Great Article On The Boomers Generation

[RichM]

Pensions don't worry me or Mr Blair, Telegraph, 18-11-2005

What a blessed generation we belong to, compared to those before us, who had to suffer the deprivations of the war years, and the generation now growing up. My heart bleeds particularly for the young, saddled with student debt and with no hope, most of them, of getting their feet on the housing ladder. Even our grotty flat in Battersea would be beyond the means of most 26-year-olds, except for those with rich parents or sw@nky City jobs.

It made me laugh, I am 26, have no sw@nky [edited so it didn't get deleted as a swear word!] job, and no chance of buying in Battersea whatsoever. In a sort of stick pins in my own eyes way.

Edited November 18, 2005 by RichM

[Michael]

quite agree with the article only i'd say 1945 was an even better year than 1953 to be born in.....

Late enough to get free higher education and maintenance grants but early enough to buy a large house for 6 or 7 thousand pounds in the late 60s..............

[homeowner595]

quite agree with the article only i'd say 1945 was an even better year than 1953 to be born in.....

Late enough to get free higher education and maintenance grants but early enough to buy a large house for 6 or 7 thousand pounds in the late 60s..............

I dunno - they still had rationing back then. Did anyone see that strange programme on BBC4 (anyone???) about the final de-rationing of bananas in 1952, and the bizarre things people did to get them prior to that?

Still, if it were your parents who were born then, you'll hopefully inherit it one day anyway. (If they aren't forced to sell as their pension isn't enough to live on, or the care home fees don't eat it away beforehand)

[erd]

Pensions don't worry me or Mr Blair, Telegraph, 18-11-2005

It made me laugh, I am 26, have no sw@nky [edited so it didn't get deleted as a swear word!] job, and no chance of buying in Battersea whatsoever. In a sort of stick pins in my own eyes way.

I was born in 1970, and I think that was a good time to be born. My university education was mostly free, top-up loan of a few hundred a year for the last couple. Getting the first job was a bit of trouble, but I could buy a flat in outer London for a reasonable £33K (same place would cost £160K now). Poll tax, then council taxes were much lower compared to take home pay. The future may look a bit bleaker, but I got a decent start at a reasonable price compared to earnings.

Today's graduates are looking at large debts, impossible house prices, higher taxes and jobs not paying as much.

[right_freds_dead]

sorry to ruin his rosy retirement plan, but half his children will be dead from bird flu and the nation will be in chaos. perhaps we can loot his home later when the breakdown of civil order follows the death of 1/5th of the uk population and public services fail as well as the food supply chain.

yes, very rosy. keep your houses and your sipps. survival of the fittest.

[brid]

The more time goes on the more i believe how karma will sort this all out.

I now make more money than my parents combined at the age of 26 yet STILL cant afford to buy even a studio flat on the basis of 3x income - This honestly is just not sustainable and will come crashing down eventually.

Ive noticed alot of people getting very shifty on here in recent times - Just be patient.... wait for your wave

[Ritters]

Tom Utley is spot on and should be commended for actually putting these plain truths into print. Too many of his generation believe that their position is entirely attributable to hardwork rather than good fortune.

One day in the not too distant future the younger generation will see through the con they've been sold and get very angry indeed.

Seconded. Apart from my anger will stem from putting the next stage of my life on hold while the inhabitants of this country revert back to normality. I haven't been sold any con. My uni fees were all paid for by this government as I was classed as independant. I lived at home whilst at uni - no debts - in fact I invested my low interest student loan in an ISA earning 5x the interest i was paying on it

I just need a better paid job and a sensible priced pad to move on from here. If that doesn't happen i'll pack my essentials in rug - tie it to a stick, jump on a plane and take my education with me.

I'm not funding another persons mewing lifestyle, i've worked hard to get where I am, and proud of it.

[Guest struthitsruth]

Excellent article that sums up the boom years pretty well

I dunno - they still had rationing back then. Did anyone see that strange programme on BBC4 (anyone???) about the final de-rationing of bananas in 1952, and the bizarre things people did to get them prior to that?

Still, if it were your parents who were born then, you'll hopefully inherit it one day anyway. (If they aren't forced to sell as their pension isn't enough to live on, or the care home fees don't eat it away beforehand )

There's a snag about those care home fees - a mimimum of £26,000 per annum at today's prices. That's simple residential provision of daily living care, without any additional cost of nursing care, without taking into account inflationary pressures into the future. If our old bids have thought about it and purchase in advance an annuity to provide for these costs, then perhaps the inheritance they plan to leave will be protected, but you know what stubborn old b*ggers we turn into as we get older, and won't buy a financial product over our dead body. They'll be funding that £26K+ per annum until the money runs out, and then guess what, the state has to cough up. If only that body would kick the proverbial, eh ? Fact is, when today's generation of 20-30 yr olds are retired, even at 67, many will still be visiting ageing parents in their 90's.

Don't count on that inheritance, whatever you do !

[Guest Charlie The Tramp]

Don't count on that inheritance, whatever you do !

Gadfly Financial Mail

Good news for grasping youngsters who fear their parents are about to cash in the family home and fritter away the inheritance.

It seems the old folk`s caveman genes will be urging them to hang on to the house until they die.

A new paper from academic Steffen Huck at University College London probes what has until now been one of the greatest mysteries in economics-the `endowment effect`This describes why people`s attachment to possessions tends greatly to exceed their market value. The Royal Economic Society, which is publishing the paper by Huck and collaborators Georg Kirchsteiger and Jorg Oechssler, says: `People wonder why few elderly homeowners take out equity release plans to boost their income, or capitals on the booming housing market by selling their homes and moving to a more convenient flat.`

Huck and Co have cracked it, apparently. It all goes back to our days in the hunter-gatherer environment. A hunter who wanteda balanced diet would have to swap meat for berries, for example, but would have an inflated sense of value of what he owned-meat.

The consequences: if you like something, then you will think it is worth a lot and you will want a lot in return.

That`s why, the paper says, `emotional attachment to some of our possessions might actually be hard-wired in our brains`.

Just what forward planning sons and daughters wanted to hear.

[Guest rigsby II]

I'm not funding another persons mewing lifestyle, i've worked hard to get where I am, and proud of it.

Sling yer hook yer whinging get.

Boo hoo baby boomer stole my future, oh my god crippling student debt, every baby boomer MEWing taking my tax money, all old baby boomer rot in pisspot commode, i'm not paying idle bay boomer care home, boo hoo.

I've got university degree world owes me living, boo hoo what baby boomers done, they get everything for free, they dont work, they lazy baby boomer, dont deserve house boo hoo, if I dont get what I want I'm off on a jet plane to where they respect my non-baby-boomer paid for degree, blah blah blah...

HPC Cliche #678

Put another fecking record on chaps, this ones stuck.

[Fancypants]

Fact is, when today's generation of 20-30 yr olds are retired, even at 67, many will still be visiting ageing parents in their 90's.

Don't count on that inheritance, whatever you do !

actually, I rather hope I am visiting them.

I'd rather have them around than however much the inheritance is worth.

[since the beginning]

Yeah but just because Blair has let his generation off at the moment doesn't mean his ilk won't get f*cked over a few years down the line. Maybe a future government will legalise the mugging / stealing off anyone over 65.

[MarkG]

actually, I rather hope I am visiting them.

I'd rather have them around than however much the inheritance is worth.

Ditto. Unfortunately the transfer of wealth from the young to the old is increasingly bringing us into a world where the only chance for many young people to have a decent life will be to bump their parents off to get the inheritance early (or at all, given that most of it would be spent on care payments otherwise).

[CASHKING]

Mornimg from Exeter

Yes MarkG, i remember in the news a few years ago in California two kids murdered their rich parents to get the money. Anyone else know the details. It was a big thing at the time!!

[Guest Charlie The Tramp]

Mornimg from Exeter

Yes MarkG, i remember in the news a few years ago in California two kids murdered their rich parents to get the money. Anyone else know the details. It was a big thing at the time!!

Well there was one closer to home. He was convicted of murdering his adoptive parents and sister.

Evidently under UK law he lost all rights to inheriting his parent`s estate.

[Ritters]

Sling yer hook yer whinging get.

Boo hoo baby boomer stole my future, oh my god crippling student debt, every baby boomer MEWing taking my tax money, all old baby boomer rot in pisspot commode, i'm not paying idle bay boomer care home, boo hoo.

I've got university degree world owes me living, boo hoo what baby boomers done, they get everything for free, they dont work, they lazy baby boomer, dont deserve house boo hoo, if I dont get what I want I'm off on a jet plane to where they respect my non-baby-boomer paid for degree, blah blah blah...

HPC Cliche #678

Put another fecking record on chaps, this ones stuck.

touched a nerve there I see

[Goat]

Sling yer hook yer whinging get.

Boo hoo baby boomer stole my future, oh my god crippling student debt, every baby boomer MEWing taking my tax money, all old baby boomer rot in pisspot commode, i'm not paying idle bay boomer care home, boo hoo.

I've got university degree world owes me living, boo hoo what baby boomers done, they get everything for free, they dont work, they lazy baby boomer, dont deserve house boo hoo, if I dont get what I want I'm off on a jet plane to where they respect my non-baby-boomer paid for degree, blah blah blah...

HPC Cliche #678

Put another fecking record on chaps, this ones stuck.

Fine, but don't ask me to transfer my wealth to you in the form of inflated house prices, free healthcare and unfunded state pensions.

[Guest rigsby II]

Fine, but don't ask me to transfer my wealth to you in the form of inflated house prices, free healthcare and unfunded state pensions.

It's getting like the feckin Moonies on here with the same old cliches spewed out time after time.

So, you mean the 'free' healthcare and 'unfunded' pension that I've been paying my NI and income tax and PP for the last 28 years & for the next 25+ ?

Oh that 'free' stuff.

Inflated house prices ain't my fault, I didn't do it Guv, honest.

[MarkG]

So, you mean the 'free' healthcare and 'unfunded' pension that I've been paying my NI and income tax and PP for the last 28 years & for the next 25+ ?

Hate to disappoint you, but you've been paying that money for _other people's_ free healthcare and pensions. If you and your generation had refused to pay back then, you could have saved the money instead... if you went along with the scam, today's kids have no responsibility to bail you out while putting themselves into the poorhouse.

Edited November 18, 2005 by MarkG

[Guest rigsby II]

Hate to disappoint you, but you've been paying that money for _other people's_ free healthcare and pensions. If you and your generation had refused to pay back then, you could have saved the money instead.

Yes I know I have. That's what people do.

So why are you different then ?

Edited November 18, 2005 by rigsby II

[MarkG]

So why are you different then ?

Because I know there'll be no tax-funded healthcare and pensions by the time I hit 75 (which will be the retirement age by then)?

[Guest rigsby II]

Because I know there'll be no tax-funded healthcare and pensions by the time I hit 75 (which will be the retirement age by then)?

BTL is looking better everyday....

[RichM]

I've written a letter to the editor about this one, just wanted to highlight the trouble for young people.

The point I make is that the boomers don't recognise how much they've been helped by general inflation, not just HPI.

There's no point having a go at them, many simply don't realise how they've been helped "up the ladder".

Low inflation = no erosion of debt, simple.

[Guest rigsby II]

I've written a letter to the editor about this one, just wanted to highlight the trouble for young people.

The point I make is that the boomers don't recognise how much they've been helped by general inflation, not just HPI.

There's no point having a go at them, many simply don't realise how they've been helped "up the ladder".

Low inflation = no erosion of debt, simple.

Rich,

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, here goes.

My eldest lad is 24, he and his better half bought a nice detached about 3 years ago - OK its in the frozen provincial north - and maybe thats one of 'your' problems - London & SE is expensive and always has been.

They are paying about £350 a month - its a piece of pi*ss for them - he goes glassy eyed when I get on my high horse about house prices - it's not even on his radar.

And they don't earn fantastic salaries like many brag on and on and on about here.

Its not just boomers who are totally and utterly unaffected by the situation of high house prices - 95% of everyone of any age in the UK is blissfully unaware of any 'problems' - its like Christmas has come early.

No conspiracy. Nobodys fault. It's just the way it is - like it or lump it.

For a lot of people it really is 'whats your problem'

I think if you are looking for a youth rebellion, it aint going to happen, cos for many young uns, they have never had it so good.

Have a nice day

[RichM]

Its not just boomers who are totally and utterly unaffected by the situation of high house prices - 95% of everyone of any age in the UK is blissfully unaware of any 'problems' - its like Christmas has come early.

No conspiracy. Nobodys fault. It's just the way it is - like it or lump it.

For a lot of people it really is 'whats your problem'

I know it's not a conspiracy, but some people are just being very stupid or naive about the way the economy works.

Plus, I do think a great many more people are struggling with debt (and possibly expecting HPI to come to the rescue) than you realise. If the economy does tank as confidence drops further, then I think that hanging onto jobs could be a big problem.

Good for your boy, BTW