Young people feel robbed of a better life but they don't know what to do about it

[cheesyboy]

It's all about your upbringing.

Bingo.

If you are fortunate to come from a middle class background (as you are by virtue of your mother's side), you have a good shout at making strides.

If you are unfortunate to be born to parents who failed to take advantage of the opportunities open to their generation (the social mobility and low house prices many baby boomers were blessed with), you are facing an uphill battle.

Is it the young person's fault if, as you say, it's all down to upbringing? Should we really be demonising them for their lack of motivation?

 

[peterwalkley]

Youngster need to vote and otherwise get involved in politics.

Whilst its only coffin-dodgers bothering to vote, who do you think is going to get the attention ?

 

[Dis86]

I earn more than both of my parents combined.

I could only just afford to buy their house that their mortgage payments on are negligible and soon to be paid off.
My dad is fifty and retires in a month with a decent lump sum, well in to six figures, and a pension each year above the national average salary.
Looks like I'll be working until I'm at least 70 from current age increases! I have a massive pension contribution each month and as it stands I'll receive no lump sum and the amount will be lower than the projected average income for the time I retire.
Oh and I had to pay a boat load to go to uni.

Yeah I'd say I'm worse off than my parents!

 

[BongoHunter]

I think there a plenty of opportunities out there for those that are willing to make the effort, unfortunately I think too many people expect an easy life, I doubt many successful (read rich) people got there without a bit of graft and doing things that they didn't really want to have to do at some point!

Over the last 10 years my home town (in Lincolnshire) has seen a phenomenal growth in people moving from other parts of the EU - and this is mainly due to the large amount of jobs that UK nationals simply don't want to do (food industry and farming).

I don't get it, the money is good (higher than even than the London living wage), and property in the area must be some of the cheapest in the UK.

When I speak to my friends in other parts of the country (who are largely 24-30) and mention I know somewhere cheap to live with more work than you can shake a stick it they look at you like your mad for even suggesting they do something that's in their words "****".

Baffles me. I blame the parents and the media.

 

[Cosimo]

I don't want them kind down here.

Stay up there you 'orrible lot.

Send 'em back.....

 

[manic_man]

Is this not just an analogy for human nature in general?

With no past harder times to compare against and very little everyday "strife" to work against, of course people are going to feel like their life has little meaning as they are unable to find happiness or solace in the small everyday things.

My grandparents still find eating chocolates and fresh fruit etc. something to be savoured. Now I love chocolate and fresh fruit but they are something I have always had and could obtain easily, I have never had to count pennies to buy that sort of item and they have always been readily available a few minutes walk away. I take these things for granted, they don't make me as happy as they make my grandparents.

The problem is how to solve it, do we a) make life harder so people appreciate the smaller things in life more (this seems like a bad option and a step backward...) or do we b) find a way to make people see that what they have is worth appreciating and that even without the latest playstation they are in a situation where they can simply enjoy being alive (but then how do you do this as it effectively goes against basic human nature).

The reason people don't know what to do about it is because there is nothing to be done! That is unless the doom-mongers are in fact truth-mongers and the future does actually hold a rapidly declining way of life, in which case the problem solves itself via option a!

 

[Kemik]

Bingo.

If you are fortunate to come from a middle class background (as you are by virtue of your mother's side), you have a good shout at making strides.

If you are unfortunate to be born to parents who failed to take advantage of the opportunities open to their generation (the social mobility and low house prices many baby boomers were blessed with), you are facing an uphill battle.

Is it the young person's fault if, as you say, it's all down to upbringing? Should we really be demonising them for their lack of motivation?

By upbringing, I mean if your parents taught you to go out and work rather than how much money they had. A office administrator basically prepares basic payroll, basic accounts, ordering, etc. She's the only office-based employee of a small construction firm so does all of the necessary jobs.

 

[SPG]

To be attending university back then, your Nana must have been "born to the right parents", so let's not feel too bad for her.

Opportunity for the working classes is nowhere near what it was for the baby boomer generation - they did very well out of a changing UK. But they've pulled up the ladder with their high house prices and huge pension bill, shutting out many of the current young from making such strides of social mobility.

Wrong Thatcher caused the rising house prices, due to the way she sold off council stock and refused to let the councils keep the money from it to build new stock. She used the money to pay for the unemployment benifit.

Now its dog eats dog with the rich getting bigger teeth. Soon though there will be a uprising from it all. LOWER PAY for 95% of people yet profit margins are bigger and bigger.

You want to change it then get off your arses and protest/strike. You wont though as it dog eats dog. Just the way the powers with keys want it.

 

[cheesyboy]

By upbringing, I mean if your parents taught you to go out and work rather than how much money they had. A office administrator basically prepares basic payroll, basic accounts, ordering, etc. She's the only office-based employee of a small construction firm so does all of the necessary jobs.

And I mean that too. "Class" is not predicated by money. Money, however, is often predicated by class.

And I reiterate;
Is it the young person's fault if, as you say, it's all down to upbringing? Should we really be demonising them for their lack of motivation?

 

[boxman2000]

Of course people think they have it harder than the previous generation, especially when they see some going on nice holidays or driving new cars, but particularly being mortgage free... it’s SO unfair!

It’s not as if they had to put up with multiple financial crashes and credit crunches, only the odd recession here and there. It isn’t as if they had to put up with extremely high property prices, only the odd 20%+ mortgage and negative equity here and there.

I think we sometimes forget how good we have it compared to years ago. Yes of course quality of life was different as the pace of life has changed, the world is very different now than it was 30-40 years ago.

There is the whole social class issue as well but I believe people can use that as an excuse not to better themselves, sometimes.

If you class young people as latter-Secondary age or University graduates then yes I can see it would be pretty demoralising seeing how few jobs there are out there but we've just come out of a recession so that's quite typical. I suspect if you'd questioned young people in the early 90's they would have probably thought the same.

 

[cheesyboy]

Wrong Thatcher caused the rising house prices, due to the way she sold off council stock and refused to let the councils keep the money from it to build new stock. She used the money to pay for the unemployment benifit.

Now its dog eats dog with the rich getting bigger teeth. Soon though there will be a uprising from it all. LOWER PAY for 95% of people yet profit margins are bigger and bigger.

You want to change it then get off your arses and protest/strike. You wont though as it dog eats dog. Just the way the powers with keys want it.

It doesn't matter what caused the house prices, simply that it creates a barrier to living standards of the young matching those of their elders. (Besides, Thatcher and subsequent governments have all used rising house prices as a vote winner - because rising house prices are what the voting public wants, makes them feel richer which makes them feel like the country is doing ok for them)

 

[kwerk]

Wrong Thatcher caused the rising house prices, due to the way she sold off council stock and refused to let the councils keep the money from it to build new stock. She used the money to pay for the unemployment benifit.

Now its dog eats dog with the rich getting bigger teeth. Soon though there will be a uprising from it all. LOWER PAY for 95% of people yet profit margins are bigger and bigger.

You want to change it then get off your arses and protest/strike. You wont though as it dog eats dog. Just the way the powers with keys want it.

Must be nice having an eternal boogey man woman to blame for everything wrong that ever happened in the UK. Just put your mind in standby mode and blame Thatcher.

House prices tripled after 1998.

 

[pitchfork]

It doesn't matter what caused the house prices, simply that it creates a barrier to living standards of the young matching those of their elders. (Besides, Thatcher and subsequent governments have all used rising house prices as a vote winner - because rising house prices are what the voting public wants, makes them feel richer which makes them feel like the country is doing ok for them)

Seeing as only around 60% are homeowners and only a proportion are settled for life I seriously doubt it mate baring in mind the relativity of house prices (your house is worth more, so is the one you want to buy) it does no-one any favours except for developers.

 

[cheesyboy]

Seeing as only around 60% are homeowners and only a proportion are settled for life I seriously doubt it mate baring in mind the relativity of house prices (your house is worth more, so is the one you want to buy) it does no-one any favours except for developers.

It's worth remembering that those who have benefited most (and continue to benefit) from house price rises are the biggest voting block - the baby boomers.

Also remember how house price movement and interest rate changes have shaped that group's wealth. They bought with low prices, but high interest - mortgage payments were comparable to today. Soon, interest dropped off and prices rocketed. They were left paying minimal repayments on very valuable assets.

Many branched out and bought second homes/rental properties, further increasing their wealth and exacerbating the price rises shutting out the subsequent generations.

Here's the Guardian trying to suggest that the old mantra of rising house prices being a feel-good factor has ended;
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/12/rising-house-prices-not-good-homeowners
(Hence, they are confirming that it has generally been considered to be a feel-good factor)

 

[Kemik]

And I mean that too. "Class" is not predicated by money. Money, however, is often predicated by class.

And I reiterate;
Is it the young person's fault if, as you say, it's all down to upbringing? Should we really be demonising them for their lack of motivation?

Yes... you'll find people who go to a state school and do really well and you will find people who go to the same school and wee it up the wall.

You don't even need to do well at school. If you hate school, you can make businesses out of your hobbies. Look at people who have started business using Youtube videos, food stands, etc.

If you're asking, should we give demotivated kids something for being demotivated? We already do, it's called the dole. Why should they get more than people that want to go to work but are earning minimum wage? The people who actually want to move up in the world will work for it, even if they have no qualifications. They become managers of their retail/McDonalds store, move up that way.

 

[DannyDrama]

It don't feel so good for those of us that will never even be able to afford the tiny one bed flats we're stuck in. People are now charging more than my weekly rent for single rooms in a house.

 

[cheesyboy]

Yes... you'll find people who go to a state school and do really well and you will find people who go to the same school and wee it up the wall.

You don't even need to do well at school. If you hate school, you can make businesses out of your hobbies. Look at people who have started business using Youtube videos, food stands, etc.

If you're asking, should we give demotivated kids something for being demotivated? We already do, it's called the dole. Why should they get more than people that want to go to work but are earning minimum wage? The people who actually want to move up in the world will work for it, even if they have no qualifications. They become managers of their retail/McDonalds store, move up that way.

I'm actually asking;
If a whole swathe of the young of society is being failed during their upbringing by their useless parents, is it fair that society further beats them down by pinning it all on those very same young people?

You say yourself;

By upbringing, I mean if your parents taught you to go out and work

So what if parents don't teach that? Many don't.
What do you think happens then? If it's down to upbringing, what if upbringing fails?

Should we not do more as a society to intervene with education and opportunity, rather than reaffirm that those youths are simply undeserving?

 

[McPhee]

It all boils down to two main problems as far as I can see:

1. There's a generation of people in their twenties who were overly encouraged and shoehorned in to University. It was supposed to be the answer to everything. They graduated, only to find the economy in recession and the jobs market oversaturated with graduates. For many, this has left them jobless or in work that is unfulfilling and undemanding.

2. Housing is too expensive and prices are increasing too rapidly. Massive deposits are needed, and the amounts involved are often growing as quick (or quicker) than people can save. There's also a feeling that we are being ripped off by the current house prices, which only really benefit downsizers, the 'Buy to Let' brigade, investors and the banks (higher house prices means larger mortgages and more interest).

The first problem was created by the previous government and is down to the individual to put right (although it would help massively if the current government would open up appealing avenues for these people to retrain - the current choices aren't ideal for varying reasons).

The second is an issue that the government should be moving to fix, but with the property boom propping up the economy and a general election looming, they won't take the risk.

 

[Kemik]

Should we not do more as a society to intervene with education and opportunity, rather than reaffirm that those youths are simply undeserving?

Schools will obviously massively vary so I can't say all will provide some kind of careers service/day that aims to get students thinking.

When you sign on aren't you asked if you've been looking for jobs?

I'm just not sure what you're suggesting society/the government does for people who can't be bothered to find a job and blames society for their problems. The current safety net of the dole rightfully stops people being homeless but some may argue that it also promotes people to not have motivation to go and find a job. You only have to watch those documentaries. Half of them are saying they're actively looking for work and can't find any (either due to poor job centre guidance or no local jobs) or they compare the job to the income they get on the dole and say why bother?

Everyone is motivated by something. If it isn't self respect then it will usually be money.

 

[ubersonic]

Except they're not (better off). So dry your eyes.

Just keep telling yourself that and it may come true, well actually it won't no matter how much you say it but oh well ^^

Seriously, the average standard of living today is higher than any previous generation, and to top it off we don't have the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation our parents had or the world war their parents had.