Are people born in the 1950s a privileged generation?

[Solomon1]

Are people born in the 1950s a privileged generation?

 

.....yes

[oldprune]

Not true at all.

If NK has a nuclear weapon, then it has one or two small warheads.

It has no reliable means of delivery, certainly nothing with the range to hit the UK, and if it transported them here in trucks then it could cause major devastation in a few cities, not destroy the country or the world.

 

There are still only a few countries in the world with sufficient warheads and capable delivery systems to enable them to effectively shatter our civilisation and kill the majority of people. And since we're not currently playing a game of nuclear chicken with them there's little current danger of world war three kicking off tomorrow.

 

If you can smuggle 50,000 imigrants into the country and 10 tones of cocaine you can get a nuke here. 3 or 4 placed in major cities would bring the country to its knees as well as Killing half the population.

 

That may not be the end of the world, but it would certainly not have me thinking I was priviliged

[WoodForWood]

I reckon it was a truly fortuitous time to have been born.

 

Without wanting to upset any Baby Boomers (my Mam & Dad's generation; I was born in '74), does anyone else think that the country is giving too much to the BB Generation today at the expense of others?

 

They have taken many advantages that, under their stewardship of the country, they are subsequently removing from others or allowing to become impracticable...

e.g.

Free health care throughout their lives. Subsequently, we are having to pay for more (prescriptions/dental/eyes)

Securely pensioned retirements that start early in their lives. Refusal to raise their retirement age to reflect the good health they have enjoyed and the longer life that they haven't paid enough stamp to support.

Entirely free education. They've endebted their kids though.

House market manipulated (council house sell off, low investment in new build & crazy unmanaged price hikes to 7*salary mortgages) to make them incredibly rich in comparison to the following generations.

They sold the family silver... Privatised national industries to extract wealth whilst failing to ensure proper infrastructural upkeep.

 

Just a few examples to promote debate on the theme (I hope this isn't a threadjack - feel free to stop it if it is)... Is part of their 'lucky timing' actually the results of selfishness? Should they be forced to work until 75? Their parents were commonly ready for the grave after 10 years of retirement and my generation will struggle like mad if they are demanding free erectile dysfunction treatment in their 90s!

 

I don't feel that this is a well made point; I could do with some sleep...

[Baz1]

I'm a 70s baby but I do think the older generation are better today than the younger- in terms of principles and values. I think the life they led was better and more simple and some (if not all) were passed onto their offspring.

 

I say this as very rarely do the younger (say, 40 or under) greet or smile at others, but I have noticed many times that those who are 60+ seem to be more open and accepting. I recall not long ago on one of my daily runs in London, I passed by a white gentleman, a pensioner who was walking slowly with his walking stick- he stopped so I could pass and then even said "I'll catch up with you in a minute". This really made me smile/laugh and I thought that it was such a nice thing of him to make comment, a humorous one too.

 

And now, I came in from picking up a paper (we're talking in Sheffield now) and as i passed another English gentleman, he said good morning- to which I smiled and replied similarly(not the first time). So, personally I think the older generation have kept their values and traditions and I respect that.

 

Generally, I was raised to appreciate people and respect others- so this is what I hope to instill in my children.

[Cyclone]

Maybe it's just the case that getting older makes you more friendly, or means you're not in a rush.

I'm not convinced that a simple austere life is in any way 'better'. It's different for sure, but if it were better we'd all be living like the Amish.

[Nodens]

The sixties were the best of times - we've been going downhill ever since.

 

I've just been looking at another post about someone, living on a council estate, having their windows smashed-in regularly. Makes you appreciate what a wonderful, liberal, multicultural society our politicians have created over the past 20-30 years!

 

They should be proud of our modern-day Utopia.

 

[Baz1]

Maybe it's just the case that getting older makes you more friendly, or means you're not in a rush.

I'm not convinced that a simple austere life is in any way 'better'. It's different for sure, but if it were better we'd all be living like the Amish.

 

 

 

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

 

Mohammad Ali

[lizmachin]

I reckon it was a truly fortuitous time to have been born.

 

Without wanting to upset any Baby Boomers (my Mam & Dad's generation; I was born in '74), does anyone else think that the country is giving too much to the BB Generation today at the expense of others?

 

They have taken many advantages that, under their stewardship of the country, they are subsequently removing from others or allowing to become impracticable...

e.g.

Free health care throughout their lives. Subsequently, we are having to pay for more (prescriptions/dental/eyes)

Securely pensioned retirements that start early in their lives. Refusal to raise their retirement age to reflect the good health they have enjoyed and the longer life that they haven't paid enough stamp to support.

Entirely free education. They've endebted their kids though.

House market manipulated (council house sell off, low investment in new build & crazy unmanaged price hikes to 7*salary mortgages) to make them incredibly rich in comparison to the following generations.

They sold the family silver... Privatised national industries to extract wealth whilst failing to ensure proper infrastructural upkeep.

 

Just a few examples to promote debate on the theme (I hope this isn't a threadjack - feel free to stop it if it is)... Is part of their 'lucky timing' actually the results of selfishness? Should they be forced to work until 75? Their parents were commonly ready for the grave after 10 years of retirement and my generation will struggle like mad if they are demanding free erectile dysfunction treatment in their 90s!

 

I don't feel that this is a well made point; I could do with some sleep...

 

You make the point very well. If you were born between 1950 and 1960 (give or take a few years either way you probably got the most out of the system.

 

I would however take you up on one point. It was not generally the fault of that generation that they "lucked" in. Their teenage years were governed by politicians in their 70s.

 

I think the other factors were lack of PC. Kids were given discipline, and taught to read and right. I mean write (just proves the point) . They were also taught the value of money by parents who had just lived through a war. The 50-60s generation learned to buy what they could afford, and do without what they couldn't.

 

They benefited from free education because the country could afford it. The country can no longer afford free education for all because people stay at school longer and more people go to university. It is not for me to say that too many people go to university, but it is the numbers that mean students have to pay.

 

It is my parent’s generation, and they are probably best able to stand up to the coming recession. Most will have paid off mortgages, kids will have left home, and perhaps bank accounts will be in the black.

 

I'll let you know if I was right in about 18 months when people are predicting we will be emerging from the borrowing (sorry credit) crisis.

[Cyclone]

I'm not convinced about the value of money argument either.

It's this generation that are running the banks and the government, they're the ones that have created this recession.

So where were there well learned values of only buying what they could afford whilst that was happening?

[StarSparkle]

I'm not convinced about the value of money argument either.

It's this generation that are running the banks and the government, they're the ones that have created this recession.

So where were there well learned values of only buying what they could afford whilst that was happening?

 

"Greed is Good" became the new religion in the 1980s, that's what happened.

 

StarSparkle