Into the abyss

INTO THE ABYSS NS Young people in the UK have it made, right? There are more shops, more gadgets and more TV channels than ever. God is dead and sex is a good thing. If you're female, black, gay or disabled, then life has never been better. What could possibly be wrong with this picture? Well...everything. According to Shiv Malik, Ed Howker, Francis Beckett and others, only if your parents are wealthy will you experience this brave new world. Otherwise, you'll find it harder than ever to go to university, own a house, find a job and start a family. Your grandparents tried their hardest to leave you with a society that was fair, free and decent. But then your parents trashed the place. The Generation Gap just turned into a black hole. 0-16 CHILDREN IN POVERTY 1968: 10% 1996: 35% (1) 16-18 IF YOU GO TO WORK Minimum wage for doing exactly the same job (2012-13): (2) Age 21 + £6.08 Age 18-20 £4.98 Age 16-18 £3.68 Apprentices under 19 £2.60 IF YOU GO TO UNIVERSITY 1963 Tuition fees.... .£0 Maintenance grant. .around £6000 a year 2012 Tuition fees..... Maintenance grant... .up to £9000 a year .£0-£3260 (3) From 2012 onwards, most students will still be paying for their University education in their fifties. (28) Your job IF YOU WANT A JOB IF YOU GET A JOB Over 1 million 16-24 year olds are It is more likely then ever you will be freelance; a third of all first jobs are unemployed in 2012. The highest level since records began. (13) short-term contracts (17) If you're under 25: • If you do get a permanent job, then you will be paid proportionately less then your parents (18) • Jobseeker's allowance is 20% less • No right to working tax credit For the first time, the median living standards of people in their 20s are below those of people in their 70s and 80s (19) • No right to full housing benefit ("shared room" rate) How much does the average 50-59 IF YOU WANT AN year-old earn compared to the average 25-29 year-old? INTERNSHIP 1 in 5 bosses admit using interns for cheap labour (14) 2008 • Up to 20,000 interns are paid nothing (15) 1974 35% more 4% more • Half of jobs (2009-11) on Graduate Talent Pool website were paid less than minimum wage (16) (20) IF YOU WANT AN APPRENTICESHIP 1960 2012 Population: 52 million Population: 62 million Apprenticeships: Apprenticeships: 250,000 190,000 a year a year (16) Your home IF YOU BUY A HOUSE IF YOU RENT PRIVATELY House prices to earnings ratio: (8) 1981 2011 58% of buy-to-letters are baby boomers (4) 3.5 times 5.8 times your salary your salary If food costs had gone up as fast as Young people are spending a higher proportion of their income on rent than at any other time in the last 30 years. house prices (1970-2010): A pint of milk would cost... £2.43 A jar of coffee would cost... £20.22 IF YOU RENT FROM A chicken would cost... £47.50 THE COUNCIL (9) Homeowners under 35: Between 1980 and 2011 half of the UK's social housing stock was sold off and not replaced. (5) 1990 2010 Number of new Length of waiting list for social council homes 51% 29% built in England in 2006: (6) housing in UK in 2010: (7) 300 5 million people (12) IF ALL ELSE FAILS... LIVING ON THE STREETS Percentage of younger generation obliged to move back home after university: Between 2010-11 youth homelessness jumped by: 15% 1990: 12.5% 2010: 20% ..the largest increase since records began. (10) (11) Your life IF YOU WANT TO SAVE IF YOU WANT TO START A FAMILY FOR A HOUSE OR YOUR OLD AGE 2.8 Base rate: million • 2012 1984 9.7% 0.5% 18-44 year olds are delaying children because they can't obtain affordable housing (21) Your surroundings NATURAL RESOURCES YOUR PLANET Natural resources and transport companies wholly owned by people of the UK: Global CO2 levels: 1960 2011 1974 2012 310 395 Water Oil Gas parts per million parts per million Coal No worldwide legally binding targets on reducing carbon emissions. Steel Nuclear Power British Rail British Telecom Ocean's fish lost (1950-2003): British Airways British Leyland (23) Nearly half of the shares held in UK companies are now held abroad. 90% Only 10% of the value of shares traded on the UK stock market is held by individuals. (22) Earth predicted to be uninhabitable by: There is no alternative? Norway placed all of its oil money into a sovereign wealth fund and is now worth £300 billion. (25) 2300 (24) Your inheritance WON'T I INHERIT SOME OF THE MONEY THE BABY BOOMERS ARE HOARDING? Even if you are lucky enough to have parents with property and even if you don't have to sell it to pay for their long term care... According to Ray Barrell and Martin Weale of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, baby boomers will receive an average net transfer from the next generation of: £33,000 each (26) AND IF YOU FEEL LIKE PROTESTING ABOUT ANY OF THE ABOVE.... Since 2005, it is illegal to protest within 1km of Parliament, unless you give the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police six days notice. • Kettling, baton rounds, water cannons, CS gas are all legal if your demo is seen as a "serious disorder". • Students involved in protests in 2010-11 were given disproportionately harsh sentences. E.g. Frank Fernie received 12 months in jail for throwing two lightweight placard sticks at police after being hit and kettled during protests in March 2011. (27) REFERENCES 16. Howker and Malik, p89 17. Howker and Malik p 95 18. Howker and Malik, p.97 19. Financial Times, March 16, 2012 20. Howker and Malik, p77 21. www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/04/housing-prices- starting-a-family 22. Howker and Malik, p 140 23. news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0515_ 030515_fishdecline.html 24. www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/11/climate-change- uninhabita_n_572305.html 25. Howker and Malik, p.145 26. Ray Barrell and Martin Weale, 'Fiscal Policy, Fairness Be- tween Generations and National Saving', (National Institute of Economic and Social Research, 2010), p14 1. /www.ifs.org.uk/fs/articles/0004a.pdf, 2. www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/rates-thresholds.htm. 3. Ed Howker and Shiv Malik, The Jilted Generation (Icon Books, Kindle Edition, 2010) p86 4, Howker and Malik, p 47 5. Howker and Malik, p.38 6. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6294274.stm 7. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12198429. 8. monevator.com/house-price-to-earnings-ratio-2012/ 9. Howker and Malik, p.26 10. www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/population/6762298/ One-in-five-of-boomerang-generation-graduates-now-living-at- home.html 11. www.centrepoint.org.uk/about-us/news/2011/june/youth- homeless-increase-15 12. Howker and Malik, p 22 13. www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/16/youth-unemployment- 27. www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9326082.Frank_Fernie hits-1m-uk _m_just_glad_to_be_home/ 14. www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/apr/28/business -interns-cheap-labour 15. www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/05/internship- advertisements-government-website-law 28. www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2012.07.09/students-will-repay- loans-until-their-50s © 2012 Words: Adam Frost Pictures: Rosie Roche