The upper-middle class poverty line

[denny]

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article1719509.ece

The author borders on insufferably self-involved, but the core point is worth discussing... I know plenty of fairly 'well paid' professionals, mostly geeks, who are living in grotty shared housing and/or still sliding into debt. Why? Because housing is so stupidly expensive that just 'well paid' isn't enough any more... if you want to live 'comfortably' in London, you either have to be paid in the sort of brackets the financial sector waves around, or you simply don't make the grade.

I'm bemused by the article's conclusion that this is all due to 'globalisation'. I'd have pinned the blame squarely on a combination of city bonuses driving the housing prices in London up at a stupid rate, and buy-to-fucking-rent doing the same thing across the whole country (albeit somewhat more slowly).

If you can't afford to rent or buy somewhere halfway nice to live, everything else you can do about your quality of life is pretty much window-dressing.

Discuss?

Comments

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

"Indeed, when I return to the agreeable parts of central London that I know so well from earlier periods of my life, I realise that I am looking at the attractive stucco houses in just the same way that a tramp looks through a restaurant window at a group of people enjoying a carefree meal. I am effectively an exile in the city where I was born."

You know if it had just been an article about how our generation our being priced out of the housing market (even if I think it a bit odd that the professional class who arguably kinda started this is now whinging), I'd have had some sympathy, but this section just imbued me with stabbing rage instead.

I also have no sympathy whatsoever with not being able to afford private education. Maybe the fuckers will start actually giving a shit about state schools now.

Also is it my imagination or is the gloibalisation argument just anti immigration racism in disguise?

As for the housing market, it'll collapse at some point, so thats that sorted.

[kilinrax.livejournal.com]

I also have no sympathy whatsoever with not being able to afford private education. Maybe the fuckers will start actually giving a shit about state schools now.

Agreed, though I do feel that people are rather missing the author's (valid) point due to him coming across as supercilious arse. There was definitely a prejudice against state schools in my parents generation.

Also is it my imagination or is the gloibalisation argument just anti immigration racism in disguise?

I read his point as being more against outsourcing to India than anti-immigration. Even if it was, I don't think you can claim being anti-immigration is fundamentally racist (though the two are often associated).
I for one would be for restricting foreign property ownership if it enabled me to own a house.

As for the housing market, it'll collapse at some point, so thats that sorted.

I'd like to believe that. We'll see. The signs are there, I only hope that it falls far enough. I know plenty of people waiting to buy property who could take up some slack in the market.