War Of The Generations

First salvo? Good Grief!

It's more of a limp final resistance by the home guard! The war's already been won before us young 'uns even knew about it.

Enormous National Debt, huge PFI debts, massive amounts of money magicked out of nowhere in housing, student loans, privatised industries and utilities, giant pension shortfalls, depleted gold reserves, depleted natural gas reserves, pathetic infrastructure, looming power generation deficiency, mediocre economy, a financially crippled education system, depleted fish stocks & the ominous global warming fallout; what a mess we've inherited!

Let's face it, the new generation, of which there are a lot fewer of us, is going to have to pay to fix all of that and more besides! (e.g. healthcare, which the Tories are doing their level best to destroy so we won't even get the benefit when we need it!)

It's ridiculous how badly we've been set up. I'm surprised we aren't rioting on the streets...

I was born in the 60s and whilst I was growing up my family DIDNT have a car, home phone, computer, internet, mobile phone. We had 1 black & white TV in the house, and I had a radio in my bedroom (shared with my sister).

My parents struggled to pay the bills and more than once we had no electricity for a week or two.

We never could afford a holiday, bar a scout camping trip I went on.

So dont think we all live the life of luxury when we were growing up. My parents were really poor and there were no such things as tax credits etc

Think on before blaming the older people.

Didnt Gordon Brown start all the taxing of the older generation by taking out 5Bn a year in tax from pensioners?

I dont think that the extra burden is too hard to bare if it is 83 a year worse off. The whole final salary pension schemes was doomed from the start as every year you would have an additional load of people to pay even though you are not getting any actual work from it.

Hi youth unemployment is mainly caused by the influx of hard working, skilled, cheap labour from Europe. Blame a generation of Pro European rhetoric not any baby boom.

I have to smile at this talk of "lobbyists". It's one thing speaking out, but quite another to get action.
The Greens complain about the "motoring lobby" but drivers are still seen as fair game by politicians, so where's the supposed influence coming into play?
Having reached "Saga age" myself, I won't touch any of their products, and they seem a load of windbags to me.

I saw this coming a long time ago and have been 'skiing' for years. My aim is to be flat broke by the time I need care.

I saved a couple of copies of the FT recently for my dad to read. The difference between their viewpoint and that of the mainstream media was startling on this issue. He tends to agree that he was born at a favourable time.
The UK's position as a global industrial leader (with the associated wealth) was easy to maintain against a load of peasant farmers but that simply isn't the case any more.

Points of note;

Property ownership statistic is key. Two people have ten grand income, one owns and one rents. The renter is saving for property from say 8 grand and the landlord can buy more property from twelve grand. The oldies (its always oldies) forstalling developement know this.

It is reasonable to assume that the service industry will thrive. The young can't stop granny buying foreign made goods but if she wants something doing then the leverage goes the other way. And it's going to cost.

The govt. are just tinkering, the real battle is going on elsewhere.

Wuffle.

Now 72 I get a small pension & any savings get near no return on even with my ISA I have been stiched up by thieving Santander(Abbey ISA) savers are really suffering so that others get cheap loans at our expense thus we bcan not boost the economy, B.O.E. near brainless or stupid low rate of exchange4 is not getting us the hoped for exports.
I thinkI will live abroad where VAT is not so extortionate.

What it boils down to is that the increase in the Basic State Pension will effectively be taxed at the Basic Rate for those pensioners with income in the appropriate band. Those with income above the point where all Age Allowance has been lost will get the benefit of the increase in the Personal Allowance. This, of course, will be £2,200 lower than it might have been.

"the DT says that only 36,000 have objected to the Granny Tax."

So far, lets just wait and see what happens.

If the coalition removes taxation from the basic pension just before the next election or if the opposition includes it in its manifesto, we could be in a whole new ball game!!!

fedupwithbrown, you have identified in a few short sentences what is wrong with our sort of "democracy". Particularly, the last.

With a party system and nothing to choose between them, you're cursed if you do and cursed if you don't.

Just what do you do to get rid of these morons?

Furthermore, I'm getting a little bit sick of hearing youngsters moan and groan about the older generation and how (supposedly) we all ripped them off. Frankly, they don't know they're living.

I can relate totally to buywhenhigh's post and anything I now have has been due to a lifetime of damned hard work.

My own son, now in his early 20-s had difficulty finding suitable employment. Did he sit on his backside complaining? No! At just seventeen he started his own very small business and after 5-6 years of damned hard work and extremely long hours, is just beginning to see some progress.

Stop moaning and get over it. There's money to be made if you're prepared to work. Sitting on your backsides all day will achieve nothing.

While we're on that subject, the last socialist bunch of idiots did nothing to encourage work, but everything to encourage scroungers. When you create a system that actively pays more if you don't work, what do you expect?

Well that's the last straw. Penalising pensioners at the same time as reducing tax for the wealthy it beggars belief that they have the gaul to do it without laughing (although they came close to it).

My wife and I were born at the end of the war and went through years of rationing. Imagine what the poor souls of today would do if they couldn't fill their faces with burgers and pizza. And as for swanning around in designer clothes and trainers. I have nothing against any of this as we did our best for our children so they wouldn't have the hardships we had. But when people bleat on about us being the lucky generation - do me a favour. Anyway its helped my wife and I make our minds up - we are selling up and off to France and although they are bit cranky they do respect their elders which unfortunately the UK seems to have forgotten how to treat older people. They seem to think older people are just a burden and would be quite happy if they could put them down like sick dogs.
Don't these politicians think they will get old one day.

So many comments on 'voting out the current lot'. Do you really think the labour/Unions party will give pensioners anything? They will print money, spend and tax even more.
Apart from the increasing numbers of state benefits scroungers who have no intention of working except for cash in hand there is little normal people can do to avoid tax. Pensioners are especially hit as they cannot avoid tax taken at source and can no longer earn at the same levels except in a relatively few cases. The current generation, on average, have money to give their kids, the generation after that will be very hard hit. Buy a house, save funds overseas and start a SIPP/ISA would be a start for most younger people - oh and stop wasting money on bingeing every weekend. It wasn't easy in the '70's either, we saved for 2 years to get a house deposit.

mufuliraman

"You wouldn't believe how bad it (the NHS) is inside, ask my wife she is a nurse"

The NHS certainly isn't perfect, but bits of it, I promise you, are as good as anybody's best.

Ask my wife, she's a patient (terminal brain cancer.)

Now for some of the comments on here which begger belief.
@millwall11 and the comment made about benefit scroungers, maybe we should call anyone that drinks alcohol of any sort a drunk and subject to locking up. You clearly have no idea of what someone on benefits has to do and what they cannot do. Anyone who earns any money at all has to declare it, and if they just think the person is getting more than they say, their benefit is stopped, and even if they earn more than £5 then their benefit is reduced. by the amount over £5, what point is there in someone declaring any earnings when they are immediately subjected to scrutiny and loss of benefit if they so much as attempt to pick themselves up and at least try to work. All Governments need to stop using the stick and at least promote work as an alternative, not punish those that try to do something. My daughter has had to jump through many hoops just to get herself together by doing voluntary work, which is also classed as work and again possible loss of benefits. People really need to think and know what they are talking about before making stupid comments.
@matchmade The figures don't work out when it comes to cutting the higher tax rate in favour of taxing purchases of new homes over 2 million.
If you are very rich, you either already have a house, so you are just cutting their tax, with no benefit, and if you don't have a house then you are renting (Tax deductible), and can afford to buy one in a different country. All that this has done is to stifle the current house buying market, not bring in the same amount of revenue, never mind more.

"For those in the priveliged generation "

Don't see where that comes from, the so called privileged generation has paid more in taxes than those post maggie thatcher. Tax rates used to be around 35% for all except for those in the upper tax brackets So they actually paid more into the economy than they do now. It is the present generation that has it easy and bleats about tax rises. After 50 years of work and taxes, they have the right to say where has all my money gone, and why are we now being taxed cradle to grave still paying taxes upon taxes. If you invested in business in the same manner, you would soon want to know what the hell they are playing about at.
I think the older generation has a right to being miserable fools :P

I agree, and it is those with their snouts in the trough that foster this divide, to divert attention away from their own dillusions.

UK Government has created a social divide and not fostered a working environment through their policies.

One thing I'm fed up with is the older generation saying "well I didn't have X Y or Z growing up, and I did just fine!". First of all, I live in a house with central heating and a tumble drier, both of which are switched on once in a blue moon because we can't afford the energy costs. And second of all, as a young person today I am expected to have certain things, not just by my peers but by employers and my university. They expect you to be able to instantly respond to phone calls and emails to the point where you at the least need home broadband, a PC and a mobile phone, and many expect more of you.
You should have seen the kit list my design school sent me on the first day of term- they expected you to have an SLR camera, a Macbook laptop, and seemingly unlimited funds for trips.

The older generation did have it better in terms of employment when they were young. They didn't have a massive Eastern European sponge soaking up all the jobs like café waitress, shop assistant, etc. They could get a job just by walking up to the counter instead of being told that the company only advertises online.

LateDeveloper

"The baby boomers have paid more into the UK economy than any other generation."

Is that really true?
I seem to remember taxation was much higher between 1945 and about 1980, when Mrs T reduced it by selling off the family silver and spending the revenue from North Sea oil.

goodlifer

Thanks for putting that point home, the babyboomers were working in that generation, paying more in taxes than they do these days, ergo they have paid more into the economy through taxation. :)

It was said years ago that the underlying tax rate should be around the 35% mark and indeed I did read somewhere that that is the underlying tax rate now, but the onus is on consumers paying for it, rather than in direct taxation like before Maggy.

What this Government fail to grasp is that if you remove wages and jobs from our present economy, then this fundamental taxation disappears and there is less coming in to the coffers.
Then again, how can we expect any Con Government to understand these basic concepts, when the first things they do is to sell off the countries silver, as you put it, and look around for ways to fund their misbegotten policies, by selling anything else off they can. Indeed would you invest in a company that can do nothing but asset strip and not produce anything worthwhile. Count me out on that one :)