Letter: We boomers must count our blessings
Like Phyllis Inglis (A&T Letters 18th Oct), I am a pensioner who has lost the winter fuel allowance. But please let’s get a sense of perspective: our pensions are funded by today’s taxpayers. There are more and more people needing benefits and fewer people funding them through their taxes.
We baby boomers should count our blessings. When I finished full-time education, I had a choice of jobs with long-term career prospects. Nowadays there is no job security. And when we finished at 5pm, that was it for the day – no emails or evening/weekend conference calls.
At the age of 21, my wife and I were able to buy our first house. It doubled in value in the next two years. Nowadays, first-time buyers are more likely to be in their 30s.
I bought my newspaper from a very enterprising young lady who works day shifts in the shop, evening shifts in the pub, and a gardening job in her “spare” time. I hope she didn’t see Phyllis’s idle remark about today’s “snowflake” generation.
Finally, instead of talking about illegal immigrants, let’s call them refugees. Remember watching in horror as Syrian cities were methodically destroyed? Are we so mean spirited that we deny them food and shelter?
Paul Berry
Burley