Long term sickness

[cromwell]

Absolutely Kaz. It is harder for them than it was for us.

[Suff]

I don't know, I came out of school to no jobs, I went to college for a year, no jobs. I joined the army, may have been hell but it gave a income and skils, left the army, went to FIFE, 50% unemployment.

The problem with a lot of things these days are expectations. My generation, country location, expectations were not super high.

I tend to feel that the youth of today have expectations so high that they can never be met. So they don't engage.

[Workingman]

I guess that everyone has gone with the "Gary" headline and not the breakdown of those who are in other ways economically inactive (EI). I suppose it is what the media wants. However, very few of the 9.2 million EIs are 'Garys'.

The issue of the 20 and 30 somethings not being able to afford housing is another matter and has nothing to do with sickness benefits. as per the OP. It really is a massive problem and will be disastrous down the line, but does anyone have a workable solution?

End buy-to-let? Rent controls? Build "affordable" homes, whatever they are. More council houses? Hostels? Workhouses?

[Suff]

Certainly the not contributing figure is always high. However the Blair view of warehousing them in Education is growing a bit thin now and as jobs fail to materialise questions start to be asked about whether it is worth it or not.

The article may be using an extreme example but the trend is growing. There are a significant proportion of younger people who believe that they are "entitled" to things and that having to "work hard" for them is something someone else does.

And hey, don't get me wrong. They could be right. We are on the cusp of an age of viable robots and AI in the workplace. Even burger flipping can be better done by a general purpose bot.

Governments are going to have to work out how to employ and pay for those who lose their jobs.

[Workingman]

The problem with a lot of things these days are expectations. My generation, country location, expectations were not super high.

I tend to feel that the youth of today have expectations so high that they can never be met. So they don't engage.

It's always been there. In the 70s my intended and I lived with our parents for peanuts in order to save rather than renting and moaning that we had no money. We opened a joint savings account and put every spare peny away. No takeaways, frothy coffees, bottled water, Netflix, Prime, mobile phone contracts and so on, we concentrated on saving.

So, yes, expectations nowadays are high... if people want them to be. Their choice, there are alternatives.