Fertility rate: 'Jaw-dropping' global crash in children being born

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I like the way the media just creates contradictory headlines. One minute it is complaining about too many people taking up resources and contributing to climate change, and when it is clear that the population of the world has started to decrease, that is suddenly bad news.

We cannot have an ever increasing population on this planet. It is a good thing that the size of families is decreasing.

It is true that the governments of the world need to work out how to manage this population decrease to ensure that there is not a demographic emergency such as not having enough younger people to look after the elderly, not enough talent to take over when skilled managers retire, etc. But it is definitely not bad news.

Of course different journalists can approach different articles on the same subject from different viewpoints. At face value, overpopulation is a bad thing, stretching already limited resources in some parts of world. I think most would believe this to be objectively true.

That said, under population, or a declining one puts other pressures out there. The generations who reaped the supposed windfalls of privatisation consigned future generations to paying increased costs with profits being creamed off the top to the Cayman Islands or wherever. Decades of profits sold off in one go to the private sector knowing future generations will pay. This country is in £2 trillion of debt, and the rest of the world combined a ridiculous figure more. People are living longer, with fewer taxpayers to contribute into the pozni scheme.

If an increasing number of people wake up to the fact that this money isn’t “as good as gold” the way it was in the 60s and merely a spreadsheet calculation this will inevitably generate unrest among the declining population that they are being saddled with the debts of their ancestors.

[OLD BOY]

Oh, dear. Whole populations playing the victim!

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Oh, dear. Whole populations playing the victim!

I’d hardly say it’s playing the victim to find that previous generations mortgaged your future to piss it all away in a “low tax economy” with nothing tangible for you to show for it and it turns out now that we need to pay the bill after all you can either pay more tax or pay private industry. Either way you pay. There was, and never has been, a free lunch.

This kind of inequality is unsustainable unless living standards and opportunities improve. Both of which have been stagnating for about 20 years.

Im sure the population will be getting a boost soon, starting around December.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

I’d hardly say it’s playing the victim to find that previous generations mortgaged your future to piss it all away in a “low tax economy” with nothing tangible for you to show for it and it turns out now that we need to pay the bill after all you can either pay more tax or pay private industry. Either way you pay. There was, and never has been, a free lunch.

This kind of inequality is unsustainable unless living standards and opportunities improve. Both of which have been stagnating for about 20 years.

Don’t be daft. We are where we are.

My generation had to pay off the crippling loan with the US for the Second World War but I don’t recollect any of us moaning about it. We just got on with it. We never expected everything to be given to us on a silver platter.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Don’t be daft. We are where we are.

My generation had to pay off the crippling loan with the US for the Second World War but I don’t recollect any of us moaning about it. We just got on with it. We never expected everything to be given to us on a silver platter.

It was not crippling. It was £27 billion in today’s money, which is extremely large but not grossly out of proportion with the national budget. Plus we got 61 years to pay it off. And while paying it off we still managed to set up the NHS, build tens of thousands of council houses and maintain a military throughout the Cold War that was considerably larger than we have today.

Yours is the only generation in history that has ever had everything handed to it on a silver platter, which is why those of us following you have the dubious honour of being the first whose wealth has failed to exceed that of their parents.

Boomers did have it so good, not that it stops them moaning about it.

Originally Posted by Chris

... which is why those of us following you have the dubious honour of being the first whose wealth has failed to exceed that of their parents.

I wonder who has my "Wealth"

Originally Posted by Paul

I wonder who has my "Wealth"

Much of it is locked up in property. Boomers made their way up the housing ladder with relative ease, as high inflation reduced the value of their mortgages even as their endowment policies bloomed. As those policies neared maturity, many of their holders voted to demutualise the building societies that issued them, taking in some cases huge profits, paying off their mortgages and in some cases using the substantial excess money to get into the buy-to-let business.

[downquark1]

Originally Posted by Chris

Much of it is locked up in property. Boomers made their way up the housing ladder with relative ease, as high inflation reduced the value of their mortgages even as their endowment policies bloomed. As those policies neared maturity, many of their holders voted to demutualise the building societies that issued them, taking in some cases huge profits, paying off their mortgages and in some cases using the substantial excess money to get into the buy-to-let business.

Didn't they also have higher interest rates on the mortgage?

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Chris

Much of it is locked up in property. Boomers made their way up the housing ladder with relative ease, as high inflation reduced the value of their mortgages even as their endowment policies bloomed. As those policies neared maturity, many of their holders voted to demutualise the building societies that issued them, taking in some cases huge profits, paying off their mortgages and in some cases using the substantial excess money to get into the buy-to-let business.

Mortgage rates went through the roof in the 90s and endowments bottomed out and didn't reach anywhere near their predicted amounts, someone has mis sold you a crock of shit.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Don’t be daft. We are where we are.

My generation had to pay off the crippling loan with the US for the Second World War but I don’t recollect any of us moaning about it. We just got on with it. We never expected everything to be given to us on a silver platter.

Aye okay, Uncle Albert.

Originally Posted by Chris

Boomers made their way up the housing ladder with relative ease, as high inflation reduced the value of their mortgages even as their endowment policies bloomed.

Whatever you are drinking is good stuff.
Someones been feeding you a load of BS.

I can assure you I did not make my way "up the housing ladder with relative ease".

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Paul

Whatever you are drinking is good stuff.
Someones been feeding you a load of BS.

I can assure you I did not make my way "up the housing ladder with relative ease".

My 25 year mortgage ended up taking 30 years to pay off once the endowment policy failed miserably,my property empire consists of 1 house

The average British man is also 5 foot 9 tall and I’m not, but that doesn’t make the average untrue.

I’m talking in generalities, obviously these things didn’t go the same way for everyone. But for the generation born between 1945 and 1955 (the classic baby boomer generation) the statistics say, this is what occurred.

Paul, you’re not a boomer anyway, you’re early Generation X. Don’t know about you Papa, you might just be an unlucky boomer

[tweetiepooh]

My parents' endowments did make enough to clear the mortgage with some to spare and while they did have high rates the level was also quite low compared to how my dad's income eventually increased - not always easy though.

I started my "endowments" before I bought my first house and thankfully my wife had inherited money so when we did move we didn't need to increase our borrowing. We also switched to a repayment mortgage as it became clear the endowment would fall short though eventually one did hit target and while the other didn't we could still pay off mortgage and have enough to renew my car and a bit more.

I would hate to think of starting off these days as prices are so much above earnings.

But I don't think it's just the boomers hogging the houses but investment companies, sometimes overseas, who own large amounts of property and they won't be as affected by downturn in population.