To , just once ,ask is anyone else fed up of being the squeezed middle?

[Wildandallthatjazz]

Thats it really. !

Yes , on mn , its seen as a privilege to have a mortgage, a job etc .

But sometimes it feels hard and you just wish that you got a break . Recognition of the hard slog maybe .

I am not begrudging those on benefits who got the extra payment support, its more about just wanting to have a treat / a bonus/ etc .. a spare bit of money.. a boost .. the heating on … or maybe recognition that the middle can struggle too ?

I totally accept that people can struggle and need help , sort of also feel the struggling middle are invisible ? ( and not seen to have the’ right ‘to have a little moan as it does you good sometimes )

I do think we are incredibly lucky to live in a county with a welfare state, nhs, free gp care I really do .
But sometimes, it just would be nice not to feel you are paying taxes , working as much as possible, and to be able not to feel squeezed all the time and the need to just have a grump about it .

sometimes it is good to let of steam .. when you cant IRL

and then you move on in a more positive fashion .

Plenty of young people will never have the option of paying a mortgage & as for social housing..

the issue is people starting out today won't have anything left over to make provision. The economy is fucked.

exactly.

no one in the current generation can be a postie for 35 years, support 2 kids and a SAH wife, retire on a 800k ex council house, etc at 55.

Many older people leave it too late to downsize then they can't face it. In my job role I visit many elderly who live in lovely homes worth a bit but have little money to live on day to day but for some reason have not downsized and now due to illness, disability, lack of family to help are just kind of stuck in big houses full of clutter which they can't manage.

Hi,
Just looking for some reassurance/advice about a not so nice subject but my little ones poos!
He'll be 3 early next year and ever since he was born he's always had issues going to the toilet and never really had a normal poo. For this whole time he's either been on lactulose or movicol. The doctor has finally said that it's time to have it investigated so he's booked to see a paediatrician but the appointment is a ridiculous amount of time away so have just got to carry on worrying until the appointment comes. In the meantime he has some bloods done and there has been a slight irregularity with his blood results, the doctor thinks it is an iron deficiency. But stupidly have been googling about it all and Leukemia keeps coming up so I'm even more worried! Just looking for other mums that have had a similar experience so I don't feel like he's the only one! Thanks

So often I've been places where students get a discount (including my OH) but I don't. or if you have a XXX whatever you get a discount but I don't. Seems so irrational and unfair.

Many older people leave it too late to downsize then they can't face it

It's the fear of change & upheaval for many. They need to do it earlier as many put it off & then it's too late.

@Lizzie1994

I think your on the wrong thread

I can't see the state pension existing in 30 years.

When I was a child I remember my aunt saying “There won’t be any pensions soon”. That was 60 years ago. Why on earth wouldn’t there be pensions?

No one in any generation could have done that.

Working people today are being taxed to support those on benefits, taxed to support pensioners, taxed to support everyone apart from themselves

Working people have always been taxed to pay for the older generation's state pension. Your kids will pay for yours.

And the same argument about there being no pension in 20/30 years is the same argument that was being thrown around 30 years ago.

@Blossomtoes because the age keeps moving out & life expectancy isn't increasing. Why do you think there will be?

Look at the state of the economy now, we are only at the start of the demographic shift. Huge tax burden & public services are in the shit. I'd love to be optimistic & believe things will improve but they won't. Not with productivity as it is.

I think England has a long-term problem with reward for work.

Now it's expressed in the difference between the richest and poorest.

We haven't shared our wealth amongst our people. We're coming up to breaking point on it, hence all the right-wing diversion which is swallowed so readily by the deferential elderly generation.

It will stop soon.

And the same argument about there being no pension in 20/30 years is the same argument that was being thrown around 30 years ago.

It's not though because of the change in dependency ratio.

@j712adrian what do you think will stop it?

Why do you think there will be?

Because I’ve been round the block a few times and know the economy goes in cycles of boom and bust. What we’re seeing now is very similar to the mid 70s and early 90s, except we don’t (yet) have mass unemployment. We’re at the beginning of a recession, made worse by Brexit and a bunch of greedy bastards in government, we’ll come out of it again. We always do.

Thanks for that General Melchett.

@Blossomtoes Exactly this.

@Blossomtoes err we didn't recover from the 08 cycle and in the 70s & 90s the demographics were quite different.

Is that the same 1970s and 1990s when a house was ~4 times the average wage and now it’s 8?

And we won't see anything like the wage growth today that we saw in the 70s

@Cuppasoupmonster Yes, the same 1970s when inflation was 25%.

The BOE seem to think what's hitting now is worse than the 70s

financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/bank-of-england-chief-says-shocks-hitting-uk-worse-than-in-1970s/wcm/d5731b60-f357-45a5-bc6e-df2da5f4f2aa/amp/

Not that crap again.

Do you have a calculator on you? Sit down and work out the repayments on a house costing 10k at 25% inflation. Then work them out at 10% for a house costing 270k. Now factor in that average salary today is 10 times today what it was then.

Which is better?

Who needs to hear from the BOE when we have Teresa here to advise us on what’s what?

The principle of boom and bust is the same regardless of the detail. We’re in the current mess due to a decade of artificially low interest rates and government borrowing its way out of trouble. Now the bill’s come in and we’re all paying it if we’re taxpayers.