Dear LPG,  

Right at the beginning of my message, I have to stress that the only expertise I am using to back up my opinion is what I have seen as I have lived through my years on this earth so far.  It is just the way I see it but, when I look at the youngsters of today and the way we live now, I wonder just what happened to our country.  

I have to say that I missed the world war but ‘boomed’ into this world not long after.  Like many pensioners of today I arrived at a time when things were tough.  As a child of the late 1940s, my first memories were of streets that needed rebuilding and people who had a lot of work to do.    I am sure that most people who are in their mid-70s now, will know the significance of a ration book and that feeling of optimism that we were all looking forward to even though we knew that we were destined to live with austerity for a while. 

By the time I was about twelve, I vaguely remember my family finally moving into our own house and, even though a lot of saving was involved both before and after they managed to do that, over the following couple of decades, our gradual road to owning our own car, new furniture, televisions and so much more became a reality.  We all thought that things were hard then but we were always looking to the future which seemed to get really good while for the next three or so decades much of what used to be a luxury for the average household became necessities.   

I started the world of work looking forward to following in my parent’s footsteps as did most of my friends.  Even though many of us were also part of quite a rebellious generation a lot more of us settled into work and family life than I suspect our parents ever thought we would have.   

All through my working years I believe that I was part of a generation that was proud to own what we had but somehow that need to own your own seems to have gone by the board.  

I was happy to own an old car that was mine as opposed to a brand new state of the art model that I was having to pay for monthly, but I see my children and grandchildren leasing them now.   More of us bought the Videos tapes and records that we wanted to hear or see back then while Streaming is the way now.   The young are so much more ready to pay for the privilege of hearing their favourite films and music each time they want to do so.  We are now more likely to have to subscribe to a video game rather than own our own copy and all the mod cons we have, come at an annual cost.  You have to pay annually, monthly or weekly for so many things that we were once proud to be able to say we owned.   Computers cost the earth and once you got one, so many of the programmes that make them work so well are paid for monthly, and computer specialist shops are all but non-existent now and even if we chose to’ pay as you go’ when it comes to our mobile phone, the companies are always trying to force you into some sort of ‘bundle’.      


I believe that times were hard in the second half of the twentieth century and times are just as hard now, but the thing that perhaps worries me the most is the fact that, in the 21st century world, a person’s credit rating is arguably more important than their ability to buy something outright.  


I know that this shift was not sudden and that it did not happen overnight but perhaps, now that I am retired it is easier to look back objectively at the generations that are following the one that I am a part of.  

When this subject came up in a recent conversation with my son he reminded me that insurance is built in when you live this way.  If a leased car breaks down it is often fixed without any extra charge and if you lose your mobile phone, you can get a new one the next day in some cases but, these days there is nearly always the little question of the excess insurance payments that you have to pay monthly in such cases.   

I think that what I am trying to say is that we used to be a nation who aimed to own our possessions but now, so many of the things we depend on (our cars, our homes, our tech and even the programmes that make our computers work) come with an annual subscription. 

I think that owning a thing somehow helps you to learn to cherish it and have more respect for it, which might be why so many of us older people are still proud owners of things (even the ones that don’t work anymore and that were replaced ages ago).  For some reason, something you have leased, hired, borrowed or rented is never really yours and easier to throw away if you don’t have to swap it for its upgrade.    I suppose that it can be argued that, as the bible tells us, ‘we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world’ (1 Timothy 6:7) so, hiring rather than buying is one way that will minimise the risk of those younger generations becoming hoarders when they retire.  

SF, Forest Hill.