Has Our Past Messed Up Our Kids' Future?

'Our past' refers to those of us born between 1945 - 1965 ish. Are there too many of our group that are, or will be, relying on a much smaller group, the young, to look after us? Have we spent and squandered the kids' inheritance? Let us have a look at some of the points held against us:

- We had lots of things going for us, for example, the benefits of the 1944 Education Act, free university courses, and the ability to apply for equity release from our homes.

- We caused the economic mess in so far as we opened up world markets that, in effect, depressed the wages of many of our young people

We are hell bent on spending our big gains from housing speculation without much concern for the young

-We are the cause of the climate change problem!

-We are expecting our kids to pay student's fees yet there are not enough graduate jobs for them when they come out of university

-Kids cannot plan and often have no job

So how does that make you fellow boomers feel? Are you upset or puzzled or both?

Let me say that the 1944 Education Act was not that good. It did help some working class boomer kids to get a grammar school education - but few of them made it to university in those days - there were not enough places!

Generally speaking we are better all round parents that our parents. Some of us are constant CAB type advisors to our young - more so than our parents. Our parents had to graft hard just to keep things together. We are likely to be child minders on the cheap 'for love', and that is understandable, but it should be recognised.

Continuing with the defence - what about the boomerangers! They keep coming back to stay and naturally we welcome them because we are loving parents.

For some youngsters we are the bank of daddy and mummy!

Many pensioner boomers are willing to work on and that point should not be ignored!

How many  Ushaw Moor boomers are deserving of  criticism? They did not really cause the problems: it was surely a mixture of the Establishment, the financial industry and yes - the politicians - that ought to be in the frame. No it is not a problem brought on by the working class, and in many cases even the so called middle class, so let the blame be allocated elsewhere!       

WB