Boomers.

It seems there has always to be a scapegoat for planning failures. If it isn't the old it's boomers and if it isn't them it's racial minorities. It seems par for the course in all societies.

Bit much when you consider the reason for boomers was the return of armed forces from war and a surge in family sizes after those years of severe deprivation.

The ward was full up because of mismanagement of the NHS and Social Care by successive government. What a horrid thing to have to hear when your DH was dying Falconbird

There as been another 'boomer' thread on MN. Didn't bother to contribute because some just don't want to hear. We are all super rich, retired at 50, with gold plate pensions, own two houses etc.

They forget that many of the younger boomer left school at 15 and are still working and paying taxes. Really very few had any chance of a free university education.

What the person nursing your DH said was awful.

The nurse couldn't do the maths either. Elderly bedblockers are too old to be 'boomers'

Bedblockers?? People who have been failed by the government, you mean.

I didn't know about the other thread. I hope this one won't fizzle out.

There is a feeling about that we were the lucky generation. Well, we grew up with rationing, bombed ruins, parents that were understandably traumatized by the war, polio, TB and physical abuse at home and at school.
Few homes had central heating or telephones and many of us could only dream about going to University.

I went to work at 16 and worked from 9.am until 5.30pm as a junior secretary. The journey to and from work took 45mins and I frequently fell asleep on the bus.

Sadly many boomers are now classed as elderly. The oldest of us would be pushing 70 now.

Forward planning isnt any Governments' speciality.

One of the reasons I suggested Hunter Davis would be good on Gransnet was because he wrote a good piece in the Sunday Times on that very subject. I find Mumsnet fascinating in that they can blether on about how our generation are draining resources and on the other hand they seem to think nothing of endless soft play visits and horrendously expensive pushchairs. If someone clever could do a link from Mumsnet to the HD questions to ask him his opinion on their discussion it would be good. I don't seem to be able to do the links on iPad .

I have read the MN thread. It's full of what seems to be resentment. But I suppose that depends on how those poster's family dynamics work.

I would hate to think that our DSs feel that what we have worked hard for, to enjoy, share and hopefully pass on, is selfishness.

Each generation builds on the deprivations of the previous, our grandparents probably thought that our post war parents enjoyed things that they did not have. Harold Macmillan's ' never had it so good' comment affected them as well as us as children.

It is sad that some children born post 1980s feel they are hard done by, but they are 'Thatchers children'!

I wonder what our GCs will think when they are in their 20s? Life changes, through discovery, innovation and political control. x

I think the biggest problem for younger people is property prices - almost anyone 50+ who wanted to buy their own place when they were in their 20s could have done so, even with interest rates at 15%.

I was in a coffee shop and I heard two mums really talking in a bitter way about their parents who would I guess have been boomer age. They resented the fact that they had bus passes and I must be honest I sometimes do feel guilty when I use mine and hear how expensive a bus ticket is these days.

I help out my kids as much as I can because I can't take it with me.

That is the biggest problem Riverwalk. It's almost impossible these days for young people to get on the property ladder and manage a mortgage on one wage. At least when I was their age I had the choice to work or not. Some of my female friends used to work for 'pin money' - a phrase you rarely hear these days.

I did choose to work and consequently have a good pension. But if my daughter didn't work full time they couldn't afford to pay the mortgage and household bills, yet both her and her OH have 'good jobs'. She is a secondary teacher. They struggle to go on holiday (usually camping) and certainly don't have, or expect, the luxuries of life, they frankly struggle to bring up their children.

This is what's causing resentment in many cases.

Yes, help your family out. A friend of mine has just sold her family home and given the main chunk of the money to her children, moving to a tiny shoebox, which she loves.
I hope I am as unselfish.

I read the Mn thread. I did think it was full of resentment. I am trying to think of an intelligent reply to OP. But I'm tired mentally. Everywhere I turn one faction of society is up against another. I think it's awful that Falcon overheard this remark at such a sad moment in her life. The way I feel today I am on the verge of tears. Really! Please accept these . I think there's a lot of incredibly stupid selfish people in society, and today I've had enough of them.

She may come unstuck of course if she needs care in the near future or so I am told.It seems we have to be careful what we do with our own money.

I was having this discussion with my Mother only a few days ago. She is fortunate to be in good health, and we were talking about the use of the awful word 'bed-blocker' and the way it is used in a way that infers the blame lies with the person in the hospital bed. I understand that the whole point of the expense of a census every ten years is to assist with the forward planning of public resources i.e 4-5 years after a child is born there is a need for a primary school place, and 6 years after that there is a need for a secondary school place, etc. etc. The maths is really very simple, almost a spreadsheet, number born, less deaths, less emigrants, plus immigrants gives the age of the population and their subsequent need. The problem isnt with baby boomers, bed blockers, immigrants, feckless young parents or any of the other blamed groups, the problem is with the government departments who have either (1) failed to analyse the given data properly and thus havent done their job or (2) know what is needed, but still cut the budgets and imply the blame lies with the users.

Well I won't be doing that jo1 - am already in a shoebox - I'd be downsizing to a matchbox!

if you value your BP do not read the mumsnet thread
they have a tendency to quote their own personal boomers DPs and PILs as representative of 10 million individuals
but it seems they fail to understand that the winter fuel allowance is ONLY £200 per household - (about £4 a week then) and it would not pay for cruises and other luxuries when most of us find it barely covers a 5th of the heating costs.
they also feel that because child benefit is means tested (at 50K income) which is much much more so should the WFA
someone rich with even one child would have been getting £20 a week before it was means tested.
and the bus pass - depends where you live how much value is attached to that. Well-heeled Londoners with their 'freedom pass' do well so how can it be realistically means-tested.

My oldest DC is 50 this year and I didn't get any family allowance until I had her brother 4 years later. It was 5 shillings a week and I cannot remember it increasing, although it may have done.

Sorry you feel so upset Alex and Falconbird. What an awful remark.

It is a struggle for young people to get on the property ladder. The issue seems to be deposits. DS is paying £100 per month than we did in 1991. He has borrowed 2/3 more than we had. So the repayments, with low interest rates are not so different.

However, we bought our first house with a 5% Deposit. Which I saved on a teacher's salary. DH was still a student on a long Architecture course.

Deposits now have to be so much, in order to bring down the monthly repayment.

We were helped by a friend who lent us his house, ex. bills, for 6 mths.
I hope I have repayed this kindness to others over the years.

Another problem is the cost of energy bills and maintaining a house. Any first time buyer in London will have problems that are exceptional, unless they commute in and then they have travel costs.
Not an enviable position. x

I think it's sad that Boomers are coming in for all this criticism.

Yes, we could buy houses in the 70s and 80s but we really did have a hard time paying the mortgage and couldn't ask our parents for help because the attitude was "you've made your bed now lie in it."

In the 1980s a lot of people including my DH were made redundant under the excuse of weeding out the dead wood and we lost our family home which we had done up over a period of 14 years. This happened to a lot of people at the time.

Our story is not one of endless privilege but one of struggle to provide homes, clothes food etc., for our children. A lot of us are still struggling. We're not all jet setting off or cruising about in yachts.

I used to take lemonade bottles back to get the money!! Never thought I was terribly hard done by it was just something we did to make the money go round. Discovered Charity Shops and hobbled about in ill fitting shoes because they were made of leather in those days and did stretch.

By the way who is Hunter Davis??

I sometimes think that charity shops would have made a big difference to my younger days. I can't remember them much before the 80s, although I'm sure they did exist.
As a student I think I would have enjoyed shopping in them and had a greater variety of garments! There were jumble sales, but they lived up to their name and were a mad scrum. x

Falconbird
That was an unforgiveable remark that you overheard from someone who should be compassionate at a time like that - why be in the profession at all if that is how you feel about older people you are supposed to be caring for?
She obviously didn't have a clue what a baby boomer is, and it is not baby boomers who are causing 'bedblocking', it is the inadequate system of after-care for elderly people - and perhaps some of those resentful youngsters who are failing in their care of their elderly parents.

I am just about a baby boomer and I remember the struggles we had to bring up a family on low salaries - at the same time as caring for elderly parents, none of whom went into care homes.

The media and some of these 'think tanks' are whipping up inter-generational resentment.

Hope your day gets better alex