Was life in Britain better twenty years ago?

[TameRacingDriver]

Thankyou4calling said:

Apart from in a specific family the idea of a “Generation “ has no meaning whatsoever

I don’t associate with people of “My generation” I associate with people my age, 30 years younger, 30 years older.

The idea that tree is a mass of people of a certain type, a certain “Generation “ is to my mind rubbish.

I go to places and see people of all ages happily mixing with loads in common.

I don’t see “baby boomers” sitting on one side of a room or “ Gen x” on another.

I’m a certain age, definitely not a certain generation. That’s invented by marketeers.

Could not agree more. I’ve always felt this whole divisive idea of generations was absurd!

[Countdown]

mike74 said:

I'd say strength of character and hard work seems seems to come and go alternately with each generation....

You had the parents of boomers who lived through 2 world wars and the Great Depression yet just quietly got on with working hard, making sacrifices and generally doing what needed to be done.

Then you had the boomers who were, let's say, the complete opposite of the above.

Then Gen X who were generally stoic with a good work ethic and a social conscience whilst getting very little reward for their endeavours.

Then the Millennials, where we are once again back to the boomer attitude of narcissism, entitlement and emotional immaturity and fragility.

Edited by mike74 on Sunday 21st July 06:09

That doesn’t really make much sense tbh. A “generation” doesn’t have it’s own unique “characteristics”. There are lazy/hard working/stupid/intelligent/decent/scrotey people in EVERY generation.

[Salmonofdoubt]

TameRacingDriver said:

Could not agree more. I’ve always felt this whole divisive idea of generations was absurd!

Is that not the British way? Find ways to create division and bitterness between groups?

I'm (currently listening to the Jam hence the analogy) sure that mods and rockers convinced themselves the other group was way more stupid/reckless/wrong. Just as remainers and brexiteers have, as the EDL/Britain First, Islamic fundamentalists or Anti facists have. (50p says someone quotes this and tries to.start an argument that isn't relevant to the point I'm making).

When I was a child we were often told not to talk to strangers. Yet statistics show the majority of children are abused by persons known to them. But that fear of difference and strangers just leads to a more divided society. As does blaming millennials or boomers or anyone else. These are terms created by sociologists to group people, and spun by the media to help division grow.

I actually wonder if my perception of now being different to 20 years ago would have been different if the media was different. Now we have constant information so nothing briefly becomes the most important thing ever. 20 years ago you got a handful of TV news reports and yesterday's events in the papers. But you wouldn't see anything but the very worst/best things repeated over and over.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

I just voted yes on the principle that everything is always changing for the worse.

[AlexRS2782]

20 years ago i was in my mid teens, generally happy & obviously not yet aware of the, skipped a family generation or two, medical / health issues i'd end up diagnosed with just before i turned 30.

So, from my point of vew, yes my life was definitely better 20 odd years ago Still alive though (i think) so yay me

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Sunday 21st July 22:29

[Whoozit]

20 years ago? Merely a blip in a gnat's wotsit. About the only changes I can think of are

- faster broadband and devices, therefore streaming TV, music, video to professional quality for free.
- Pubs and restaurants non-smoking
- More compensation for things that go wrong
- Number of listed companies fallen by 50% (my personal and professional bugbear, it hits all our pensions and increases wealth inequality)

[bigdog3]

mike74 said:

I'd say strength of character and hard work seems seems to come and go alternately with each generation....

You had the parents of boomers who lived through 2 world wars and the Great Depression yet just quietly got on with working hard, making sacrifices and generally doing what needed to be done.

Then you had the boomers who were, let's say, the complete opposite of the above.

Then Gen X who were generally stoic with a good work ethic and a social conscience whilst getting very little reward for their endeavours.

Then the Millennials, where we are once again back to the boomer attitude of narcissism, entitlement and emotional immaturity and fragility.

What absolute ste

Boomers made use of their opportunities but as most discovered, if you didn't go for it, it didn't happen. "boomer attitude of narcissism, entitlement and emotional immaturity and fragility" is utter nonsense. The post-war generation simply went for what was available or went without.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

bigdog3 said:

What absolute ste

Boomers made use of their opportunities but as most discovered, if you didn't go for it, it didn't happen. "boomer attitude of narcissism, entitlement and emotional immaturity and fragility" is utter nonsense. The post-war generation simply went for what was available or went without.

Or had the state borrow on their behalf to give themselves first rate health, education and pensions and pass on a burden of debt to their kids.

[g3org3y]

bigdog3 said:

What absolute ste

Boomers made use of their opportunities but as most discovered, if you didn't go for it, it didn't happen. "boomer attitude of narcissism, entitlement and emotional immaturity and fragility" is utter nonsense. The post-war generation simply went for what was available or went without.

Boomer by any chance?

[Second Best]

Hello, millennial here.

I think it depends on what you've grown up with, as we tend to associate our best memories with our childhoods (at least, when comparing that stage of our lives with others).

I grew up in the 90s and think I had the best mix of pre-internet going out and post-internet online fun, but that's my opinion. Older folks probably lament the destruction of social life thanks to the internet, younger folks probably can't understand how people let their kids out without a phone or any idea where they were.

The only argument I'd put into this discussion is, as a millennial, the media loves to slate my generation due to a few bad eggs, but have tarred us all with the same brush. We're lazy, dependent, and unambitious. I don't think you'll meet a millennial who doesn't admit they're a little lazy, but that's part of the computer generation kicking in - we can get more done on our electronic devices than we can get done physically. As for the other points - all I'd like to say is, look at the house price to salary ratio. We're not hanging around because we want to, but because the older generations have bought all the houses to rent out, so we can't afford to buy. The localities around the UK are now pumping money into new housing as, well, we have to live somewhere. Even though the daily mail would have you believe differently!

[bigdog3]

g3org3y said:

Boomer by any chance?

Yes but I know what it was like. Opportunities were available but there was none of this entitlement crap - that never even came to mind

[bigdog3]

JuanCarlosFandango said:

Or had the state borrow on their behalf to give themselves first rate health, education and pensions and pass on a burden of debt to their kids.

My heart bleeds Try living through the 70s with eff-all income, 3-day weeks and rampant inflation. We are all much better off now. Time to stop moaning

[Robertj21a]

bigdog3 said:

JuanCarlosFandango said:

Or had the state borrow on their behalf to give themselves first rate health, education and pensions and pass on a burden of debt to their kids.

My heart bleeds Try living through the 70s with eff-all income, 3-day weeks and rampant inflation. We are all much better off now. Time to stop moaning

Very true, and seemingly quickly forgotten

[JuanCarlosFandango]

bigdog3 said:

My heart bleeds Try living through the 70s with eff-all income, 3-day weeks and rampant inflation. We are all much better off now. Time to stop moaning

Yeah I'll go on strike then.

A noble struggle, but at least the children and grandchildren will pay for your education, healthcare and pensions. Or other people's children and grandchildren for that matter.

It's not moaning. Every generation has its hardships and advantages but the fact is taken as a generation the baby boomers were incredibly lucky to have the post war boom, cheap property, loads of state help with the demographics to support it and so forth. They were also incredibly selfish to borrow yet more money from now, not bother to fund their own pensions, get rid of decent state education and charge for rubbish education then add mass immigration into the mix to drive down wages.

[67Dino]

Looking back a bit further, I remember that in 1990 the new Ferrari 348 I was dreaming about was unaffordable as it was the cost of the average house (around £70k). Whereas today, the new Ferrari 488 I am dreaming about is still unaffordable, as it it still the cost of the average house (around £225k).

Some things don’t change...

[Coolbanana]

The Mad Monk said:

May I ask?

Any special reason you chose Portugal as a place to live?

It just seemed to fall into place really, not specifically planned for or thought of seriously until fairly recently.

I grew up in South Africa, Durban to be precise. I love SA and were it not for unforeseen circumstances that Life throws at you, I would be there now.

However, I met my wife in the UK when I went there to work in 1999 for what was to be only a couple of years and I stayed. We both shared the same retirement goal: live somewhere warm and enjoy an outdoors lifestyle in the Sun! But not SA since it is far from the kids and their ambitions in Europe. As it happens, my father married a Portuguese/South African woman and he has had a holiday apartment in the place she lived as a child in the Algarve. So we have been visiting for some time.

3 years ago we took advantage of a cheap property deal where we finished a bank repo as a stepping stone towards retiring here and that escalated quickly towards us leaving the UK, buying an apartment in Amsterdam to accommodate my wife when she works there as it is her employer's European base, and moving into the investment home in the Algarve when the kids went to University. Just fate, really, none of it planned to happen so fast. Now we are in the process of looking for land to build our dream home having decided we do like it here as a home and intend to make it permanent.

The Algarve is one of Europe's major beach holiday destinations, over 300 days of Sun, a wonderful climate - not too hot, not too cold, plenty of diversity in terms of local residents from all over the World. So, yeah, love it here.

[The Mad Monk]

Coolbanana said:

It just seemed to fall into place really, not specifically planned for or thought of seriously until fairly recently.

I grew up in South Africa, Durban to be precise. I love SA and were it not for unforeseen circumstances that Life throws at you, I would be there now.

However, I met my wife in the UK when I went there to work in 1999 for what was to be only a couple of years and I stayed. We both shared the same retirement goal: live somewhere warm and enjoy an outdoors lifestyle in the Sun! But not SA since it is far from the kids and their ambitions in Europe. As it happens, my father married a Portuguese/South African woman and he has had a holiday apartment in the place she lived as a child in the Algarve. So we have been visiting for some time.

3 years ago we took advantage of a cheap property deal where we finished a bank repo as a stepping stone towards retiring here and that escalated quickly towards us leaving the UK, buying an apartment in Amsterdam to accommodate my wife when she works there as it is her employer's European base, and moving into the investment home in the Algarve when the kids went to University. Just fate, really, none of it planned to happen so fast. Now we are in the process of looking for land to build our dream home having decided we do like it here as a home and intend to make it permanent.

The Algarve is one of Europe's major beach holiday destinations, over 300 days of Sun, a wonderful climate - not too hot, not too cold, plenty of diversity in terms of local residents from all over the World. So, yeah, love it here.

Have I ever dropped into the conversation, that my father met the (last) King of Portugal a number of times?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_II_of_Portuga...

[bigdog3]

JuanCarlosFandango said:

bigdog3 said:

My heart bleeds Try living through the 70s with eff-all income, 3-day weeks and rampant inflation. We are all much better off now. Time to stop moaning

Yeah I'll go on strike then.

Unions were running the show back in the 70's, causing untold damage to our economy and prosperity until Maggie sorted them out. Yes another factor adding to hardship back then.

JuanCarlosFandango said:

A noble struggle, but at least the children and grandchildren will pay for your education, healthcare and pensions. Or other people's children and grandchildren for that matter.

State pension is a joke - 85% of my pension is private which I paid into over many years. Selfishly I still work 2 days/week depriving the younger generation of employment

My school education was state funded but further education including BSc and MSc were funded by my employer without any external assistance. Look as though I've been scrounging again

Healthcare demands increase as the population gets older and provision expands accordingly. Lifespan will continue to improve (with small perturbations) so you are likely to be a bigger strain on the state than me, simply because you are younger so should live longer.

I have three adult children and they are all dong fine thanks. In their different ways, they have capitalised on their opportunities and benefited from them. In most respects, they are better off than I was at their time of life.

JuanCarlosFandango said:

It's not moaning. Every generation has its hardships and advantages but the fact is taken as a generation the baby boomers were incredibly lucky to have the post war boom, cheap property, loads of state help with the demographics to support it and so forth. They were also incredibly selfish to borrow yet more money from now, not bother to fund their own pensions, get rid of decent state education and charge for rubbish education then add mass immigration into the mix to drive down wages.

God knows where you get "loads of state help with the demographics" from, but there is a pearl amongst all this nonsense:

Cheap Property is the big one. Huge change since the 70's from which I am fortunate to benefit. Laissez-faire attitude, free market economy, population expansion or whatever you call it, our governments have lost control / don't care about this basic human need. That's the rough ride for today's generation. A cause worth moaning about

Edited by bigdog3 on Monday 22 July 12:02

[Dr Jekyll]

bigdog3 said:

Cheap Property is the big one. Huge change since the 70's from which I am fortunate to benefit. Laissez-faire attitude, free market economy, population expansion or whatever you call it, our governments have lost control / don't care about this basic human need. That's the rough ride for today's generation. A cause worth moaning about

Laissez-faire would mean no planning permission required therefore no shortage of building land. Too much government control is the problem not too little.

[bigdog3]

Dr Jekyll said:

bigdog3 said:

Cheap Property is the big one. Huge change since the 70's from which I am fortunate to benefit. Laissez-faire attitude, free market economy, population expansion or whatever you call it, our governments have lost control / don't care about this basic human need. That's the rough ride for today's generation. A cause worth moaning about

Laissez-faire would mean no planning permission required therefore no shortage of building land. Too much government control is the problem not too little.

The government's responsibility to the housing market extends way beyond just planning permission (in critical regions). Another problem they are not capable of dealing with