ULEZ London

[Specmaster]

I never understood why anyone would even bother with the compensation scheme. Disposing of your vehicle on the private market always made more sense.

The people local to me, actually in London, with old cars are not poor. They are cheapskates and penny pinchers. Poor people use buses!

I assumed you got the compensation if you sold it privately. Anything else is likely to be a ripoff, pure and simple.

Where you live is a "rich" area rather than a "poor" area! Lots of desirable green areas and waterfront properties, and several ex-stately homes.

Can I suggest you ask a few less-well-off people. I did just that when my mother was alive and had private home care visits, and a local emission zone was coming along. Having bought a second-hand diesel car, she didn't know what she was going to do. No, the (well-endowed) charity that employed her wouldn't give her time to get from house 1 to house 2 on the bus[1], and wouldn't pay for a car.

The charity got out of the homecare business a few weeks before my mother entered a nursing home. Dog knows how the elderly manage now.

[1] the others allow zero time, which means you pay for half an hour and are lucky to get 15 minutes. Giving someone a meal means 5 mins to put it in the microwave oven (and clear up previous meals), then put it on the table, and exit soonest.

This is not new though, that is how it was with my Mum, and she had to pay for her carers, at an extortionate rate and because of traffic etc, she was lucky sometimes to even get that. 3 visits a day, made up of 3 1-hour slots and some, often came down to barely 30 minutes a time and sometimes missed 1 or 2 visits a day.

It is a fact that these schemes such as LEZ and ULEZ do have a massive impact on the less well-off and the sick and elderly and London is rammed with people at or below the poverty level and are unable to relocate elsewhere as that takes a lot of money, even in social housing, moving is not a cheap thing to do.

[Specmaster]

Is anyone still going on about this?

The press have shut up now and the guy locally with anti ULEZ stickers all over his car bought a 2012 Citroen

That shows the cruel and unfair nature of the ULEZ scheme. Making people drive Citrôens, it'll be Skodas and Ladas next.

Absolutely nothing wrong with Škodas, it is just an Audi in different clothes. My Superb under the skin is an Audi 6, in a steel bodyshell as opposed to an Aluminium body.

[bd139]

This is not new though, that is how it was with my Mum, and she had to pay for her carers, at an extortionate rate and because of traffic etc, she was lucky sometimes to even get that. 3 visits a day, made up of 3 1-hour slots and some, often came down to barely 30 minutes a time and sometimes missed 1 or 2 visits a day.

It is a fact that these schemes such as LEZ and ULEZ do have a massive impact on the less well-off and the sick and elderly and London is rammed with people at or below the poverty level and are unable to relocate elsewhere as that takes a lot of money, even in social housing, moving is not a cheap thing to do.

This is why I plan to buy a motorbike when I get to 75

[tggzzz]

I never understood why anyone would even bother with the compensation scheme. Disposing of your vehicle on the private market always made more sense.

The people local to me, actually in London, with old cars are not poor. They are cheapskates and penny pinchers. Poor people use buses!

I assumed you got the compensation if you sold it privately. Anything else is likely to be a ripoff, pure and simple.

Where you live is a "rich" area rather than a "poor" area! Lots of desirable green areas and waterfront properties, and several ex-stately homes.

Can I suggest you ask a few less-well-off people. I did just that when my mother was alive and had private home care visits, and a local emission zone was coming along. Having bought a second-hand diesel car, she didn't know what she was going to do. No, the (well-endowed) charity that employed her wouldn't give her time to get from house 1 to house 2 on the bus[1], and wouldn't pay for a car.

The charity got out of the homecare business a few weeks before my mother entered a nursing home. Dog knows how the elderly manage now.

[1] the others allow zero time, which means you pay for half an hour and are lucky to get 15 minutes. Giving someone a meal means 5 mins to put it in the microwave oven (and clear up previous meals), then put it on the table, and exit soonest.

This is not new though, that is how it was with my Mum, and she had to pay for her carers, at an extortionate rate and because of traffic etc, she was lucky sometimes to even get that. 3 visits a day, made up of 3 1-hour slots and some, often came down to barely 30 minutes a time and sometimes missed 1 or 2 visits a day.

It is a fact that these schemes such as LEZ and ULEZ do have a massive impact on the less well-off and the sick and elderly and London is rammed with people at or below the poverty level and are unable to relocate elsewhere as that takes a lot of money, even in social housing, moving is not a cheap thing to do.

Yes, the problems I (we) mentioned are long standing and pre emission zones.

The key point was to make bd realise that public transport - even in big cities - is completely inadequate for a rather useful set of low-paid workers.

That doesn't mean public transport is inadequate for radial commuting.

[bd139]

The key point was to make bd realise that public transport - even in big cities - is completely inadequate for a rather useful set of low-paid workers.

I think the issue is the workers being paid less than they should be.

(the incidentally overlaps with public transport operators being paid badly, other than the tube drivers: may they be replaced with a very small python script)

[tggzzz]

The key point was to make bd realise that public transport - even in big cities - is completely inadequate for a rather useful set of low-paid workers.

I think the issue is the workers being paid less than they should be.

Possibly, but that is a completely separate discussion; the remedies for one are orthogonal to the cause and remedies of the other.

[Specmaster]

I think the issue is the workers being paid less than they should be.

While this is also true, these very same group of people, of which there are many thousands all over the UK, also happen to be the very self same people that the government also deemed to be the "essential workers" that were needed to keep the country going during the Covid lockdowns, and yet they still can't see their way to improving their pay and conditions, and many are still on zero hour contracts or very low ones, like one of my sons who is on a guaranteed 6 hour contract.

[bd139]

Retard attached. Really wise putting a poster inciting criminal damage in your window. Fine to have an opinion and state it but this is not on. Reported as it should be.

Either way he's going to be paying more for his clapped out old 1984 BMW to replace the cameras. Dumbass

(and no he's not poor - seen him several times. House is £700k and he wears a Speedmaster)

[Specmaster]

House value is not a sign of wealth, it's just a sign of the value if put on the market. He may have brought the house years ago when prices were more affordable.

[bd139]

House value is not a sign of wealth, it's just a sign of the value if put on the market. He may have brought the house years ago when prices were more affordable.

Err no. The house is the very definition of wealth. Legally and financially.

And case in point, if he can't afford to replace his vehicle yet he has wealth then he's a moron. He should sell the Speedmaster or the house.

[tggzzz]

House value is not a sign of wealth, it's just a sign of the value if put on the market. He may have brought the house years ago when prices were more affordable.

Err no. The house is the very definition of wealth. Legally and financially.

And case in point, if he can't afford to replace his vehicle yet he has wealth then he's a moron. He should sell the Speedmaster or the house.

He probably is a moron, but haven't you heard of companies going under because of cashflow problems?

The personal variant is fairly obvious... It is entirely possible to get a mortgage on a house, find the interest rates go up, can't afford the mortgage, try to sell the house only to find the mortgage company won't let you sell it. Can't sell and can't afford the payments -> the only "solution" is bankruptcy.

That was widespread c1990[1]. It was so bad that a local new-build area called Bradley Stoke entered the vernacular as Sadly Broke.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6227609.stm
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... ly%20Broke

[1] not to me, since I remembered the discomfort that caused me in c1981

[Specmaster]

Exactly that, although the media is not talking about it (I wonder why ) there are lots of people out there at the moment who are finding themselves in a negative equity situation and employment protection and rights are at an all-time low for the modern era as businesses seeing that they face almost zero consequences, and even when they, the balance is always in their favour.

[tggzzz]

Mind you, the modern variant is that they can't afford a mortgage, and have to uproot themselves every year because they've been given a no-fault eviction notice since their landlord wants to turn it into an airbnb.

Then they are trying to find somewhere better than a tent/caravan which will accept their children/pets, and isn't priced at the same rate as an airbnb. (Why would a landlord ask less than they can get from airbnbing the hovel?)

Since that "restricts their choices", they probably end up with neighbours that have excessive tattoos on one side, and perforated metal grilles over the windows on the other side. And cars parked in alleyways waiting for customers. Plus a long commute.

Have your daughters experience that yet, bd?

[bd139]

Well I just did a valuation check through our systems at work (yes I am allowed to do that) and his mortgage is paid off as of 2003 so that line of discussion is moot. The house is worth £685,000, not far off my estimate. It's a really good time to sell a 2 bed house here due to the demand on downsized properties, due to the next couple of points...

Lets break down a couple of arguments here, as this particular area is somewhat a speciality of mine...

Firstly, negative equity is nearly always poor financial sense (referred to as PFS from now) apart from a couple of quite frankly statistically insignificant edge cases. The typical causes are investing in property in a highly volatile market with a low deposit, borrowing against your mortgage in a highly volatile market and bouncing around mortgage contracts because the rate is horrible. Note that interest is front-loaded of course so you need to retain a contractor for at least a decade, past the usually long initial fixed rate period.

Secondly, not being able to pay the mortgage is a risk everyone takes on. Typical failure modes are not having a buffer zone of cash available (PFS), not having employment insurance (PFS) and taking on a mortgage you can't afford (PFS). If you visit an IFA (independent financial advisor) they will come up with options and risk profiles for you. Either way the mortgage company doesn't give a crap because quite frankly the interest is front-loaded to mitigate their lending risk so they'll just auction your property off and pocket that and the interest. That is unless of course the property is suddenly worth fuck all, as per Bradley Stoke, at which point they will drag you along and shaft you. Reading that entire thing quickly this morning suggests that it was PFS to throw money into that area. That was pre-RDR2 of course so the advisers got their commission anyway even if the advice was bad.

Get an IFA. Easy and safe now as RDR2 legislation kicked all the shysters (above) into more realistic positions of grave robbing and scamming old ladies for double glazing.

The landlord situation is a completely different one. The Airbnb thing is actually unlikely because on a BTL mortgage, security conditions are stipulated which require assured shorthold tenants and with market volatility as it is, they tend to have to provide statements to the bank periodically which prove that. If the mortgage is paid off or the property is converted or an outbuilding, that is different but that only makes a fraction of the landlord and rental market up (I can't remember the percentage but it was 20-30%ish).

Now if you're young and poorly salaried, you're usually on the housing list and jumping around people's sofas (parents/friends). I know people still doing this in their 40s. While your point is accurate regarding neighbours some of the time, you have to take the rough with the smooth. You either take the state's help and live with the compromises it lays upon you or you do something about it. My parents as a fine example ended up in housing association property in a very very nasty London estate in the 70s. That was enough of a motivator to leave that situation as I needed.

Don't want that? Be useful to society. That's all I can say.

[tggzzz]

Well I just did a valuation check through our systems at work (yes I am allowed to do that) and his mortgage is paid off as of 2003 so that line of discussion is moot. The house is worth £685,000, not far off my estimate. It's a really good time to sell a 2 bed house here due to the demand on downsized properties, due to the next couple of points...

Lets break down a couple of arguments here, as this particular area is somewhat a speciality of mine...

Firstly, negative equity is nearly always poor financial sense (referred to as PFS from now) apart from a couple of quite frankly statistically insignificant edge cases.

I tend to agree, but...

There have been periods where they most definitely weren't significant. I've lived through two, and the first was painful when interest rates went from 9% to 15%. The second wasn't, on the principle that I like to make new mistakes.

It isn't the case in the commercial sector, and the unspoken fear is that will clobber pensions and other "safe" long-term investments. See China for an example.

The landlord situation is a completely different one. The Airbnb thing is actually unlikely because on a BTL mortgage, security conditions are stipulated which require assured shorthold tenants and with market volatility as it is, they tend to have to provide statements to the bank periodically which prove that. If the mortgage is paid off or the property is converted or an outbuilding, that is different but that only makes a fraction of the landlord and rental market up (I can't remember the percentage but it was 20-30%ish).

It isn't that rare (to my surprise), and it screwed my daughter very nastily.

When it happened she was newly self-employed during covid with a dog that had allowed her to keep her sanity. Both are lockouts in the current renting market so there was no way she could have found somewhere else to live! Yes, she did try

Fortunately my mother died, and she was able to buy a house with 2 days (literally!) to spare. She was planning on refusing to move out an using all the relevant court processes to delay the no-fault eviction so the landlord could do airbnbs. Landlord lived in Ireland, and daughter's upstairs neighbours are pissed off that they have to supervise building works on the landlord's property.

Daughter's landlord is now making more money from airbnbing the flat than from her rent.

Separately, her current lodger's house purchase has just fallen through because the seller thinks they will be able to continue to afford their mortgage.

The whole housing market is a complete and utter mess.

The doctrinaire policies over the decades allowed the UK to squander the north sea oil windfall by investing in tulips made from bricks and mortar. Norway shows how the windfall should have been invested.

Now if you're young and poorly salaried, you're usually on the housing list and jumping around people's sofas (parents/friends). I know people still doing this in their 40s. While your point is accurate regarding neighbours some of the time, you have to take the rough with the smooth. You either take the state's help and live with the compromises it lays upon you or you do something about it. My parents as a fine example ended up in housing association property in a very very nasty London estate in the 70s. That was enough of a motivator to leave that situation as I needed.

I wonder how your daughters will cope in a few years time. IIRC they haven't hit the crunch period in their/your lives.

It was much better when I first started: you had to prove 6 months saving before being considered for a mortgage, and could only borrow 2.5 times you salary - and social housing existed and was being built at a reasonable rate.

Don't want that? Be useful to society. That's all I can say.

Being able to hire pleasant and trustworthy people to give my mother a bath allowed me to be usefully productive to society. Not sure if that would be possible now.

[tggzzz]

The landlord situation is a completely different one.

Daughter's last-but-two rented flat had an unadvertised bail-bond hostel next door.

Daughter's last-but-one flat (in leafy Highgate) had metal bars over the windows.

Daughter's last flat had a women's refuge next door, a drug rehab centre (or similar) 50 yards away, and (unsurprisingly) young men "minding their own business" in their in flash cars at night. And 10 mins walk from people living in tents in the undergrowth. It also had two places were you could buy live lobsters within 10 minutes walk, yum yum

That last flat is now airbnb which charges large fees since it is 15 minutes walk from the (capital's) city centre and 10 minutes walk from the international rugby stadium.

Daughter's house in a leafy suburb has an airbnb a couple of doors away. That has been let to social services for youngsters being supervised for antisocial activities, which didn't amuse that landlord.

[bd139]

Well I just did a valuation check through our systems at work (yes I am allowed to do that) and his mortgage is paid off as of 2003 so that line of discussion is moot. The house is worth £685,000, not far off my estimate. It's a really good time to sell a 2 bed house here due to the demand on downsized properties, due to the next couple of points...

Lets break down a couple of arguments here, as this particular area is somewhat a speciality of mine...

Firstly, negative equity is nearly always poor financial sense (referred to as PFS from now) apart from a couple of quite frankly statistically insignificant edge cases.

I tend to agree, but...

There have been periods where they most definitely weren't significant. I've lived through two, and the first was painful when interest rates went from 9% to 15%. The second wasn't, on the principle that I like to make new mistakes.

It isn't the case in the commercial sector, and the unspoken fear is that will clobber pensions and other "safe" long-term investments. See China for an example.

That is still PFS. I mean the standard at the moment is that you overborrow and cross fingers the interest rates aren't going to spike at the end of your fixed term. This is a ridiculous position if you think about it from a security perspective which should be the factor you optimise for rather than taking a risk on a property investment. That fact has served me well enough. I didn't overborrow on a 2 bedroom maisonette when I could have overborrowed on a 3 bed semi here and got screwed on the 2007 peak.

If you look at rate volatility over the last 30 years you need to sink a tangible 10% interest rate risk potentially.

The commercial sector here is nothing like China. The commercial sector in the UK is dealing with empty office space. This is mostly being converted to housing at the moment which still has value. That problem is sort of solved.

China is a whole different ball game and a thread on its own.

The landlord situation is a completely different one. The Airbnb thing is actually unlikely because on a BTL mortgage, security conditions are stipulated which require assured shorthold tenants and with market volatility as it is, they tend to have to provide statements to the bank periodically which prove that. If the mortgage is paid off or the property is converted or an outbuilding, that is different but that only makes a fraction of the landlord and rental market up (I can't remember the percentage but it was 20-30%ish).

It isn't that rare (to my surprise), and it screwed my daughter very nastily.

When it happened she was newly self-employed during covid with a dog that had allowed her to keep her sanity. Both are lockouts in the current renting market so there was no way she could have found somewhere else to live! Yes, she did try

Fortunately my mother died, and she was able to buy a house with 2 days (literally!) to spare. She was planning on refusing to move out an using all the relevant court processes to delay the no-fault eviction so the landlord could do airbnbs. Landlord lived in Ireland, and daughter's upstairs neighbours are pissed off that they have to supervise building works on the landlord's property.

Daughter's landlord is now making more money from airbnbing the flat than from her rent.

Separately, her current lodger's house purchase has just fallen through because the seller thinks they will be able to continue to afford their mortgage.

The whole housing market is a complete and utter mess.

The doctrinaire policies over the decades allowed the UK to squander the north sea oil windfall by investing in tulips made from bricks and mortar. Norway shows how the windfall should have been invested.

It is still fairly rare. Just you experienced it. Covid was exceptional conditions of course so there was a general shit show. Not suggesting that it wasn't a problem for both of you personally but it's just not a usual problem for people.

I certainly agree with your point about investment and the current market situation though. It is started to normalise itself now though as the high interest rates are shafting the landlords hard.

Now if you're young and poorly salaried, you're usually on the housing list and jumping around people's sofas (parents/friends). I know people still doing this in their 40s. While your point is accurate regarding neighbours some of the time, you have to take the rough with the smooth. You either take the state's help and live with the compromises it lays upon you or you do something about it. My parents as a fine example ended up in housing association property in a very very nasty London estate in the 70s. That was enough of a motivator to leave that situation as I needed.

I wonder how your daughters will cope in a few years time. IIRC they haven't hit the crunch period in their/your lives.

It was much better when I first started: you had to prove 6 months saving before being considered for a mortgage, and could only borrow 2.5 times you salary - and social housing existed and was being built at a reasonable rate.

Without going too far into my financial status, we are all are sorted. I've got 25 years of employability left as well to add to that pool. Not bad financial navigation considering I had negative £47k in 2005 and managed to get through a divorce. Be a Ferengi and find a really good adviser and solicitor is my advice

Don't want that? Be useful to society. That's all I can say.

Being able to hire pleasant and trustworthy people to give my mother a bath allowed me to be usefully productive to society. Not sure if that would be possible now.

Unlikely. But I will say that neither of my parents wanted to be looked after or accepted it. I intend that to be the same for my children, regardless of the consequences to myself.

[bd139]

The landlord situation is a completely different one.

Daughter's last-but-two rented flat had an unadvertised bail-bond hostel next door.

Daughter's last-but-one flat (in leafy Highgate) had metal bars over the windows.

Daughter's last flat had a women's refuge next door, a drug rehab centre (or similar) 50 yards away, and (unsurprisingly) young men "minding their own business" in their in flash cars at night. And 10 mins walk from people living in tents in the undergrowth. It also had two places were you could buy live lobsters within 10 minutes walk, yum yum

That last flat is now airbnb which charges large fees since it is 15 minutes walk from the (capital's) city centre and 10 minutes walk from the international rugby stadium.

Daughter's house in a leafy suburb has an airbnb a couple of doors away. That has been let to social services for youngsters being supervised for antisocial activities, which didn't amuse that landlord.

Yeah we've all rented those holes before.

I had heroin addicts using my porch light to jack up in.

Then I had a pedo next door that the kids threw rocks at the windows of and missed and hit mine.

Then I moved out of Nottingham

Replace Nottingham with wherever. Highgate isn't very nice anyway

But anyway, here's where I live https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... est-london

[tggzzz]

Then I had a pedo next door that the kids threw rocks at the windows of and missed and hit mine.

Replace Nottingham with wherever. Highgate isn't very nice anyway

Down 'ere those "adults" throw rocks at paediatrician's houses.

Not knowing much about that far norf of the river, I was surprised that somewhere so near Hampstead (and Heath) could have such a very long-standing reputation. Looking at gurgle, it seems the bottom of her garden was on the Archway boundary.

[tggzzz]

It is still fairly rare. Just you experienced it. Covid was exceptional conditions of course so there was a general shit show. Not suggesting that it wasn't a problem for both of you personally but it's just not a usual problem for people.

Not as rare as I presumed. She has educated me.

Covid was exceptional. She got zero from the state (not employed, no self-employment track record, etc) and unjustly blames Sunak for that.

As far as she is concerned, the "generational contract" has been broken because of that and the predicted consequences of Brexit. Not good for society, cf the Weimar Republic.

I certainly agree with your point about investment and the current market situation though. It is started to normalise itself now though as the high interest rates are shafting the landlords hard.

Insert crocodile tears here

Without going too far into my financial status, we are all are sorted. I've got 25 years of employability left.

If you are unlucky. I made sure I had my "drop dead money" and was relieved to exit fintech employment at 55

Didn't count on having to buy another house, though, but luckily managed to dodge that bullet!

Being able to hire pleasant and trustworthy people to give my mother a bath allowed me to be usefully productive to society. Not sure if that would be possible now.

Unlikely. But I will say that neither of my parents wanted to be looked after or accepted it. I intend that to be the same for my children, regardless of the consequences to myself.

Neither did mine. Didn't have much choice, though.

You don't know what your reaction will be until you are in a situation. We all like to think we would behave as we would wish, but that remains an untested and untestable hope.

[Specmaster]

But anyway, here's where I live https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... est-london

Sadly murders are becoming all too common these days, SWMBO works in the local Crown Courts and she gets involved in loads of murders, which seem to be the lions share of trails conducted at our courts now. We had one recently, just 6 houses away https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63200246 and plenty of others in the city now.

[bd139]

Then I had a pedo next door that the kids threw rocks at the windows of and missed and hit mine.

Replace Nottingham with wherever. Highgate isn't very nice anyway

Down 'ere those "adults" throw rocks at paediatrician's houses.

Not knowing much about that far norf of the river, I was surprised that somewhere so near Hampstead (and Heath) could have such a very long-standing reputation. Looking at gurgle, it seems the bottom of her garden was on the Archway boundary.

Sounds like they need a post-natal abortion performing upon them.

Hampstead is not as nice as it looks. Never has been. It is just expensive. Hence why you tend to find large gates on all the houses.

[bd139]

It is still fairly rare. Just you experienced it. Covid was exceptional conditions of course so there was a general shit show. Not suggesting that it wasn't a problem for both of you personally but it's just not a usual problem for people.

Not as rare as I presumed. She has educated me.

Covid was exceptional. She got zero from the state (not employed, no self-employment track record, etc) and unjustly blames Sunak for that.

As far as she is concerned, the "generational contract" has been broken because of that and the predicted consequences of Brexit. Not good for society, cf the Weimar Republic.

I was never aware of any generational contract. I've always expected to be turfed out on the street at a moment's notice with no state help. That scared me into doing everything I could to cover my arse so to speak.

I certainly agree with your point about investment and the current market situation though. It is started to normalise itself now though as the high interest rates are shafting the landlords hard.

Insert crocodile tears here

Actually I was in The Old Ship in Richmond earlier this year after an amble around Richmond Park with a friend of mine and her cohort of hikers she was mugging for cash for the privilege. Of course there was a landlord there complaining about how she was getting screwed for tax and mortgage interest rates and was going to have to sell up. Cue large quantities of unsympathetic glaring at her. Made her uncomfortable enough to fuck off.

My current landlord, Cliff, is pretty good. He just had a load of money he didn't know what to do with in 2010 so bought this place off plan and lived in it for a bit. Very responsive. Recent plumbing issue was fixed the same day. Drove to Slough and got the specialist part himself and hired to Russian dudes to install it.

Without going too far into my financial status, we are all are sorted. I've got 25 years of employability left.

If you are unlucky. I made sure I had my "drop dead money" and was relieved to exit fintech employment at 55

Didn't count on having to buy another house, though, but luckily managed to dodge that bullet!

Oh I can retire at 55 if I want. I can actually quit and rent this place as it stands now and afford to live fairly frugally thanks to the wonderful 5.3% interest rate right now . But that's a poor investment strategy!

However I recently developed a philosophy of passive capitalist nihilism. I can't change anything meaningful so I will use the accumulation of capital as a coping mechanism to deal with that. And that's pretty easy at the moment so I might as well do it.

Being able to hire pleasant and trustworthy people to give my mother a bath allowed me to be usefully productive to society. Not sure if that would be possible now.

Unlikely. But I will say that neither of my parents wanted to be looked after or accepted it. I intend that to be the same for my children, regardless of the consequences to myself.

Neither did mine. Didn't have much choice, though.

You don't know what your reaction will be until you are in a situation. We all like to think we would behave as we would wish, but that remains an untested and untestable hope.

Fair.

[mnementh]

I really have nothing constructive to say, so I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut.

mnem
I'm fresh out of "pithy".

[tggzzz]

It is still fairly rare. Just you experienced it. Covid was exceptional conditions of course so there was a general shit show. Not suggesting that it wasn't a problem for both of you personally but it's just not a usual problem for people.

Not as rare as I presumed. She has educated me.

Covid was exceptional. She got zero from the state (not employed, no self-employment track record, etc) and unjustly blames Sunak for that.

As far as she is concerned, the "generational contract" has been broken because of that and the predicted consequences of Brexit. Not good for society, cf the Weimar Republic.

I was never aware of any generational contract. I've always expected to be turfed out on the street at a moment's notice with no state help. That scared me into doing everything I could to cover my arse so to speak.

"Generational contract" is about more than money and about more than the state.

I always liked being in the position where I could, if things really went sideways, sell everything and go and live on a Pacific island. Fortunately I never had to.

Without going too far into my financial status, we are all are sorted. I've got 25 years of employability left.

If you are unlucky. I made sure I had my "drop dead money" and was relieved to exit fintech employment at 55

Didn't count on having to buy another house, though, but luckily managed to dodge that bullet!

Oh I can retire at 55 if I want. I can actually quit and rent this place as it stands now and afford to live fairly frugally thanks to the wonderful 5.3% interest rate right now . But that's a poor investment strategy!

However I recently developed a philosophy of passive capitalist nihilism. I can't change anything meaningful so I will use the accumulation of capital as a coping mechanism to deal with that. And that's pretty easy at the moment so I might as well do it.

You're just getting old[2]. Victor Meldrew will soon be your role model, with justification (hence the character's meme status).

The interesting question is where to invest the money, both geographically[1] and otherwise.

[1] e.g. prominent hard Brexiteer's advice https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ ... 7d2f3833c4

[2] off to Tai-chi, to attempt to stave that off