Environment and 'Ok Boomer'

Why are degrees useless?
My DC are making good use of theirs

Its wasnt millennials who changed compulsary education age to 19....

well said MOnica.

Start work at 16 instead of freeloading until 21 then crying because they have student debt from a useless bloody degree.

London is the exception, prices there have been driven up by an influx of foreign investors, who have bought not only properties costing millions but also flats that would otherwise have been bought by local people to live in, and prices for property in and immediately around London has gone up in line with the domino effect of wealthy local unable to compete with foreign investors and moving to the next suburb out.

Further out prices are more reasonable. The average house price in the UK, including all houses and London is £235,000, which means in many areas there are a lot of properties far cheaper than that. In York where DS lives there are plenty of starter flats under £100,000, 3 bedroomed houses are priced from £150,000.

Similar properties in North Herts, where DD lives within an easy commute to Cambridge are £150,000 and £225,000. In South Oxfordshire, where I live, surrounded by science parks and an easy commute to Oxford, Newbury and Reading the figures are £150,000 and £250,000

All these areas are high employment, high salary areas, and many first time buyers seem quite able to play in excess of £300,000 for a first home.

As for saving for a depositt. It has never been easy. In 1968 we needed to save £1,000 to cover deposit and costs. Roughly equivalent to one year of my then gross salary, considerably longer if you only looked at my take-home pay.

My parents delayed their marriage several years until my DF was earning £4.50 a week and they could afford a mortgage to buy a home.

House buying has never been easy. It is just a shock to young people, many of whom have had very easy lives, to suddenly find that something they take for granted requires sacrifice and hard work to obtain.

The dismissive 'OK Boomer', the backing for assisted death and things like normalisation of pushing to make everything mixed sex spaces are concerning.

I don't know the figures for each biological sex and age, there is a large number of immaturity in the brain of those watching internet pornography. It will keep population growth down for positive environmental impact, though the need for the serotonin hit - leading to more extreme porn hit will have a public services cost. You can Google the research yourself.

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7736569/Watching-porn-rewires-brain-juvenile-state-neuroscientist-warns.html

I'm not saying this applies everywhere, but anywhere around here (I'm in outer SW London). where house prices are ridiculous, the problem would often not be the monthly mortgage payment, but saving enough for a 10% deposit in the first place, if they have no help.

Often the rent people have to pay for a very ordinary flat in an ordinary area, would be the same, or even more, than the mortgage.

In around 2009/2010 I looked at a lot of flats in Tooting - hardly a fashionable area - with a dd who thought she might buy there. At the time the sort of flats she was looking at were going for around £250-275k, depending on condition.

In the end she went to live and work away from London, but I kept a nosy eye on those flats. Prices started zooming up very quickly and by 2016 were regularly going for £550k+. Glad to say they've come down a wee bit now, but still crazy. Monthly rents for the same are usually at least £1400-1500,

And that's just ordinary flats in a non smart area. For anyone on fairly ordinary salaries, saving a £45-50k deposit after all other expenses, is hardly going to be easy.

Spot on MOnica

When I was in my mid 20s, my parents owned a large house while DH and I had a small house and a huge mortgage. My parents also started like that.

One of the reasons we paid less for our homes was because interest rates were so high. Suggest to a Millenial that the best way to get house prices down is to raise mortgage interest rates up to 10%-12% and watch the look of shock on their faces.

We actually paid far more for our houses than the list price because we had to pay such high interest rates. Add all the extra interest we paid to the cost of our houses and the capital gain we made shrinks alarmingly. To that add inflation.

We paid about £6,000 for our first house, in current values that is the equivalent of paying £105,000, add the extra interest we paid on it, approx £27,000 and the house cost us over £130,000. Certainly less than its current value of £300,000, but we haven't made the huge gain that the original price suggests.

But in 1968 average wages were just over £1,000, about £16,500 in current terms. The average wage in 2019 £35,000, almost exactly twice what we earned, Why shouldn't they pay twice as much for their houses, especially when interest rates are so low.

Sorry about all the maths. But no one, especially the young, ever sit down and do the figures and face the facts. They are no worse off than we were.

And in the end they are the ones who will benefit from the capital we have accumulated when they inherit it.

www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/interactives/householdcredit/data/pdf/HHDC_2019Q3.pdf

The younger generations carry a sizable portion of debt and where there's sizable debt there's excess and eventually delinquency-

Excessive consumerism impacts the environment- Unlike anything I've ever witnessed in my lifetime, the stock for this upcoming Christmas season is so abundant that it's hazardous - The isles are so packed that a person couldn't safely shop-

I have noticed on some sites there is a type of inter-generational rage that baby boomers are more likely to own their own home and often have empty rooms and have not downsized. I don't want to down size and have empty rooms but they come in useful when someone wants to come to stay. They also complain that baby boomers houses have risen in price so much so they have what they call unearned wealth. I take it with a pinch of salt. It is tough for young people to get on to property ladder today but they have also had an extended childhood with many still in education at 21 whereas in our generation most left school at 15 or 16 so by 21 had been working for many years.

I rarely hear these comments from youngsters, but if I do, I tell them I'll happily swap my wealth and my house with them......for their age! There's nothing more precious than youth and health and I think they get the message when I say that.

Don’t forget to publish your findings, Callistemon.

DS did once wax lyrical on the iniquity of DH and me not having to pay tuition fees when he had to. Till I reminded him that we paid them for him.

you're right

However, I am going to do a survey tomorrow; going out with my clipboard at school pickup time and I'll quiz everyone who has parked here on their age, whether or not they are a parent or grandparent etc. etc
Watch them all disappear and park somewhere else

I just find a fluorescent jacket from somewhere and make myself look official

Or is it my turn to pick up? I'm not sure which generation I am actually as I don't fit into any of them.

Stereotyping! Nit-picking!
All this coded 'divide and conquer'
tosh aimed at intergenerational strife is so so far from my family's experience that I simply will not dignify it with serious discussion.

Ps your reference to pious folk attending regular C of E services is a sweeping generalisation which at the same time excludes large swathes of the population of the UK.

One of GN's more pointless threads!

P.s. I know 2 millennials who are grandparents. And lots of gen X grandparents.

Why?

People are citing school run behaviour as evidence of "millennial" behaviour.

There are 3 generations that currently have school aged children: X, Y & Z.
The school gates can also be populated by grandparents.

School run behaviour near you is not evidence against one particular generation!

How have I missed out on XY and all that stuff?

I've never heard of it before today.

I'm getting now

School run does not = millenial! There are gen X and gen Y parents of primary age kids too!

I mean X and Z.

The current generations that have school age children are X, Y and Z.
Only Y are millennial.

Yes there are! Those who came of age in the year 2000 and those I know were very proud to be called millennials at that time!

I think people use "millenial" for "anyone younger than me whom I dislike/judge/disagree with" when actuallly the person or people they are referring to may not be millenials before!

I have been called a millenial on GN just because I have had what were percieved as "millenial" oppinions. There is no such thing!

Its not at all uncommon for people these days to become parents in their 40s. Meaning they are in their 50s when their children are still in primary school!

School run does not = millenial! There are gen X and gen Y parents of primary age kids too!

School age parents can be the genetation before or after millenials, and plenty of grandparents do school runs too.

There is no "school run" generation. The 4×4s you see outside school could be from any adult generation.

Again, my comments are in relation to people I know.

Not meant to include whole generations.

Well, millennial parents are not all 'baby boomers' or Gen X!

Some of us are older than that.
And some of us have to take occasional long haul flights in order to see them.
Mind you, my 'millennial' has never fitted into the most category.