To think younger adults are too compliant.

[antelopevalley]

We all know things have been hard for lots of people over the last three years, but so many younger adults have been shafted. From high house prices, to very high rents for substandard accommodation, cuts to schools, high student debt for poorly taught courses, closure of so many public services that supports young people struggling into adulthood, and increasing homelessness.

But the only pushback I really see is on social media where "boomers" get blamed. While in life they are getting jobs, working hard and trying often against the odds to make their life better.

Why are they so compliant? Why are they not rioting? Or at least organising against the rich? Why so little evidence of any kind of fightback?

Pensioners are at home all day and feel the cold more. Energy bills are a huge proportion of their income if they’re living on £182 a week. Would you like to try it because I wouldn’t.

Unfortunately it is true when you include rent/ housing, council tax, work expenses, travel costs etc and all the freebie’s/ reductions/ help available to pensioners. To give you an idea of just how bad things are for many low income workers, many would be delighted to have that much left after only paying for a shithole private rental, before you even get to the other expenses a pensioner doesn’t have.
I’m not saying state pension is remotely a luxury lifestyle, but it’s nowhere near as precarious as the situation for many low income workers. And ignoring the issue or denying it exists does nothing but fuel inter generational resentment.

I agree we all need to riot!

But I can't and I'm guessing most people can't either.

I need to work 3 jobs to pay my sky high rent. I can't walk out of my jobs, lose the roof over my head and live on the streets because I have a child. I also can't walk out of my job (so I can protest full time until change happens) because I work with vulnerable people who need care and support. I can't protest in my spare time (not that I actually have any) because I can't risk a criminal conviction, I need a clean DBS for all jobs I currently do and also those I'm interested in progressing to.

My hands are tied. So yes, all I can realistically do is moan on social media, moan to my MP and make sure I vote. It's shit, it's been shit for ages and it will unfortunately carry on being shit.

I'm exhausted. I've got qualifications and experience coming out of my backside. I'm ambitious, I'm proactive in seeking to better myself and improve my situation. I work multiple jobs and study for yet more qualifications and I'm still skint. Still in a private rented property. Still can't afford to save for a deposit. No matter what I do, I can't get ahead. I'm not giving up, I'm still trying but I honestly don't blame anyone who does give up.

@TrainspottingWelsh The poorest pensioners also pay rent.

@Eudaimonia5 That sounds shit.

Only 6% of pensioners private rent...

You do know people living in social housing pay rent? That’s another 16% so almost a quarter of pensioners pay rent - the poorest quarter.

Pensioners are at home all day and feel the cold more. Energy bills are a huge proportion of their income if they’re living on £182 a week. Would you like to try it because I wouldn’t.

Before he moved in with my my dad would spend £50 a week on his gas and electric prepayment meters.
His house was rented and cost him £400 a month or £100 a week, for a falling down two bed with no central heating or double glazing, that hadn't been decorated in a decade and with no functioning oven in the kitchen.
That's £150 gone already.
His food bill was £20 a week.
Now we're up to £170.
The £12 left was all he could afford to put in his car for fuel.

No other pension.
No mortgage because he and my mother had their house repossessed when the interest rates hit 15%.

He had to rely on my brother (NMW) and I (NHS but senior so ok paid) to help him with his basic living expenses and the remainder of his bills.

And many pensioners pay for care and cleaners as they can no longer manage this.

It is very hard for young people on a low wage. But I do not agree with the idea that poor older people have an easy time.

Probably because if you're in substandard precarious housing, in a gig economy job/zero hours contract/in a job with poor terms and conditions, living in a country with a high cost of living you're spinning so many plates that taking direct action isn't your top priority.

That's the aim of the last decade's policies: get people so stressed about basic living that they're too distracted to realise they're being taken for mugs.

And everyone pays Council tax. What “freebies” do pensioners get apart from a bus pass that’s as much use as a chocolate fire guard outside big cities?

Oh and all of those "boomer" parents sitting on a £million property - who do you think will inherit that when they die? (Unless care home fees etc).

Oh yes, their children and grandchildren.

Some people in all generations have had a leg up from the previous generations.

Some of us haven't.

Judging from the ones I see they are probably too fat to get out of the chair and attend an actual march that involves walking. They prefer to stay at home and gaze at a screen.

Its hard to protest now, the laws have changed since the 80s and criminal records can blight a career.

I do however wonder why there aren't more popular protest songs, the ones R1 would ban and the Home sec would have to answer questions on.

However, its mainly the older voter who is affected by the collapse in the NHS and no one seems bothered about that either, Tory support in the over 60s is still standing up well.

Oh and the other thing is the hate anyone gets for protesting, wait for the country to turn on nurses when the first reports of cancelled cancer ops happen and the 'Mail finds someone who has died, they wont be blaming the Government.

Young people have seemingly disengaged a lot with politics and campaigning, and especially voting. If young people (under 30) had voted in the same proportion as those over 60, Labour might have been the largest party in 2017, and before that, Brexit probably would not have happened.

Percentages of people in social housing, or owning with or without a mortgage are lower in all other groups.
So I sympathise with those 6%, but to to be honest the rest of my compassion is reserved for the working poor.
You can't have a thread telling young people we don't care enough, then spend the whole thread bashing us for what we do care about.

I care that young people are shafted with housing.
But can we focus that anger on who is creating those issues rather than bashing older people who live in social housing?

How about asking the older generation to stop voting Tory rather than asking the younger generation to take to the streets? Easier way to effect change.

If younger people got out and voted it wouldn’t matter how the older generation voted. Collectively you outweigh us.

www.statista.com/statistics/281208/population-of-the-england-by-age-group/

Its quite close if you take younger to mean up to 45 and older i.e more Tory inclined above that, its quite a sharp rise after 45.

I just don't why anyone votes Tory, only the super wealthy do well under their governance, yes easily bribed by pension rises but that doesn't help when, as my in laws have had to do, spend 10s of 000s on private treatment, latest is a cataract op.

Yet they still think the NHS strike is wrong and that "on balance" they 'll vote tory again, even though they know their current MP is an alcoholic.

In the early 90s I had to drag my housemates along to vote in the General Election. Then I persuaded them that we shouldn't pay the poll tax.

After university I became a union rep and went on marches. They went travelling. They are still less interested in politics than I am.

However another group of friends, slightly older, see me as apolitical compared to how much they have done over the years (and are still doing) against equality.

So I can't generalise about the younger generations, but a lot of things in life are much harder now for young adults who do not have family wealth to support them.

Surely people don’t start voting Tory at 45 @walkingonsunshinekat? The only people I know who vote that way have been doing it all their lives.

In my opinion it's because there's so much happening at once.

Do you protest climate change? Or cost of living? Do you stand up for the crumbling NHS or the mental health debacle?

Where do you start? How do you fix it all?

It does feel like the younger generation have been given a big pile of shit and are somehow expected to just sort it all out.

Give them time!

in part I think it's the housing bubble, living independently from parents is out of reach for the average person in 20s and 30s
imo this is a backward step for society, adults should not be beholden to thier parents for an extended time like this