To think my niece doesn’t really get a say on how good or bad she thinks the budget is

[Dennien]

I’m a single mum, I work full time, I have 3 children and I just about get by.
My niece is 26, she makes almost 100k (got lucky, was in the right rooms either the right people), and inherited 500k from her paternal grandparents.
She doesn’t have uni debt, she doesn’t have childcare costs. She happily pays £500 a month for a fancy London gym, lives in a flat share with her best friend etc.
Today she told me she didn’t think the budget went far enough etc. that Labour are useless and so on. She is a Lib Dem/Tory voter and very against reform too.

AIBU to say that young people in a privileged position shouldn’t really get to comment as they aren’t facing the same difficulties others are.

Ach, just fling off the damn restraints OP, and give that deep begrudgery you feel towards your niece more room to express itself!
Come on, she’s perfectly entitled to be dissatisfied with the Budget for the reasons she cites, and it ought to be no skin off your nose.

I think most of us would like to unsubscribe from paying your benefits OP, including your dear niece.

So she overcame a disadvantaged background, has trained for many years to get a niche job in a very precarious industry that carrues a strong salary. A salary that means should she have children she won’t get any of the support you’ve had from the state and you think she’s the one lacking empathy?

Opened this expecting to read you niece was a naive and idealistic teenager.

Turns out she's a working-age net tax contributor.

Of course she's entitled to a say!

OP, with the best will in the world, women died so that we can have our say. Some of the women who helped to propel ‘the cause’ forward weren’t from the working classes, they simply knew that we were as entitled to freedom of speech as men.
As others have said, your niece will feel the budget in the form of taxation. You do not know what her future will bring…similarly, yours may change too.
My political views were very different at 26…and again at 36…and again as I’m mid 40s. Be glad your niece has the right to have her voice heard, however hard it is. Many women would love that chance.

Surely her opinion matters more than most?! She’s seen both sides! Grew up on a council estate and is now a high earner.

also can’t believe you’ve written this about your own niece, I’m gobsmacked!

Sorry OP, I’m piss poor and I still think your niece has a right to her opinion, and her vote. And you do sound envious, I’m afraid to say.

If it's true, I am guessing nherited 500k from her paternal grandparents. is a very bitter pill for the OP, on top of the young woman earning such a high salary based on her own work and skills.

This jealousy of "rich" people, from those poorer, is very short sighted.

At her income of 100K she's comfortably in the top 10% of income earners.

The top 10% of income earners pay about 60% of income tax.

So they ABSOLUTELY are entitled to have an opinion! As is everyone in a democracy.

Whilst I might agree with her. I'd never say it. Especially in front of someone who is struggling

So you have 3 children that you can barely afford, she is a high earner and you don’t think she should be annoyed that her earned money from the higher tax she pays is going towards people who have more children than they can afford?
she is entitled to her opinion. Just settle with being glad that you benefited from the budget because she won’t benefit!

this.

Are you in receipt of any benefits? assuming that's the case, then she's effectively paying for you. She doesn't have children, so her taxes are funding education and healthcare of yours.

I'd agree that her opinion is more important than yours.

And you just feel jealous of her success and trying to belittle it by saying "she was in the right room".

ETA: people like your niece, young and successful, are usually very mobile internationally. Attitudes like yours and general climate in the UK drive this demographics away. If some proportion of such individuals emigrate, people like you OP will be in big trouble.

A very fair point, even though I don't agree with it either.

Sounds like she's one of those with the 'broad shoulders' that Labour are always going on about. Maybe you should thank her for being willing to shoulder the burden that enables people like you to coast through life. How lucky you are.

Why is someone she supposedly loves, inheriting money and becoming very successful a 'very bitter pill'?

You make it sound like it's par for the course to feel that way about her niece??

Have the responses here made you rethink at all @Dennien?

So in your world, how poor does someone have to be to be allowed an opinion? You must have a figure in mind if you think your affluent cousin isn't allowed.

You shouldn't have had more children than you could afford. People like you annoy me no end.

Everyone has the right to comment. Not everyone understands how difficult things can be for people in different circumstances.

Her skills must be keeping her in a job.

She will be a net contributor, paying towards the services you use @Dennien Be grateful for her as many people in this country are not, and that would probably include you, with 3 children so will have made use of NHS services, education etc

You really do sound bitter & jealous of her success & are therefore doing everything to minimise that!

It’s a democracy, we all get a say and can have a view.

This is my circumstance and opinion too. I'm council estate born and bred. My parents were like yours, as was I (and many others I know). I have worked my backside off to get where I am now and I'm fed up paying for dossers.

Her considerable taxes are paying for your children’s education and healthcare because you take out a lot more than you put in.

AIBU to say that young people in a privileged position shouldn’t really get to comment as they aren’t facing the same difficulties others are

Of course you are. We’re supposed to be a democracy. We all get to comment. There will be vast numbers of people who are worse off than you. Why should you get to comment when you aren’t facing the same difficulties they are? See how silly that sounds now? What you’re essentially saying is that anyone with a different opinion to you needs to sit down and shut up.

I feel very uncomfortable with this line of thinking that if your circumstances or your opinion is slightly different to the people who feel that they are the most hard done by, then you need to be completely silent and not voice your opinion on anything as you are unworthy. It’s like the early days of a dictatorship.