I am nominating the lie that today’s young people will never get on the housing ladder.
Now before I go further, let’s just establish that buying a house these days is a lot more challenging than in the past. It is true to say that inflation adjusted prices are much higher than historical prices, saving for a deposit is made harder by rocketing rental prices, mortgage lending rules are much stricter, and energy and living costs all put a dent in the wallet (this list will no doubt be extended by cunters; immos absorbing housing stock and a thieving Commie government taxing the arse off all and sundry to pay for a fifth column of alien invaders are all valid additional points). So I think most of us would agree that it is harder these days for a young person to buy their first house…but NOT de facto impossible.
We have a number of young, unskilled, uneducated people working for us, who nonetheless earn a good living, taking home £2k+ a month. Some of these are in stable relationships with partners earning similar amounts. Some are living at home with parents. Some are in very cheap rental accommodation (yes some does still exist). We also have recently had a temporary staff member who is Masters educated, about to embark on his PhD at Kings College London; a future candidate leader in society.
What has been conspicuous in my conversations with all of these young people, aged 20 to 25 are three things:
1. They love spending their money on travelling and having a good time. I have one girl who works for us who on a whim will do things like fuck off a grand on a weekend jaunt in a European capital with her boyfriend. Fair enough, I did the same at their age, but then I was also earning a fair whack and comfortably covering my excesses, never having run a credit card debt in my life.
2. They all live paycheck to paycheck, when the end of the month approaches they’re always asking when pay day is (as if it’s magically going to be brought forward this month to answer their prayers), and complaining about living on their uppers, no money to put petrol in the car or do the food shop.
3. They are all very quick, when the subject arises, to complain about how they’ll never get on the housing ladder, they’ve resigned themselves to this fact.
Now with all of them I have run a few basic figures to try to pin down their situation more clearly. I’ve talked over their actual fixed costs – rental, bills, etc. For those living with a partner, I have generally found that outgoings amount to less than half their net household income; those living with parents having near nothing making a dent in their disposable income. I’ve also talked to the PhD student and reminded them that they can comfortably expect to be earning six figures within ten years.
I have pointed out to them that at 22 or 23 years old they could easily be putting aside say £500 a month. In eight or nine years they’ll have a deposit of £50k+. Disregarding the uncertainty over stamp duty relief and first time buyers schemes that may or may not continue to offer a leg up, it is clearly the case, at least with the people I’m employing, that some patience and delayed gratification permits the prospect of owning a house and securing their future independence.
The universal response?
“Oh you’ve got to live though haven’t you.”
You can see the confusion and panic in their eyes at the suggestion that the bogeyman of never owning their own house has been exposed as a fraud, and that what they really need to do is to stop pissing all their money up the wall and get on with some good old fashioned saving.
To counter the above bloc of shirkers, we have a young woman who’s worked for us for 6 years, again no academic or vocational qualifications, from a penniless family background, but has put her head down and worked hard, got herself promoted, been careful and at 33 has just bought herself a nice little £300k new build, her pride and joy. It’s taken commitment and self-sacrifice but she’s managed it, and boy is she transformed for it – happy and secure and freed from the life of dependency on others that preceded it.
Governments and MSM peddle this pernicious lie to enslave armies of hopeless young people, and the young people themselves willingly submit to the lie to excuse taking responsibility for themselves. Not in all cases, I’ll admit, but a lot more than the blanket propaganda will have us believe.
It’s time the alternative headline is broadcast – yes you can own your own house, you just need to sort your shit out and get on with it.
The link sort of makes the point, I think the discussion could be had on its own merits, but we need a link so here it is
Nominated by : Balsamic Dave