This country as gone into terminal decline

[Carmes]

I have 2 young children in school.

I am becoming more and more anxious about what sort of jobs / careers they will have open to them.

I work for very large company with 10,000s of employees.

20 years ago whe I started work here there would be 100s of entry level jobs at any given time. These are jobs that don't require experience or a degree, ideal for a school leaver, and I know dozens of people who started their career this way.

Now there are maybe 10 jobs that would fit the same criteria.so. All the jobs have been offshored.
Now are the vacancies are for very specific technical skill set or experience.

This doesn't bode well for someone who has left school at 18'or even university.

I'm not saying that she isn't a leech Penelope. I'm not saying it isn't bad to have three children from three different deadbeat fathers.
I know you will want to shoot me down for saying this (and I don't blame you) but she HAS grown three new human beings at a time when the birth rate is dropping and we need more women to have babies.
I personally think the only way that birth rates on a global scale (at least in first world countries) will get to replacement level is if governments pay women a full-time wage to be mothers.

And society should support those who need additional help.

We need more carers - why are those claiming benefits not taking up these vacancies? Lazy?

We need to focus on outcomes not age.
Very frail 80 year old with co-morbidies who needs a new hip? We shouldn't operate just because we can.
Fit and healthy 60 year old who is a carer for her grandchildren who needs a new hip. Of course you should operate.

The point is by dying young they didn’t put very much in the pot did they certainly not enough to justify her and her siblings taking anything out. At all.

The problem is after 80 healthcare costs 7 times more per person than someone in their 30s. Who's going to pay for that?

Its an uncomfortable truth

• “The number of people aged 65-79 is predicted to increase by nearly a third (30%) to over 10 million in the next 40 years, while the number of people aged 80 and over – the fastest growing segment of the population – is set to more than double to over 6 million.”

The above is staggering.

Can't people see the ideas and concepts of the 1950s are NOT affordable? The concept of growth has reached a point of diminishing returns. We had deceleration from 2008 onwards now our ideas and foundations such as a home, healthcare and education aspirations are now in reverse.

I don’t think people want to see

I would like to think that that’s what happens at the moment.

But we’re not talking about hip replacements.

But if you’ve got a disease that’s going to kill you beyond a certain age, it’s going to kill you
Perhaps this will incentivize people to take better care of their health @MyPithyPoster ?

And society should support those who need additional help.

But not the below?

We need more carers - why are those claiming benefits not taking up these vacancies? Lazy?

Reform caused the biggest cause of our decline- Brexit!

I’m sure it will help the economy if you take out a significant number of working age women and pay them to stay at home. It’s taken years to work towards equality in the workplace without suggesting of pushing it back decades. Why women and not men to stay at home? What would you suggest as a suitable wage?

I don't agree with withholding treatment purely on age grounds, but I do think that if a working age person has a fixable issue that is keeping them off sick they should be pushed to the front of the queue. I know of a lot of people on the sick from non-desk jobs awaiting joint replacements.

The problem people have come to expect far too much from the state, and it's simply not realistic or affordable. Just look at the outcry over the winter fuel allowance - from the generation who are already the biggest net recipients of state handouts.

Claiming benefits used to be shameful. These days people seem to have an enormous sense of entitlement. Particularly those who contribute the least.

@Palladin

She probably does yes , the same with babies born disabled with no hope of recovery . N@zi Germany anyone .

I hear you. I am retired and feel almost thankful that I am in the last part of my life when I look around me and see what life is like for people just starting out and especially for children. I have an adult child and adult nieces, friends with teens and one friend with a lovely toddler so I do feel that I am in touch with the issues. I look around the area i live in and I could cry, it is filthy (our council is one of the "bankrupt" ones and swingeing cuts have really bitten deep into the fabric of the city). People seem more aggressive, less caring and there is almost a simmering tension in the air at times. This does not surprise me when just getting by has become such a struggle. The teens I know have mental health struggles and I am sure these are linked to the difficulty of finding a place and a purpose in the world as things seem to be so restricted for them. My adult child is only now after more than a decade of work looking to buy and what they can afford after years of saving for a deposit is not inspiring. I would help them out but now find that I am having to dip into my savings just to cover essential bills. I had some modest plans for my retirement but have had to abandon most of them due to the cost of living, All this is just micro snapshots from my life, the bigger picture is so grim with the return of Trump, the influence of Musk, the rise of populilsm across the globe and of course climate change that I just don't have enough head space to contemplate where I fear we are heading.

The only reason we need more people is to prop up the unsustainable Ponzi scheme that is modern capitalism a bit longer. All that is doing is kicking it down the road so it is other generations that have to pick up the pieces when it eventually crumbles.

It seems like a very high proportion of under 25s are also NEET with many on sick - shall we stop offering the health care too?
we’re a civilization. Medical decisions should be about quality of life not some arbitrary age cut-off.

Perhaps we were talking slightly at cross purposes wrt legal vs illegal immigration. I don't think many people are fully pro illegal immigration but many are anti legal immigration.

You haven't addressed my point about who pays for the higher carer's and other wages. Many older people already resent paying for their care and try to get out of paying for it. Many also think IHT is appalling on principle.
What will happen if care costs even more?
If people want less immigration, they need to be prepared to pay more tax and make sacrifices. Not just those earning but taxes on properties/land, pensioners paying more tax (currently they are exempt from NI, for example). They also need to be prepared to volunteer to fill in the gaps eg childcare, elderly care.
As I said, you can't just complain about immigrants without thinking about the consequences and coming up with some possible solutions. Sadly, the people complaining loudly in the right wing media do not want to make any sacrifices; they just want to complain, in the main.

@Cheesencrumpets you think they are going to move away from Capitalism?

I presume because (for the most part) being a carer is badly paid, not especially pleasant, low status work. Most people would only do it if they had no other options.

Reform came after Brexit.

There are things Keir Starmer is doing now thanks to Brexit, such as the VAT on private schools. The problem is, they are only taking advantage of bits that suit their agenda and not all of the benefits.

Perhaps under a different party, we’d be able to take advantage of other parts of Brexit, we aren’t currently exploiting.

Apprenticeships seem to be the way to go. But they’re a long hard slog. And not well paid until qualified. I’m at a law firm and the solicitor apprentice scheme is very good. They key is to work hard - extremely hard - but some of those on the scheme don’t seem to realise this and are doing their standard 9-5 and think that’s enough. It isn’t.

I do agree with you - I worry for my DC and he got a good first in his degree and his masters. He’s not earning a huge amount, and I dread to think about when he’ll have enough to own a home.

it’s a worry.

I think this thread shows just how little older people are valued ...

It's a fair point which I don't disagree with, @Cheesencrumpets - and as mentioned I'm one of them - but there's a bit of mileage between the inevitable accusations of wanting to kill off everyone over 60 and the current expectation that folk will be kept alive way beyond a natural span no matter what

Of course we'd all hope for decent treatment if there's a prospect of real recovery and a decent standard of life at the end of it, but where that's not the case the argument can change somewhat

However useless those degrees are! I recall teaching a Statistics lesson to 15/16 years old and the subject of degrees came up, it was at a time when far fewer people went to University than now. I said that there was an expectation that within 30 years then number of people going to University would treble and the pupils' response was That will devalue having a degree if so many have one! I had taught them well. Too many jobs call for a degree when in reality an apprenticeship would be far more useful, they would enter the job market with valid experience and no debt instead of being sill wet behind the ears at 21/22 and needing 'safe spaces' , mollycoddling etc..

My son has worked extremely hard for the last 10 years (GCSEs, A-levels and a 1st from a top ten university) and it has got him precisely nowhere. Tell me (and him, and his generation) again how the key is hard work?

It seems like a very high proportion of under 25s are also NEET with many on sick - shall we stop offering the health care too?

How many of these are students?