The economy has shafted millennials: now it wants their offspring too

[CarryOnNurse20]

AIBU to ask your opinion on this article?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/23/economy-millennials-children-low-birthrate?CMP=fb_cif&fbclid=IwAR1C57OgCdGCGhSr5uVLI5tRVeMCq-eNtyyxEuUiYOjYgSn5P2w3yMHQeTM

As a dreaded millennial and a mother I find it very sad and very true for a lot of people I know.

@wellards annual holidays aren’t a thing for most but I bet a lot of millennials have had at least one or two groups holidays, followed by nauseating wedding seasons, birthdays, gifts galore, go karting gift experiencing extravaganzas - it’s always working class folk that have to keep up with these little z list American wannabe relatives, friends, colleagues, feeling pressured to partake or attend.
Like I say if people can strip back thanks to Covid then that’s a welcoming change because when the kids of our generation get older they’re the ones who are going to get hit hardest with more pressure looking at each other on social media and even higher socialising/celebration costs incurred.

No perhaps Melissa needs to not pull a face because I won’t dance to snow patrol because I’m shattered after having to drive across and stay over at a hotel for a badly ventilated reception space with bad chairs but ooooh the lighting and oooh it’s a fairytale barn and ooooh hash tag be11 end.

The Guardian quotes A Fertility rate of 1.6 and Population of 67millions

In 1973 the Fertility rate was 2.0 and the population was 56 million
The Fertility Rate fell steadily from then. See Wikipedia for this.
So we have imported at least 12 million people.
This is a policy that we all agreed to. Whenever a voice was heard against immigration they were immediately silenced as being racist. Indeed many were.
However the facts about how low pay, and low skills might damage our economy were never given in a strong or convincing manner.
Now we reap the consequences. Living Standards are still low. Housing is still poor in too many areas. Productivity is still the lowest in the developed world.
We cannot afford to build roads and railways to enable commerce and there is still a lack of basic economic understanding about how we need commerce to generate income for payment of employees and taxes to be used to benefit us all.

Typical Grauniad! Describe a set of symptoms and pretend it has discovered a new disease.

😂 tbf to @Samuraisammy if I surrounded myself by people I hate, I would probably sound moody like this as well

@Annoyedanddissapointed it’s not people I hate, it’s people are more showy or lavish in really daft ways these days and are too selfish to see how much it costs others to partake with or too blind/self absorbed in their online image to see how tiring it’s made you on the day/occasion. It’s a circus for the cameras, a big fancy competitive circus.

Honetaly, you just sound so... Negative.
I mean yeah. There is some whowiness etc, but the way you keep going on about it just.
Wow

@Annoyedanddissapointed

“ Aaargh I’ve messed up. Need to say no after saying yes. How?!
The above is a trending thread title today. Go and have a read. There’s one similar to this (but change the occasion) every time I come on here.

Not negative, just the reality of a lot of folk today - not everyone, but a lot.

Yeah, I think it's very much about who you surround yourself with and saying no when needed.
Of course some people will take it goo far🤷🏻 Every generation had that. People just need to stop being wimps and say "no, that doesn't work for me, sorry".

@Annoyedanddissapointed I disagree I don’t think every generation had it. I think maybe there was the odd person that went over the top but that they could afford to or was just a spendy spender type - it wasn’t this group mentality that everyone had to pitch in and spend to attend. And it’s a lot of working class people pushing themselves to attain this lavish lifestyle/event and coercing their other working class fiends to take part.
And like I say that’s just one aspect of it all.

Friends**

You lost me at the class thong. I am forwign, it doesn't ring anything to me.

People just need to start saying no. Maybe the older generation was less doormaty so people weren't trying it on. I dunno

Fucking typos🤦 sorry

My first full time job was on 1972. We had inflation hit 25% so keeping on top of bills was tough. We had interest rates at over 8% for the first 15 years of our mortgage, hitting 15% in the early 90s. We couldn't get a fixed rate mortgage, so every month the mortgage rate changed, great when rates were dropping, but when they were increasing it was painful. We were sold endowment mortgages that were'guaranteed' to pay off the capital with several thousands over, only to he told years later that they wouldn't and we would have to increase our payments again. As others have said, every g

Every generation has difficulties, and I am sure that in 20 years the next generation will be moaning about their parents generation. It is the way of the world.

@MyPatronusIsACat

Genreration X has been fucked over at every available opportunity too.

Not true - I'm gen x and my university education was paid for (albeit with student loans for accommodation etc). I was able to buy a house in my 20's (at a 6% interest rate which was competitve at the time given the double digit rates of a few years earlier). We were able to walk into jobs fairly easily, and many of them still offered decent pensions and benefits etc. Plus we had great music unlike today!

I can't see how Gen X has been fucked over at every available opportunity???

My 2 DC have no intention of having children. They just don't see the attraction of being skint forever.

*post war generation was what I meant.

Erm, we live on a very overcrowded planet. If we don't have enough people, then people will come from other parts of the world e.g. migrants to fill the jobs. A better solution in my mind.

@Plotato

I'm 34 and most people I know have second hand furniture. I'm not sure why people think this isn't a thing anymore. Facebook marketplace is absolutely thriving isn't it? Equally you can now buy new from IKEA or Dunelm for very little so I can understand why some peoole just do that. I also don't know anyone who buys avocado toast... Maybe that's a city thing, but all my teacher, nurse and social worker friends are like me and cook tea at home every night and perhaps have an occasional take away at the weekend.

I'm the same age as you and pretty much all my furniture is from Freecycle! Nothing matches and I don't mind a bit. Might save up to replace some bits eventually, but I definitely don't feel the need to have an 'instagram-ready' home...

@lonelyapple

Boomers and the war generation are the most entitled, arrogant, privileged generation on earth. They had almost everything given to them for free. They were able to buy huge family homes on one wage at reasonable prices. They had free university and generous pensions. Now they want the younger generations to sacrifice their health for them too. I really hope a political party comes along that represents the screwed over younger generations and will be absolutely unrelenting in making the boomers pay for their greed and all the damage they have done to society.

I’m a boomer. I don’t want anyone to sacrifice anything for me, thank you. Nor did I get everything for nothing - unless 25 years of mortgage payments and nearly 50 years of tax deductions were a figment of my imagination.

Perhaps you’d like to clarify all the damage you allege we’ve done to society? Most of the damage I can see was done by Cameron’s austerity government - he’s Gen X.

Erm, we live on a very overcrowded planet. If we don't have enough people, then people will come from other parts of the world e.g. migrants to fill the jobs. A better solution in my mind.

Why do you think these migrants will specifically want to come to the UK?

"My parents bought their first house in 72 when they were 19 & 21. That's unheard of now. Every stick of furniture was second hand and they didn't have a TV for the first six months. People nowadays wouldn't accept living like that."

I don't mean to be unreasonable, but they really would. I can guarantee you, if you offered a mortgage with second hand furniture and no tv for 5 years, most youngsters would leap at the chance. I definitely would have done.
There's a lot of them living in one small room or a tiny flat with second hand furniture, working full-time hours, unable to ever own a house and still not making ends meet.

The TV is completely incomparable - people have to have internet access/phones just to survive, apply for jobs, work etc in today's world.

The reason people buy nice things now (I'm still of a generation that couldn't) is because, if owning your own home will never be on the horizon, then why not live as nicely as you can in the present?

@Samuraisammy you've got to recognise that social media isn't real life, it's more like a MLM.

"I can't see how Gen X has been fucked over at every available opportunity???"

Gen X is a long period of time. For those born closer to the 1980 end of it, grants vanished, loans came in at university and they graduated in a time of recession. While being told by Boomer parents that they weren't trying hard enough, when house prices and cost of living had been rising hugely since the early 70s.

Not saying Gen X had it harder than millennials by any means, but they were the first generation that weren't all able to aspire to previous job security, pensions, mortgages etc.