Interesting (?) Political stuff...

[Stirlingsays]

There are still huge swathes of the population, many of whom are pensioners, who still think we live in a country where if you just work hard and put some money away each month, you can own a home and raise a family and live a comfortable life, because that's what they did.

The bar has completely moved, and rather than accept that, we societally tie ourselves in knots about spending habits and 'hard work', all to appease the egos of a generation who got to play an entirely different game.

I think there's some truth in that.....But let's start with the fact that 3 out of 4 pensioners aren't in this money bags situation whether by assets or incomes. Of those you hear making the kind of complaints you refer to some of them are just a bit thick and set in their ways to notice or care about the reduced ladders available compared to their time.

Also, while they lived in better times there were never roads paved with gold....plenty of people worked hard and did all the right things and got nowhere in life....bad luck, events out of their control, whatever it was....same as it ever was. Life owes no one anything and the luck of life's dice affects both the talented and the feckless.

Increasingly the key indicator to a young person's financial future is how much their dad is worth - not their education, not their job, not how hard they work and certainly not how many coffees they buy.

Yes, but in truth that has always been the way.....the only difference is that in the modern day people are lied to about their station in life, much more than they were in the past. They grow up being in nonsense Disney-land concepts like egalitarianism.

But it's undeniable that social mobility has reduced significantly.....again, the system has been designed that way.

But it's also worth highlighting that the wealthy pensioner who owns 4 buy-to-lets is very much 'guilty' of a wealth transfer from ordinary working families, who in previous generations would have owned their home - I'm not necessarily blaming them for this, but it's relevant if we're talking about growing wealth inequality.

It's true, but as you and I know, that's the system and the real blame lies with the elites who create it.

People will follow incentives like sharks follow blood in the water.

 

[CPFCSaturn]

I think there's some truth in that.....But let's start with the fact that 3 out of 4 pensioners aren't in this money bags situation whether by assets or incomes. Of those you hear making the kind of complaints you refer to some of them are just a bit thick and set in their ways to notice or care about the reduced ladders available compared to their time.

Also, while they lived in better times there were never roads paved with gold....plenty of people worked hard and did all the right things and got nowhere in life....bad luck, events out of their control, whatever it was....same as it ever was. Life owes no one anything and the luck of life's dice affects both the talented and the feckless.



Yes, but in truth that has always been the way.....the only difference is that in the modern day people are lied to about their station in life, much more than they were in the past. They grow up being in nonsense Disney-land concepts like egalitarianism.

But it's undeniable that social mobility has reduced significantly.....again, the system has been designed that way.


It's true, but as you and I know, that's the system and the real blame lies with the elites who create it.

People will follow incentives like sharks follow blood in the water.

3 out of 4 aren't millionaires, sure. I'm not sure what the distribution looks like that for that 75% in all honestly, but I'd be pretty confident they are still amongst the wealthiest demographic in the country - if you own a £800k house outright, you're still doing alright!

Not suggesting any roads paved with gold, but there are a great many statistical measures which will tell you it was a better deal.

Of course a rich family was always a big leg up, but there was also far more social mobility - if you didn't have the rich dad, you still had a chance to work your way out of it. As you acknowledge; social mobility is considerably lower than it was.

Again, none of this is to suggest pensioners have had it easy or haven't had to work hard for what they have - of course they have. My point is that the same application of hard work now would not yield anywhere near the same results.