children they both have to work to pay the rent or mortgage. Alot are in rented as they simply can't save for the deposit and never will beable too.

Our eldest son has a very well paid job and career. His wife and him had a substantial deposit by today's standards for there first home re money left in legacy from Grandparents. Our DiL still has to work so they can maintain a reasonable lifestyle. The only reason they have a mortgage is because of what was left them.

They have just had their second baby. Our DiL will return to work after maternity 2 days a week with Grandparents (us and her parents) helping out with childcare. It is not worth her going back anymore than 2 days a week as nursery fees would become part of the equation which would mean she was working for nothing.

They had 2 cars however have cut down to 1 car now as the economics didn't work out for them having 2 cars.

I know, I know: they have high class problems in comparison to many. My point is even those who are better off still need both couples to work today.

I was a SAHM with my four. Granted it was 80's and 90's. I believe that time hit many hard, however we were considered yuppies back then. It was a very divisive time of the have's and have nots.

Is it the same today? In a different way yes. As has been said, I think the role of what makes it harder/easier for each generation changes from generation to generation. I bet in another 20 years time this conversation will still being had, though in a different way

It's so much worse for young people now than for my generation (I'm late 40s)
We had education grants and no university fees.
YTS schemes were crap, but you could still get a bit of work and cash if you wanted to leave school at 16.
We could move to look for jobs and still apply for housing benefit (abolished by the Tories for the under 25s)
We had a prospect of home ownership before 35 - not a guarantee, but a decent shot at it.
Food prices are rising, fuel prices are rising, environmental collapse looms, Brexit will decimate their prospects ... I wish we could help them more. I don't envy them.