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Confessions of a baby boomer: we weren’t that lucky, but we were stupid Confessions of a baby boomer: we weren’t that lucky, but we were stupid
(about 1 hour later)
The first flat I rented was just off the Fulham Road. It was on two floors and had a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and balcony on which I recollect reading Boswell’s Life of Johnson one sunny summer (the sun seemed to shine more in those days). Close to fashionable Parsons Green, it was probably the best address I’ve ever had.The first flat I rented was just off the Fulham Road. It was on two floors and had a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and balcony on which I recollect reading Boswell’s Life of Johnson one sunny summer (the sun seemed to shine more in those days). Close to fashionable Parsons Green, it was probably the best address I’ve ever had.
Related: Growing student debt is entrenching unfairness for a whole generation | Will HuttonRelated: Growing student debt is entrenching unfairness for a whole generation | Will Hutton
And the weekly rent? If you are a member of generation X or Y or Z, or whatever letter is now used to designate today’s financially strapped youth, you should probably sit down before you read the figure ... It was £10 a week. Yes, this was 1979. My weekly shop at the little supermarket nearby cost me about a fiver; it was possible to go to Stamford Bridge and buy a ticket on the day; most shops still closed on Sundays. Truly, another world.And the weekly rent? If you are a member of generation X or Y or Z, or whatever letter is now used to designate today’s financially strapped youth, you should probably sit down before you read the figure ... It was £10 a week. Yes, this was 1979. My weekly shop at the little supermarket nearby cost me about a fiver; it was possible to go to Stamford Bridge and buy a ticket on the day; most shops still closed on Sundays. Truly, another world.
That I came to London at a time when it was still possible to live on 60 quid a week – which is what I was getting paid in my first publishing job – puts me in the much-reviled “baby boomer” camp, though in the second tranche, sometimes known as “Generation Jones”, born in the late 1950s. We are a little less lucky than those born from 1946-57, who got the best music, the best sex and most of the glittering prizes, but we still did pretty well, born too late to be killed on the war and too early to be savaged by the age of austerity. That I came to London at a time when it was still possible to live on 60 quid a week – which is what I was getting paid in my first publishing job – puts me in the much-reviled “baby boomer” camp, though in the second tranche, sometimes known as “Generation Jones”, born in the late 1950s. We are a little less lucky than those born from 1946-57, who got the best music, the best sex and most of the glittering prizes, but we still did pretty well, born too late to be killed in the war and too early to be savaged by the age of austerity.
Baby boomers are now reviled because we seem to have shaped society to suit ourselves: free university education (my student debt, owed to a frugal friend, was £120 when I left); on the property ladder at just the right time (first house in Wimbledon, bought in 1982, cost £31,000); and never had to worry about internships (I’d never even heard of them when I was a student) or jobs. You just assumed something would turn up, and generally it did, despite the oil price rise of the mid-1970s and the Thatcher-induced economic crash of 1979-81.Baby boomers are now reviled because we seem to have shaped society to suit ourselves: free university education (my student debt, owed to a frugal friend, was £120 when I left); on the property ladder at just the right time (first house in Wimbledon, bought in 1982, cost £31,000); and never had to worry about internships (I’d never even heard of them when I was a student) or jobs. You just assumed something would turn up, and generally it did, despite the oil price rise of the mid-1970s and the Thatcher-induced economic crash of 1979-81.
A new report by the Ready for Ageing Alliance sets out to explode what it says is the myth of the “lucky generation”. It argues that baby boomers have had very different life experiences, now have widely varying levels of assets, that more than a quarter have no private pension provision, and that people over 50 play less golf than people under 50. The alliance reckons the myths peddled about baby boomers are being used to stir up intergenerational trench warfare.A new report by the Ready for Ageing Alliance sets out to explode what it says is the myth of the “lucky generation”. It argues that baby boomers have had very different life experiences, now have widely varying levels of assets, that more than a quarter have no private pension provision, and that people over 50 play less golf than people under 50. The alliance reckons the myths peddled about baby boomers are being used to stir up intergenerational trench warfare.
Education was not a treadmill in which a degree only mattered as a passport to the job marketEducation was not a treadmill in which a degree only mattered as a passport to the job market
Much of this is valid. Of course, not every baby boomer has had it easy. Only 20% of my generation went to university; many never bought property; plenty of people have to carry on working in jobs they don’t especially like and can’t take half a dozen city breaks a year and spend the rest of the time on the golf course. You tend to see and hear from the sharp-elbowed wealthy ones – usually on easyJet flights to Mallorca and Malaga; the less fortunate are just statistics.Much of this is valid. Of course, not every baby boomer has had it easy. Only 20% of my generation went to university; many never bought property; plenty of people have to carry on working in jobs they don’t especially like and can’t take half a dozen city breaks a year and spend the rest of the time on the golf course. You tend to see and hear from the sharp-elbowed wealthy ones – usually on easyJet flights to Mallorca and Malaga; the less fortunate are just statistics.
But, speaking as one of the lucky ones, I do believe there was an ease and simplicity back in the 1970s that no longer exists. Education was not a treadmill in which a degree only mattered as a passport to the job market. I never gave getting a job a thought, which is how I stumbled into publishing and then journalism – the perfect career choice for people who have no idea what they want to do and no particular talents with which to do it.But, speaking as one of the lucky ones, I do believe there was an ease and simplicity back in the 1970s that no longer exists. Education was not a treadmill in which a degree only mattered as a passport to the job market. I never gave getting a job a thought, which is how I stumbled into publishing and then journalism – the perfect career choice for people who have no idea what they want to do and no particular talents with which to do it.
Jobs were largely secure: the idea of a zero-hours contract would have been seen as anathema; and the backwash of the 1960s still ensured that people cared about the work-life balance, with most working nine till five. When I worked for magazine publishers Haymarket in the mid-1980s, there was a clause in the house agreement (unions – remember them?) which allowed you to take a taxi home if you worked after 6.30pm. It was the start of a long addiction to black cabs, which were also affordable back then – Lancaster Gate in central London to Wimbledon cost just £7.50; it would be about six times that now.Jobs were largely secure: the idea of a zero-hours contract would have been seen as anathema; and the backwash of the 1960s still ensured that people cared about the work-life balance, with most working nine till five. When I worked for magazine publishers Haymarket in the mid-1980s, there was a clause in the house agreement (unions – remember them?) which allowed you to take a taxi home if you worked after 6.30pm. It was the start of a long addiction to black cabs, which were also affordable back then – Lancaster Gate in central London to Wimbledon cost just £7.50; it would be about six times that now.
What are the young faced with today? Insecure jobs; de-unionised workplaces; every man (and woman) for him/herself; exploitative internships; ridiculous transport costs, forever spiralling upwards (the government trumpets the fact that future rail increases will be limited, but the damage has already been done – they are now at ludicrous levels); sky-high rents and property prices; creaking public services; a society that has lost any sense of collective endeavour.What are the young faced with today? Insecure jobs; de-unionised workplaces; every man (and woman) for him/herself; exploitative internships; ridiculous transport costs, forever spiralling upwards (the government trumpets the fact that future rail increases will be limited, but the damage has already been done – they are now at ludicrous levels); sky-high rents and property prices; creaking public services; a society that has lost any sense of collective endeavour.
There is a paradox at the heart of the way society has changed over the past 40 years. Back in the 1970s it was far more classbound (not to mention misogynistic and homophobic), yet also more socially mobile. Class was a cultural, rather than an economic, construct. It was more obvious, yet also easier to escape – usually by going to university.There is a paradox at the heart of the way society has changed over the past 40 years. Back in the 1970s it was far more classbound (not to mention misogynistic and homophobic), yet also more socially mobile. Class was a cultural, rather than an economic, construct. It was more obvious, yet also easier to escape – usually by going to university.
Now it is much harder for a working-class child to break through, because the economic barriers are too great. How will a working-class child, without the Bank of Mum and Dad to support him or her, afford a student debt of £40,000, be able to pay central London rents (a one-bedroom flat in the road in Fulham where I used to live is now £365 a week), or ever get a toe on the property ladder? Even if that child has the ambition and talent to challenge the polished products of Eton, St Paul’s and Winchester, the economics of living and working in London and the other big cities in the UK will make it hugely difficult.Now it is much harder for a working-class child to break through, because the economic barriers are too great. How will a working-class child, without the Bank of Mum and Dad to support him or her, afford a student debt of £40,000, be able to pay central London rents (a one-bedroom flat in the road in Fulham where I used to live is now £365 a week), or ever get a toe on the property ladder? Even if that child has the ambition and talent to challenge the polished products of Eton, St Paul’s and Winchester, the economics of living and working in London and the other big cities in the UK will make it hugely difficult.
We, the generation who took social mobility for granted and enjoyed the sense that we were all in it together as society regathered itself after the second world war, somehow brought up the drawbridge behind us, making it difficult for less privileged members of the generation that followed us to break through.We, the generation who took social mobility for granted and enjoyed the sense that we were all in it together as society regathered itself after the second world war, somehow brought up the drawbridge behind us, making it difficult for less privileged members of the generation that followed us to break through.
No wonder Jeremy Corbyn, who promises to destroy the asset values of the propertied classes, is enjoying such traction among the young. We may not all have been the lucky generation, but in somehow creating a society with less cohesion and less social mobility we certainly were the stupid generation.No wonder Jeremy Corbyn, who promises to destroy the asset values of the propertied classes, is enjoying such traction among the young. We may not all have been the lucky generation, but in somehow creating a society with less cohesion and less social mobility we certainly were the stupid generation.