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300k to survive... typical Sunday Times Article

69 replies

Judy1234 · 29/04/2007 16:13

Sunday Times article... the writer says because of house price and school fees rises to afford what his parents could afford you now when in your 20s have to make stark choices - City well paid job, City partner, IB etc - fine you can emulate that life. Other jobs, GP etc, not fine. I'm not sure there really is that change. I think it was always so - the child who became a teacher, actor, vicar would always have been different in terms of income and life from those who went into the City.

"My father, a respected country-based architect, somehow managed to put his four sons through private education. One is now a partner in a venture capital firm; another is co-founder of Lombok, a furniture retailer with a turnover of about £15m a year; another is a highly skilled Shropshire-based cabinet maker; and as for myself, the oldest son, ?wordsmith? seems best to describe the translating, writing and language teaching that have occupied me in Paris, Rome and London over the past decade or so.

Of these four brothers, all of equal talent but of quite different character, two are or soon will be rich or very rich. The other two are penniless.

As an unmarried and badly paid knowledge worker, I live in a rented room in Hammersmith and have no hope of ever buying a home anywhere. Indeed, when I return to the agreeable parts of central London that I know so well from earlier periods of my life, I realise that I am looking at the attractive stucco houses in just the same way that a tramp looks through a restaurant window at a group of people enjoying a carefree meal. I am effectively an exile in the city where I was born. "
women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article1719509.ece

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iota · 29/04/2007 16:14

I read that - it made me ROFL

MoreSpamThanGlam · 29/04/2007 16:17

Where do all these posh/wealthy people come from? They cant ALL be that well off and living in London? the figures dont add up.

But then again Im skint so its probably my accounting skills...

Judy1234 · 29/04/2007 16:18

It's one of those fairly pointless articles about nothing much which is I assume written to help him pay his rent.

"A civil servant on £60,000; a partner in a country law firm on £75,000; even a successful GP on £100,000 . . . for all of these highly trained professionals, to send one ? let alone two ? children to a public school is either impossible or a severe strain (though independent day schools are far less expensive). A headhunter who is often asked by his friends how they are meant to get by on, say, an MP?s salary of £60,000 a year, has no answer. ?I just don?t want to think about it,? he told me.

In the face of this, some make considerable sacrifices, often getting into debt. But many others give up the struggle with London and move to the country, with any luck near a good state school like Dr Challoner?s in Buckinghamshire or Gillingham in Dor-set, now nicknamed ?the toffs? grammar school?. In the words of one insider: ?You often come across this at dinner parties in the country, with people saying that London?s so awful that they never go there any more; protesting too much, of course; then you realise they just can?t afford it.?

A popular member of White?s, the St James?s club to which many of the old landowners belong, knows plenty of well-edu-cated professionals who have fallen by the wayside. ?First, they can?t afford to eat out,? he told me, ?then they pull their children out of [fee-paying] school, and you just stop seeing them.? Brian Gill, a London-based debt counsellor, told me: ?The poverty line is definitely creeping upwards.?

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Lilymaid · 29/04/2007 16:27

""My son?s living in Kingston upon Thames,? a retired public-school-educated businessman told me."
What a come down - living in the squalor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames where a workman's cottage will cost you half a million.

OrmIrian · 29/04/2007 16:28

Part of the reason we don't live in London I guess.

Judy1234 · 29/04/2007 17:19

"Where do all these posh/wealthy people come from? They cant ALL be that well off and living in London? the figures dont add up."

I think part of this point is that some of the money in London is foreign money, rich russians etc and that a lot of it doesn not sadly trickle down to him he says and instead is spent on Polish nannies who send it back to Poland or on a few 5 * London hotels and holidays in the Carribean and he doesn't feel the trickle down at all.

The few wealthy? I suppose in the jobs he writes about the London accountancy partners, brokers, actuaries, investment bankers. Look at who have moved near us in the last few years where house prices are quite high and they tend either to have their own very successful businesses that they own or they are London professionals.

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MadamePlatypus · 29/04/2007 17:56

"I have no home of ever buying a home anywhere" - I think the writer needs to clarify what he means by anywhere! I bet if he gave us details of his income us MNers could find him somewhere to live in Greater London!

Maybe he should watch a few episodes of 'Rising Damp' or 'Man about the House'.

Judy1234 · 29/04/2007 19:19

He's got an over inflated view of what the world "owes" him. He made a career choice which inevitably would mean XYZ consequences - when have writers ever made any money? and now is whinging about it.

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maisym · 29/04/2007 22:54

the rich kids might not get a place at the grammar schools - then what??? secondary modern!!

MrsJohnCusack · 29/04/2007 23:10

LOL at "and as for myself, the oldest son, ?wordsmith? seems best to describe the translating, writing and language teaching that have occupied me in Paris, Rome and London over the past decade or so".

how about 'international whinging pretentious ponce'

can't find the article but he sounds a tad jealous of his brothers. and I think you're right Xenia - crap writers will always have made less money than city/banking etc. jobs

daydreambeliever · 29/04/2007 23:11

He does come across as smug and complacent, with an incredible sense of entitlement. In the newspaper article he implies that his father was able to buy the 'rectory' where their family lived outright, and claims that the fact the same rectory is now going for 1 1/2 million is proof that 'the poverty line in shifting' etc. But for his father to have had the cash to train as an architect back in the 50's/60's...and to buy a house outright.....there must have been some serious family wodge in the first place. So it was exactly the same then as now......old rectory in the 1950's that most ordinary people couldnt have dreamt of affording......old rectory in 2000's that most people couldnt dream of affording. I mean life was hard, very hard for most people 40 or 50 years ago, much more so than now. Owning a home outright, or even having a mortgage, is no easier or harder than it ever was IMO.

Why are these people so afraid of state schools?

daydreambeliever · 29/04/2007 23:15

LOL mrscusack, he is indeed an 'international whinging ponce"!! Lets find him a house, arent there a few cottages in former mining villages in wales going for around 30 grand? That'll give him something to write about.

Judy1234 · 29/04/2007 23:16

True. My father couldn't do medicine at university in the 1940s because his father had already paid for one son and there were no grants... then grants came out so he could go. Then as we know we had that brief period of free university education until Blair introduced fees. So 50 years ago it certainly wasn't easy. It was ahuge struggle for my parents even to buy a house at all. They were into their 30s before they did and married over 13 years before they could afford to have children. Do couples put off babies for 13 years and men even not marry until over 40 because they cannot afford it these days. I think not.

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beckybrastraps · 29/04/2007 23:19

Haven't there always been profligate younger sons who have had to be dealt with by steadier members of the family? Perhaps he's just hacked off that his brothers have neglected that fraternal duty...

And God yes, wordsmith!

PMSL

expatinscotland · 29/04/2007 23:25

'when have writers ever made any money?'

JK Rowling's made about half a bil being one.

expatinscotland · 29/04/2007 23:25

I started to read that article, but it was London-this, London-that and I just thought, 'Who the fuck cares?'

expatinscotland · 29/04/2007 23:28

Outside London, perhaps .

jampot · 30/04/2007 00:14

hear hear expat

Judy1234 · 30/04/2007 07:58

I think the average earnings for many writers are about £6k. Citing JK Rowling is not really helpful. Very few writers earn much at all. He must have known that when he went into journalism. Even if he got to be on the staff full time of the Times or Telegraph he would have not have made the fortune he seems to think he's entitled to.

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expatinscotland · 30/04/2007 09:19

So on the one hand, Xenia, you're encouraging people do to work they love so they'll work hard at it.

On the other, you're saying, 'But if it doesn't pay enough to keep a roof over your head then bully for you.'

daydreambeliever · 30/04/2007 12:26

Yes but to be fair to Xenia, she is not being unsympathetic about someone who cant afford a roof over their head. She is being unsympathetic to someone who is whining about not being able to buy a house in a fancy part of london, eat in posh restaurants and send kids to public school. Just because he was brought up in such style doesnt mean that he should have expected to live like that hinmself. I actually feel kind of sorry for spoilt kids/teenagers who get to have posh holidays/lives. Not all of then will grow up to carry on living like that. And if youve got used to luxury it is I guess hard to go back. So he is destined to feel perpetually discontented. And envious . Ha! finally got to use the envy picture

UnquietDad · 30/04/2007 15:26

Could you link to the article please Xenia (or anyone)?
Cutting and pasting the link below gives a 404 Error for me.

Judy1234 · 30/04/2007 17:09

How weird. It was in the SUnday Times News Review section yesterday but I'm not sure how you find that on the times web site.

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Lilymaid · 30/04/2007 17:23

We Used to Have It All
I am so so sorry for the poor boy!

FioFio · 30/04/2007 17:23

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