Morning Line: Birth school work death - welcome to the Con-Lib future

Spot on article! And I say that as a 40-something home-owner with a mortgage.

It's nothing short of scandalous how my generation (and the generations before me) have systematically rigged the housing market to steal from the young, then plundered the public purse to keep the bubble inflated, and are now condemning young people to a lifetime of debt-slavery to pay for the bail-outs.

Scandalous.

Well.................lets just say that it was coming anyway with the previous prats and the unelected fool of a PM.

Not a Conlib issue, just working with the pennies they have left to work with.

Some people are so short sighted and forgetful!

Debt-Free I agree 100%.

What a load of socialist driven ageist rubbish.......!!

Very accurate commentary. It may come accross to some as politically motivated but it's not. It's telling it as it is. If only all commentators and politicians were as honest. Heaven help my 14 year old son and his contemporaries when they leave shool/university. The jobs they may have taken will be occupied by people that should have been retired.

The three things required in order to have a rewarding job, a better life style, and a fair chance of living longer,Education, Education, Education.

It depresses me to get such socialist rubbish through to my inbox. CityWire is not impatial at all.

If Brown hadn't have been giving money away then maybe there wouldn't be a rise in the pension age.

I can always tell when Tony Bonsignore is the author just from reading the headline - it always has a whinging lefty tone to it - this is another fine example of socialist rubbish from this reporter.

The in-house socialist idiot is still at it. Tony Malsignore makes you doubt the calibre of the Citywire team.

Did he draw up the last regime's economic policies?

Utter rubbish. " much that's wrong with this country etc ".... Got somewhere else in mind ?

" just to survive...." Does the author know what survival means ? - in places like Bangladesh, Erithea, Sudan.

Britain and the british people are amongst the luckiest in the world - yet journos like this one still get paid for carping on.

If you keep the devil in power for 13 years you deserve what you get.

Education, Education, Education if you rely on the state you are going to be poor. There's no more money left.

If you voted labour you have only yourselves to blame!

Whilst the article does have an overtly socialist bias, it does ring true in some aspects. There is a groundswell of frustration amongst those in their twentys and thirtys who, through no fault of their own, are struggling just to make ends meet. These aren't work-shy spongers, these are hard-working people like myself with a decent education and a distinct lack of opportunities.

Whilst comments like Patrick Moylan's express outrage at the extremity of the language used by the author, the points made are still valid (if a tad exaggerrated).

Thanks Anonymous 3. You put my thoughts forward far more eloquently than I ever could.

Flipping Heck, sorry am I missing the point! state pension entitlement to rise by one year from 2016. Some of the comments on hear including the author echo what some of my relatives said in the 1960's. Things change. We adapt.

I wonder who wrote the headline? Probably not Tony Bonsignore!

50 years ago retiring at 65 gave you the chance of 5-10 years retirement. Today at 65 you are likely to get 20+ years of retirement. Don't forget Henry Allingham who died last year aged 113!

Yes, I had hoped to get my state pension at 65, but that is looking after number 1. We really ought to be thinking in terms of state pension at 75 - and doubling it too. We probably need to raise the school leaving age too to reduce unemployment while we old codgers stay in our jobs!

birth...school...work hard...PLAN for retirement PERSONALLY...retire early... dont rely on the state...

Mr Bonsignore, what a load of pessimistic waffle. What the government is trying to do is get the productive side of our economy - the private sector - to gear up and get the country to start making a profit again. We need to get the country making things again that people want and need and strike a better balance with our preoccupation with financial services which has partly been our undoing. If that can be achieved there will be more wealth for everyone; there will always be the better off for you to moan about though, so don't despair; its in the genes I'm afraid.

If this can come about, and it will take time - judging by the state that education is in, among other things - then there should be more productive jobs for university leavers and the past 65s to get into. However a lot needs to done about education, especially post primary, to provide an educated and indeed well trained workforce fit for purpose. For instance as an octogenarian I was impressed by the old technical schools (killed off) that provided good basic education allied to the specifics needed by employers for middle ranking engineers and technicians, essential for new industrial endeavour.

Even though there are cut backs in the offing, the money that Mr Brown stole from us to finance unproductive occupations and welfare and thus reduce unemployment whilst creating his dependent client state, produced an extremely inefficient economy that still embodies sufficient resources to get the economy moving in the right direction again; tricky, but must be possible with time; you don't correct 13 years of abuse in short order, it goes against the laws of natural dynamics.

To Debt free

I never realised that I was "systematically rigging the market to steal from the young " nor " condemning the young to a lifetime of debt slavery" I didn't realise that. It makes me sound much cleverer than I thought I was and thanks for pointing it out.

I thought I came from a generation that were infinitely poorer after a war that broke the nation - food rationing was the order of the day and gap years and I phones all round weren't on the list.

Get over it. If this generation shows half the spirit of their grandparents there's everything to play for.

And oh - a thought about the longer working - living longer debate. Have I missed something or isn't the issue that longevity has increased. Isn't that the reason why people can work longer and will have to, to be able to afford living when they are unable to work. I cannot see anything remotely wrong with that and in fact no viable alternative. Young people should be grateful for the prospect of longer lives not blaming those who will have had shorter lives

Yes we could stand here for the hundredth time and point fingers at each other trying to aportion blame for the state of the economy and the housing market.

Or, we could all take some personal responsibility for ourselves and our future by managing our finances, putting some money by for the future, paying into a pension and being thankful that we have such trifling concerns as whether we will have to work a few more years of our lives.

We live in a society with an almost unparralelled standard of living. The biggest source of stress in the lives of many, is whether the MPC are raising the base rate this month, or whether the annual budget will leave us out of pocket by a few quid more. In many countries in the world people are starving and living in tin shacks or living in fear of violence and murder from invading armies, or local despots.

I am 27 with a large mortgage. Personally I couldn't give a toss whether state pension age is past 70 when I retire, as I am (and will continue to) making provision to look after myself and my family. I certiainly don't begrudge the baby boomer generation for having it easier in some ways. Lets not forget that previous generations also had it a lot harder when they were growing up than we do today.

We need to stop looking to the government to solve all our problems and take responsibility for ourselves. We still have it very good in this country compared to most.

Sorry chaps - that was a bit of a rambling diatribe wasn't it?!

Working into their 70s - what a strain for LA employees who knock off at 4pm and can look forward to an index-linked pension. Or union leaders who retire on an index-linked pension at 55. THis morning I heard a union rep complaining of the strain on hard-working people that after a lifetime of effort they have to wait till 66 for their pension - was I dreaming?. A year, when life expectancy is now approaching 80.

One of the whingers selected by the BBC for an assault on the coalition instead of the 6 pm news was a female firewoman. Why did no-one reveal what she is paid and her retirement age on index-linked pension. How about train drivers on £700 for a 35-hour week? Compare that with what our squaddies get for 7 24-hour days. Not to mention how much BBC staff get who retire at 60.

Harman dared to mention pensioners - remember the promise that NUlab would put pension growth back to matching earnings? When I reached 80 five years ago I received a letter (what did it cost to send it?) telling me that having reached 80 my pension would be increased by 25p a week. My wife received a letter a few months ago with the same overwhelming news.

UNder Nulab many civil servants receive London Weighting at over £100

a week - male pensioners also living in London get less for their basic pension.

I live in a London Borough with one of the highest council tax rates in the country - why? - because 31,000 adults are exempt; I and many others are in effect paying their bills.

Dont lecture me Mr Bonsignore. Take a look at the real world not the latest pamphlet.

Patrick Moylan - I can just imagine you shaking your fist throughout that rant, grumbling "Youth of today, don't know they're born grumble grumble"

Anonymous 3. Your imagination is spot on !

Theyre all in it together, top civil servants, MPs of all parties etc., theyre called the establishment and they havent a clue. Nice work if you an get it (yuck).

I can imagine a CEO/lawyer/banker being happy to carry on to 70 but how about a road worker or a dustman, farm worker etc for whom I have total respect. At 65 you are tired if not broken, not least by the establishment. You are free to do casual work anyway so we have all the freedom we need, thank you.

I am self employed PhD scientist, i do a mix of manual (building) and desk (research) work. At 59 I still do 12 hrs/day on research work but cant keep up 8 hours/day on building work 5 days/week, I used to do <12hrs/day in bursts

Meanwhile, it wasnt Labour that caused this it was squarely the banks, especially Goodwin.

The more rubbish is written - the more readers react. That's the way Citywire likes it

People forget that in the 1960's there were about 20 million fewer people in the UK. The problem now is overpopulation, over-centric population centres and sprawling, almost ungovernable, connurbations. Back then Milton Keynes was a village and Basingstoke was a sleepy small town.

Since then our basic industries have folded, we have lost much or our manufacturing activity and the service industry has boomed on the back of bank deregulation and the mistaken belief that we can run a first world economy as a global service provider. That just accentuated the disparity in the wealth pyramid and by doing so destroyed the means to provide a pension infrastructure based on a stable manufacturing base allied to technical development and a skilled working population. The whole thing became focussed on the financial markets and a casino mentality. Skill meant nothing.

The real damage, however, has arisen from excessive immigration and the development of a service economy supported by government policies that have built an enormous welfare state and its insupportable infrastructure using inflation to hide the true costs.

Planners and local interest groups have also been allowed to prevent small scale local housing development with the result that the UK construction industry is now dominated by a few very large companies who now control almost all building land.

This has created a huge housing price boom because supply has been absurdly restricted and the only way to house the rising population is in dense developments that only the major builders can deliver. Outside these developments land is virtually unobtainable for any DIY housebuilder or small scale developer.

Housing costs are therefore the direct result of government policy over the last 40 years or so. So is structural unemployment; and so is the burden of the welfare state. Add in a policy to use inflation to write down deficits and we have the mess we are in today. All parties are to blame.

As for pensions, forget them. They were a dream from the start. The lucky ones received final salary scheme payouts - buit the inventors of these schemes never thought salaries would rise a hundredfold in a generation. They idea needs to be scapped entirely as it is a fraud. So is saving for a future 40 years away.

So now we have hit the buffers - an economic train crash. I just hope that other Citywire commentators in these columns stop living in cloud cuckoo land and realise that it will take at least another generation to reverse these deep-seated problems created under so many political banners.

Perhaps the best way would be to give everyone responsibility for their own pension pot. When unemployed, then the government would obviously contribute but when employed, then it would be up to us. But we own it, cradle to grave and it would be up to us to ensure that it was adequately funded the way we wish to enjoy our retirement and at what age. And before anyone says that people would not be trusted to put the cash in, the minimum would be put in every month from the NI and we could then add whatever we wanted. Simples. Oh one other thing, I agree, socialist drivel from Tony!

Given that there are, at any one time, a finite number of jobs every older worker still holding down a job means a twenty/thirty something on the dole. A family man drawing unemployment and other benefits probably costs a lot more than a state pensioner. I would like to see a genuine analysis of the savings made by changing the pension age which takes into account all the knock-on effects.

Unless we can achive full employment raising the pension age will always be a double edged sword. Given that the whole world has a shortage of jobs I there will always be low cost countries willing to try to undercut our industry so full employment is an unlikely scenario in the near future.

Remember what Margaret Thatcher said: the trouble with Labour governments is that sooner or later they run out of other people's money.

Each time a Conservative govt has to pick up the pieces, and gets the flak for it.

Further to my earlier comment - firepersons in London have top salary of around £28k plus £4840 London Weighting. They retire at 60 on index-linked pension based on year's service multiplied by 1/60 of final pay. It could therefore be 20k.

And another point - free movement of labour and companies across the EU means that pay rates will fall to the lowest on offer - witness Cabury's readiness to move to Poland. The public sector alone can and will resist this - and has consequently attracted workers from elsewhere in the EU. They constitute a

payroll electorate that will support their paymasters to financial destruction for the private sector.

Labour's plan for mass immigration to change the social balance has worked to the point where the UK will eventually face national suicide.

Boring, boring, boring!

At least the 3rd, almost identical, "generational war" article over the last few months from Comrade Bonsignora - the only new twist is he can blame the Condems rather than Nu Lab! FFS stop being so damned lazy and regurgitating the same old 2/9!

Oh, and when I was at school 80% of pupils left at age 15, 50yrs from state retirement age. To-day it seems like 80% stay in Education until their early 20's, now how long is that from a state pension age of 70?

The 'demographic timebomb' was what it was called in the 70s, 80s, 90s and, oh and here it is.now, for real The 1945 - 60 births cohort didn't have the same number of children as it represented itself, and the pension three card trick was always going to happen. The post war generation paid for their parents pensions, contributed to their own and have largely funded the education and social development of their own children. Those children are having even fewer children [hence the need for immigration, although not the laxity of the process that allows the uncontrolled migration we have] now stuck in expensive mortgages they won't pay off before they're dead and they'll pass it on as an inheritance liability as in Japan.

This has been known about for years and ignored by governments of all colours because it wasn't a 'now' problem. Well it is now. The fact that Brown ruined pensions to firehose money at already inefficient public services and at welfare to work schemes that didn't work just makes it worse of course, but is it any different from the Thatcher government taking oil income straight our of the north sea and into the pockets of the unemployed through the 1980s? And, allowing companies to take pensions contribution holidays in those happy days of over-funded pension schemes. For those who remember, of course, the money not put into pension funds with tax breaks was then taxed by corporation tax or by income tax on distributed dividends. Clever, eh?

It's not a case of left or right - no government ever does us any real good in the long run, because short term considerations will always prevail. That and 'events, dear boy, events.

I am the archetypala baby boomer, in my 50s, paying for schooling and university for my kids at the expense of my own pension and long ago convinced that there wouldn't be a state pension worth the name when I retired anyway. Get over it, and get on with life. However, remember when you look at your own finances that the people taking your money to lend it, invest it or wrap it up in some multi-variable algorithm of a derivative, are not doing it for you. I hate to go back over the last three years or so, but as I've noted here and elsewhere before, please read Liar's Poker, which deatils how this particuar cycle of madness began and never trust your own greed on investement again.

PS, Birth, School , Work, Death - great song by the Godfathers. Saw them in a club in Glasgow years ago and they were long in the tooth then. Still working, long past the pub-band era whence they came, to pay for their own pensions, I suppose.

To the Editor.........you probably don't monitor these articles but just in case.....Citywire used to be a serious website with knowledgeable articles, that could be relied on, sent daily to members. Now they are endless drivel airing the limited views of Socialist students, whilst they provide amusement I suggest you take a good look at who your sponsers are...!

I know............why don't we raise the retirement age to 150! That should help cut the deficit :-)

Could Bonsignonsense retire early please?

All that has happened is that the date for receipt of the state pension has been put back one year. If you don't like the idea then put off the purchase of your new flat screen TV, new car, second holiday, etc. and put more money aside to allow you to retire when you want.

I am actually unsubscribing from newsletters. I am fed up with many of the articles but much more than this I am fed up with constantly getting errors on pages since they re wrote the web site.

Andrew Diggens - 'put more money aside' for retirement - I've done that all my life

& am now watching my savings erode along side inflation. Pridence & stealth doesn't ensure a comfortable old age any more & my cautious investments. will probably have to be cashed in to cover the ever escalating bills - if I'm lucky enough to have made a profit Mr CGTwill wipe this out.

I'm still working 12 hours a day despite reaching retirement age, still paying my taxes & supporting the state spongers.

My advice to my sons? work hard/play hard - spend it whilst you have it & definitely don't follow my example.