Are things harder for millennials?

[squidwid]

Many of my friends don't own houses and they're in their 30s. They did everything that society asked of them and still they're not making headway.

I know so many elderly people that live in 4 bedroom homes worth £400k plus. Obviously there is nothing wrong with that but families should be able to afford those houses so things can move on. No one can afford to buy them...

pixie5121 didn't you say on another thread that you fly multiple times a year though? I don't think many people would have afforded to save up a deposit doing that regardless of the decade.

Great, so you're sorted and on the housing ladder then.

A recent paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine and looking at the decline of the UK in terms of global life expectancy tells a story.

It considered data from over 70 years and states that historically, worsening population health has been an early sign of severe political and economic problems (looking forward to dealing with those 🙄) and that there has been an increase in the variation of life expectancy between social groups, with life expectancy falling in poorer groups.

The paper concludes that "while politicians invoke global factors, the reality is that the country (UK) suffers from major structural and institutional weaknesses" and that "it is not a case that 'things can only get better' as there are many examples if once prosperous countries falling into long decline.

There's also a growing body of research showing how declining health in a population threatens democracy itself.

DOI: 10.1177/01410768231155637

The OECD have also found that the UK is the second most economically unequal country in Europe, behind only Bulgaria.

But, yeah everything's great for millennials cause we've got cheap tvs.

Fair enough @EffortlessDesmond .
Yes, decent jobs with good progression/ pay could be obtained straight after school. Now, the young people are forced to take on £££ of debt making the situation more precarious from the very start.

Your personal experience and that of your parents isn't representative of two generations.
Most Millennials/ Gen Z have jobs as teenagers/ at Uni.
Are you trying to suggest that there has been grade inflation? Sure, but O levels were never harder than A levels.
There is more of a culture of parents helping with money to buy a house now which is exactly the point that the @squidwid makes. Housing was previously affordable without parental help. Now, the older generations have seen huge gains in housing wealth and houses are therefore unaffordable for many younger people without a parental gift.
I don't think the childcare support was particularly different except for the fact that many women could previously afford to take years off work or work part time when raising a family. Again, this is related to the fact that houses were affordable on one income.
Package holidays or whatever doesn't make up for the fact that students end up with £££ of debt and the basics in life (housing) are unaffordable for many.

Not to mention tipping the Brexit result which has made the country a lot poorer.

The radicals of the 60s with their anti-Vietnam marches and student demonstrations became the most right-wing conservative generation.

Rupert Murdoch has a lot to answer for, he's radicalised a lot of them on both sides of the pond (and the Mail here).

The OECD have also found that the UK is the second most economically unequal country in Europe, behind only Bulgaria.

That affects every generation. There are two million pensioners living in poverty.

there are loads of places.

I've done a basic rightmove search of just houses £100k or under within 30 miles of the following places (to get a vague spread of the country)
Rhondda Cynon Taff - 988
Birmingham - 581
Glasgow - 845
Newcastle - 5859
That's just houses, there would be 1000s more with flats as well.

This is what I've been saying, "the South" (of England)" isn't equivalent to "the UK"

I think the current generation (born 1960s onwards) have on average much easier more luxurious lives than those who came before.

I may not own a house but I have plenty of clothes, food, access to a university education, have enjoyed a foreign holiday most years, can eat oranges and bananas all year round.

Many of the "boomer" generation may be well off now but childhood in those days, growing up in the 40s and 50s, was much harder, there was grinding poverty in many places, mental health issues among parents, all the loss and devastation of the wars. Many of the women and working class people had no chance at higher education and went into menial low paid or hazardous roles. Indoor bathrooms, central heating, washing machines were all luxuries then. Nowadays even the poor have those things.

It's also true that house prices in many parts of the country are affordable even for people on low incomes. There's always the option of moving to a cheaper area if buying a house is really that important to you. Saving the required deposit of say £10,000 is very much doable by forgoing a few expensive luxuries for 2 or 3 years, if you live in a shared house in say Liverpool, even in a relatively low paid role. More difficult if you have children already but that was always the case.

Many people just have no idea how lucky they are

That is not true though, is it. Many of that generation had very little choice in what job they did as they left school at 14 or 16 with few qualifications and went straight into factories. A much higher proportion were in manual work than now. Many women went into low paid shop, reception, clerical work because there simply weren't the opportunities/encouragement for girls.

It was Thatcher's Right to Buy council houses policy in the 80s that helped a lot of these lower paid/working class boomers get a home. It certainly wasn't their high paid job that they walked into!

Not defending this policy by the way!

It was Thatcher's Right to Buy council houses policy in the 80s that helped a lot of these lower paid/working class boomers get a home.

It also partially created the horribly distorted housing market we have now.

At 30 you've never seen an O level, i did them but they were far easier than my DD's A levels... you could argue A levels are easier now but not O's.

Degree's are not just a UK thing! Most countries moved toward these, technology and more knowledge demands it, the nursing my Mum did is totally different to what my DD does or rather did in the NHS and in Australia to be an OT doesn't just demand a degree but a Masters.

Pretty everyone in my DD's uni worked P/T but it was harder to do because of long placements.

Parents didn't need to help out quite so much but they still went abroad, not as often as the low cost airlines weren't a thing.....

I rented but could still save enough for a deposit and be able to afford the mortgage.

imho its access to affordable housing inc rent and pensions that have been the biggest changes in my life time & not for the better.

I'm sure that's true but there are far more children living in poverty in the UK than pensioners.

Over 60s are now the wealthiest group in society which is a reverse of the situation of previous generations.

Hah yes laughing out loud that a woman won't be able to progress her career without going to the hair dressers and getting her nails done several times a year!

The fact that these things are seen as essentials just illustrates the wasteful and unimaginative attitude that is the real problem.

However, when the over 60s were children themselves, they were (on average) poorer than children are now.

The current generation will perhaps be poorer as pensioners than as children.

Realistically it has to go that way. We can't carry on getting richer and spending more and along with that, destroying the environment at an ever increasing rate

I wonder if you are thinking of the generation before the Boomers, their parents.
Some Boomers are only late 50s and many are in their 60s. They certainly weren't all working in factories/ manual occupations.

Thatcher's Right to Buy was a disaster for the housing market and one of the causes of the mess that we see now.

Nobody should ever end up in a position where their only option is to live in Peterlee, we must help them

You also have to realise that a lot of the unskilled jobs have disappeared. Factories have mostly moved to countries where labour is cheap. A lot of things have been mechanised. An educated workforce is necessary in a service industry led economy such as ours.

Nurses and teachers now need degrees but both of those jobs are more complex and demanding than they have ever been.

There does need to be more vocational training but we can't just go back to an earlier type of economy either.

The ones that have moved in my area all seem to have tons of cash, kids, all tapping away on laptops, wfh, etc, nice houses, cars, renovations....all spending with non stop deliveries....i get fed up taking in their parcels so i no longer do it.

Over 60s are now the wealthiest group in society which is a reverse of the situation of previous generations.

With huge disparities

The Centre for Ageing Better’s annual State of Ageing report, published on Thursday, says inequalities within older generations are some of the most extreme in society today: the wealth of the richest 20% doubled between 2002 and 2018, while that of the poorest 20% fell by 30%.

I know a lot of men in their 50s/60s who are in manual jobs and never had chance at higher education. Their children have gone to university - the first generation to do so in many families. Probably it depends on where in the country you are/what social class, but the push to send people to university was much more recent.

Agree with you that Right to Buy was a disaster but none the less it did help a lot of people get on the housing ladder, who would otherwise have stayed in council housing their whole lives.

I'm sorry I didn't realise that other millennials had such a different experience. My uni actually bans part time jobs and I don't know anyone who had a job until they graduated.

Re O levels being hard, this is just what my parents keep telling me. They tell me I have I so easy all the time and that my 10 A*s is not equal to one B O level.

Anyway I posted my message quite thoughtlessly and for that I apologise. My parents keep saying that my generation have it really easy and we are all spoilt. I just believed them eventhough my husband works 70 hours plus a week and I work at least 40 (4 days a week) and my mum and dad could make do with just my dad's salary.