Hey, zoomer here
Or millennial, I fall into that dark abyss that is 1997 year of birth, I'm too old to be a zoomer and too young to be a millennial, but it's whatever, we're all in the same boat I guess.
So when does it get good for us? I'm 24 right now with three kids and a wonderful wife, renting a home in which the rent will be rising next year, where the energy bills have gone from £120pcm to nearing £400 pcm, my wages aren't going up, government support is going down and blah blah.
When I started high school, a big thing was made of the 2010 elections following the financial crisis. I had a fairly good childhood in a working class council-estate area, a bit rough at times but it was good, my family had the freedom to afford holidays, keep jobs and pay for nice things. But then someone decided that the poor aren't allowed to have nice things.
Fast forward to 2009/2010 and I just start high school, very quickly all educational funding is cut and our school is absolutely decimated. No emotional support for students, the poorer students getting less in the way of support from their now over-worked parents. I was bullied and I still carry the scars to this day, all because the school could not afford sufficient counselling, and all because my family was falling apart and falling further and further into poverty.
Holidays abroad became holidays in caravan parks, nice modern cars made way for family hand-me-downs, everything got so much worse. I thought it would get better, but it never did.
I now can't provide anything for my family beyond the basics to survive. To clarify, I work 65 hour work weeks AND I claim state benefits to top that up, and I still can't afford to get my kids nice things.
Generation Fuck All
I've started to call people my age, and those younger than me, generation fuck all, because that's what we have and what we are destined to get. Our inheritance from the broken economies and lazy attitudes of those before us is a planet about to die and ownership of absolutely nothing. We were born into prosperity and happiness, we will return to the void with nothing to pass on to our kids.
Houses – nobody my age will ever be able to afford the deposit on a home. All new homes get bought out by buy-to-let landlords who charge extortionate rents. The mortgage payments on a house the same as where I am now is around 30% less than the rent payment, yet somehow, the bank thinks I can not afford repayments.
Cars – I can not afford driving lessons, I will never be able to afford the payments on a car, or the insurance for that car, or the fuel costs. I am stuck laboriously in my current town, having to rely on increasingly poor public transport.
Savings – this is nearly impossible to even manage, even then, the most I can possible manage is around £50 a month, and that is if I cut back significantly on food. Even then, with bills going up so suddenly, I will never be able to save enough money to do anything.
Passports & Holidays – me and my wife had planned a holiday abroad this year, this was very quickly cancelled and forgotten about due to the passport office's inadequacy. They had forced meetings on us in a city miles away when they knew we could not get the childcare arranged. They cancelled the passport application and took the money, didn't even refund us.
Passports are increasingly difficult to get a hold of now too.
European Union – all the benefits of being in the EU were ripped away from us by the older generations and their inability to recognise basic misinformation and clickbait. I will never be able to begin a business exporting to Europe, or move there. I'm now locked on an island of tiny-minded right wingers running everything, telling me constantly that my interests are their priority.
NHS and Healthcare – my local hospital has had all its major services closed. I now have to travel around 10 miles to the nearest hospital that can provide basic functions, such as pregnancy care. We regularly have to visit, and we can't find the childcare to cover for it. We are noticeably worse off than if our local hospital wasn't being decimated.
Student Loans – I owe around £75,000 in student loans for a course that was inadequate to say the least. Tonnes of problems and saddled with a debt I will never repay at a 4% interest rate (soon to be 9% for those coming after me). The motive here is clear – to draw people away from education to get them into low-paying apprenticeships which work young people down to the bone for insulting wages. We're all going to be dumber.
I just don't know what to do, if I didn't have children I'd honestly be considering full on anarchism, I never did anything wrong and yet I've had everything, every dream and every prospect ripped away from me. Everywhere I am told my inability to succeed is my own fault, but nobody points the finger to where the problems truly come from. Rampant corporatism and decimation of the unions. The far-right has its claws everywhere, it makes our lives much worse, it makes us hate and hate until we see everyone else as mindless idiots. Outrage media is sowing the seeds of cultural divide and then has the gaul to pretend its someone else.
My only hope is that the generations after me, the Zoomers and the Gen A's, will begin change, will make the world a better place for everyone. We're making that sacrifice now. Zoomers especially have this fire in their hearts that nobody else could manage. You can't market to zoomers, and their unpredictability will see them tear down everything that tries to place shackles around them.
I'm 24 and I'm already giving up on all of it, I have no fight left to give. I am living on blind hope that, whilst I may die having never owned a car, a house or even afford a holiday, my children will do.
This was a long rant but just had to get it out somehow. I can't afford food, let alone therapy.