The
proliferation of news items and articles stating that ‘baby boomers’ have it
all is misleading, and has created conflict and resentment between generations.
We all need to work together and to learn from one another.
It
is not helpful to blame particular generations of British people for some of
the woes we face today. Blaming
consumers is a smokescreen. Decisions have been made on behalf of the general
public without adequate thought of the consequences. Consumers respond to
economic situations created by unethical business leaders and short-sighted
decision makers in Government. The UK will always therefore do better being
served by a government that takes the long view, which removes their focus from
pleasing businessmen, and stops prioritising profit above people and the
planet.
The
generation referred to as the baby-boomers were born between 1944 and 1964 when
the UK was recovering from the catastrophic financial and human costs of two
world wars. The mood was optimistic and innovative.
From
the 1960s the UK experienced a period of growth in science and technology,
leading to mass use of chemical fertilisers to name one example, radically
changing from traditional farming methods and land management. The baby-boomers
were toddlers and under fives at this time, so grew up into a time of
mechanised farming and changing landscapes. Small farms either went bust or
were bought out and merged into large industrial operations.
Hedges
were grubbed out to expand fields for easier mechanisation, leading to the
destruction of insects and small rodents from the ancient hedgerow ecosystems,
and to soil erosion.
The
rhythm of farming through the cycle of the year, and all the lives associated
with countryside management and food production changed forever. The enormous
number of skilled craftsmen and labourers always needed in agriculture declined
rapidly, and the cohesion of rural communities that centred around food
production and processing (such as milk and cheese, or butchery) and the
associated storage, sales and transportation became unglued. Instead, one man
will operate sophisticated machinery, alone, covering huge acreage in a day,
and suicides in farming are high.
As
we well know, human interference with the ecosystem has caused devastating loss
of wildlife, and their contribution to maintaining necessary balance. The
chemical engineers, government ministers and boards of agri-businessmen driving
this destruction were all born in the 1920s and 1930s (assuming they were in
their 40s and 50s when they were in positions of authority), either in
ignorance of the effect that chemical and industrial farming would cause, or
reckless in their excitement at increased efficiency, yield and profits. They
were not baby-boomers.
The
baby-boomers, teenagers through the 1970s, and young adults through the 1980s,
had entirely different lives from Generation Y, or millennials, who now
complain how hard they have to work and how hard it is to buy a home. It was
ever thus. However, this resentment has become an unhealthy prejudice against
an older generation whose youth and family years would be considered deprived
by todays’ thirty-somethings climbing the career ladder.
Those
born between 1944 and 1964 may indeed have had parents with a heavily mortgaged
house, or they more likely lived in rented accommodation, or in council
housing.
Homes
were basic, and cold, without central or underfloor heating, but usually an
open fire or Rayburn type heater, or with an electric bar fire glowing
dangerously in front of the black and white television, ready to set alight the
clothing of anyone who stood too close. TV public education films taught parents
to push their children onto the floor and roll them in a rug to put out the
flames when their nightwear burst into flames.
Furniture
was basic and scruffy, passed down from grandparents, or from friends; broken
backed beds with stained mattresses, faded and damaged sofas, and battered
dining room furniture. It was ‘make do and mend.’ Floors were wooden, or
covered with linoleum, freezing to bare feet in the Winter, with a rug
sometimes thrown in the middle of the room for a bit of luxurious comfort, or
as a fire blanket, above.
They
lived in multi-generational homes, with an elderly, perhaps widowed parent, and
sometimes with older sisters and their children, all squeezed in together. It
was normal social behaviour to have an elderly parent in the home, and it was
considered unusual to live alone. Grandparents, therefore, could be irritating,
but they could also babysit.
The
current lack of social housing is due to one short-sighted policy implemented
by the Conservative Government led at that time by Margaret Thatcher. This
policy was to sell off council house stock (which was often promptly re-sold at
a higher price) and to not replace it. This astonishing policy whereby councils
were not allowed to use the proceeds of the sales to rebuild much needed new
homes meant there were not enough homes. Simple logic. Private landlords took
up the slack and offered property for rent – at high prices, naturally.
Successive governments have never capped the high rents, allowing greedy
landlords to charge as much as they pleased, and the buy-to-let market means
that individuals took out mortgages which the tenants then paid for them. The
tenants were ill-served by their government, and exploited by landlords. An
additional insult is that there is no security of tenure, as there was with
council housing, and tenants can be asked to move out at any time.
Governments
must decide on policies that firstly ensures citizens have a secure home for as
long as they want or need it, taking Finland’s Housing First policy (Juha
Kaakinen writing for The Guardian –
14 Sept. 2016) as a template.
When
people are housed, they can begin to build their lives. The next item on the government
list needs to be training for jobs, and support for new businesses. It is time
to end the situation of huge businesses paying no, or minimal, tax, and to use
these taxes for housing, training, and small business support.
Once
people are housed and working, we need to rethink food production, and to
reduce ‘food miles’, working towards strong local economies, with sustainable food
production close to consumption, aiming for a high percentage of
self-sufficiency and lower imported goods. UK food production needs to be
sustainable far into the future, and government food and farming policies need
to work towards heavily reducing the dependence on pesticides and fungicides,
helping producers to maximise yield with the use of nature’s own balancing of
the ecosystem, as we see with mixed planting and permaculture principles.
No
man-made chemical fertilisers, pesticides, or fungicides must be authorised or
approved for crops and food use without stringent testing over thirty years. No
more plastics and man-made products must be made unless a safe means of
disposal is guaranteed, or re-use is certain. For example, aluminium foil can
be endlessly recycled, and innovative products such as plant based compostable
packaging will biodegrade.
When
we consider education and careers, those born between 1944 and 1964 were taught
in secondary modern schools or grammar schools. (This article is about the
average person, so public schools and those with inherited wealth are not
included for comparison). A select few went to universities, those with the
intellectual capacities to become academics, and for these gifted teenagers,
university tuition was fully funded until 1998 when students going to
university had significantly increased.
Baby
boomers had low paid work, were inadequately educated, thus wasting an entire
talent pool. Although the Police, Armed Forces, Local Authority and the Civil
Service, and the National Health Service workers contributed to workplace
pensions, the rest of the country believed that the state would look after them
by paying into the State Pension for 35 years. However, low paid workers could
not afford private pension payments as well so their old age poverty is
assured.
Workers
were fortunate to be awarded two whole weeks holiday, which only became
eligible after working the first 52 weeks in a new job. Extra days off were
taken as unpaid leave. Workers could not
make or receive telephone calls during working hours and every minute of the
working day belonged to the business. The use of an envelope, or paper,
constituted theft.
The
UK economy picked up considerably in the 1980s so Generation Y millennials were
born into a time of prosperity. Spending began on homes and home improvements,
furniture and decor, and they grew up in comfortable, centrally heated,
carpeted homes, with shiny kitchens. Endlessly encouraged by advertisers to spend
on our homes, and boost the sales of sofas and kitchens, we have become a
nation of home-lovers, with homes no longer simply somewhere to live, but displays
of lifestyles central to our identities.
Millennials
grew up with several changes of clothes as well as their school uniforms, not wearing
the hand-me-downs the baby-boomers inherited. Millennials went to out-of-school
activities, they were taken on holidays abroad and, in the 1990s, they began to
need mobile ‘phones and monthly credit, paid for by their parents.
Infighting
helps no-one but it does divert our attention from the decision makers who have
encouraged and allowed profligate flying for example (by allowing no VAT on
aviation fuel) and the continued use of agri-chemicals although it is now well
understood that their use has destroyed many species of our native wildlife,
and emptied the soil of nutrients.
If
the Government of the day remain irresponsible to citizens and the countryside
which needs biodiversity for food production, look to local innovators and
small food producers and buy fresh and local. Avoid any products flown around
the world and support the local ethical economy.
Accountability
lies with individuals. Life could be as simple and basic as it was in the
1970s, but with warm homes, better food and much better clothes. Housing first.
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