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Have things changed?

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Have things changed? Empty Have things changed?

Post  vampirequeen Sun Feb 10, 2013 4:47 am

As I get older I realise that I'm beginning to become a nuisance to society. I have needs that society doesn't want to meet. Aches and pains are put down to age. Young doctors patronisingly tell me that 'I'm not getting any younger'. My hair may be going grey but my grey cells are not changing. They're as sharp as they ever were but my opinions carry far less weight. As my working life comes to an end I'm beginning to be seen as a drain on society not someone taking my reward for a life of paying taxes and being a good citizen.

What happened? Did I dream of a time when age brought experience and knowledge? Was there ever a time when the elderly were respected and, dare I say, even admired? Am I looking back through nostalgic rose tinted spectacles?


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Post  ivanhoe Mon Feb 11, 2013 3:39 am

vampirequeen wrote:As I get older I realise that I'm beginning to become a nuisance to society. I have needs that society doesn't want to meet. Aches and pains are put down to age. Young doctors patronisingly tell me that 'I'm not getting any younger'. My hair may be going grey but my grey cells are not changing. They're as sharp as they ever were but my opinions carry far less weight. As my working life comes to an end I'm beginning to be seen as a drain on society not someone taking my reward for a life of paying taxes and being a good citizen.

What happened? Did I dream of a time when age brought experience and knowledge? Was there ever a time when the elderly were respected and, dare I say, even admired? Am I looking back through nostalgic rose tinted spectacles?


Hi Vampirequeen,

You can thank Thatcher for this. Her doctrine of there is no such thing as society, just individuals has infiltrated our society these past three decades, and done much damage.

Britain's elderly people are seen as unaffordable lepers by the Tory right wing Government's we have had running this country since the 80's, including New Labour under Blair and Brown, who did nothing to reverse this brainwashing via their 13 years in Government.

Thanks for your posting. Its a good one.

Ivanhoe





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Post  vampirequeen Mon Feb 11, 2013 4:36 am

They need to depict us as drains on society because it means they don't have to face up to paying for us. If they can make younger people despise us there will be no sympathy as we are made to suffer.

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Post  ivanhoe Mon Feb 11, 2013 5:09 am

vampirequeen wrote:They need to depict us as drains on society because it means they don't have to face up to paying for us. If they can make younger people despise us there will be no sympathy as we are made to suffer.

Bang on vampirequuen. And its been going on since Thatcher.

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Have things changed? Empty Aged Drain on Society

Post  maddysmom Mon Feb 11, 2013 5:43 am

It is easy for the elderly to have their needs shifted by a society that has been told that the Baby Boomers were going to be a drain on them, from the birth of that generation. The young will be in a political position to disenfranchise seniors, and our power is already diminished by years , decades, of reduction of respect in the media, social media, political arenas etc. Our culture used to value and respect their elders, grandparents, and not too long ago. The youth have become insensitive to life in general, to care about what is happening under their noses. The elderly had power in numbers but that is changing with each new day. We need to become vocal, we need to affect change by affecting things that are important to those in power...votes. ITs the only power we can continue to wield, and it will take organization on astronomical levels, and nationwide, worldwide, continentwide. Exclamation

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Post  ivanhoe Mon Feb 11, 2013 10:57 am

maddysmom wrote:It is easy for the elderly to have their needs shifted by a society that has been told that the Baby Boomers were going to be a drain on them, from the birth of that generation. The young will be in a political position to disenfranchise seniors, and our power is already diminished by years , decades, of reduction of respect in the media, social media, political arenas etc. Our culture used to value and respect their elders, grandparents, and not too long ago. The youth have become insensitive to life in general, to care about what is happening under their noses. The elderly had power in numbers but that is changing with each new day. We need to become vocal, we need to affect change by affecting things that are important to those in power...votes. ITs the only power we can continue to wield, and it will take organization on astronomical levels, and nationwide, worldwide, continentwide. Exclamation

Well said, maddysmom. Excellent.

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Post  Earlthecat Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:29 am

Vilifying the Baby Boomer's Generation has become fashionable. The Conservative MP David Willetts wrote a book called the Pinch which charges baby boomers with stealing their kids future and telling them to pay it back.

Accused of deliberately causing all the national debt, along with the Labour party this generation is singled out for having been selfish and greedy. Boomers had full employment, cheap and plentiful housing and free university education. They were cosseted by the NHS from cradle to grave etc. (Factually inaccurate but why should facts get in the way) Boomers have not lived through any world wars like their parents and grandparents and neither had they lived through the Great Depression so are the spoilt generation. MP David Willetts, the same bloke who brought in full tuition fees. Personally I feel this amounts to incitement to hatred and a particular group.

The reality for boomers was that there was food rationing till 1954. There was no central heating, often no indoor bathroom and an outside toilet in the yard. In the early 1950s most families didn't have a TV. They started school when 6 yrs old and left school at 15yrs old.

They sat the 11+ where girls were marked down to ensure most available places at grammar school went to the boys. Working class kids parents wouldn't have known about never mind afford the private tutor to coach their kids to pass these exams. In 1965/66 CSE exams were introduced to Secondary Modern Schools, before then boomers left with no qualifications and had to go to evening classes to get qualifications. Only the few that passed the eleven + went onto University, a very small minority,

House prices and mortgage interest rates were relative to earnings and in the 1970/1980s recession, where inflation let rip and mortgage interest rates were in the high teens. Many had homes re-possessed. They didn't all have jobs for life either.

Boomers paid their stamp for 44yrs before claiming full pension rights. Their NI paid for the pensioners alive at that time. Now it is their turn to collect the pension many young ones - fuelled by the Willetts type propaganda are saying why should they pay today's pensioners. The money they paid in is gone, spent. The accusation was that generation spent it or should have stopped governments from spending it.

The treatment old people are having in care homes and in hospitals is very worrying. Very convenient to help a significant number on their way to the cemetery and save all those costs.

It is of course ridiculous to blame the boomer generation for all of this, they were not the only generation benefiting from post war peace and the welfare state. All older and younger generations alive at that time also benefited. How cowardly to vilify all the most vulnerable groups in society. It deflects blame from the bankers and the failed Neo Liberal economics.

We really need to try to get these false claims reversed with apologies from the likes of Willetts. I have seen many posts full of vitriol against the boomers and they are not the sort of people you could have a discussion with. Willetts work to them is the equivalent to what the bible is to the Pope. It is very worrying.










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Post  ivanhoe Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:07 am

Earlthecat, Yes, It is very worrying to say the least. It puts me in mind of the way the Jews were villified by Hitler during the second World War.

All we can hope is that the next G/E destroys the Tory's and the Lib-Dems. Watch and see which way the bi-election goes in Eastleigh. With food banks across the UK now, including rich areas and Eastleigh, hopefully Tory support will be very thin on the ground.

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