Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Another senior appointment

Peter, you were ahead of the game as always. Apparently it is tomorrow that the delivery of the 8 millionth is due...amazing how they can work it out these days. It must be all those little handheld computers and DHL software?

What in part has driven salaries down, is the increased availability of skilled labour. In my professional body when I first joined there were only about 35k qualified members in the 70's, now there are over 150k qualified members and as a result salaries have been driven downwards by the over supply.

That is spot on - it's tougher out there now and a lot of the work ethic has been lost.

Twenty or so years on aircraft and staying in hotels was no biggy as it raised 11k during the first year for a deposit on our house back in 1979.

Each generation will always do what is necessary to provide the nest, nothing changes, only the methodology.

I never felt hard done by, just lucky that I was fit enough to work like crazy to provide as two of my work colleagues sadly didn't make early retirement age.

I agree with the former, but not the latter. The work ethic and commitment of my younger colleagues puts me to shame (I am a wily old fox though and just work smarter)

My Mrs (late 30's) regularly does 10 hour days at work and then after her 40 mile drive home spends most of the evening catching up on emails she's not had time to do during the day. Sunday afternoons and evenings are spent running reports in prep for the week to try and get ahead of the game. All for the grand sum of £29K a year.

8 billion is just an estimate and it could easily be a billion more and rising.
I wonder what that number will be in 100 years time. Will it be drastically more or drastically less?
It's no wonder things get tougher by the minute for our descendants.

My perspective is that the kids work just as hard as we did, and many are paid more than we were, after inflation adjustment.

Back in the late 70s we were paid about £6000 a year, that is worth about £32,000 today according to the ONS CPI index. I had a company car, that wasn't taxed, and we got a married persons tax allowance and mortgage interest tax relief.

My 36 year old daughter is paid about 3 times that, because she works for a multinational, lives in Switzerland and works as long as she needs to to get the job done. She works hard and plays hard, is single and has no kids. She has a property near Cranfield that is let and should be mortgage free by 2030.
My 33 year old son earns £35k, with his partner bringing in £24k (a health care worker) they have a reasonable lifestyle, are buying their home but sometimes still need help from the Bank of M&D and or Sister....

It is all very different today, but because we were not saturated with information we just got on with life, rather than worrying. But from my grumpy perspective, the only real problem is the cost of housing. In 1980 we bought a 3 bed detached house in Warmley, near Bristol, for £25,000 with a £5k deposit. Today that house last sold for £175,000 in 2002 and that would be pushing £400,000 today. Totally unaffordable for a couple earning £60k.

We all baulked at the Chinese implementation of a one child policy.

Whilst never suggesting that a populous should be restricted or state enforced it becomes an interesting discussion at some point.

As much as we hug trees, chew around the fringe with BEV's, suggest plant based diets to reduce cow farts and food inefficiency, is it not possible to tame our growth?

The future world is going to be odd. Sometimes I do not relish it for those in front of us. Find love and laughter where you can. Often in the Monday Smiles thread.

I was relating it to my experience when we were recruiting newly qualified Engineering graduates into the company for further training prior to deployment overseas and a very high percentage never made the grade, mostly because they wanted their home comforts.

I know from our youngsters that they are around though as one has three houses they rent and the other two have their own and a house to rent out too.
Like you and your good lady they are hardworking and in a smilar age range, Mum and Dad paid for their education and that was it, other than weddings etc.

Wages and job security were both driven down by free movement in the 80s and 90s.
The construction industry was changed forever by the influx of cheap labour. It became impossible to earn a decent living no matter how many hours you were prepared to do.
Now there aren't enough builders to build the houses we so desperately need and prices have become unatttainable for most young folks.
Everything has consequences.

It worked both ways.