Baby Boomers - such an easy life?
Discussion
As a child of the 1950's I would contend that life was a bed of roses.
Full employment - yes, but infested with strikes and no minimum wages.
Consumer protection - nope, get ripped off, tough luck mate.
Health and Safety -
New car - watch it rot before your eyes, twelve years and its in the breakers yard.
House prices - going up quicker than you could save a deposit.
Mortgage - two half your salary, end of. Three times salary if wife worked, end of.
Interest rates - mortgage interest rate 7% within eighteen months 15%.
Inflation - ripping.
Bottle of wine - blue nun
Discuss.
Full employment - yes, but infested with strikes and no minimum wages.
Consumer protection - nope, get ripped off, tough luck mate.
Health and Safety -
New car - watch it rot before your eyes, twelve years and its in the breakers yard.
House prices - going up quicker than you could save a deposit.
Mortgage - two half your salary, end of. Three times salary if wife worked, end of.
Interest rates - mortgage interest rate 7% within eighteen months 15%.
Inflation - ripping.
Bottle of wine - blue nun
Discuss.
BarnatosGhost said:
Between house prices and pensions, your generation have really screwed mine.
Not that simple. Go back 30 or 40 years and see if you would accept today what the average family had then. Admittedly an "average" standard of living was easier to attain then, but that was at least partly because the average family had less.Thinking back to my childhood, in a family of three children:
Far less toys / money than kids today
One car family, never less than 10 years old.
Walked 2 miles to school, 2 miles back
Meal out probably once or twice a year, on holiday in UK
etc
People just expect more these days, and surprisingly, it costs more.
ianash said:
You had to save up a min 10% deposit with the building society who you hoped would grant you a mortgage. They wanted to see that you could make regular monthly payments. It was pretty rare for 'ordinary' people to be able to buy a property on their own.
Same now (today, not 2yrs ago). 
crankedup said:
New car - watch it rot before your eyes, twelve years and its in the breakers yard.
Labour costs and technogical complexities of modern motoring have skewed the equation towards buying newer cars and throwing them away before the big items need replacement. I don't think it's excessive or imprduent to buy a new'ish car every 5 year, with cash savings of course.Dont forget they missed two world wars, never had conscription. I do wonder what boomers contribution will be. It was the generation before them that build the masses of houses, roads, hospitals, schools in the 50s and 60s that the boomers were the main ones to benefit from. It was the generation before them that had the greatest input in stuff like Harrier and Concorde. The boomers contribution seems to be elf and safety, equality officers, PR, banking and other crud.
They voted socialist in the 60s and 70s to ensure free education, voted tory in 80s and 90s to ensure lower taxes, voted Labour in the 00s to ensure more freebies in old age. Im just amazed they didnt vote labour in 2010 and buy the NCS crap. Im sure they will in 2015 though.
They also seem to have some kind of entitled mindset. They 'deserve' two holidays in the sun every year, they 'deserve' a fully funded retirement.
And then there are public sector boomers
They voted socialist in the 60s and 70s to ensure free education, voted tory in 80s and 90s to ensure lower taxes, voted Labour in the 00s to ensure more freebies in old age. Im just amazed they didnt vote labour in 2010 and buy the NCS crap. Im sure they will in 2015 though.
They also seem to have some kind of entitled mindset. They 'deserve' two holidays in the sun every year, they 'deserve' a fully funded retirement.
And then there are public sector boomers
(Okay, the four Yorkshireman not-withstanding)
You could have been born in the early sixties into relative poverty (by today's standards) in a run down inner-city housing estate. One trip to Clacton a year at most, no carpets, no telly most of the week cos it had a meter and there was no money to feed it, ferried around local relatives when the gas ran out.
You could then have left school with bugger-all education and started doing grinding manual labour, eventually you might have got a little foot hold on something and given over all your time to getting somewhere. You might have worked your cods off for the next twenty odd years, only buying what you could afford, not living on credit, always paying your tax, saving for many years for the deposit for a house and then struggling to make each months mortgage payment. Still no holidays because work was paramount.
And if after ruining your health and wearing yourself out you eventually managed to make a bit of money, moved into a nice house and could finally afford to have nice holidays and iPhones and a self cleaning oven, then you could sit back and listen to a generation of "me me me" entitlement bores who take their mores from other vacuous idiots on facebook telling you that you've ruined their lives with your outrageous selfishness.
I mean, presumably that could happen.
You could have been born in the early sixties into relative poverty (by today's standards) in a run down inner-city housing estate. One trip to Clacton a year at most, no carpets, no telly most of the week cos it had a meter and there was no money to feed it, ferried around local relatives when the gas ran out.
You could then have left school with bugger-all education and started doing grinding manual labour, eventually you might have got a little foot hold on something and given over all your time to getting somewhere. You might have worked your cods off for the next twenty odd years, only buying what you could afford, not living on credit, always paying your tax, saving for many years for the deposit for a house and then struggling to make each months mortgage payment. Still no holidays because work was paramount.
And if after ruining your health and wearing yourself out you eventually managed to make a bit of money, moved into a nice house and could finally afford to have nice holidays and iPhones and a self cleaning oven, then you could sit back and listen to a generation of "me me me" entitlement bores who take their mores from other vacuous idiots on facebook telling you that you've ruined their lives with your outrageous selfishness.
I mean, presumably that could happen.
Edited by br d on Tuesday 7th February 13:06
Edited by br d on Tuesday 7th February 13:11
Guam said:
There was a challenge on another thread about go check your first house and see how hard it would be to buy now.
Both my wife and I work full time and we would not be even close to being able to afford either of the two houses I grew up in (one a three bed terrace, one a three bed semi). Admittedly these are both in London. My parents bought them with one working full time, one part time.Camoradi said:
Not that simple. Go back 30 or 40 years and see if you would accept today what the average family had then. Admittedly an "average" standard of living was easier to attain then, but that was at least partly because the average family had less.
Thinking back to my childhood, in a family of three children:
Far less toys / money than kids today
One car family, never less than 10 years old.
Walked 2 miles to school, 2 miles back
Meal out probably once or twice a year, on holiday in UK
etc
People just expect more these days, and surprisingly, it costs more.
I was a child of the late 70s and early 80s, and that describes my childhood almost perfectly. I have fond memories of it and certainly don't feel like I missed out. Maybe that's why I can't get politicised about the whole regime of austerity? For me, a great deal of what we're losing is stuff I never had as a kid anyway, so the present atmosphere makes me almost nostalgic, in a strange sort of way. Cutting back on eating and drinking out isn't a problem and certainly doesn't feel like a loss of quality of life. If anything, it's an opportunity to get together with a bunch of friends and have a sociable night in - bring a bottle, chip in for a takeaway and spend the evening getting pleasantly drunk and playing a silly board game like Robo Rally or Ticket to Ride. Doesn't feel like a negative to me. The Faceboook generation have never really known that, so it feels like a negative to them, but for me it's my childhood and I actually think I prefer it.Thinking back to my childhood, in a family of three children:
Far less toys / money than kids today
One car family, never less than 10 years old.
Walked 2 miles to school, 2 miles back
Meal out probably once or twice a year, on holiday in UK
etc
People just expect more these days, and surprisingly, it costs more.
Guam said:
There was a challenge on another thread about go check your first house and see how hard it would be to buy now.
Well I did that and it would be EASIER to buy that house now and the repayments <in relative terms> would be easier to make lol.
Myth exploded with house prices v average earnings in my case
Please share dates, prices, salary, area as I don't believe you.Well I did that and it would be EASIER to buy that house now and the repayments <in relative terms> would be easier to make lol.
Myth exploded with house prices v average earnings in my case
Most Boomers grew up at the tale end of the economic and lifestyle hardships of the previous era, (by definition 
).
But, it is not how you are born, or even raised. It is how you live.
It is clear to see that it is a generation that has lived to the detriment of everything around it. An accidental plaque of unwitting locusts.
Asset stripping, yes please,
corporate greed, yup,
philanthropy? No thank you, I pay taxes you know.
More fat for the old pension? Why not. Every little helps.
Sell everything off for a fast personal buck. I'm worth it.
Stick our parents into homes as they are a bit of a hassle? Sure.
f
k absolutely everything up for the next generations. Done.
No, as a group, they have been a total disaster of greed and corpulence the world has not witnessed before. And their children appear to be total designer clad aholes as well 
).But, it is not how you are born, or even raised. It is how you live.
It is clear to see that it is a generation that has lived to the detriment of everything around it. An accidental plaque of unwitting locusts.
Asset stripping, yes please,
corporate greed, yup,
philanthropy? No thank you, I pay taxes you know.
More fat for the old pension? Why not. Every little helps.
Sell everything off for a fast personal buck. I'm worth it.
Stick our parents into homes as they are a bit of a hassle? Sure.
f
k absolutely everything up for the next generations. Done.No, as a group, they have been a total disaster of greed and corpulence the world has not witnessed before. And their children appear to be total designer clad a
holes as well Our idea of a weekly treat in the late '70's was pie and Chips on a saturday from the chip ship, and a glass of pop from the pop man (recycling was much better back then...)
In the Summer, it was playing out with your mates from dawn 'til dusk - and enjoying every second. In Winter, it was making Airfix models, ready to be blown up using French bangers. if you couldn't afford them, we used empty cereal packets and toilet roll tubes and used our imagination to build our own. Our idea of mobile communication was to to attach two empty bean cans with a piece of string..
We also had to do a lot of this via candlelight - one of my main memories of the '70's were strikes and electric cuts.
You don't miss what you never had...
In the Summer, it was playing out with your mates from dawn 'til dusk - and enjoying every second. In Winter, it was making Airfix models, ready to be blown up using French bangers. if you couldn't afford them, we used empty cereal packets and toilet roll tubes and used our imagination to build our own. Our idea of mobile communication was to to attach two empty bean cans with a piece of string..
We also had to do a lot of this via candlelight - one of my main memories of the '70's were strikes and electric cuts.
You don't miss what you never had...
Edited by chris watton on Tuesday 7th February 13:34
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