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

There's no jobs on the market, no new houses being built and the government are allowing mass immigration so unemployment and house prices can only go in one direction...

A rich man's investment, really.

A house is a home for most people not an investment, renting is not secure as you can be kicked out by the landlord.
 
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There is more opportunity for young people today than ever before, more are able to go to university and will own there own house than many from my generation for example. But every generation thinks the one that went before had it easier, rarely is it true, but the next generation with soon be saying about this one and so on....and on it goes.
 
There is more opportunity for young people today than ever before, more are able to go to university and will own there own house than many from my generation for example. But every generation thinks the one that went before had it easier, rarely is it true, but the next generation with soon be saying about this one and so on....and on it goes.

For me in my early thirties though I do not agree. My eldest brother and people older than him were able to go to university for free!! They were able to purchase property at rates triple their annual wage. not 10x
Just because you now have the rights to do something doesn't make it any easier, as you are saddled with debt, into a world where prices are at all time highs.
Offering everything to everyone but then making it almost impossible to payback or raise the funds for is just as bad if not worse than not having it at all. (imo)
 
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There is more opportunity for young people today than ever before, more are able to go to university and will own there own house than many from my generation for example. But every generation thinks the one that went before had it easier, rarely is it true, but the next generation with soon be saying about this one and so on....and on it goes.

Great argument. I like the way you have purposefully avoided all the established facts and just decided to invent your own reality.

Kudos.
 
For me in my early thirties though I do not agree. My eldest brother and people older than him were able to go to university for free!! They were able to purchase property at rates triple their annual wage. not 10x
Just because you now have the rights to do something doesn't make it any easier, as you are saddled with debt, into a world where prices are at all time highs.
Offering everything to everyone but then making it almost impossible to payback or raise the funds for is just as bad if not worse than not having it at all. (imo)

I'm 44 and my generation didn't pay for tuition either, however there was little or no help for maintenance, so your parents had to be pretty well off for you to attend University, that's if you could get one of the very limited places of course in the first place.

There were limited opportunities for kids leaving school in the mid eighties, worthless YTS schemes were replacing apprenticeships, less than 10% had the opportunity of university whether they could afford it or not, and there was almost no chance of owning your own house unless you came from a background of house owners already. (The lucky ones were able to buy council houses at reduced prices, but buying a house was just as hard for young people then as now)The crash in the late eighties had just as bad an impact on the young of that generation as the crash of a few years ago, more so probably because there were not the infrastructures and systems in place as there are now to enable yourself to go to further education and improve your prospects. Many of my peers simply went on the dole or ended up in factories, even the luckier ones who got apprenticeships or went onto A levels ended up in the usual 9-5 or trades. The world is different today than it was 30 years ago, it wasn't easier or arguably any harder..just different. I see people in there early 20s buying their first home all the time these days, when I was 20, I didn't know anyone who could even consider buying a house at that age.

Everyone thinks they are worse off than those before them, until they get to the age of those before them and realise that they have the same things...or if they don't, their peers do.

Bear is right in what he says. And berate me and attack me personally all you want, but all have our own experiences and that was mine.
 
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There is more opportunity for young people today than ever before, more are able to go to university and will own there own house than many from my generation for example. But every generation thinks the one that went before had it easier, rarely is it true, but the next generation with soon be saying about this one and so on....and on it goes.

I do find it interesting that people always bring up house prices in things like this.. then the people with houses moan at the people that don't and say its all there own fault that they have not worked hard and got there own house....

As for university, i am skeptical on the numbers banded around on the amount of people that really go to uni. i don't believe there are as many people going to uni as people think. (or that news articles print)

Looking back on my family and who got houses out of the previous generation vs now 80% of my family had there own house before they were 30. 50% had there own home before they were 24. now looking at my family 0% of 0-35 year old own there own houses. (0% of 0-30 year old's have moved out there parents homes which is another random statistic) .which is strange as every one in that age range had a much better education than the people before and earn allot more money compared to what the previous generation did.
 
I do find it interesting that people always bring up house prices in things like this.. then the people with houses moan at the people that don't and say its all there own fault that they have not worked hard and got there own house....

As for university, i am skeptical on the numbers banded around on the amount of people that really go to uni. i don't believe there are as many people going to uni as people think. (or that news articles print)

Looking back on my family and who got houses out of the previous generation vs now 80% of my family had there own house before they were 30. 50% had there own home before they were 24. now looking at my family 0% of 0-35 year old own there own houses. (0% of 0-30 year old's have moved out there parents homes which is another random statistic) .which is strange as every one in that age range had a much better education than the people before and earn allot more money compared to what the previous generation did.

See, I'm the opposite...neither of my parents nor my grandparents could afford to buy a house...sure there is a massive differential in house prices and average wages, however the cost of living and taxation is markedly lower today than in the 1970-80s. There was perhaps a golden age between 95-05 when the boom meant lots of people could get cheap credit and mortgages, and that is now having a negative effect on current opportunities..but I think people are confusing that relatively short period with being indicative of every year since 1945...that's not to mention the differences in lifestyles, with people going on far more holidays, buying nicer more expensive cars, gadgets and the whole iPhone generation, something that simply didn't exist for the working classes 30-40 years ago. Line I said, it was different rather than better or worse. We each see this from the perspective of our generation which makes it difficult to objectify whose better off or not. Hell, I feel like I'm living in a scifi film these days, whereas it's just normal to most kids...and I bet you a pound to a penny, this same argument will crop up when they are grown and they will say the kids of their today have it easy etc....

As for today, its a little harder than it was perhaps 5 years ago, but I still think my sons opportunities outstrip those I enjoyed, and I am thankful for that.
 
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The numbers just don't lie.

The average age of first time home ownership is ever increasing, year on year.

I wonder if Castiel thinks we're all just choosing to rent more, because of the abundance of good, honest landlords in the UK /snicker

Also the fact that on average, house prices are currently 5.5 times gross salary. In the mid-90s, it dipped to 3x gross salary.

Also some long-term forecasts are predicting a 25% house price increase in the next 5 years. If that actually happens, it will be carnage.
 
The numbers just don't lie.

The average age of first time home ownership is ever increasing, year on year.

I wonder if Castiel thinks we're all just choosing to rent more, because of the abundance of good, honest landlords in the UK /snicker

Also the fact that on average, house prices are currently 5.5 times gross salary. In the mid-90s, it dipped to 3x gross salary.

Also some long-term forecasts are predicting a 25% house price increase in the next 5 years. If that actually happens, it will be carnage.

If you look at current home ownership it is still greater today than it was when I was born, or even when I left school.

Like I said, in the decade 95-05 there was a boom and now we need to address the fallout from that and the sell off of social housing, which also artificially boosted home ownership figures after 1987 or so, with huge subsidies for people to buy there council homes, but no replacement infrastructure to balance that.

But life isn't just about owning a house, it is also about the quality of life and the opportunities afforded to people..be it financially or socially. I know I would rather be a young person today than in the 1970s and 80s...but then perhaps my childhood isn't really one to compare.
 
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There is just a lack of faith in the system and hope in general.

Rightfully so, I finished uni did a science degree I didn't know why I went to uni I was just told to do so and you kind of just follow the beaten path all to find people who had advised you were utter morons themselves. Were the people advising me bosses at life? sickening work ethic, beasting 24//7? no. I just followed what I was told to do like you do when you're 18 and then you end up bitter.

So you go to uni cool, now days you'll end up working a crappy job you hate for most likely now days a crappy wage (unless you go to uni with laser focus at 18 but most 18 year old won't have this or your job is at least bearable and pays well).

That's where I was so I quit and am in the process of building a business. I work longer and harder than ever before but guess what? I now have hope and don't work arbitrary job that I hate for a crap wage. I accept though that I'll probably never own a house but I don't really care.
 
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But life isn't just about owning a house, it is also about the quality of life and the opportunities afforded to people..be it financially or socially. I know I would rather be a young person today than in the 1979s and 80s...but then perhaps my childhood isn't really one to compare.

Talking about quality of life... I was just reading that a record number of private rental properties fail to meet government standards.

Can't find the precise article I was reading, but here's a link to the independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...n-private-sector-are-substandard-9039201.html

"Taxpayers' money is going to private landlords who keep their housing benefit tenants in slum-like conditions"

Hence my comment about good, honest landlords ;)

Honestly that's the extreme end of the spectrum, but I personally know friends and family who have been charged over £500/month for a single bedroom place with massive amounts of damp. The landlord just wasn't interested.

Why rent - why throw your money away - to make these people rich? I'm still living at home at 34 (hence my grumpiness), but better that than paying the mortgage of some horrid little landlord who doesn't give two craps (most of them down here).
 
It was no different before either...my first place was a single room with no heating and a leaky roof...there wasn't any of the regulations back then either. I paid £50 a week, electric was on a 50p slot and you shared a shower room and kitchenette with 5 others...and that was 26-27 years ago. (I was on the streets for a couple of months as well as there was no government help or council allocation for young single males back then, housing benefit wasn't like it is today either)

I couldn't afford a TV or a car or pretty much anything other than food and rent and a few beers at the weekend.

Life is crap for many people, and it was then and will undoubtably be tomorrow. Until we change society then it will continue...I do think that there are more checks and balances today, more help be it from government or ngo's and more available advice and awareness. Is it enough, no...but it is an improvement on the 70s-80s.
 
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Why rent - why throw your money away - to make these people rich? I'm still living at home at 34 (hence my grumpiness), but better that than paying the mortgage of some horrid little landlord who doesn't give two craps (most of them down here).

You still live at home at 34 years old? Surely you can afford "something" of your own?!?
 
You still live at home at 34 years old? Surely you can afford "something" of your own?!?

Not in Cornwall, mate. A cardboard box on a roundabout will set you back £500/month ;)

Since I don't earn much I'm not about to throw the largest slice of my income down the pan.

It's not ideal, and I can't live my life the way I'd want to, but at least I'm not buying someone else's house for them.
 
Not in Cornwall, mate. A cardboard box on a roundabout will set you back £500/month ;)

Since I don't earn much I'm not about to throw the largest slice of my income down the pan.

It's not ideal, and I can't live my life the way I'd want to, but at least I'm not buying someone else's house for them.

ha yeah in Cornwall you are pretty screwed.
 
Not in Cornwall, mate. A cardboard box on a roundabout will set you back £500/month ;)

Since I don't earn much I'm not about to throw the largest slice of my income down the pan.

It's not ideal, and I can't live my life the way I'd want to, but at least I'm not buying someone else's house for them.

Think I'd rather be buying someone else's house for them personally - each to their own though.
 
ha yeah in Cornwall you are pretty screwed.

Tbh once my current job ends I might just leave the country. There are much nicer places to live, with lower costs of living, and less self-serving governments.

Failing that, leaving Cornwall at the very least is a must. I'll miss the place for sure, but the prospects of every owning a house here are negligible. Too many 2nd homes and holiday homes pushing prices up. Sodding Londoners :p
 
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