Listening to You and Yours on R4, and they are talking about whether young people are disadvantaged compared to their parents, and they are only giving one side of the debate - every person talking is describing how they (eg.) decided to live in Cambridge, and now they cant afford a house (boo hoo hoo). I dont doubt that the economic conditions are different to the 60s and 70s, but are things worse? We have a less impressive house than my parents had in their 30s, but we probably stand to inherit a lot more from our well-housed parents than they received from their own, so it all balances out in the long term. The cost of living came up a lot, and once again, Im baffled. We worked out that a full time minimum wage employee earns around £1000 a month. As a family of 4, we spend approx. £750 a month for all our bills, including a mortgage. So 1 person could support our lifestyle, and still have £250 a month to spend on whatever they want! What I would like to see change is the way mortgages are done. I really believe that the government should issue mortgages to anyone who is able to pay rent - mortgages are far lower than rents for a given building, because the landlord pays that mortgage and makes a profit on top! The tenant must have the money, because they pay their rent! In that environment, most people would be putting money into an asset they own, rather than one that their landlord owns. Probably a lot safer than a pension scheme, too. Plus there wouldnt be the huge market for buy-to-let properties that creates a cycle of poverty that is hard to escape. Perhaps Im wrong about this, but living in a terrace, in the Midlands, on one and a half wages, I feel kind of rich - I can buy what I really want, so long as I dont buy *everything* I want.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 12:09:28 +0000
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