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.

@marymarkle

weetabix Your dad was not a young person leaving school in the early 80s. And the middle classes did very well in the 80s. It was ordinary people who had it tough.

hmm all those cheap council houses the got for peanuts whilst everyone else had 21% morgages.

morning Yes where I grew up there were very few jobs. It seemed like every few months somewhere else would be doing mass lay offs. It was a grim time and a lot of people really struggled. I remember my mum being glad they had not bought their council house as people we knew had theirs repossessed as they could no longer afford the payments.

Also unemployment was officially 10.8% at its highest, but in reality it was much higher. Lots of tricks were used to make the official tally lower. I know these are still used.

"And the poor earned less than now. There was no minimum wage and much less benefits"

Actually there were more benefits back in the 80's, supplementary income etc, far more people could claim CB for one.

People still spent a lower proportion of their income on housing, significantly.

All I've taken away from this thread is the OP has ishoos with the middle classes

I feel like it's that Monty Python sketch with John Cleese and Ronnie Corbett "I know my place"

Critical thinking fail. Yawn

"Yawn"
Except it is a fail. Attacking the person not the point.

My yearly salary in my first full time job was £5k

Lol.

When I left school, I got an incredibly well paid job. All my friends were really jealous and some of them were only getting about half the salary I was on.

I earned £990 a year - less than £20 a week.

And I paid tax at 33% on most of that. I think I took home around £55 a month. Top income tax rate then was about 75% or something.

Boris Read Parliament's own research. All welfare benefits have increased in real terms since 1970s.

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06762/SN06762.pdf

OP, if you think 'the poor' are being blamed you should change your newspaper / TV channel/ friends.
Only an ignorant idiot would blame 'the poor'.

There's no way I'd want to be young now, life's a LOT harder for young people than t was when I was young - born 1953. My only criticism of today's young people is that they acquiesce to the shit deal they're handed. I wish there was a mass movement of young people and they'd revolt. I'd be helping them man the barriers.

Agree derxa Anyone talking about inequality gets told they have issues. Easy way to try and stop people uniting and fighting together.

FaFoutis I don't blame the poor. If you dont think that is the general mood in the country, I suggest you talk to a wider range of people.

Op Millenials are the first generation in the UK since 1800 to be worse off than their parents. So yes the 80s were hard, but people who were adolescents still ended up doing better than their parents. Today's young people aren't.

You know that isn't actually true. You think people suffering during the potato famine in Ireland in the 1850s were not worse off than the generation before them? Thousands of people starved to death. You think all the young people killed during the second world war were not worse off than those in the first world war which had far lower casualties?

I suggest you talk to a wider range of people
God, no. I'm too old for that shit. I prefer the company of intelligent people.

Fine, but those views have an impact. It is why the Tories are able to treat the poor like shit.

marymarkle*
It's not just the Tories (and I speak as a lifelong labour supporter).

Who introduced tuition fees? Who pushed for 50% of students to go to university? Who introduced academisation of schools (basically privatising education)?

I am not a defender of Blair. It was stupid to push for so many young people to go to university and was inevitably going to lead to employers asking for degrees that did not previously need them.

"All welfare benefits have increased in real terms since 1970s."

But the people able to claim them has fallen.

Also your report is dated 2013, so not accurate for now.

Mary - but you saying 'it was just as bad in the old days' is not helping is it?
By arguing that, you are minimising the current problem - so making it much easier to ignore.

Do you have links showing that welfare benefits now are less generous than in 1980?
Because I don't think they are. Although sanctions is a massive issue.

"Who pushed for 50% of students to go to university? "

This was a target but has never happened.

The proportion of students going to higher ed aged 18-21 is about the same. The number of graduates aged under 30 is within line with those who have degrees, or techinical level equivilents ( or just under like a HND) of the older population.

"Do you have links showing that welfare benefits now are less generous than in 1980? "

Benefits are less generous because less people are able to claim them.

FaFoutis How is it minimising to say things got better in the 90's/early 2000s and are getting worse again? We should not be going backwards. I was a child in real slum housing. I don't want anyone to live in housing like that. Just because I experienced something does not make it right.