What changed

[Marc Lewis]

Apparently it was a mutation in the female brain that made them smarter, hence they were then able to do the jobs only men could do before.

Dont believe me, watch this informative video.

 

 

Brilliant. Love those Paul Whitehouse sketches, i like the one where they are talking of a fine automobile and then 'uh oh, whats this, its a woman..........'.

[GardenKit]

I grew up in the 60's, lived in a council house. Father on middle management.

Money did not simply 'go further', it was stretched to provide for the 'needs', not the 'wants'

There was no heating other then open fires, so we went to bed early in the winter and woke up to ice on the inside of the Crittal windows.

We heated water with the immersion heater, so only had a bath once a week, but we had to have it even if we did not need it.

Clothes were washed once a week in the boiler, and wrung out through the mangle before being hung out to dry.

The clothes were then darned (mended) when holes developed and patches were sewn on to jacket elbows.

We were lucky, dad earned just a little more than some others in the street so we had a car where neighbours on each side did not. We also had a telephone and the neighbours used to come to use it. And we had a telly, black and white. But we could not afford one so it came from Radio Rentals.

We either watched the telly, played board games or read a book (from the library)

We walked 2 miles to school, the library, the doctors and the shops. Why did we not drive? because Dad had the car at work and the shops all shut at 5 and never opened on Sunday.

We grew veg in the large garden (no grass here!) and Mum was always baking or preserving produce from the garden or the hedgerows.

I seldom had new clothes, hand me downs were the usual. I always had a bike, but never a new one.

 

So mum never worked, she simply never had the time.

 

We were not poor compared with many and had everything we needed. But believe me times were hard and life was good.

[Ironbark]

No, no no. It's got nothing to do with incomes, equality or house prices.

 

It's all about BLACK FRIDAY. 2 billion going to be spent today.

 

Now then, I've only got 39 years to go on my 500k mortgage, so I'm feeling flush. Where do i get those $300 trainers

 

Happy shopping folks

[wrsni]

Money did not simply 'go further', it was stretched to provide for the 'needs', not the 'wants'

There was no heating other then open fires, so we went to bed early in the winter and woke up to ice on the inside of the Crittal windows.

We heated water with the immersion heater, so only had a bath once a week, but we had to have it even if we did not need it.

Clothes were washed once a week in the boiler, and wrung out through the mangle before being hung out to dry.

The clothes were then darned (mended) when holes developed and patches were sewn on to jacket elbows.

We were lucky, dad earned just a little more than some others in the street so we had a car where neighbours on each side did not. We also had a telephone and the neighbours used to come to use it. And we had a telly, black and white. But we could not afford one so it came from Radio Rentals.

We either watched the telly, played board games or read a book (from the library)

We walked 2 miles to school, the library, the doctors and the shops. Why did we not drive? because Dad had the car at work and the shops all shut at 5 and never opened on Sunday.

We grew veg in the large garden (no grass here!) and Mum was always baking or preserving produce from the garden or the hedgerows.

I seldom had new clothes, hand me downs were the usual. I always had a bike, but never a new one.

 

So mum never worked, she simply never had the time.

 

We were not poor compared with many and had everything we needed. But believe me times were hard and life was good.

 

So accurate it's scary!

 

Who then could have imagined that 50yrs later things would be so much worse.

[wrsni]

2 billion going to be spent today.

 

Aye, hard times indeed!

[Pete Hart]

Unverified figures but I think the simple answer is the multiple between wages and house prices.

 

In 1970, the average house price was apparently £4,995 and the average wage was £1,664 (Guardian 2004 figures) so a house was just under 3x the average salary. The old, fairly rigidly applied mortgage criteria at that time were 3x single salary, 2.5x joint salary, over 25yrs, so it was quite affordable for one person to buy a house and so long as the interest rates didn't go silly (like they did in the early 1980s) you could comfortably make the payments. This was also a time of inflation, so wages were going up but of course the mortgage wasn't, so it actually got much more affordable pretty quickly.

 

Today, the average house price is £216,750 (Land Registry Sept 2016) and the average wage is £26,500, a multiple of over 8. Even allowing for extended mortgages (35+ yrs) the payments simply aren't affordable on a single salary. Static wages due to low inflation and a weak economy (today's estimate is that they won't reach 2008 values for at least another 5yrs) also mean that the mortgage does not become more affordable over time.

 

High house prices also drive up the rental value.

 

Funnily enough, the relative cost of other essentials such as food and clothes, together with a lot of luxuries such as televisions and foreign holidays, has actually come down, but the mortgage is such a dominant figure in the total income that spending money on pointless luxuries is pretty much an irrelevance in the overall figure.

 

Alec

 

This point is what I was trying to relay to my Dad recently... Also throw into the mix the fact that people with cash aren't getting any return from banks and have been buying property with it to achieve rental returns to replace what they would have earned from interest rates from days gone by (5% etc).

I should imagine the vast overcrowding and over population in this country hasn't helped with wages either.... so many people happy to work for lower wages just to have a job. Just google 'Tree surgeon' in your local area and see how many there are!!!!!!

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

I grew up in the 60's, lived in a council house. Father on middle management.

Money did not simply 'go further', it was stretched to provide for the 'needs', not the 'wants'

There was no heating other then open fires, so we went to bed early in the winter and woke up to ice on the inside of the Crittal windows.

We heated water with the immersion heater, so only had a bath once a week, but we had to have it even if we did not need it.

Clothes were washed once a week in the boiler, and wrung out through the mangle before being hung out to dry.

The clothes were then darned (mended) when holes developed and patches were sewn on to jacket elbows.

We were lucky, dad earned just a little more than some others in the street so we had a car where neighbours on each side did not. We also had a telephone and the neighbours used to come to use it. And we had a telly, black and white. But we could not afford one so it came from Radio Rentals.

We either watched the telly, played board games or read a book (from the library)

We walked 2 miles to school, the library, the doctors and the shops. Why did we not drive? because Dad had the car at work and the shops all shut at 5 and never opened on Sunday.

We grew veg in the large garden (no grass here!) and Mum was always baking or preserving produce from the garden or the hedgerows.

I seldom had new clothes, hand me downs were the usual. I always had a bike, but never a new one.

 

So mum never worked, she simply never had the time.

 

We were not poor compared with many and had everything we needed. But believe me times were hard and life was good.

 

The last 3 words... Brings a tear to my eye that post. We were so much happier.

[Pete Hart]

The last 3 words... Brings a tear to my eye that post. We were so much happier.

 

I grew up in the 80's and 90's and I guess I was the last to grow up with only having what was essential... todays life of luxury is a far cry from my childhood and I must say the amount of unhappiness I see now around me (friends, family, customers, social bloody media) makes me yearn for a simpler life - aspiring to have 'everything' is clearly not working for people.

[htb]

I grew up in the 60's, lived in a council house. Father on middle management.

Money did not simply 'go further', it was stretched to provide for the 'needs', not the 'wants'

There was no heating other then open fires, so we went to bed early in the winter and woke up to ice on the inside of the Crittal windows.

We heated water with the immersion heater, so only had a bath once a week, but we had to have it even if we did not need it.

Clothes were washed once a week in the boiler, and wrung out through the mangle before being hung out to dry.

The clothes were then darned (mended) when holes developed and patches were sewn on to jacket elbows.

We were lucky, dad earned just a little more than some others in the street so we had a car where neighbours on each side did not. We also had a telephone and the neighbours used to come to use it. And we had a telly, black and white. But we could not afford one so it came from Radio Rentals.

We either watched the telly, played board games or read a book (from the library)

We walked 2 miles to school, the library, the doctors and the shops. Why did we not drive? because Dad had the car at work and the shops all shut at 5 and never opened on Sunday.

We grew veg in the large garden (no grass here!) and Mum was always baking or preserving produce from the garden or the hedgerows.

I seldom had new clothes, hand me downs were the usual. I always had a bike, but never a new one.

 

So mum never worked, she simply never had the time.

 

We were not poor compared with many and had everything we needed. But believe me times were hard and life was good.

 

 

Sum's it up perfectly.

And we are still making do and mend.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

I grew up in the 60's, lived in a council house. Father on middle management.

Money did not simply 'go further', it was stretched to provide for the 'needs', not the 'wants'

There was no heating other then open fires, so we went to bed early in the winter and woke up to ice on the inside of the Crittal windows.

We heated water with the immersion heater, so only had a bath once a week, but we had to have it even if we did not need it.

Clothes were washed once a week in the boiler, and wrung out through the mangle before being hung out to dry.

The clothes were then darned (mended) when holes developed and patches were sewn on to jacket elbows.

We were lucky, dad earned just a little more than some others in the street so we had a car where neighbours on each side did not. We also had a telephone and the neighbours used to come to use it. And we had a telly, black and white. But we could not afford one so it came from Radio Rentals.

We either watched the telly, played board games or read a book (from the library)

We walked 2 miles to school, the library, the doctors and the shops. Why did we not drive? because Dad had the car at work and the shops all shut at 5 and never opened on Sunday.

We grew veg in the large garden (no grass here!) and Mum was always baking or preserving produce from the garden or the hedgerows.

I seldom had new clothes, hand me downs were the usual. I always had a bike, but never a new one.

 

So mum never worked, she simply never had the time.

 

We were not poor compared with many and had everything we needed. But believe me times were hard and life was good.

 

 

Great post and much to recognise / remember!

 

A massive subject so I'll just pick 1 point which I think remains valid and could be a future consideration.

 

People have become so used to utilities on tap (pun intended) that they don't take as much care as was possibly the case before.

 

Gas, leccy, oil, water - has it all become so common place that folks take it for granted? I'm not suggesting that, in a developed economy, they shouldn't be readily available, but I'd suggest less people would leave the engine running on a car (noting having a car was quite flash back in the day) than would leave a light on unnecessarily or the tap running. Utilities cost money but I'm not sure people treat that cost with respect it deserves?

 

Maybe I've just turned into a miserable tight old duffer....