Wednesday, Sep 01, 2010
The old have never had it so good
Telegraph: The Boomers' bonanza has left precious little for the rest of us
While every generation thinks it has things uniquely bad, today's teenagers have the statistics to back it up. Over the past few decades, young people have been thoroughly ripped off. Those born after Margaret Thatcher's arrival in Downing Street have things unutterably worse than their parents. With houses going so dear, the "jilted generation" are having to spend more of their income on rent than at any time in the past 30 years. And in terms of employment, things aren't much better. Even during the boom years, young people's wages stagnated. Many couldn't even find a stable job in the first place: among those aged between 18 and 24, the jobless rate is nearly one in five.
Posted by drewster @ 09:50 AM (1361 views) Add Comment
28 Comments
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1. mr g said...
I know, it's great isn't it!!
2. mark wadsworth said...
Not quite true.
Things were mighty grim under Thatcher (which is why Yours Truly lived abroad 1984 - 1993) but then there was a brief Golden Era under Sir John Major in the early/mid 1990s when the economy was growing, jobs were relatively easy to find and houses were at their most affordable ever (in terms of income multiples).
Labour soon snuffed that out of course.
3. i remember the 90`s said...
I am not a boomer but was of working age during Thatcher`s reign and i cannot remember it being good ,interest rates going up to 15% etc ,no i am sorry it only got silly from about 1995 imo .
4. tom101 said...
I'd love to employ someone right now. A grad would be perfect and i would be able to pay a fair wage so they could potentially put a good deposit down for a house in a few years. However, it's just too risky and they're just too greedy.
5. mark said...
thatcher had to clean up labours mess, same as happening now, but councils don't seem to be cutting as fast as they should
6. doomwatch said...
All roads lead back to Thatcher don't they. Won't be long Margaret. I'll be in Trafalgar Square with my bottle of 80s Bollee to
celebrate.
7. Tom101 said...
I think they are Mark. A council i know of (friend works there) are way ahead of the game and are replacing permanent staff with contractors whom are easier to get rid of ultimately.
8. mark said...
Thatcher was an icon apart from poll tax..
9. doomwatch said...
mark @7. I agree; icon of hate.
10. uncle tom said...
Mrs T. had a truly appalling legacy to sort out, in the wake of the hopeless Callaghan.
She did manage to get things sorted out, and I don't think any other politician of that era would have done a better job; yet she gets very little gratitude for her efforts, probably because she over-stayed her welcome. She should have ducked out gracefully in '86..
~~~
That aside, it is very interesting to see the number of mainstream articles that now draw attention to the unfairness of the status quo..
..the baby boomers are no longer in control - and it shows..
11. mark said...
why hate? she did a great job of turning around the country when labour left it bankrupt or as good as
12. hpwatcher said...
why hate? she did a great job of turning around the country when labour left it bankrupt or as good as
Perhaps the austerity went on for a little too long under Thatcher - though in some ways, she was exactly what the economy needed.
I just wish we hadn't had the ideological stuff, just sensible economics and good house keeping.
Remember good houise keeing? Something New Labour clearly knew nothing about.
13. alan_540 said...
1. mr g said...
I know, it's great isn't it!!
...that's uncharacteristically unsympathetic of you Mr G.
14. hpwatcher said...
...that's uncharacteristically unsympathetic of you Mr G.
Very judgemental today aren't we?
15. Rantnrave said...
I'm between the generations this article dicusses and I dont think the arguments are so clear cut. Younger people today have, despite recent news, far more opportunity to study instead of starting to work at 18 or 16. Boomers in the 1960s would expect to spend holidays in Skegness and Blackpool rather than the Canary Islands or Thailand. There certainly wasn't anything like Google either...
If house prices come down to more affordable level and the job situation improves, then today's teens wont be in such a bad position. Boomers had to go through the 80s recession as well
16. tudorian said...
The thatcher years saw us squander the last of our natural resources (north sea oil) propping up a failing and disfunctional welfare system. 3, 4 god knows how many millions unemployed; whole communities in the North, Wales, Midland, Scotland paid for a generation to sit on their arses rather than work.
17. nomad said...
...that's uncharacteristically unsympathetic of you Mr G.
Very judgemental today aren't we?
Uncharacteristic indeed - I suspect a reaction to the villification Mr G has, at times, received here.
18. Horsburghn said...
Thatcher sold off all the nationalised industries, often for only idealogical reasons, so that they could be bought up for a cheap price by her pals in the financial sector. She also started the right to buy on council houses and stopped the coumcils reinvesting the money in social housing. She is therefore to blame for a lot of the current housing problem.
I plan on erecting a concession stand at her graveside from where I will sell t-shirts and mugs emblazoned with the message "I danced on Thatcher's grave" and a photo of the customer in action. How is that for entrepreneurialism? I might even get on my bike to get there.
19. stillthinking said...
As one of the comments points out, you don't have to stay in the UK if you feel its such a losing deal. Leave the boomers to it.
When the government stops flooding 5K per worker per year, and the real austerity starts to bite, everybody will still be free to do as they choose. I often think about it myself, but where to go? At the moment better here.
20. paul said...
oh dear mr g and techieman. I feel my views have been completely vindicated.
21. builditandtheywillcome said...
I was merely a very small boy during the "meat" of the thatcher/conservative years.However,what i have learnt is that any incoming government generally has to react to whats been left by the outgoing government.And history undoubtedly shows that the outgoing labour government left the UK in one hell of a mess in 1979.The seventies wasn't a good decade,by any stretch of the imagination.
I believe the thatcher government made the hard decisions that HAD to be made,as the coalition government is having to do now.And in years to come,this coalition government will become hated also.It is almost inevitable,to some extent.What i do find irritating,is when i hear the likes of Ed Balls now making noises about ideolical policies.Of course,he is correct to some extent.But it works both ways,and much of his partys decisions were made for ideolical reasons......such as the now well known policy to try and change the face of the country via immigration.And why was this done??As the whistleblower informed us,"to rub the rights nose in it".
So all this talk really needs to be balanced against such hypocritical views.Overall,i can look back at the 80s as some form of neccessary evil.There were some bad decisions,no doubt.But what i do know is that had NewLabour played the hand they were dealt better when they arrived in 1997,they would still be governing now.An opposition never wins an election,a government always loses an election.
I wish Blair and co had made some tougher decisions 13 years ago,as i believe they really did miss a once in a generation opportunity.It will be many years before an incoming government can again start with an economy bearing so much fruit and goodwill.
22. doomwatch said...
hpwatcher @13.
Come on, Thatcher is the prime reason why our economy has relied on selling sh1tty houses to each other over the last 15 years
to fund the City. Dowp.
She pretty much destroyed engineering in the UK. So what are we left with is "competitive" liberalised utility markets [LOL]
and importing our coal from God knows where.
Hey, but she smashed those terrible unions, so we know have the worst employee rights in Europe. Brilliant.
23. hpwatcher said...
The old have never had it so good: The Boomers' bonanza has left precious little for the rest of us
If it's any conciliation, you can't take it with you!
''The meek shall inherit the earth''
or was it:-
''Blessed are the Cheesemakers for they shall inherit the earth''
Take your pick!
24. phdinbubbles said...
@Horsburghn
"I plan on erecting a concession stand at her graveside from where I will sell t-shirts and mugs emblazoned with the message "I danced on Thatcher's grave" and a photo of the customer in action. How is that for entrepreneurialism? I might even get on my bike to get there."
I hope they're not going to dance on it at the same time as all the people I know that have vowed to piss on it.
25. techieman said...
Paul - bully for you young whipersnapper :-).
i gave you some free mentoring the other day, if you chose not to take it then thats up to you.
Robbie was right - youth wasted on the young. I think generally you have a point - its just you waste too much time arguing it. Now if you have done all the things in life that the boomers had meant to do, worked hard , raised a family, made yr money etc., then you could afford to waste your time, but since you havent... then why arent you out there doing it?
Hpw i was going to comment on your FX thread - basically to say it would have been hypocritical for me to have a go, since i think i have posted from the FT myself. Just hit the button but by then it had been taken off the shelves. I personally dont like them doing that.
26. Simon said...
Doomwatch @22
I agree with what you say about engineering and funding the financial services industry through massive mortgages and criminal margins loans interest rates and savings interest rates .
Think you are wrong about poor employment rights though .
With all the regulations and obligations towards employees someone would have to be a fool to start a company/employ people in the UK .
Companies , particularly small ones , are for creating jobs and wealth , typically for an opportunity which will only be around for 5 years or less .
They should not be burdened with all this paternalistic stuff like administrating pensions funds which will pay out long after they have ceased to exist .
There is no way of making it more difficult for companies to shed jobs that does not also make it more difficult for companies to take on new jobs .
This doesn't have to be a race to the bottom , just an acceptance that the labour market needs to be more flexible .
I'm self employed and would love to start a company but it could not support the overheads of an HR manager , compliance officer , the burden of the onus to prove equality was considered at every recruitement step , legal costs , claims culture .
27. braindeed said...
Blue flag good....red flag bad....Regan/Thatcher ra ra ra -there all that crepe distilled
28. paul said...
i gave you some free mentoring the other day, if you chose not to take it then thats up to you.
Wot you mean the advice to "turn the boomers' appropriated wealth into my advantage". Hmm. Here's some mentoring back for you too then - get really rich, live in a big house, do feck all all day except for snorting coke off the humps of high class hookers.
There ya go laddie - all the sagely advice I have to offer - for free! If you chose not to take it up then well ... etc.