Down the line

Seanachai · 21-06-2019 1:41pm #1

Are there any people here in their late fifties upwards that are worried about the future for their children and grandchildren? The working class seem to be getting hammered and while technology is improving all the time, we seem to be rolling back some of the gains made by the baby-boomers.

SafeSurfer · 21-06-2019 1:48pm

The only constant is change.

Trigger Happy · 21-06-2019 1:52pm

You would not be much of a parent if you did not worry about your kids futures.
Best you can do it make sure they do as well as they can in school, are willing to accept responsibility for their own lives and are well balanced individuals.

Seanachai · 21-06-2019 1:52pm

SafeSurfer wrote: »

The only constant is change.

That's true, but I just want to get a feel if people are very worried about being able to weather the current economic and social climate. Maybe some that have lived through poverty and conflict can see the same signs showing.

Seanachai · 21-06-2019 1:53pm

Trigger Happy wrote: »

You would not be much of a parent if you did not worry about your kids futures.
Best you can do it make sure they do as well as they can in school, are willing to accept responsibility for their own lives and are well balanced individuals.

Do you feel that equality of opportunity has decreased since you were younger, does everybody have a fair shot irregardless of their background?

Trigger Happy · 21-06-2019 2:10pm

Seanachai wrote: »

Do you feel that equality of opportunity has decreased since you were younger, does everybody have a fair shot irregardless of their background?

Even more so. There is less of the old boys club and people have a much wider choice of education and career paths than they had in previous generations. There are more careers out there and people have more opportunities to get the right education to embark on their chosen career path.
But there are sadly lots of parents out there who keep saying that things are not fair, dont actually put the effort in to get their kids on the right path - and their kids are ready for no more than a life on the social.

Woke Hogan · 21-06-2019 2:19pm

I am resigned to the fact that our species will be extinct in about 100-200 years at best.

freshpopcorn · 21-06-2019 2:31pm

I think every generation worries. Not so long ago people worried about divorcee taking daddy away and everyone becoming gay because homosexuality was legalised!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 21-06-2019 7:25pm

Seanachai wrote: »

Do you feel that equality of opportunity has decreased since you were younger, does everybody have a fair shot irregardless of their background?

I think it has actually improved. Judging from my own kids and grandkids, they have more opportunities to do whatever they wish than we ever had.

OldMrBrennan83 · 21-06-2019 7:26pm

I'm definitely glad I was born when I was and should be gone relatively soon, and equally glad there's nobody following me that I care one iota about.

_blaaz · 21-06-2019 7:27pm

Just hope we win an all ireland before the world imploded tbh

beejee · 21-06-2019 7:42pm

Your observation is correct.

Owning a home, stable employment, normal life progression, all the things that were worked toward over perhaps centuries are under immense attack.

There are a small cohort of people that, having gotten used to these valuable things, take them for granted and are in a giant rush to be "fair" by pissing it all away.

Combine those clown shoes with a distinctively deceptive agenda from large multinationals to drain us of everything we own and value... Bob's your uncle.

The other day some deranged loon wrote that "Ireland for the Irish? Pathetic"

You can't make this stuff up!

They don't know what they're in for and some need a hard slap back to reality before its too late.

biko · 21-06-2019 7:51pm

“Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
And, weak men create hard times.”

beejee · 21-06-2019 7:52pm

biko wrote: »

“Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
And, weak men create hard times.”

A cliché, but so damned true.

Ipso · 21-06-2019 8:13pm

Leon Wailing Roach wrote: »

Seanachai wrote: »

Do you feel that equality of opportunity has decreased since you were younger, does everybody have a fair shot irregardless of their background?

I think it has actually improved. Judging from my own kids and grandkids, they have more opportunities to do whatever they wish than we ever had.

But I think these days the economy is too dominated by/dependent on the financial services industry.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 21-06-2019 8:33pm

Ipso wrote: »

But I think these days the economy is too dominated by/dependent on the financial services industry.

It may be but the younger generation in our family have all been able to pursue careers they wanted and none are in financial services.

Poor Uncle Tom · 21-06-2019 8:44pm

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

I'm definitely glad I was born when I was and should be gone relatively soon, and equally glad there's nobody following me that I care one iota about.

Jaysus! that sounds grim.......

21-06-2019 8:44pm

Seanachai wrote: »

Are there any people here in their late fifties upwards that are worried about the future for their children and grandchildren? The working class seem to be getting hammered and while technology is improving all the time, we seem to be rolling back some of the gains made by the baby-boomers.

If by "working class" you mean those of us who actually work, or what international reports sometimes term "the global middle class", then you're 100% correct. There really is no debate about it anymore: the rich have been getting much richer since the rolling back of the welfare state in the 1970s, and their wealth grew at its fastest rate as a result of the 2008-2010 economic crisis. This incredible concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people is not, however, something which riles up the average After Hours poster who seems to need to prove how "successful" he is by being more hostile to the poor than most successful people feel they need to be. Poor spongers - awful; superrich spongers - acceptable.

Piketty's inequality story in six charts

Wealth inequality is soaring – here are the 10 reasons why it’s happening

Richest 1% on target to own two-thirds of all wealth by 2030

How rising inequality hurts everyone, even the rich

And so on. People, however, are choosing to ignore the indisputable evidence of this concentration of wealth and focus on some poor parasite in the social welfare system, rather than on some rich parasite in the corporate welfare system.

Joseph Stiglitz on rising inequality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NsTeeb-87w

A really good talk from Paul Krugman on the factors leading to rising inequality (he puts much political blame on Reagan from around 1980;'we're still marching toward oligarchy, if you like');

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQcrDNPlqfs

OldMrBrennan83 · 21-06-2019 8:49pm

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

Jaysus! that sounds grim.......

It's bad enough now the way life is going but we're only seeing the beginning. Everything we ever knew is being moaned into oblivion, we're being taxed to death and this new climate change fad is going to be the crushing blow that will make it not even worth working for many people. The world needs a good wipe clean and a restart and I'm just glad I've this many years behind me before it got to this stage.

21-06-2019 8:51pm

SafeSurfer wrote: »

The only constant is change.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

bunderoon · 21-06-2019 9:16pm

The future is very very bleak.
Tech and AI is going to replace~50-70% of the jobs in the next 10 to 20 years.
Vast majority of service based jobs (cashiers, fast food, cleaning, bar, supermarket, petrol station etc etc) will be gone.
We have tech/AI/machines which are being developed that can lay bricks, assemble electronic components, clean, do office admin, courier delivery, stock shelves, fight wars, drive cars etc.
The rate of change is increasing and it leaves many people redundant. Not make the freer to persue other lines of work.

Just think of this country and the electric car as avenue of an example: No need for many dealerships (pick online, delivered to house), mechanics (no regular or major services needed) , motor factors (no need for consumable parts) no petrol stations. What will Ireland do when motor tax and Fuel tax is greatly reduced?

Parents will have to steer their kids into educational areas where they can get an actual job - whatever AI hasn't already taken. What will be left? Education and top tier health roles? Imagine the competition for these college places.

This will lead to huge civil unrest as financially, the country won't be able to afford to keep its citizens fed and housed. Very low income tax takes and massive unemployment.

It's all very gloom and doom but I think that we are very close to the peak and it's all down hill from here. And most of us are sleep walking right into it.

riffmongous · 21-06-2019 9:30pm

My father remembered getting an orange for christmas and being delighted with it, walking to school with no shoes, left said school at 14 to have to work, which he did for most of his life before ending up on the unemployment scrapheap in his 50s with no prospects to provide for his children.. were he still alive I doubt he'd be too worried for us

BlackandGreen · 21-06-2019 9:32pm

Embrace it and look forward to your fiery demise and incoming suffering.

bunderoon · 21-06-2019 9:36pm

riffmongous wrote: »

My father remembered getting an orange for christmas and being delighted with it, walking to school with no shoes, left said school at 14 to have to work, which he did for most of his life before ending up on the unemployment scrapheap in his 50s with no prospects to provide for his children.. were he still alive I doubt he'd be too worried for us

My dad had a similar life and would have had the same opinion. That cycle won't continue I'm afraid.

quokula · 22-06-2019 2:58pm

Economically, the 2008 crash was a pretty big bump in the road and the last decade has been more difficult to the previous, but it's all relative. Even just going back to the 80s, the luxuries most people have today in terms of fresh seasonal food all year round, reliable safe transport, entertainment, well insulated accommodation, cheap holidays and a myriad of other things are another world from what they were.

We also have wide and easy access to quality education and plentiful employment opportunities here and across the EU. We've been reaping the benefits of globalism and technology enormously over the past 50+ years.

However, there is one huge problem and that is climate change. If we don't enact systematic change, and forego some of the luxuries mentioned above, we're in for complete catastrophe in the lifetime of children today, on a scale way beyond world history's worst wars and famines.

There are other problems too of course, too much concentration of wealth, unregulated rental markets creating a chasm between those who own homes and those who don't, information overload online making it easy for people to believe nonsense that encourages everything from vaccine deniers to racists and results in populists winning elections that have no interest in solving any of the true problems.

Seanachai · 24-06-2019 10:53am

riffmongous wrote: »

My father remembered getting an orange for christmas and being delighted with it, walking to school with no shoes, left said school at 14 to have to work, which he did for most of his life before ending up on the unemployment scrapheap in his 50s with no prospects to provide for his children.. were he still alive I doubt he'd be too worried for us

I hear those stories too, rice and jam for dinner sometimes, no shoes until they were nine or ten, one car in the neighbourhood etc. But my father went straight from secondary school into a state job and then built a house with a council mortgage that was proportional or some might even say very generous by today's standards. The cost of living was markedly lower and the pace of life wasn't as hectic.

There's people sitting in centrally heated homes with a nice SUV in the driveway, but they have more debt and stress than their parents ever did, it's like we were doing fine along a certain road and then we took a wrong turn.

Thelonious Monk · 24-06-2019 10:57am

I think issues caused by the climate crisis and over consumption and pollution will really start to come to the fore in the next few decades, I'm glad I was born when I was born

Seanachai · 24-06-2019 10:58am

biko wrote: »

“Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
And, weak men create hard times.”

I'm a big believer in stoicism, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for it, but it will only get you so far in a rigged game. It feels like we're playing chequers against master chess players, but we're partly to blame for buying into it.

Down the line

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