“If you keep them busy with basic needs, they will forget about the freedoms that they have lost.”
Make things difficult enough and all anyone as any energy for is meeting the most basic needs. Having a place to live, feeding a family, etc. Dire times.
Having a place to live,
feeding a family,having pets, having a house plant,expensive hobbies,going for walksThat’s more like it.
Indeed. I read somewhere that men are no longer wanting to go to university because of the prohibitive cost.
I’m not shocked, I went the apprenticeship route and I was able to get enough money together to buy a home last year after getting a job in my sector.
Meanwhile my partner went to uni and is doing manual labour work while renting out a room, they got their degree but they can’t find any work in their sector.
If I went to uni, I would probably would not have been in any state to be saving any kind of money
It’s a sad state of affairs. Education is the crux of society and them paywalling it by making it prohibitively expensive has been shocking.
Turning education into a business is a mistake.
Pretty much the same story for me.
Our generation has a problem where you’re told pretty much through the entirety of secondary school that “you need to do well here or you won’t get in to uni”, the underlying message being that you’re a failure if you don’t go to uni.
The result being that every man and his dog now has a degree the value of which is watered down hugely and 30,000 historians, artists, philosophers, , , each year, are left wondering why they can’t land a job role in their chosen line of study.
Good for me, as no one wanting to learn a trade has definitely helped with my value in the job market, bad for people that were missold a dream by a generation of boomers who “worked hard and achieved whatever they wanted”.
Unis aren’t public in UK?
Anyone can go, but there are fees. If you can’t afford the fees or the living costs you can get a means tested student loan. They copied the US model and the costs are slowly getting in that direction. I graduated in the early 90’s when grants were still a thing, but they froze them so they didn’t rise with inflation any longer and you could get ‘top up loans’ to bridge the gap to cost of living. I think I borrowed something like £750. But it was the beginning of the end of free higher education here.
Back in my day, universities used to pay me a grant to attend.
How the times have changed.
It’s what,at least £9k per year plus an expectation that if your parents are “richer” than the norm, they contribute to maintenance costs to keep you going.
20 years ago: work hard, and get a house
20 years from now: work hard, and maybe you get to live in a house
They’re living the American dream!
wait a minute…
Creating a nation wide scarcity mindset across generations is only going to make things even worse. Lack of investment, opportunities, and support means there will be even fewer new businesses and innovations. Levelling up my arse.
Exploitation of domestic workers has reached its sustainability limit.
This is what happened to southern Italians after 2008. 6 months was a long term plan. Some stayed unemployed living with parents, other emigrated (in UK among others) to take jobs local wouldn’t do and living (surviving…) in crappy places. Luckiers (like me) were able to study to the highest level to stay competitive thanks to scholarships.
The luckiers, with a lot of effort and many miles traveled, now have a family and a decent career (I am one), but it is important not to give up. Keep planning on the 6 months range, and try to resist the anxiety of the long term planning.
Life is a marathon
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Harbouring hopes for an enjoyable career that makes them financially secure seems unimaginable and too risky, with young people saying they are only able to plan for the short term: half of those surveyed said they were not able to think beyond the next six months.
Two-thirds of the 18- to 24-year-olds who were questioned for the research have lowered their career expectations, with the cost of living, the state of the UK economy and their own mental health named as the biggest factors.
“This research provides a blunt warning that the cost of living crisis threatens the futures, aspirations and wellbeing of an entire generation, if we do not act now,” said Jonathan Townsend, UK chief executive of the Prince’s Trust.
“Young people have already had an integral part of their lives disrupted by the pandemic, whether it be their education or early careers, and these findings show that the continued economic uncertainty is forcing them to make decisions which will compound this further,” Townsend added.
“We’re seeing young people left feeling worried and unconfident about ever achieving their aspirations and thinking only in the short term – this could have significant impact for their futures and for wider society.”
When asked about their long-term life goals, maintaining good physical and mental health and simply living happily were among the top answers.
The original article contains 666 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
666 words! This article must have been written by the Illuminati…
Life is hard. Sadly, the world needs ditch diggers just as much as scientists and actors but young people are bombarded with the whole “be whatever you want” speeches instead of a bit of realism.
Life’s only hard because of exploitation. It doesn’t have to be, things need to change.
I work 50 hours a week picking boxes in a warehouse for a company who times how long I go for a piss. I don’t see my kids. I don’t see my partner. I barely make enough to make rent each month.
I don’t mind doing a shit job. What I do mind is doing a shit job and at the end of it, being unable to take my kids on a shitty caravan holiday to the south coast because it’s too expensive, or having to constantly move house and take my kids out of school because there’s no affordable houses to live in.
So yes. Life is hard. It doesn’t have to be though. Anyone who tells you it does is telling you that because they’ve either already given up, or because they’re looking to pull the wool over your eyes so that you give up.
I will never understand how people can say bad jobs are necessary and the people working them should just accept a bad life. If the world really NEEDS ditch diggers don’t you think they deserve a decent living? Why should people doing necessary work not be able to afford cost of living?
Problem is that world needs more scientists, but scientists are force to do more “realistic” useless job because of broken economical and academic systems
That’s an unhelpful statement, to say the least. If it’s just as necessary to dig ditches as conduct scientific research, then the diggers would be paid at least enough to sustain themselves. But on top of that, scientists aren’t exactly well compensated, either.
Honestly, I’m surprised that anyone would regurgitate that “life is hard” rhetoric anymore. I understand why Sunak would want people to think that’s the only reason this shit is happening, but if you’re not in the ruling class and have a vested interest in maintaining your privilege, why would you say that?
He’s probably a programmer or something. They’re a sector of workers who still have some bargaining power and ok wages. So when their credulous minds are absolutely flooded with that special brand of libright individualism we all get hosed with daily, there is nothing in their personal experience to tell them it is wrong
Ex software engineer myself, retired do to disability several years ago.
To be honest. It was a field with higher left of center views then most. In my 30 year career. I only knew a few right wing programmers. Most were more left then myself. (Blair was a tory stooge to let you know where I stand)
Software engineer, can confirm
Ah, when i say" libright individualistic flooding" i mean the absolute torrent of propaganda we’re hit with by media in general, not speaking to the political leanings of the programmers.
That whole “work harder, rise above the group, get ahead by competing against your peer, winner-takes-all” attitude fostered in us from childhood.
It doesn’t take a long time out in the working world to realize how wrong that is, but i bet when your field happens to be one of the highest paid it takes much longer to see.
After all most people won’t see something they don’t have to, especially if they don’t want to
Hmm. Programming is not really that highly paid in the UK. Have to admit that is why I worked in the US so long.
But you are sorta correct. And the fact that the UK is relatively badly paid compared to software eng jobs in other nations. Added to the media ideals we have seen since the thatcher years. Is likely way so many of the folks I qualified with left the UK to work.
But you are sorta correct
Eyy ill take that any day of the week.
Thanks for telling me the difference in pay in the UK, didn’t know. why is that? Fewer tech companies in uk or something else?
But people can’t afford to be scientists all that much. Cost of living is high in golden triangle while remuneration is low.
The world needs ditch diggers to be paid a living wage.
Let’s stop abusing, using, and manipulating one another.
I bet you voted for Brexit.
the world needs ditch diggers just as much as scientists
There are only so many ditch digger jobs to go around, my guy. A diverse workforce is an indicator of a thriving economy, downsizing an economy means loss of that diversity.
