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...

They're also too poor to declare bankruptcy (it costs money).

Somehow this thread has turned into the @Emotionalstorm thread. Which makes no sense, as it was originally about how hard millennials have it and @Emotionalstorm hasn't had it hard at all, lives in a protected, cosseted bubble and votes accordingly. Which isn't in the least surprising.

You’re not the thread police @ssd.

News flash - you can have a science degree that is a humanities degree too.

Its not just fines, its store cards, bank loans, unofficial lending (loan sharks) all can throw the poorer in society into huge debt.

Being honest, its incredible you vote Tory, you have a great financial life but also seem to realise that many do not and are balancing on a knife edge but you'll vote to continue or even make this worse.

Interesting perspective.

I have a BSc in geography - geography has one of the highest employment rates of any degree. None of my coursemates were particularly privileged, bar one or two (small cohort). In fact, I’d say we were from a predominantly working class background. We didn’t go to a RG uni but it was still a large, well respected uni.

I'm not sure if Emotionalstorm is actually on a wind up because I find it hard to believe anyone over about 20 is this oblivious.

I find it hard to believe you don’t understand the extent to which extreme privilege insulates people from the realities of life. Do you think any of the multimillionaires currently in government or their children aren’t equally oblivious?

So you think it’s “extremely unlikely” that she’s had any contact with “normal people” and are then astonished that she has no understanding of their struggles. How would she have if she’s never encountered them?

@pixie5121 "There aren't many council house kids applying for Classics."

Raises hand 🙋

Totally agree.

Never said i was

I’m 29 and have been a homeowner for 5 years. Our families are not rich and in no position to help us. However, we live in the north east and were lucky enough to buy at a time when 5% deposits were accepted. Our first home cost £132k. This would now go for £175k. The home we live in now, we couldn’t actually afford to buy now as it is worth £200k+. The house I grew up in was bought by my parents for under £60k in the nineties. It’s now worth £250k easily. We were just extremely lucky with timing and are acutely aware of that. We are not skilled workers so don’t earn all that much but we try to live within our means.
I have a younger sister who currently has absolutely no hope of buying a property any time soon and her partner is an engineer with a decent wage. Banks want higher deposits and house prices are not falling after they shot up. Everything is going up in price but wages are not following.
I’m probably one of the exceptions in my generation and will be forever grateful for that.

1200?? Where is that?? So cheap!!

I do not think it is harder, people's expectations are higher. I have never had help of my parents, nor would I expect it. I have gone without to afford my first car, which was years old and also to afford to buy a house, that was in need of work, but did it myself to save money. My friend, who is the same age and on a better wage, swears she cannot afford a house, but she has to have the latest clothes, cars, beauty treatments, fancy holidays etc. There are many young people out there making their own way in life, they are just prepared to make sacrifices

1200 is not particularly cheap rent. My son's 2 bed house (just outside M25) has rent of £1100 a month (he is the landlord).
People can have a moan whatever their age but in life it tends to be a good idea just to do the best you can and get on with things as com,parison is the thief of joy. There will always be someone today or in the past who has things a lot easier or worse than all of us.

I actually think the opposite is true - the subjects you have listed tend to be very competitive with the highest entry requirements, and the courses tend to be more demanding, including placements, which makes working alongside your degree more difficult.

If you look at the (school level) attainment gap between the top 20% and the bottom 20%; you will see that the more affluent perform far better than the less affluent, and therefore the “prestigious” subjects tend to have less people from the bottom 20%.

For example, for Glasgow Uni (RG) you need 5 A’s at higher and 2 B’s at advanced higher for medicine. For classics you “only” need 5 A’s at higher OR 4 A’s at higher and a B at advanced higher. So it’s far harder for anyone to do medicine than classics, but given that the “poor” are less likely to get the top grades needed than the “rich”, I think it’s ridiculous to claim there are more working class people doing classics than medicine.

If you are interested in learning more; look up Scottish Attainment Challenge, City Challenges in England, or Challenge Cymru.

Cheap?!

You could get that for £500 here, easy 😂

@pixie5121 Well aren't you just a delight?

I can assure you, I am speaking from more than just my personal experience. I could put my hand on specific data about numbers of children in my local authority who study medicine; and I can assure you, very few are from “council estates” - the vast majority are from privileged backgrounds.

Granted, tuition fees are free here, so family finances have less on an impact.

Working closely with a careers service in a large, mixed demographic secondary school gives me a fairly good insight into this.