General Election - 4th July 2024

[domalino]

Which part of it is false?

For starters the bollocks about people not being able to afford houses in their 30s because they didn’t work a full time minimum wage job from 16-21. Yeah it could be that, or maybe it’s house price inflation outstripping wage increases for 40 years in a row? Maybe it’s because in 1990 the average house cost 3.5x the average wage and now it’s 10x?

You're a hairs width from blaming avocado on toast.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

 

[inbetween]

For starters the bollocks about people not being able to afford houses in their 30s because they didn’t work a full time minimum wage job from 16-21.

You're a hairs width from blaming avocado on toast.

I understand the house price argument but let's say disaster strikes and housing prices halved. Would it even matter?

A house costing £100k would still require a £10k deposit so how do you physically save £10,000 without working?

Somebody leaving university at 21 can't expect to buy a house at say 22 can they?

 

[bluethrunthru]

All sports where there are huge chances of receiving a catastrophic head injury and brain damage. Thankfully that isn't something Steve Baker has to worry about.

His Faith will protect him from harm

 

[inbetween]

For starters the bollocks about people not being able to afford houses in their 30s because they didn’t work a full time minimum wage job from 16-21. Yeah it could be that, or maybe it’s house price inflation outstripping wage increases for 40 years in a row? Maybe it’s because in 1990 the average house cost 3.5x the average wage and now it’s 10x?

You're a hairs width from blaming avocado on toast.

And just to add, I borrowed a ton of money for my living costs at university and I also turned a lot of it into beer.

How does this system benefit us because I can't see now how it benefitted me.

Like I said I regret my years at university and I wish I'd done an apprenticeship. I bought my first house 5 years ago at 30 and I'm sure I could of done it 5 years earlier without the time I wasted.

 

[bluethrunthru]

an idea that falls apart on day one - as I said is was a SPAD's fever dream coz his boss was indoors crying

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was 18 so I went to university and came out with a ton of debt and no job and then I started from the bottom, it was 4 years of my life wasted. The current system doesn't work and it still won't work even if fees are free because the fact is the country does not need more people with university degrees.

Older people had free or cheaper university fees but that misses the point that is less older people went to university at all, many of them were working at 16. Somebody who started work at 16 will have 5+ years of experience and earnings in the bag versus a university leaver.

How many young people are in full time work today at 16? It's basically zero. Young people nowadays are only starting work in their early to mid-20's, is it any surprise that they can't afford houses? How can you save for a house when you are 21, getting pissed every night, lying in bed and attending a handful of lectures per week whilst you pay for it all with money you haven't got?

The university system is the greatest marketing scam of the last 50 years. It has made parents think that without a degree their kids can't be successful and a degree is critical to get the top jobs, it's not true. The biggest companies are begging for kids with experience, skills and a good attitude, they do not care about degrees because they'll pay for them to do degrees if it's really needed.

National service is perhaps a bad idea but only because of the military aspect. The idea of getting kids out there to gain experience, skills and do something fulfilling is an extremely good idea.

I don’t disagree with your thinking about kids going to university who really shouldn’t need to and don’t benefit, but times have moved on and I think a lot of the above is effectively projecting your own experience onto everybody else in that age category.

For a start nearly 1 in 5 under 18s are currently either in full time work or in employer funded training programs and apprenticeships which are basically full time jobs. That isn’t close to “basically zero”. Yet despite that the average outcomes in terms of earnings for university students are still higher than people who don’t go to university, because although they start earning later, they also earn quite a lot more on average - the fact of the matter is that every high paying job in non-trade industry segments requires a degree.

And even with 5-6 years of extra earnings, I’m not sure that your comments are really reflective of the reason people can’t afford houses. The economics just make it impossible for young people. Average salary… what £20-25k for that age bracket probably? Maybe even less. So you can afford a mortgage that is 4.5x that, which is <£100k. The only places you could even find with that are probably nowhere near where the jobs are. But let’s say you’re lucky and you find one. Now you need about £20k to actually buy the house. And not everybody has parents to fall back on, what realistically can you save on that salary? £3-5k if you live incredibly frugally? So you still have to live like that for a minimum of 5 years and hope there’s no emergencies that empty your bank account. And this is like a best case scenario. The deck is totally stacked. Basically live like a hermit, no holidays, no luxuries, probably no car, ruin your future career prospects by avoiding higher education and then maybe if you’re lucky in 5-10 years you can buy a house.

There’s a reason the average first time buyer in the South East is over 40 years old and it’s not because they spent 3 years dossing around at uni. It’s because bridging between house prices and salaries is getting incredibly difficult.

 

[metalblue]

I was an army cadet. Learnt to shoot a rifle accurately and got my marksman badge for a quarter inch group at 25 yards. So useful in marketing jobs.

lol. TBF being able to fly a chipmunk straight and level hasn’t proven particularly useful either

 

[bluethrunthru]

And just to add, I borrowed a ton of money for my living costs at university and I also turned a lot of it into beer.

How does this system benefit us because I can't see now how it benefitted me.

Like I said I regret my years at university and I wish I'd done an apprenticeship. I bought my first house 5 years ago at 30 and I'm sure I could of done it 5 years earlier without the time I wasted.

I bought my first house in 1983 - I was on decent money fpr a 22 year old - about £11k pa plus my bride to be was earning 9k pa - according to Hansard the average pay then was £18.5k - my mortgage was £11k.

Last year the average was was £32.300 the average house price was £295k.

You can't drink that much booze nor can you do an apprenticeship that would earn you the deposit for an average house in the time scale you are talking about - unless its an apprentice Oil Sheikh I suppose

 

[metalblue]

I think that’s the difference, you had a choice as you enjoyed what you were doing. However, it would never come to fruition as it’s just another divisive method for Tories to hand to the older people of our nation.

I get that. In fact those who perhaps have the motivation to do this sort of thing will likely be exempt anyway. It’s a typical election ploy to get folk talking about anything other than what they have or haven’t managed to achieve.