Well it seems pointless working these days?

[ProDave]

I think most on this thread will have worked all their life. I had 2 spells of "unemployment" One from leaving school at 16 to starting my apprenticeship the September of that year. The apprenticeship was already agreed so I took one last "school summer holiday" before starting the apprenticeship, there seemed no point looking for a temporary job. Then at age 40 we moved to the Highlands, coinciding with being made redundant from my last job, and I was unemployed for about 2 months, which ended when the Job Centre offered me a grant to start self employment, which is what i have done for the last 19 years.

Mortgage long since paid off, other assets and private pensions so plan to retire early next year. I feel I have earned it. I won't be claiming any benefits, just living off what I have put away for that.

 

[Murdoch]

It does seem that the gap between working and non working people is getting narrower to the point, as the title of this thread says, why bother working anymore.
2 words - self respect

Hit, nail and head springs to mind

I was brought up in a very traditional house where dad went to work and mum stayed at home

Our set up is I work full time and the misses has always worked part time and I do a lot of house stuff.

Our kids have grown up to recognise that work pays and had rewards


I guess if you grow up where you exist off benefits and cash on the side, then that’s what you think is normal

 

[binky]

It does seem that the gap between working and non working people is getting narrower to the point, as the title of this thread says, why bother working anymore.
2 words - self respect

not too surprising when you see the cost of housing these days. I feel sorry for the youngtsers of today because even if they have a work ethic the numbers are seriously stacked against them.

I do agree though, the self respect of providing for yourself seems to have been lost in some people

 

[revjames]

not too surprising when you see the cost of housing these days. I feel sorry for the youngtsers of today because even if they have a work ethic the numbers are seriously stacked against them.

I do agree though, the self respect of providing for yourself seems to have been lost in some people

I hear this argument a lot.... I bought my first house in 1983 for 9.5K seems cheap but it was a run down doer upper in a poor street and I had to save up for a 5% deposit. Interest rates were in double figures and the house was unheated apart from a coal fire and a HW cyl with immersion. No fitted kitchen, white goods, carpets etc. Made it as good as we could painting and decorating and had family hand me downs for furniture. Also worth mentioning there were no tax credits etc. It was hard but we were determined.

Todays first time buyers have high expectations, they don't want a dooer upper, they want brand new with all the appliances etc, also a brand new car on HP and all the latest phones and gadgetry. I know prices are high but we all have to start somewhere. Interest rates historically low too. Maybe I'm just an old fart boomer who knows nothing about todays situation. Things have changed we struggled then and people struggle now, maybe a bit differently.

 

[Sharpend]

I have to concur with the Rev here, the youth of today have no comprehension about how to accept where they are and have seconds or lesser objects in the endeavour to raise themselves up to the next level, if it isn’t new then they really are unimpressed and it’s below them to accept.
Quite frankly I’d send them all into the armed forces for a compulsory two years once their obligatory life in education is complete. It might make them gain a greater understanding of Value.

 

[ProDave]

Yes I have recounted before how my mortgage for my "cheap" house in the mid 80's consumed more than half my salary. I had to sell a decent car and replace it with a rusted banger to scrape the deposit together. There was no money spare, if the old banger had conked out or failed an MOT I would have been in serious trouble. It was nearly a year after moving in that I could finally push the boat out just a bit and get a telephone fitted. The house was entirely furnished with old free furniture as there was no money for that either.

 

[steptoe]

My tuppence
Kids these days won't accept hand me downs or 2nd hand
If it wasn't for stuff like that I would have had very little, as it turns out, I had more than I needed, or wanted , if truth be told, we might not have had much, but we certainly didn't know it, everyone was the same,
The biggest issue I see is this,
kids these days know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

 

[Murdoch]

My wife’s niece and partner have just been given a huge sum to buy their first home - they do have a small mortgage.

they chose a brand new 3 bed shoe box with a small garden , with hardly any access , a single garage and just enough off street parking for 2 cars

for the same money they could have bought a 1980’s 4 bed detached with a reasonable garden, a double garage and off street parking within a mile - sure it needed decorating and a new bathroom & kitchen

i know which one I would have bought.

 

[binky]

My wife’s niece and partner have just been given a huge sum to buy their first home - they do have a small mortgage.

they chose a brand new 3 bed shoe box with a small garden , with hardly any access , a single garage and just enough off street parking for 2 cars

for the same money they could have bought a 1980’s 4 bed detached with a reasonable garden, a double garage and off street parking within a mile - sure it needed decorating and a new bathroom & kitchen

i know which one I would have bought.

If you buy new, then kitchen, bathroom etc etc is in the mortgage. If you buy a house that needs work, then you have to find the money to do that, and today's young people seem to have no hand skills. We did up FiLs house, carpets, kitchen and decorating for less than £10k last year, and had no trouble selling it, as buyers could just move in.

As for house prices, there's absolutely no way we could buy our house now, even if both of us were still working full-time. We bought our first house on a single income and only a 25 year mortgage not 30 years.

There's a new trend to recycle, and reuse, and buy second hand fashion, so the kids are finally getting that message, but based more on being eco-friendly

 

[Sharpend]

My wife’s niece and partner have just been given a huge sum to buy their first home - they do have a small mortgage.

they chose a brand new 3 bed shoe box with a small garden , with hardly any access , a single garage and just enough off street parking for 2 cars

for the same money they could have bought a 1980’s 4 bed detached with a reasonable garden, a double garage and off street parking within a mile - sure it needed decorating and a new bathroom & kitchen

i know which one I would have bought.

And a 1980’s house has full size rooms.

 

[binky]

And a 1980’s house has full size rooms.

Mine is 1894, we certainly have full size rooms, and lots of draughts

 

[apprentice87]

Always remember that when people bought a house years ago, say the 1970's the mortgage was a lot AT FIRST but wages were going up a lot, and after a while the mortgage seemed next to nothing. I would meet people that would say "what do you think my mortgage is" laughing at how cheap it was.

Round where i live you would meet people that said [bragging a bit about how well they had done] "I have got a 100,000 house" that would be a VERY nice house then.. You also had jobs for life..

Now, you could not even buy a house for £100,000 and we live in a world of zero hour contracts and nearly all jobs on the minimum wage. Then you have the price of stuff now, totally taking the piss the price of electric and petrol are..

It is a different world now. In many parts of the country there is precisely no chance of someone EVER being able to buy a house.. Private rents are taking the piss too..

I feel sorry for the kids of today..

john..

 

[Mike.J]

 

[revor]

I feel sorry for the kids of today..

So do I but add the rider don't remember the fuss when we were paying 19.5% interest rate on our mortgage (2.5% above base rate of 17% ) wrapped up in blankets watching a £5 second hand B&W because we could not afford the heating. But with hard graft it all worked out in the end despite Gordon Brown shafting workers pensions in the mid 90's by forcing the pension funds to get rid of surpluses and then when they did he took £5 billion out in one swoop by removing the tax benefit of dividends going into pension funds, causing share to plummet and pensions funds to got into deficit. "Labour there for the workers" pull the other one.

 

[binky]

So do I but add the rider don't remember the fuss when we were paying 19.5% interest rate on our mortgage (2.5% above base rate of 17% ) wrapped up in blankets watching a £5 second hand B&W because we could not afford the heating. But with hard graft it all worked out in the end despite Gordon Brown shafting workers pensions in the mid 90's by forcing the pension funds to get rid of surpluses and then when they did he took £5 billion out in one swoop by removing the tax benefit of dividends going into pension funds, causing share to plummet and pensions funds to got into deficit. "Labour there for the workers" pull the other one.

the last Labour government was basically soft Tory. Brown was a master of back door taxation though, drop the tax rates on your pay by a couple of pence, then stick tax on something else, like insurance.

 

[revjames]

Just paid £30 insurance premium tax on a buildings and contents policy, yet another stealth tax, brought in in 1993 at 2.5% now about 6% I think. Everything is taxed to the hilt. 2.5% pay rise, 10% inflation, 1.25% increase in NI contributions its all getting out of hand.

 

[Sharpend]

Ok so what are the alternatives?
We have an increase in population some legal some not so, some entitled some not so (but still get it)
The average age is increasing so less working, also as pointed out on a previous post which suggested there are more jobs than unemployed,
Too many lobbyists against anything and everything.
So who do you think is going to pay?
The countries debt
The cost of meeting new demands
The cost of supporting all and sundry
Oh and looking after oneself and family?

 

[Sharpend]

We can’t even get rid of the illegals?

 

[Geoff1946]

We can’t even get rid of the illegals?

Personally I would immediately arrest and charge anyone found entering the country illegally. Place them in adequate, civilised, but not luxurious camps, military style, pending trial.
I would also make it clear that anyone with a criminal record would NEVER be granted UK residence. or be entitled to benefits.

 

[steptoe]

Personally I would immediately arrest and charge anyone found entering the country illegally. Place them in adequate, civilised, but not luxurious camps, military style, pending trial.
I would also make it clear that anyone with a criminal record would NEVER be granted UK residence. or be entitled to benefits.

That's a start
Oh, hang on, I'm sure the witch made sure we can't do that with her human rights acts that she got her lapdog to put into law while she was running the country, so she could defend the guilty while claiming legal aid from the government she ran.

Did someone say Labour was the workers party,?