Britain: No Place For The Young

[agchristie]

Perhaps Mhairi Black should take the lead and rally the 'youth cause'?

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/britain-is-no-country-for-the-young--in-jobs-income-or-housing-10422781.html

[youngmafbog]

It never has been. Made worse by floods of immigrants breaking the infrstucture though.

[agchristie]

This report makes more depressing reading. It is no surprise the young feel that they are disengaged and have no voice.

What can they do change this?

[Svejk]

Life is tough for young people today, imo. You'd expect things to get better with time but, again imo, things were much more promising for school leavers 40 years ago.

[youngmafbog]

Well actually when I left school in the late 70s it was bloody grim.

[youngmafbog]

Well actually when I left school in the late 70s it was bloody grim.

[Svejk]

Maybe I was lucky. I left school in the 70s and was earning footballeresque money within a couple of years.

[askyourgran]

Australia is the best place for the young for a healthy lifestyle. Australia's policy of immigration is much tougher than here. They will accept healthy young people with prospects of a decent job. Sometimes I wish my parents had taken the option to emigrate there in the 50's instead of staying here. We are almost third world here now by comparison.

[Gromit]

// Britain: No Place For The Young //

A bit like Answerbank.

[Kromovaracun]

Yep. Previous generations enjoyed the benefit of free higher education and a much better jobs market when they left school.

Nowadays people of my heneration (I'm 25)

[Kromovaracun]

Argh stupid phone. Posted too early.

Anyway, people of my generation were told during school that if they wanted a career, they had to get a degree (any degree). So off they went, and in most cases place themselves into astronomical levels of debt to do so. Then when they leave, find that "experience" is the main property everyone is looking for, and they cannot get a experience without getting said job.

(Unless of course they are maybe willing to take an unpaid internship. Which means more debt, through no fault of their own).

This isn't a position I'm personally in, to be clear, but just about everyone my own age who I know is caught in this trap and - understandably - feel somewhat demoralised. No matter how hard they try, their efforts only ever seem to be rewarded with bad luck and ever increasing debt. And that's usually alongside rhetoric of "hard work" and "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" from older generations who benefited from free higher education and a healthier jobs market.

Yeah, Britain's not a good place to be young. That's why so many people my age are either succumbing to unemployment, are generally less happy and less prosperous than they would have been one or two generations ago, and it's also why so many of us take our skills abroad.

[Kromovaracun]

"Australia's policy of immigration is much tougher than here. "

Yes, so tough that over a quarter of the population is composed of immigrants, and it is cited as one of the most welcoming places to immigrants in the western world:

http://jos.sagepub.com/content/50/1/10.full.pdf+html

Australia, of course, is one of the most popular destinations for permanent settlement among young Brits (and Irish), there are millions of Brits working there.

The youth problem in Britain is not being caused by immigration. It is being caused by a mismanagement of the labour market, and - as the original suggests - by older voters block voting against policies that would assist the young, such as an increase in the social housing stock or reintroducing subsidies to higher education, or regulating entry-level internships. It is also being caused by the baffling unwillingness of younger voters to mobilise and do anything about it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11231796/If-youre-under-30-bad-luck.-Youre-screwed.html

[anotheoldgit]

They should bring back National Service, the young would then realise how fortunate they were before.

[Gromit]

The war took a terrible toll on our industry and our returning soldiers faced unemployment on their return, which was deemed both unacceptable and dangerous.

So National Service was introduced to keep young people out of the job market for 18 months (later raised to 2 years). This meant there were jobs for soldiers and no chance of disorder.

The recruits to National Service were unskilled so they didn't really contribute anything useful . Gradually as British Industry rebuilt, and we had a post war boom, the need to restrict the job pool went away, so the job defferal scheme called National Service was abolished.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// The recruits to National Service were unskilled so they didn't really contribute anything useful ///

What a load of rubbish, every young man (except of course conscientious objectors) who were physically fit had to do National Service, and that included University Students, professional men such as doctors, solicitors etc and of course skilled manual workers who had been deferred until they were 21years old, so as to complete their 5 year apprenticeship.

[ukbod2015]

Maybe M/s Black not the best role model - someone who knows her says she is very uncouth. Maybe we are getting to old to appreciate her finer points.