The Pitters' Place

I appreciate that a lot of what I'm going to say is going to be unpopular, but it's annoying me and I wanted to get it off my chest. So here it is.

Here in the UK (and some of this applies to other countries to some extent) we have the NHS and we have various state benefits and state pensions - that sort of thing. All of these are paid for out of general taxation. The tabloid press likes to vilify immigrants and the unemployed as the ones leaching off the state and being the "big burden", but the truth is (and the stats definitely back this up) that it's the ever increasing older population that's the "problem". They live longer so they need more pensions and they want more treatment and more complicated/expensive treatment from the NHS - younger people whether they're working, unemployed or immigrants aren't generally going in for triple heart bypasses or double hip replacements - let alone the brand new treatments that are coming onto the market now.

And as the population continues to age and as new treatments continue to come onto the market (all of which are expensive) which will help keep this older population alive even longer (for even more cost) the problem will only get "worse".

Politicians (of all flavours) keep saying we need to spend more on the NHS and there is a growing consensus that they should raise taxes to do so. They don't want to tax the young workers because they're already struggling being able to afford to find somewhere to live as it is and need to also put some money away for their own pensions because there isn't going to be a pension for them when they retire. And they don't really want to tax old people cos old people all vote.

So they are talking about taxing those in between more.

So we can help fund the old people.

Even though, we too are trying to fund our own pension pots and pay our bills and struggled through our twenties and thirties to get anywhere at all and this is the first time we've ever had a spare penny to our name. Now they want to take that away from us.

The older generations [and their leaders] essentially pissed away all their money. The NHS took about 10% of the GDP back in the 50s and now it's over 30% and that's going to keep growing every year. Housing costs were a fraction of their income compared to what they were 20 years ago let alone to what they are now. And still they couldn't invest anything in the future.

I don't blame the younger generation - we're leaving them with an even shitter situation than the one I'm in. National debt [and the associated interest payments on it] will be crippling beyond estimation by the time a 21 year old today gets to my age. I blame the older generation - who expect my generation to now bale them out, even though statistics show they generally have a larger disposal income than most of the people younger than them.

And to add insult to injury - they're the ones that voted for Brexit.

[/end of rant]

Sorry to break it to you all - but if you haven't already figured it out, unless something very dramatic happens (e.g. armed revolution type thing - so not very likely), things like the state pension and the NHS will not exist in any sort of form that you currently recognise by the time you reach retirement. Make plans to ensure you are covered yourself by that time.

I am becoming increasingly angry at this country and my situation as time progresses. My parents both took early retirement at 50, now relaxing in their 4 bed, double garage house they got for £104,000. Meanwhile, my two bed terrace cost £130,000 and I cannot get a job that pays better than £19,000, so I'm not saving much at all. Also can't afford to retrain or do further education courses to get a better job without getting more student debt. Then people keep asking when I plan to get married or have children with my girlfriend...and I can't afford any of that. So you have Labour making all sorts of promises (which they can do whilst not in power) about building more homes, investing in jobs etc and I'd love to give them the chance, but that won't happen because so many people still support the Tories, despite everything I see on tv making them sound bloody terrible. If I could afford to up and leave, and abandon my friends and family, I would jump ship from this country, because it isn't my country and it doesn't stand for anything I agree with now that we're barrelling ahead with a Brexit that will pretty much ruin us until we beg the EU to take us back in another decade...

The obvious solution: Later retirement.
In Germany the retirement age was raised to 67 a few years ago; there is talk about raising it to 69.

What to do about people who have to retire early? I don't know.

We have raised our retirement age to 67 too and that will undoubtedly increase over time too. Obviously this doesn't apply to the people near retirement - only the younger people (again).

Labour's current policies won't actually make it better. In fact you could argue they will make it worse. They basically want to borrow loads of money to alleviate the short term pain which will make everyone feel nice for a few years but won't fundamentally change anything but will leave us with an even bigger debt that needs to be serviced.

The NHS still won't be able to cope with every increasing elderly population in 20 years time. State pensions won't be invested in and the current general taxation will pay for the current claimants. The only real change is that we'll also have more debt to pay off too.