The Mail provoked fury among 20-somethings by dubbing them lazy and selfish. Here they bite back, blaming baby boomers for betraying THEIR generation
A GENERATION WITH A HUGE SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT?
Cheryl McGee, 26, knows exactly who is to blame for her penurious lifestyle. The Napier University graduate, aspiring screenwriter and office temp from Glasgow struggles by on £400 a month, saves almost nothing thanks to £18,000 of student debt and lives with her childminder mum June, 51, as she can’t afford a rental deposit. So who is the focus of her fury? None other than the deeply selfish older generations — particularly the baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964 and now mainly in their 50s and 60s.
‘They have ruined young people’s lives,’ she says. ‘They think once their child is at university their responsibility ends and they kick us out and let us get on with it — but there’s no jobs anymore. We don’t have a fraction of the opportunities they had.
‘I have graduate friends whose parents will let them be homeless rather than be a “strain” on their own comfortable lives. They could release equity from their homes to provide for us, but all they care about is being better off.’
her rage typifies the reaction provoked by a Mail article last month questioning whether millennials — those born between 1982 and 2000 — are the most entitled and selfaggrandising generation ever, expecting the world on a plate while exhibiting little willingness to work for it.
While many older readers agreed with this analysis, seeing more than a hint of preciousness in the millennials they knew, countless twentysomethings vehemently disagreed.
Indeed, the piece provoked an unprecedented howl of rage from millennials, who left thousands of comments on the article online — and sent hundreds of letters and emails to the Mail setting out their point of view.
It seems a truly fractious generational rift has opened up between baby boomers and their millennial children.
According to new research, 60 per cent of millennials think their elders ‘had it easy’ in terms of job security and home ownership.
In contrast, 16 per cent of those aged between 18 and 34 say their financial situation is so precarious they don’t ever expect to be able to buy a house; 21 per cent say they will never be able to afford to have children; and 11 per cent think they will never be able to retire.
you might dismiss this as defeatist moaning. After all, most baby boomers worked hard for their comfortable retirement, making plenty of sacrifices along the way.
The millennial lifestyle, revolving (for some at least) around cocktail bars and expensive gadgets, seems decadent to those who remember the struggles of high mortgage interest rates and scrimping to raise a family.
But some argue that the millennials have a point — including acerbic TV presenter Jeremy Paxman, 66, who has attacked his age group for their failure to preserve the privileges they enjoyed for their offspring.
‘I am part of the most selfish generation in history,’ he admitted (and this was before he left his partner for a blonde 30 years his junior).
Indeed, research shows two out of three of those born during the population explosion following World War II would rather spend their children’s inheritance than pass it on. But are the baby boomers really to blame for their children’s financial misfortune?
Cheryl is certain: ‘In my opinion it’s the responsibility of parents to help out financially,’ she says.
‘Dad has the means, but his attitude is that it’s his money; he earned it and I can do the same.
‘he won’t accept I don’t have the opportunities he had. It has caused tension. I feel resentful.’
The resentment is deepest when Cheryl considers the material divide between them.
‘When he was my age, my father bought a three-bedroom house. he could afford two cars and is sailing through life with a big pension to look forward to.’
At first glance, she seems to have a point. According to financial expert Jasmine Birtles, millennials are experiencing a ‘perfect storm’ of rocketing property prices, dwindling pensions and extortionate university fees, set against the background of a financial crash that devastated the job market.
‘Baby boomers had free university education, affordable housing and guaranteed pensions,’ says Birtles, founder of the financial website moneymagpie.
com. ‘Much of this has been taken from millennials.’
Iona Bain, 28, an Oxford University graduate, agrees.
‘A lot of the older generation have been ruthless in pursuing their own interests and are sitting pretty when it is their responsibility to help the younger generation.
‘They have brought us up to aim for the absolute best and are now criticising us for that.
‘They encouraged us to get degrees that are at best ineffective and at worst completely useless. They have done U-turns on university education fees that have left us with massive debts, and wages are stagnant.
‘We are told we haven’t made it if we don’t own our own home, yet most millennials can’t get on the property ladder and are left paying huge sums to landlords who probably belong to the baby boomer generation and have a nice buy-to-let earning them money on the side.’
It is undoubtedly true that baby boomers found it easier to get on the property ladder.
In the Sixties, the average house price was £4,000, which was less than half the average annual income of £11,103. Now, the average price of a home in london is £475,000 — an astonishing 19 times the average salary of £24,600.
The cause of this huge rise? In part, the baby boomers’ love of buying second properties as lucrative investments, so increasing demand for remaining homes.
SO IS this selfish or just good financial planning on the baby boomers’ part? When she was younger, rebecca reid, 26, imagined that by the age she is now she would be happily married with a spacious, four-bedroom house.
And why wouldn’t she? After all, thanks to their successful careers and hard work, her parents had enjoyed that and more. Surely she could aspire to the same?
But life is not turning out as she hoped. Instead of owning her own home, graduate rebecca is getting by on a meagre salary as a freelance copywriter and renting a ‘tiny’ one-bedroom flat that she can ill afford.
Though she is happily engaged, any plans to start a family have been deemed financially unfeasible for many years to come — and, she claims, the option to ever stop working, even in her dotage, has been rendered all but obsolete. She, too, knows who to blame: her parents’ generation. ‘They have been somewhat selfish and enjoyed financial benefits that just don’t exist any more. I try not to feel resentful — not always successfully.
‘It wasn’t as if I wanted to be a millionaire with a swimming pool full of flamingos. But it transpires that wanting any kind of home or financial security was just a ridiculous notion.’
It was the accusation of entitlement from those of her parents’ generation that really rankled.
‘Well, they raised us — so everything wrong with us is either a
result of their DNA or their parenting,’ says Rebecca.
‘We’re not greedy. All I want is a small property and enough money to buy a dress from Topshop every now and then. That’s less than my parents had.’
Though Rebecca insists her father Tim, 54, a lawyer, and mother Charlotte, 53, a writer, have been nothing but supportive, the fact they could buy their three-bedroom London home while they were in their early 20s must grate.
‘Buying to let means there are fewer places available for the rest of us. It is so self-interested and difficult to stomach,’ she says.
‘My fiance Marcus and I would like to start a family, but even renting a two-bedroom flat would add another £700 to our monthly outgoings, which we can’t afford.
‘My parents are sad for us, but they have elderly parents and two other children. It’s not their responsibility to get me on the property ladder.’
Well, quite, you can imagine many baby boomers saying. And as Rebecca concedes, between caring for infirm parents and supporting all their children, baby boomers do have rather a lot on their plate.
But many will agree that the job market is much tougher in this new globalised world we inhabit — Rebecca says she struggled to find a foothold in the world of work, despite her long years of education.
A degree in English Literature from Bristol University in 2013 and a master’s degree in creative writing from Royal Holloway University in London were meant to lead her to a job in the media — something Rebecca assumed would be ‘easy’.
But after 50 applications for jobs in marketing and PR, she hasn’t so much as received a reply, let alone an interview request.
‘It was a reality check — I was shocked by how unemployable I was,’ says Rebecca, who finally found work as an office temp on £20,000 a year before launching her career as a writer.
The culprits? It’s those baby boomers again. ‘The career trajectory has stagnated because the top layer of most industries is taken up by those who would be comfortable financially if they retired, but they don’t want to.
‘If they left, everyone else could shift up and then people my age could get in. But I appreciate they might not see this as fair.
‘When my parents were my age, their degree actually meant something. My dad jokes that he only had to turn up at his law firm to be hired.’
Then there is the cost. Today, the free university education that baby boomers took for granted costs millennials such as Rebecca £9,000 a year in tuition fees, plus other costs.
‘Traditionally, higher education has enhanced the earning power of graduates,’ says economic analyst Dr Steve McCabe, 56, an associate professor at Birmingham City University business school.
‘However, millennials have to recognise that increased university provision has effectively devalued the overall worth of a degree and, more crucially, landed them with huge debt.
‘My son is about to leave university owing £50,000: more than double what my first house cost.’
Higher education doesn’t seem to have helped privately educated Sophie Edward, 21, either.
Despite applying for more than 50 jobs since graduating from the Arts University Bournemouth with a 2:1 degree in costume and performance design last year, she has yet to receive a job offer. She is still working as an unpaid intern and living with her mum Amanda, 49, a secretary, and dad Simon, 50, who works in the computer industry, in Harrow, Middlesex.
‘I spend most days desperately scrolling websites trying to find jobs to apply for, but they are all going to older generations,’ says Sophie, who dreams of a career as a costume designer.
‘I knew the arts industry was competitive, but it’s my passion and I want a job I enjoy.
‘I was assured by staff at my university open day that their graduates had a 97 per cent employment rate. But as soon as I graduated they weren’t interested in helping me get a job.
‘I appreciate I have to build up experience, but I’ve done five months of internships — surely that’s enough.
‘It has made me miserable. Yes, there are twentysomethings who expect the world to land at their feet, but I want to work hard.’
That is a sentiment echoed by Leo Armenta Butt, 25, who has a first-class degree in business studies from Southampton Solent University in 2014.
Now a marketing executive, he earns an enviable salary for his age (which he won’t disclose), but still has £20,000 of student debt and, he says, spends most of his wages renting a damp-infested, onebedroom ‘dump’ in London with his girlfriend for £1,500 a month.
‘There is a feeling that our generation don’t like to roll up our sleeves, but that’s simply not true,’ says Leo. He, too, blames his elders, claiming he was ‘let down’ by them with false promises.
‘I was told by teachers and university tutors that if I worked hard and got good grades, I’d do well. But wages are stationary and the cost of living is rising. There is a huge ignorance of what it means to be young in this generation.’
LEO’S frustration is all the more intense given the disparity between his situation and that of his father, 60, and mother, 50, an environmental scientist.
‘My dad is a builder, yet with basic skills he was able to buy a house by the time he was my age.
‘I have been hugely driven, got good grades and built up an excellent CV, but I still have a fraction of what he had.
‘our generation has no stability and it will be harder for us to have children — I definitely won’t until I can afford a property.’
of all the millennials’ complaints, it is this lack of future stability that bothers them most, as the generous pension schemes that many baby boomers enjoy will simply no longer exist.
‘The very idea of a pension feels like a unicorn-style myth to me,’ says Rebecca. ‘I don’t ever envisage stopping work.’
However, she acknowledges that her generation is much more likely to splash the cash on fripperies than her parents ever did.
‘Yes, millennials are more likely to indulge in little luxuries. But enjoying the odd glass of £11 wine doesn’t feel like much of a tradeoff for not owning my own place.’
Whether she — or any of her generation — would have done things differently is another matter, however.
‘Baby boomers made hay while the sun shone and as frustrated as I am with them I probably would have done exactly the same,’ says Rebecca.
‘Whichever generation we belong to, we are all fundamentally selfish and want the same out of life.’