How the cost of living has changed from late 70's

[Puzzled]

Most of the old generation were well compensated for working hard. In the 80s and 90s my dad shift work because it was 100% guaranteed overtime available. If he wanted to work a Saturday (double time) Sunday (treble time) any bank holiday, or something like Easter / Xmas new year etc. treble time. Guess how much extra you would get for coming in on a Sunday at Wetherspoons etc? Nothing. Your standard wage flat rate.

Yep and each time minimum wage goes up companies use it as an excuse to reduce overtime payments and other company perks.

Now they wonder why people don't want to cover unpopular hours when there is no further financial incentive for doing so.

This generation has got access to a wider variety of food, cheaper products, tech and health advances etc but not being able to afford somewhere to live is a pretty major negative in the quality of life stakes. As is having little chance of a decent retirement.

 

[malachi]

The problem is now, the hard work is still there, but not the pay off.

And that's the problem.

Work hard but still cant get onto the properly ladder.
Work hard but our wages isn't enough to keep up with inflation.
Work hard to get a degree, ended up in student debt and you still cant get a decent job. Then work a job you could have got without the degree.
Work hard but after years committing to company their thanks is handing you an P45 due to "cuts" or "restructure".
Work hard to try and start your own business. Then the Government introduces rules such as IR35 to make it more difficult for the Average Joe.

Work your backside off and get very little or nothing in return.

 

[tamzzy]

 

[dirtychinchilla]

The NHS did indeed work but we the boomers didn't vote in smarmy face Bliar who opened up this country to the scum of the world - How can something work when another 4million are added to the list but not paying in - of course it is broke.

That's rude, probably contravenes the rules.

 

[CapitalOne]

That's rude, probably contravenes the rules.

It's also complete and utter claptrap of course

Like I said some people won't take any responsibility.

 

[tamzzy]

we the boomers didn't vote in smarmy face Bliar

really?

Blair came into power in 1997 - so it can't be (part of) gen x, all of the millennials (not old enough) and definitely not gen z
boomers (born 1946-1964) were 33-51 at that point and we know that the largest swing was in the 25-54 age range
source: https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/how-britain-voted-1997
so i think we can say that that your comment is demonstrably untrue

 

[Desmo]

Work hard to try and start your own business. Then the Government introduces rules such as IR35 to make it more difficult for the Average Joe.

That's a bit of a stretch. If you genuinely start your own business, IR35 doesn't affect you at all. If however you're a one-man-band contracting for a single company yet trying to pass yourself off as a company, then it's a different matter.

 

[BUDFORCE]

And that's the problem.

Work hard but still cant get onto the properly ladder.
Work hard but our wages isn't enough to keep up with inflation.
Work hard to get a degree, ended up in student debt and you still cant get a decent job. Then work a job you could have got without the degree.
Work hard but after years committing to company their thanks is handing you an P45 due to "cuts" or "restructure".
Work hard to try and start your own business. Then the Government introduces rules such as IR35 to make it more difficult for the Average Joe.

Work your backside off and get very little or nothing in return.

And this is what the older generations don't get.

Before, the future always looked hopeful, things were always improving, living standards, technology.

Sure we get cheap PlayStations, but you can't afford those anyway because you are paying a ridiculous proportion of your salary to live in a rented broom cupboard, whilst those boomer landlords are spending half the year in Spain I'm their villa, the other half in their touring caravan having been a BT engineer for 40 years.

We get to look forward to having a low proportion of home owners, a pension worth a potato and a half and probably another major war.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Actually I take some of that back, a lot of older generations do get it, a lit I speak to actually, but there are those who still hold on to that "you kids don't know how easy you have it" mentality.

 

[Jono8]

My favourite is when my mother says "yes, well we had 15% interest rates back in my day!"

Yeh...15% of a much smaller number is still a lot less than 4% of a very large number...

6% mortgage rates are equivalent to 25% in 1980, lender claims - Estate Agent Today

Leeds Building Society has pledged to honour any mortgage offers and support borrowers during this period of market uncertainty.

www.estateagenttoday.co.uk

The cost of living is genuinely absurd compared to how boomers had it in their prime and anyone who says otherwise is willfully ignorant/just doesn't want to hear it.

 

[ColdAsIce]

Actually I take some of that back, a lot of older generations do get it, a lit I speak to actually, but there are those who still hold on to that "you kids don't know how easy you have it" mentality.

They lived in a time in which if you wanted a job you could walk into town and pretty much get hired on the spot. My dad doesn’t understand the hoops you have to jump through now and big interview processes. It’s why we got Brexit. Older generation thought they were resetting the Country to how they had it. Without foreign labour and a time when we still manufactured stuff. I kinda get why it happened.

 

[Mrwong]

And that's the problem.

Work hard but still cant get onto the properly ladder.
Work hard but our wages isn't enough to keep up with inflation.
Work hard to get a degree, ended up in student debt and you still cant get a decent job. Then work a job you could have got without the degree.
Work hard but after years committing to company their thanks is handing you an P45 due to "cuts" or "restructure".
Work hard to try and start your own business. Then the Government introduces rules such as IR35 to make it more difficult for the Average Joe.

Work your backside off and get very little or nothing in return.

Do not forget most stuff was free back then, the older folk seem to forget about interest relief on you mortgage payments. Which I find amusing when they say oh we had high interest rates.

Lol at least some people get it. If if can't change then people need to shift and find something that works for them.
The IR 35 biggest hit, now hitting div and capital gains.

In its most beneficial form the MIRAS (Mortgage Interest Relief At Source) scheme allowed tax relief on interest for mortgage amounts of up to £30,000, and unmarried couples with joint mortgages could claim tax relief for mortgage amounts of up to £60,000.

For example, based on the first year of the mortgage, a home with a mortgage of £60,000 could claim tax relief on interest charges on £30,000 of the mortgage amount. At a 14% interest rate the annual interest charge would be £4,200. This could be offset against the tax bill at the basic rate of tax. Back in the 90's this was worth over £1,050. You can double the figures for a joint mortgage.

The old people forget about that, what was their effective interest rate, as it wasn't the official Interest rate it was so much lower.

It was allowed in you 2nd 3rd etc.. house lol and they say they had it hard.

 

[Uther]

Stop buying chai latte's and eating avocado on toast and you too could have a mansion. Apparently.

 

[malachi]

They lived in a time in which if you wanted a job you could walk into town and pretty much get hired on the spot. My dad doesn’t understand the hoops you have to jump through now and big interview processes. It’s why we got Brexit. Older generation thought they were resetting the Country to how they had it. Without foreign labour and a time when we still manufactured stuff. I kinda get why it happened.

Yeah, I forgot about that. You want a job these days, you have to go through minimum 3 interviews. Even for the most basic jobs.

But some Boomers are getting a taste of this now with cuts over the last few years. Some of my friends parents are experiencing this. Thought they could go straight into another job after being made redundant. Now they realised you need employable skills, not the same skills they been using since the 1970's.

No degree!?!!? Not selected.
Dont know how to a use computer!?!?! Not selected.
Oh, you got an interview!?!!!? They invite you to an 3 stage interview with different panel members over the next few weeks. You will be one of 30 candidates they are interviewing.....GOOD LUCK!!

This is one of the reasons why since covid, loads of them took early retirement. Even if they couldn't afford it.

 

[Mrwong]

My favourite is when my mother says "yes, well we had 15% interest rates back in my day!"

Yeh...15% of a much smaller number is still a lot less than 4% of a very large number...

6% mortgage rates are equivalent to 25% in 1980, lender claims - Estate Agent Today

Leeds Building Society has pledged to honour any mortgage offers and support borrowers during this period of market uncertainty.

www.estateagenttoday.co.uk

The cost of living is genuinely absurd compared to how boomers had it in their prime and anyone who says otherwise is willfully ignorant/just doesn't want to hear it.

They shafted anyone born after 1970, now when the boomers say we had high interest rates, ask them what about the mortgage relief at the time.
They will very quickly shut up. Just like my uncle kept saying I did not pay Interest etc.., Now he changes his tune oh we had it hard.

I keep reminding him about it , it really puts a stop on we had it hard conversations.


This is taken from 22 March 1973 vol 853 cc647 transcript.

Mr. Frank Allaun
If tax relief to owner-occupiers is to continue at £340 million a year, and is to be increased as house prices increase, is it not unfair to cut the subsidy of £160 million a year to council tenants, as the Government are doing?

§Mr. Jenkin
We have always taken the view that these two things are not to be compared. They are different in kind. The rules which provide tax relief for mortgages are exactly the same as those which were on the statute book when we came to office.

Mr. Joel Barnett
Will not the Chief Secretary consider disallowing mortgage interest relief for a second house, or for those with a high level of income? If he is not prepared to do this, does it mean that he is willing to allow mortgage interest rates to rise to 10 per cent. or more as a result of the interest rate war which the Chancellor of the Exchequer started? Did the Chancellor specifically ask the Building Societies Association not to increase the mortgage interest charges until the day after the local government elections?

§Mr. Jenkin
As I said, the rules are exactly the same as they were under the Labour Government which the hon. Gentleman supported. I do not believe that the changes in the rules which the hon. Gentleman is urging upon us would have any effect on the mortgage lending rate. We naturally welcome the decision of the Council of the Building Societies Association to defer its decision on mortgage rates until its next meeting, but I must make it absolutely clear that that was a decision of the association. We do not take responsibility for the rates which building societies

 

[Mrwong]

Mr. Peter Rees
Will my hon. Friend confirm that a married man with two children with an income of £20 a week was paying tax at the rate of £1 a week in 1970–71 as a result of the Labour Government's tax measures, whereas he has been completely relieved of tax by the two Budgets of my right hon. Friend?

 

[SpellowHouse]

Sorting out house insurance file I came across estate agents flyer for the house we bought just north of Wellington in Shropshire.

We sold our house in Brum for 16k and bought this dilapidated semi for 15k - The bloke who owned it was a building laborer so it had two colours -Bright green and bright pink emulsion (knicked).
It was in the sticks and we bought it at height of petrol crisis (around 1979) so we bought a commuter motorbike.

Anyway the reason we bought it was because the bills were cheap and I quote

rateable value £98.00 PA -Rates payable £66.54 PA -Water and enviromental charges £10.29 PA.

Mains water and electric are connected. Sewage to septic tank.
When we moved in it was on mains sewers.


Then Poll tax hit us -by then rates had gone up to around £250 pa and rocketed up to £750 - a year later they dumped poll tax and reduced our rates to £500 -so 100% rise for nothing.

We sold it 13 yrs ago and it didn't go for silly money and most of it was used to get this dump of a 1972 gerry built bungalow into livable condition.

My water rates are now £530pa
Council tax over £1k

I found an old petrol receipt in my dads stuff for the 70's. Petrol was 37p a gallon.
Also a news article for a house that in today's money would be about £1m. An old Georgian manor house type of thing.
It was in good condition, but dated. Would take a lot to decorate in 70's colours!! It was £20,000 and they couldn't sell it. No one was interested in taking on a house that large.

 

[Mrwong]

I found an old petrol receipt in my dads stuff for the 70's. Petrol was 37p a gallon.
Also a news article for a house that in today's money would be about £1m. An old Georgian manor house type of thing.
It was in good condition, but dated. Would take a lot to decorate in 70's colours!! It was £20,000 and they couldn't sell it. No one was interested in taking on a house that large.

That was very expensive given that 1970 avg was £3500 to £4200. Avg house price late 80s was £20000.

 

[SpellowHouse]

That was very expensive given that 1970 avg was £3500 to £4200. Avg house price late 80s was £20000.

There seem to be far more people around today who can afford a £1m house than there were back then that could afford £20,000.

 

[Mrwong]

There seem to be far more people around today who can afford a £1m house than there were back then that could afford £20,000.

No really, some have grown from nothing to a million. A old retired royal mail purchased his home for 60k it is now worth 900,000. Can a postie these days afford that?.