this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"If you keep them busy with basic needs, they will forget about the freedoms that they have lost."

Make things difficult enough and all anyone as any energy for is meeting the most basic needs. Having a place to live, feeding a family, etc. Dire times.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Having a place to live, ~~feeding a family~~, ~~having pets~~, having a house plant, ~~expensive hobbies,~~ going for walks

That's more like it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Indeed. I read somewhere that men are no longer wanting to go to university because of the prohibitive cost.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm not shocked, I went the apprenticeship route and I was able to get enough money together to buy a home last year after getting a job in my sector.

Meanwhile my partner went to uni and is doing manual labour work while renting out a room, they got their degree but they can't find any work in their sector.

If I went to uni, I would probably would not have been in any state to be saving any kind of money

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

It's a sad state of affairs. Education is the crux of society and them paywalling it by making it prohibitively expensive has been shocking.

Turning education into a business is a mistake.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Pretty much the same story for me.

Our generation has a problem where you're told pretty much through the entirety of secondary school that "you need to do well here or you won't get in to uni", the underlying message being that you're a failure if you don't go to uni.

The result being that every man and his dog now has a degree the value of which is watered down hugely and 30,000 historians, artists, philosophers, , , each year, are left wondering why they can't land a job role in their chosen line of study.

Good for me, as no one wanting to learn a trade has definitely helped with my value in the job market, bad for people that were missold a dream by a generation of boomers who "worked hard and achieved whatever they wanted".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Anyone can go, but there are fees. If you can’t afford the fees or the living costs you can get a means tested student loan. They copied the US model and the costs are slowly getting in that direction. I graduated in the early 90’s when grants were still a thing, but they froze them so they didn’t rise with inflation any longer and you could get ‘top up loans’ to bridge the gap to cost of living. I think I borrowed something like £750. But it was the beginning of the end of free higher education here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Back in my day, universities used to pay me a grant to attend.

How the times have changed.

It's what,at least £9k per year plus an expectation that if your parents are "richer" than the norm, they contribute to maintenance costs to keep you going.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

20 years ago: work hard, and get a house

20 years from now: work hard, and maybe you get to live in a house

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

They're living the American dream!

wait a minute....

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

Creating a nation wide scarcity mindset across generations is only going to make things even worse. Lack of investment, opportunities, and support means there will be even fewer new businesses and innovations. Levelling up my arse.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Exploitation of domestic workers has reached its sustainability limit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Harbouring hopes for an enjoyable career that makes them financially secure seems unimaginable and too risky, with young people saying they are only able to plan for the short term: half of those surveyed said they were not able to think beyond the next six months.

Two-thirds of the 18- to 24-year-olds who were questioned for the research have lowered their career expectations, with the cost of living, the state of the UK economy and their own mental health named as the biggest factors.

“This research provides a blunt warning that the cost of living crisis threatens the futures, aspirations and wellbeing of an entire generation, if we do not act now,” said Jonathan Townsend, UK chief executive of the Prince’s Trust.

“Young people have already had an integral part of their lives disrupted by the pandemic, whether it be their education or early careers, and these findings show that the continued economic uncertainty is forcing them to make decisions which will compound this further,” Townsend added.

“We’re seeing young people left feeling worried and unconfident about ever achieving their aspirations and thinking only in the short term – this could have significant impact for their futures and for wider society.”

When asked about their long-term life goals, maintaining good physical and mental health and simply living happily were among the top answers.


The original article contains 666 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

666 words! This article must have been written by the Illuminati...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is what happened to southern Italians after 2008. 6 months was a long term plan. Some stayed unemployed living with parents, other emigrated (in UK among others) to take jobs local wouldn't do and living (surviving...) in crappy places. Luckiers (like me) were able to study to the highest level to stay competitive thanks to scholarships.

The luckiers, with a lot of effort and many miles traveled, now have a family and a decent career (I am one), but it is important not to give up. Keep planning on the 6 months range, and try to resist the anxiety of the long term planning.

Life is a marathon