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From The Sunday Times
April 29, 2007
We used to have it all...
Sebastian Cresswell-Turner says he and his professional friends are the nouveau poor – a frighteningly downwardly mobile class
Do you agree? Leave your comments in the box below
'City bonuses at obscene levels” . . . “The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer” . . . “Gap between rich and poor largest in 100 years”. Such headlines are only too familiar. But they mask a more complicated truth that few are inclined to recognise – namely that the poor aren’t the only ones who are getting poorer. Whole swathes of the professional classes are, too.
When I was a boy, almost everyone we knew lived in a large house in the country or in the better parts of London. I am not claiming for a moment that we were especially grand – just perfectly well-off. But back then Battersea and Clapham were entirely off our radar, Stockwell another country, and Brixton, Peckham and Streatham simply unheard of. Now, with a few exceptions among those who are notably rich or successful, the next generation of the same families I grew up with is living in just these areas.
Then take private education. The number of people in my parents’ circle who sent their children to state schools could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and were regarded as unfortunate, odd or even subversive. A generation later, however, a considerable proportion of my friends have opted for state schools for their children, in almost all cases for financial reasons.
If this is not downward mobility on a broad scale, then what is?
The daughter of a High Court judge who lives with a painter on a far-flung island in the Orkneys, the public-school-educated actor-manager leading an itinerant life in the Australian outback . . . these might be said to have chosen of their own free will to turn their backs on professional status and on the attempt to maintain it.
But the rest? The two brothers aged thirty-something, both educated at Eton like their father, one a restaurateur and the other working for Moët & Chandon, neither of whom can dream of educating their children privately? Or the two younger sons of an earl, again both Old Etonians, one in marketing and the other a teacher, and both stony broke? These are hardly natural-born losers.
“The phenomenon of the professional poor is definitely on the increase,” says Lady (Sally) Dowson, who has many years of experience as a social worker in central London. “People try to sweep it under the carpet, to put up a good front, but future generations won’t possibly be able to live as we do.”
“My son’s living in Kingston upon Thames,” a retired public-school-educated businessman told me. “It’s a perfectly decent place, but nothing like the surroundings I grew up in. My grandchildren aren’t attending private schools, either – there’s no way my son could afford it – and I’m most concerned that they will emerge from university with massive debts.”
What is the cause of all this? The main factor is without doubt property. In 1967 my father paid £17,000 for the old rectory where I spent much of my childhood, and in 2005 the same house changed hands for £1.45m. In the space of just over a generation, the price increased by a multiple of 85, while according to Knight Frank over the same period (1967-2005) the UK property market as a whole rose by a multiple of 47. In other words the price of a typical country house rose at twice the rate of the rest of the property market, which itself was booming.
The same is true for all “prime property”, as it is called, especially in London. The Knight Frank prime central London index rose 29% last year alone, roughly three times the rate of the UK property market as a whole.
The result of all this is that properties which reasonably well-off professionals might have bought without a second thought a generation ago are now entirely beyond their reach.
Then take school fees. Between 1996 and 2006 the boarding fees at Eton, which are admittedly at the high end, rose from £13,400 a year to £24,990 – up 86% in a decade. Who can afford to send three children to boarding school, as many of my parents’ generation did, when to do so now costs £40,000 of pretax income per child?
“Traditionally the magic of Eton has been the variety of boys you meet there,” Sir Eric Anderson, head master from 1980 to 1994 and now provost, told me. “But when I came back here as provost in 2000, I could foresee a danger that in the future the only parents able to send their children here would be City types and rich foreigners. That is why we are in the process of raising £50m for bursaries.”
My own family illustrates this whole process only too well.
My father, a respected country-based architect, somehow managed to put his four sons through private education. One is now a partner in a venture capital firm; another is co-founder of Lombok, a furniture retailer with a turnover of about £15m a year; another is a highly skilled Shropshire-based cabinet maker; and as for myself, the oldest son, “wordsmith” seems best to describe the translating, writing and language teaching that have occupied me in Paris, Rome and London over the past decade or so.
Of these four brothers, all of equal talent but of quite different character, two are or soon will be rich or very rich. The other two are penniless.
As an unmarried and badly paid knowledge worker, I live in a rented room in Hammersmith and have no hope of ever buying a home anywhere. 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.
Consider a successful journalist friend of mine who went to St Paul’s girls’ school and then to Cambridge. At the same time as putting her and various others through private schools, her father, a surgeon, was able to provide a house in Chiswick and a weekend cottage in Wiltshire with ponies and all the trimmings. Every winter they went skiing and summers saw them in France or Italy.
But a generation on, even though my friend and her husband – both professionals like their parents – earn the considerable joint salary of £140,000 a year, the bourgeois ease of their youth seems unthinkable. In spite of their undisputed professional status and more-than-respectable earnings, they are downwardly mobile.
Or take another family that I know with three children, all educated privately and all now roughly 40 years old. One, a merchant banker, is flourishing; another, an architect, is doing all right; and another is living in a council house.
I could go on. But what emerges is the remarkable divergence in fortunes, nowadays, within the same generation of the same families, and with dramatic upward or downward mobility occurring almost overnight; all largely thanks to another remarkable new divergence – that between the increasingly stratospheric salaries of City types and the increasingly insufficient salaries of almost everyone else.
We are not looking, here, at the widening gap between rich and poor, but between financial operators and ordinary professionals.
Many simply deny the reality that we all see around us every day. “Don’t be so silly,” said one old friend, a charismatic entrepreneur with little time to waste on speculating about socio-economic turbulence in modern Britain. It is perhaps no coincidence that one of his grandfathers – a glorious mousta-chioed scion of the British Empire, descended from ancient Viking stock – was the first man to fly over Mount Everest.
Various City men I spoke to also dismissed my concerns out of hand, trotting out the tired argument that financial services are Britain’s most successful industry, that bankers pay taxes and National Insurance too, and that the earnings of the super-rich trickle down the economy.
But as MoneyWeek recently pointed out, most of the money of the super-rich ignores gravity and flows upwards into prime property or sideways into the Caribbean, with the odd thousand pounds trickling into five-star restaurants in London and a few stray pennies dripping into the pockets of Polish nannies who promptly siphon them back home.
An old headhunter friend I contacted also toed the City PR line for a while (“dynamic place . . . engine of the economy . . . challenges of globalisation”) and then gave up. “You’re opening a can of worms here, old boy,” he said eventually.
The last word must be a comment made by my father as he and I were watching Excess in the City, a recent TV documentary about the phenomenal changes in fortunes that recent years have brought about. “There must be so many people who are practically committing suicide over this,” he said as we filled up our glasses and tried to forget.
So how much does a married couple with three children need to live the sort of life that reasonably well-off professionals of my parents’ generation took for granted? The property alone – a house in the country and perhaps a flat in London – will cost a minimum of £3m. Then the school fees will be £75,000 a year plus extras; after which food, clothes, cars, the odd holiday and all the rest will add another £50,000 at the very least.
Even if you own the bricks and mortar outright, as everyone in my parents’ generation did, that implies a pretax income of at least £200,000. Throw in a mortgage and a margin for error, and you’d better be on . . . what, a third of a million a year? And this, mind you, to live comfortably, no more.
A civil servant on £60,000; a partner in a country law firm on £75,000; even a successful GP on £100,000 . . . for all of these highly trained professionals, to send one – let alone two – children to a public school is either impossible or a severe strain (though independent day schools are far less expensive). A headhunter who is often asked by his friends how they are meant to get by on, say, an MP’s salary of £60,000 a year, has no answer. “I just don’t want to think about it,” he told me.
In the face of this, some make considerable sacrifices, often getting into debt. But many others give up the struggle with London and move to the country, with any luck near a good state school like Dr Challoner’s in Buckinghamshire or Gillingham in Dor-set, now nicknamed “the toffs’ grammar school”. In the words of one insider: “You often come across this at dinner parties in the country, with people saying that London’s so awful that they never go there any more; protesting too much, of course; then you realise they just can’t afford it.”
A popular member of White’s, the St James’s club to which many of the old landowners belong, knows plenty of well-edu-cated professionals who have fallen by the wayside. “First, they can’t afford to eat out,” he told me, “then they pull their children out of [fee-paying] school, and you just stop seeing them.” Brian Gill, a London-based debt counsellor, told me: “The poverty line is definitely creeping upwards.”
As a result, socio-economic classes that used to be entirely immune from hardship are no longer safe; and if they do not have to contend with actual poverty, they are nevertheless plagued by a constant sense of precar-iousness. “Everyone we saw was utterly stressed-out over work and school fees,” said the wife of a bestselling British author now based in Italy, after a brief visit to England last summer.
And as a City banker told me, many of his friends are so hopelessly overstretched that they are never more than one pay cheque away from disaster. Throw in a divorce, and . . . well, let’s not go there.
As for what’s behind this, it’s simple: glo-balisation. At the same time as we are exporting vast numbers of perfectly worthwhile jobs we are importing huge quantities of cheap labour, creating severe downward pressure on wages all the way up the socio-economic scale . . . and while we are doing this, tidal waves of money from the City and from newly rich countries like Russia and India are washing over us, lifting the price of property and all other assets to absurd levels; with the effects being most severely felt in the old stamping grounds of the professional classes.
According to Ajay Kapur and Niall Macleod, strategists at Citicorp, our whole economy has been hijacked by the international super-rich. And largely thanks to tax breaks introduced by a Labour government Britain in general and London in particular are the favoured destinations for this new and voracious breed.
It seems, therefore, that we are witnessing a return to the rough-and-tumble of 18th century England as portrayed in picaresque novels like Tom Jones by Fielding or Roderick Random by Smollett; or perhaps to the raw capitalism of the early 19th century as described in Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, in which the landscape is littered with fallen members of the gentry.
The moral of the story? Career choice is now all-important: go into the City, where they encourage and feed off the very process that is putting such pressure on the rest of us. As my host at an Oxfordshire dinner party said the other day: “A generation ago it didn’t make much difference what one’s chums did, whether they went into the army or the City or publishing or whatever; but now it’s a make-or-break decision.”
For professionals as much as for anyone else, Tony Blair’s brave new Britain is an unforgiving place, characterised by a brutal commercialism. So fail to become a top City lawyer or accountant, fail to make it as a highflying entrepreneur, businessman or investment banker, fail to play the property market successfully – fail, in other words, to become a fully fledged homo economicus, and you will soon know the meaning of downward mobility . . . and perhaps even poverty.
Chris Morris???
Iain, Shepherds Bush,
I am greatly saddened by the changes you point out. I hear the boil of class envy you have lanced. Our generation were brought up to very high standards of honesty and self denial, well not exactly denial, but the 'look after your horse before you eat and change', etc kind of responsibility. People with no honesty who worship money, do not know how it was, and CANNOTbelieve that there was a class who were absolutely forbidden to flaunt their wealth, to whom conspicuous consumption was anathema, to whom fairness and sportsmanship were more important than winning, justice must not be bought, and for whom lying was moral and social death. Setting a good example was our law. It was not a class but a nation who believed like this. From the top to the bottom. A minority in our own land, run by corruptible nouveau riches, we abdicated and are now dispossessed. But out there our standards still survive, and rich or poor, we and our children must still believe it is worth living by them.
Pippa, London,
Ever heard of a charity called the Distressed Gentlefolk Association? It may have changed its name now (communist times and all that). How very amusing to hear the chippy comments from all those lower-middle classes going infradig at a toff-(very Nu Lab) By the way Hammersmith aint that bad compared to vomit-strewn Shepherd's Bush.
Keep writing!!
O.E. artist
Will, London, England
How much virulent and puerile class hatred is still evident on these pages! Sebastian' s article makes a point from a particular viewpoint and place in English history. You don't have to share that, or agree with his analysis (and I don't) but the tribal, emotive personal abuse let off by some the above contributors (whilst rather revealing) helps no-one.
J. Rowan, JR, London
So that's why so many people dream of moving to France? That said, here in Montpellier property prices have gone up so fast that within a year of building my house, I would not have been able to afford to buy it.
Unfortunately I had to sell it due to divorce and the prospect of buying anything now is completely hopeless. I now rent, expensively.
Sarah Hague, Montpellier, France
That was a very illuminating article, and reminded me quite a lot of Chekhov's Cherry Orchard. Instead of the three 'classes', there are now just 'landowners' and 'serfs'. With the minimum wage, everyone has the bare essentials of food, shelter (of a kind) and clothing. None of us can have everything we want, whenever we want it. It was quite ironic to reflect that people on four or five times my salary have no actual difference in quality of life than I do, except I have more free time and fewer holidays.
Jo, Cambridgeshire, uk
All i know is that alfter the first 7 years of this government, my take home pay was £100 per month less, thanks to all the back door taxes introduced etc etc. I am only just seeing increases thanks to a very lucky internal reorganisation which has brought an above inflationpay rise my way, but I'm still not able to afford th lifestyle i had 10 years ago.
Pammy, Kent, England
What a load of London based rubbish! I,m so sorry you can't afford servants-- like hell! Also I'm so glad I live deep in the countryside, bringing up both my children amongst fields, trees and understanding wildlife! Myself, and both my children went to our local state Grammar School, and you are welcome to keep your public schools. All of us are graduates too, and though I am retired we all enjoy a moderately prosperous and happy living, and yes by being
prudent either own or are buying our houses.
DAVID VINTER, Louth, Lincs., UK.
I do not think Sebastian is trying to moan about his priviledge upbringing but miserable current situation - I think he is just trying to make a point about the effect of this asset price inflation (API) and the effects on the professional class.
Those who claims that API is the result of free market miss a very crucial point - in a truly free market, lack of supply causes price to rise, and higher prices brings in more supply. In UK, land is now monopolised by the selected few and that is not free market. H.Kong government is far clever such that most lands are state owned and leased to the residences. This policy had also lead to lower taxation, higher standard of living and the rise of hong kong from a slump to a first world country in a single generation. Those who argue that API is the result of the survivor of the fittest would have, by the same logic, condon the actions of those money changer in the Jerusalem Temple who charges whatever they like for coins (land).
S Pang, Berkshire, uk
So it is true, "is is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, it is their social existence that determines their consciousness".
Mr.Cresswell-Turner describes a way of life and a level of uncertainty that have been the norm to the majority for years. His surprise concerns me. I could say more but will stop at this...the sums of money he offers as not enough for school fees and skiing holidays, are still enormous and beyond the reach of many. To have been so previlidged, as to be raised with a sense that the unquestionable nature of your good-fortune is your due, is what no doubt leaves him at a loss now.
The great contradiction of capitalism is that it creates class consciousness. Those who have always struggled with less have rarely tried to save the image of full humanity for themselves alone. Welcome...in five years you will be a nicer (and less surprised man).
Margaret Healion, Dublin, Ireland
Did the Times forget April Fool's Day is the 1st of April a good 4 weeks ago?
Keep your hair on Folks this has gotto be a Spoof.
Winnie, Bridport, Dorset , U>K
Oh no! You can't AFFORD to send 3 kids to Eaton? How awful!
Surely this must be some kind of discrimination against the upper-middle-classes, who now it seems, have to start from the same position as the rest of us and actually EARN their money.
Shocking.
Hannah, Leamington, England
Career choice has *always* been important; the difference is that the decline of manufacturing, globalisation and increased entry into higher education has changed what careers are appropriate.
Also bear in mind that the impact of the post war generation is still being felt, even now - we have to pay for their pensions, but they had to live through a world considerably less open, tolerant, and flexible plus in general a much lower standard of living (at least for the working or middle classes). Computers? Washing Machines? Central Heating? Foreign Holidays? Civil Partnerships? Home Husbands?
Still, it's possible to live comfortably : move out of town centres, use public transport, don't eat out constantly and limit your expenditure to what you can afford.
Peter Kay, Manchester,
The property prices of London are reflected in the countryside too as far out as the Cotswolds and many counties surrounding London. Many houses are selling for astronomical sums as second or third homes, with the result that local people can often not afford one home. It is hard to see what advantage this situation has for the country accept ,as this article states, make life very difficult for the population as a whole. It would appear that the superich who are buying homes here and then living abroad are not contributing anything to this country.
Watson Cotswolds
Watson, Cheltenham,
Never mind the whinging of the article.
No-one seems to have realized the real reason for the downsizing is that there are more well-educated people about now than there were a generation ago. The simple law of supply and demand mean that for most jobs, there are pelently of people able to fill them, hence the salary level has gone down in response.
For now, it may be different in the City, but it's time will come too, and City salaries will in time also reflect the laws of supply and demand.
So while the past generation looked on a good education in order to get a nice job as all-important, nowadays the emphasis should be different if you want to be better-off then the average middle class in the future. And so, in future, the message will be, if you want to be rich, you need to have something unique to offer, to be an entrepreneur, or whatever, but don't expect anyone to pay you loadsamoney for a job anyone can do.
James Meyer, Toome, Co Antrim
FYI, domestic, particularly rural property in Japan is as "cheap as chips" (like 25-30% of current UK prices). But be advised that it depreciates like a second-hand car. Real estate price is a function of availibility of paid employment. However, if paid employment is not a pressing need, you could do worse than check out the only first-world country in Asia. Because whether Britain is in terminal decline or only going through a bad patch hardly matters, bottom line is Britain sucks. If you haven't accepted this yet, I seriously doubt you are ex-pat material.
Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan
Hilarious!
J Simpkins, Brighton, East Sussex
"As for what’s behind this, it’s simple: glo-balisation"
No, what's behind this is people being collectively stupid enough to pay modern house prices, coupled with a general policy of not building enough new homes since if we did so the bubble might burst and no-one would re-elect the government that restored sanity to the housing market.
The home-buying masses have brought insecurity and a shortage of teachers, nurses etc able to live nearby entirely upon themselves - and upon the rest of us. Our only hope is that Gordon Brown realises he can't win the next election and decides his legacy will be popping the property bubble by building the three million extra homes we need, fast - with all the inevitable complaints from the NIMBYs over-ruled.
SF, Manchester,
The top few earners get the cream. If you want the rich man's life then earn more.
If you earn £140k pa you're not poor but don't get to be one of the elite any more.
Generali, SE,
As Arthur Dent would have put it: this must be some new definition of "hardship" I was previously unaware of.
Jen Yockney, Manchester, England
What sort of a world do you live in Sebastian?
The reason that things are not the same as they were is that the ‘middle class’ has now expanded vastly. The modern knowledge society doesn’t need such an army of industrial workers in flat caps, which can be doffed as necessary to their deserving betters, before returning home to their bread and dripping.
In former times, one was able to enter a profession through having a private education and ‘connections’, which, unless one was completely incapable, was the gateway to some degree of success.
The rest of Britain, which seems to be outside Sebastian’s experience, is not that bad. Market towns and suburbs all over Britain have good state schools, which are improving, and enabling pupils and students from ordinary backgrounds to achieve the skills to start in business, and enter the professions which were at one time the preserve of those from a more privileged background. All this paid for out of your taxes, Sebastian.
Michael, Cockermouth, UK
What a pathetic, petulant article. For goodness' sake stop whinging and get your priorities sorted! If your idea of happiness is defined purely by material acquisition, and your idea of success is earning enough to send your precious offspring skiing every season, no wonder your life is so miserable. It's completely superficial and empty.
Funny how so many of the comments on here (mine included) come from people who clearly earn below the "average" London wage - yet judging by your comments I'd say most of us are considerably happier than you. Perhaps, although I can't speak for others, because our contentment derives from less material factors.
Nicky Butler, London, UK
During Tudors' time, people not earning above 10 pouns per year and wearing hose which cost more than tenpence a yard, were to be put in the stocks for three days.
The capitalist world change this rigid separation of people and created another framework, that we need to have certain things and lieve certain lives in order to be fully humans and have a sense of accomplisment. The present paradigm created for us is this ever closer mirage of owning if we work hard enough, long enough,...for somebody else. it sounds pretty much like a heroin addiction. Nowbody is pointing the finger to the actual dealer and the policeman.
A little bit of buddhism classes would probably help Mr. Turner if he suffers. Maybe a more dedicated pen to social justice could also be more far reaching.
What about proposing that people shouldn't be allowed to own more than two properties, pay higher taxes, and if they send their business away, thay should also have their citizenship stripped?
cornelius, Vancouver, Canada
Satire is wasted on some people! Keep up the good work Mr. "Cresswell-Turner", whoever you are!
F. Zappa, 'Ove, UK
People can no longer afford to live as their parents did, due to the triple shaft of out-sourcing jobs, increasing immigration & restrictive planning permission to keep down the wages apart from the top 10% who benefit from every body elses misery.
Young profs not yet on 'the ladder' should move to US/Australia where you may get a decent quality of life.
Kevin Smith, London, England
What a brilliant parody. Who says the right can't do funny?
Pete Robbins, London,
Until reading this article I had no idea that my lack of property or a private education made me such a pauper. How simply awful!
GS, Winchester,
Has it really taken you this long to discover that an Eton education, or growing up in Chiswick, is not an automatic passport to wealth and influence?
Damian, London, UK
Last year 85 or so Etonians were admitted to Oxford and Cambridge colleges, roughly 50% of those who applied from the school. Admissions Tutors are notoriously biased against the public schools. Etonians are intelligent. Q.E.D.
snedge, edinburgh,
My dad arrived here in 1960 with less than a fiver in his pocket and has managed to buy decent sized 3 bdroom house in Surrey and send me to a private school. I've been to university here, have a job as a surveyor yet I can only afford a 2 bedroom flat because my parents gave me loads of money towards it. I always saved well too and resisted the temptation to blow lots on cars, holidays. I do ahve a few luxuries like an ipod or mobile that my parents did without but I'm not on first name terms with the local computer game shop or hi shop!
I think high property prices and younger people getting too easily distracted with other things to spend money on are the two big problems.
Luke Nicolaides, London,
And what about you, Meg? I bet your parents bought their house when 35,000 quid a year was more than enough to afford a house. But can you?
starling, Lancaster,
I feel dreadfully sorry for the author and his friends. To have to be considering State Education and life in the country is, surely, an awful future for them.
Perhaps we could rally round with a benefit Polo match or sponsored Pimms quaffing.
Come on Times readers. Lets Make A Difference!
Mark Sparrow, Wadhurst, East Sussex
How I sympathise with Sebastian Cresswell-Turner. I too long for the idyll of middle class life of yesteryear - country house weekends - "anyone for tennis?". This is the life I read about and aspired to as a state educated child of non-property owning parents.
S C-T cites property as the problem yet as one of four children he expects an equivalent slice of cake to that enjoyed by his parents. Simple logic would reveal that land availability (jealously guarded by the old land-owning families) has not doubled over the intervening years, therefore forcing up prices. The author has enjoyed a childhood that tens of millions could only dream of, yet by dint of his origins and privileged education expects to continue to enjoy a lifestyle denied to most, irrespective of the commercial value of his abilities. Let us hope that in this "classless society" some of the "deserving" poor will be upwardly mobile while S C-T struggles downwards.
Roger Fox, Oxted, UK
I don't know how this article even got to be printed! It is a disgrace to compare the envy of stucco houses to the desperation of a tramp looking for the basic survival of food and for human contacts. This article gives the impression that the UK is still very elitist and class orientated. But having lived in the UK for 25 years, the experience tells me differently. I have to conclude that there is still a minority that is hopelessly out of touch with reality. Downward mobility can be a life style choice, and people that took this route may have the last laugh yet.
wendy tan, melbourne, australia
I read this article with amazement- are people really this superficial? Clearly Sebastian and his peers were raised in a weird bubble of snobbery. Thank God we're not all like him or instead of our children getting their heads down at school they'll be plagued by insecurities over why daddy dodn't send them to Eton. Why not accept that you're not part of the uber rich club and move on? Living the capitalist dream is not the way to happpiness.
H Davis, Nottingham,
So the middle class professional is financial strapped. He can't afford the life style of his youth, he lives in rented accomodations. So What! He is not living in poverty. When you look at the social economic ladder of life, swimming in money at the top and starving on the streets at the bottom. In my opinion Mr Cresswell-Turner is doing just fine. The excellent education he has recieved and his social contacts provide him with an arsenal of enviable survival skills. In fact his professional job is a step up the ladder for many. But what really made me laugh was the list of salaries he considered were not enough to live on. £60000.00 , £75000.00 and £100000.00. If I earned £60000.00 a year I'd be living in clover. The truely poor are so desperately short of money they have little choice over where they live, what they eat , or the education their children receive. I am truely thankfull to not be poor and in my opinion Mr Cresswell-Turner should be too.
K Howard, Greater London,
Interesting point - my father came from a comfortable family home and went to a private school - The Second World War changed many things and he and my mother struggled to bring up the three of us. We had a modest upbringing, Black and White TV and a gramaphone, no washing machine, no car and not much else. But the cost of living was cheap and life was simple.
When my turn came to bring up my son the world was a very different place. Disposable nappies, designer baby clothes - hi-tech prams, educational toys. Stepping up to very expensive leggo - school trips, holidays abroad, more designer clothes, musical instruments, computers, mobile phones, ipods, digital cameras - College and University. and that is just for my son. Not to mention the latest technology in the home and the cost of travel etc.
Isn't it obvious? Man has developed all these wonderful things that we all want and the better they get, the more we want them.
Single mum - employed 34 yrs.
L Jewson, Eastbourne, East Sussex
How many kids from wealthy families who were privately educated choose careers that don't pay well and are then surprised that they can't afford the affluent lifestyle that mummy and daddy provided for them? You see this all the time. Maybe the kids from some less wealthy middle class families realise that they're on their own and had better well make some smart career choices so they can provide for themselves and further down the line, their families. They know there's no-one to step in and bail them out if their badly paying career as an artist/actor/writer doesn't work out.
SB, London, UK
And I would add that if you want to make money then you should get a career that makes money for you and not go float around and going to uni just because your parents expect it of you!
My friends son, for example, is a successful lawyer. He comes from a (teenage) single parent and was brought up on a council estate. He knew that to succeed financially, he had to do it and could not rely on his single parent to provide for him for the rest of his (un)pampered life. It's called reality! Something that Sebastian Cresswell-Turner needs to check into!
kim, London, England
I left England for the US a little over 20 years ago because, for me, the hope of a decent living was already out of reach. The US has rewarded my risk and hard work with a lifestyle I could never have attained had I stayed in the UK. Britain's problem is not "unbridled capitalism" but the cloying entanglements of high taxation, government over-regulation, and divisive policy based on century-old class mythology. And worst of all, total fiscal incompetence by the Exchequer over generations. It is not just Cresswell-Turner's professionals who have been damaged, but every Briton who works for a living. At the very least, even if you're a footballer or a City high-flyer, inflation continues to erode the value of your savings, and property inflation impoverishes you all, because the more of your resources are locked up in bricks & mortar, the less you have to invest where it can earn income and provide employment for other workers.
ScottQ, Boise, USA
Sebastian C-T has received a lot of flack here, but the core of his argument is on target. The phenomenon he identifies is visible across the western world. I shared a house a few years ago with a guy in Sydney. He was a skilled carpenter/cabinet maker, who worked very hard on the construction and renovation sites in Paddington and surrounding areas. He could never afford to buy one of the houses he worked on, though, nor buy the kind of house his parents lived in and where he grew up (northern beaches). Effectively, he was priced out of his own city. One of the reasons, ironically, why he was in this position is that Sydney is full of English emigrants who have fled English property prices and helped drive up Australia's.
John O'Leary, Wellington, New Zealand
It's called survival of the fittest -- keep up.
If you don't want a mediocre existence, you just have to work harder. Yes, it's possible.
By all means, choose to be a cabinet-builder, but don't whine if you can no longer afford to own property in central london/dine at cipriani's. Funny, I have a passion for cabinets too, but no, I don't make it my career/vocation. I maintain it as an interest and a hobby. I work hard in my city job. It provides me with the money I need to buy all the furniture and cabinets I want. I can take them apart and reconstruct them if I wanted to too.
I think I would have sympathised more if this article came from someone who didn't have a privileged upbringing.
Move to France? Good luck!
S. Chang, London, UK
It's hardly surprising that Mr Crapwell-Tosser cannot afford a property, writing drivel like this article. It just goes to show that a privileged upbringing does not intelligence bestow. Still, no need to worry about his career prospects, he's already proven himself to be a merchant banker.
RW, Madrid,
Hold on a minute ... what about the huge inheritances from the sale of parents expensive properties? That it a very significant input to a family's wealth at a certain stage when parents die and should be factored in when considering current wealth compared to previous generations. Admittedly, the timing of parents deaths cannot be predicted, but on many occasions it must come at a very fortuitous moment in a middle-class families lives.
robert loud, san antonio, texas, usa
As this filters down through various professions the effects are devastating. One of the reasons I left teaching was the assumption by the government that it was reasonable to pay teachers so little that they could not afford a house (not to mention one big enough for a family) and then offer them a stake in a "key worker" property. This means that they have a very limited choice of house and they have to pay rent on the portion they don't own. This must therefore restrict a teachers opportunities to move up the property ladder. This will inevitably lead to difficulty recruiting decent candidates into teaching.
Sally Baker, Essex, UK
Why does he not want to join in the society that the vast majority belong to? If he were to send his children to state schools he would be able to contribute and understand. They would not be living in an artificial fantasy world. He should not hanker after thinly disguised feudalist class privilege. This has been on the way out for the last 600 years. As for working, I recommend him working and living on a minimum wage job for a few months. At least he can use it for another article.
Andrew, Cambridge,
Blaming the bogeyman of "globalization" is a red herring. The situation has been created by through specific actions taken by successive governments in order to pump up the housing market through low interest rates and misleading inflation statistics. Excluding house prices from inflation figures makes it look like the UK has had high levels of economic growth with low inflation, but it's just a mirage. Real inflation has been much higher than reported and the Bank of England has set interest rates at far too low of a level. For a while, this charade has worked, everyone believing they were better off with lower mortgage payments and rising house prices, but the consequences of high real inflation are becoming more and more apparent -- it's nothing but a huge transfer of wealth from young professionals to older, mainly retired homeowners.
RichBh, London,
I live on a canal boat in West London, I work as a Signalling Engineer on the railways...... a mere peasant, although FAR more useful than any of Sebs mates to the day to day running of London I simply cannot afford to live here anymore sadly and have managed to obtain a transfer to Cornwall where I would have thought my wages would have gone further?! Alas no, Cornwall because of said upper middle and super rich classes is a ghost county where the indigenous residents have gone and vast swaths of land and villages are seasonally occupied.
You simply can't escape from this London hell, or it seems anywhere within the confines of these islands (well, anywhere nice that is) so all I can say to this situation I find myself facing is that at least I will have stunning scenery if nothing else and lets hope Seb and his mates with equally daft snobby names come crashing down to earth with a very big bump! About time.
Mark Holderness, London,
I couldn't agree more. Living in London (and the UK as a whole) is a constant struggle. No-wonder people are leaving for elsewhere. Living and working in the US at the moment, it blows my mind to see the difference in standard of living that exists between similarly educated professionals in these two countries. Despit e being a high acheiver my entire life (two degrees from top universities, hard working, career orientated), I will never be able to afford the same sort of home I grew up in, and as for a private education for my children, forget about it.
Katy, London,
Dear Sebastian,
I believe you called yourself a "knowledge worker" and I would say if you were one you would be making a lot money like many successful knowledge workers are. So get yourself a real job that is well paid and stop feeling entitled just because your parents provided you, fortunately, with a good "life start" in life.
What makes you entitled to the good life? There are millions of people in the world who have worked a lot harder than you have, and many of them will go to bed tonight with empty stomachs. Get out and work. Make some tough choices like the rest of us have had to do. And move on.
nelson castellanos, London, UK
I completely agree with the above. My own circle of friends, at the end of our twenties, public school and Oxbridge educated, is nowhere near being able to buy property - frankly I think unless you marry and have two incomes it is impossible. Most of us are in professional careers, law, teaching, and so on. None of us have a hope of the lifestyle our parents had at our age. This is not about "incompetence", as the rather arrogant James Cameron claims above - we are all highly educated and in good jobs, it is just that the gap between the price of property and real earnings is so wide. My parents' mortgage, when they had one, was only in the region of 2x salary, and yet now 6x salary is being offered and even that isn't enough to buy in London. Even for those of who may inherit something the prospect of inheritance tax means that we will probably have to sell up when the time comes. For my cousin, who stands to inherit a large farm, it means the loss of his business as well as his home
Martin, Hereford, England
This completely ignores the likelihood of these people inheriting either all or a share of the property left by the parents - what happened to the £1.45 million for the nice old rectory?? Or are the parents too mean to pass some of it on?
Spend a year in somewhere like Port Talbot and find courtesy, humour and good neighbourliness on a tiny fraction of the money 'needed' by chaps like this one...
Ruth Webb, Bristol,
What a dreadful article. If you read aloud your missive you may hear how you sound to others - whining and petulant. You're living in the reign of Elizabeth II, not Elizabeth I. You’re an educated man; as are the other pedigreed "down-and-outs" mentioned in the article - so use it! - instead of posturing from the sidelines as you look\-on, in thinly-veiled envy, at you brothers’ successes. It’s up to you to make the life you want. Waiting at the troth to be spoon-fed, dressed and housed are the principles of The Labour Party; whose Tony Blair your article scorns An inability to adapt to change is the main cause of species extinction in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. If you look closely you'll see the institutions which once embraced you are now occupied by the sons of coal-miners. Poverty of wealth is not your problem; it’s poverty of ideas over-shadowed by your misguided sense of entitlement.
Philip Noons, Houst,on, Texas
Why was this article printed? It offers neither a factual analysis nor a witty view of the world. If Creswell-Turner thinks that it was the norm for the average professional in the previous generation to own a house of the size pictured, a flat in London and educate four children privately then the money spent on his education was sadly wasted. This is the rant of a self pitying individual with the good fortune to be born into a small, very privileged sector of society who has spent his working life dabbling in different occupations only to realise that he has not achieved the standard of living that he thinks somehow is his right. He needs to take an objective look at himself and the world rather than trot out some half baked theories based on anecdotal evidence from his social circle.
Lin, St Albans, UK
Aww, poor baby! A life of privilige lost, ...wealth SHOULD NOT persist from generation to generation in the same families, its not an entitlement, but should be re-earned in each generation... by new people! and if your so hard up, surely your barely spoken of trips to Paris are something the genuinely poor do not regulaly get? You are not an exile from the city of your birth, you are an exile from the posh, snobbish bits of it! An exile from middle class pointless life! You have so many cushions between yourself and genuine poverty that it is criminal of you to whine.
virginia, Albany, NY/USA
I'm sorry, but what a load of drivel. Self pity at its worst. What has happened is a shift in socio-economic realities. In past generations those born with silver spoons in their mouths were always going to be catered for through the preservation of an elitist class system where individual talent was not a factor in success. Whilst still in existence, the merit based society we live in today has made life a little more real for those who have never had to apply themselves. From a background of growing up in Northern Ireland in the 70's and 80's, I became the CEO of a mobile phone operator at 35 through hard work and application. I have 4 homes, a fleet of expensive cars, boats and my children attend private school. My message here is that if you want to be successful stop feeling sorry for yourself, blaming others, and get out there and start working!
Mark Hanna, PhnomPenh, Cambodia
Why do always compare ourselves with people who have more? This is not a recipe for happiness, as Oliver James has convincingly argued in Affluenza.
We have paid a very high price for the wholesale adoption of US-style capitalism that began with Thatcher and lost our national identity along the way.
John, Blackburn, UK,
While I have every sympathy with the poor fallen aristocracy of the article, a less sympathetic person might find themselves guffawing and falling off their chair with laughter at the highly ironic scenario presented here. Oh dear, no private school or gymkhana for poor little Jemima or Rupert. I left a high rise council estate in Kings Cross 10 years ago. The lifts swam in urine and the stairwells were strewn with syringes. Old ladies were constantly beaten up for their pensions. There were several murders. And a shockingly small number of my fellow tenants were very good at polo. But now I live on an acre of land with a private beach on the shores of a lake in the US. Both my children go horseriding whenever they choose. And I'm just a mere truck driver. I suggest the author and his friends rediscover their backbone and employ a little flexibility. Then maybe they will be able to regain some of the pleasures of their very privileged childhoods.
Ben, Hopatcong,
i think it is time for everyone to study, study and study...a person is only going to be able to rely on themselves in providing for themselves. this country is going to be like a monoco with business thrown in for good measure...an oasis between two sides of the world, coming together to do the business. a service island that provides a place to play while at work.....
ann, lancashire,
Dear Sebastian,
Boo hoo.
P Beeston, Bristol,
Sebastian Cresswell-Turner writes as if these changes are some great surprise. But they have been predictable to anyone with half a brain for twenty years, and clearly visible for a decade.
Taking the career choices that lead to a rented room in Hammersmith was his conscious decision. What did S C-T think he was doing as this decline in his relative wealth was unfolding in front of him? What actions has he taken to correct the position? Or did he just hope that somehow it would all come out in the end?
David C, London,
This phenomenon is affecting all working people and is not just caused by globalisation, but also by good old fashioned inflation. Our money supply has doubled in the last 6 years, so it should be no surprise that house prices have too.
But it hasn't doubled because we produce more. It has doubled because we borrow more.
Banks print money and lend it to people who then push up prices.
We are living in an era of asset hyper-inflation and nobody in government seems to care.
Rent me, London,
Why does anyone think that they are entitled to a house in the country, a flat in London and private education for their children? Get over it. The previous generation were lucky; our generation isn't so lucky. Nobody is entitled to any of these things.
PM, London, UK
Out of interest, my parents earn abour £35,000 a year between them. We live in a modest semi detached, can afford to eat out occasionally and both me and my sister have been put through uni with our fees being paid by them. We both did various activities and have our own car, we aren't under priviledged in anyway. This is just stupid! Oh no we can't afford to send our children to private school and they may have a small amount of debt after uni. We can't afford a second house in the country. oh dear. I think people need to get a grip! My mother went to private school and I think you could class them as middle class, yet they don't have all the airs and graces that this piece has!
Meg, Kidderminster,
Console yourself. It won't be that long before the city is under water and the people who are really well off are those who have opted for sustainable living in the transition towns which are coming into existence. You don't have to play the money game. Skip the expensive restaurants and cook healthy food at home, ride a bike, grow your own vegetables, get to know your neighbours and be happy. Leave the other poor mutts to be conned into chasing status and apparent wealth.
Sheila, LEICESTER,
"A headhunter who is often asked by his friends how they are meant to get by on, say, an MP’s salary of £60,000 a year, has no answer."
Just how out of touch are these people? 60k isn't enough to "get by"? Try living like the rest of us.
Mark Stephenson, Fulham, London,
As journalists become paid bloggers, 'wordsmiths' like Mr Cresswell-Turner are likely to find their situation becoming even more precarious, paid a proportion of the advertising income from their blog, say $1/1000 hits.
The shift to electronic editions must be expected as the carbon footprint of print media is quite appalling, logging, energy used making paper, transport and distribution, waste disposal.
A wise newspaper proprietor would begin distributing mobile devices to their readers, much as satellite decoders were offered to television subscribers.
Hacks are supposed to be poor. Your correspondent should write a book 'False Expectations', or get a job with a PR firm. He should have read 'Grub Street' already.
jcberlin, Berlin, Germany
Not all readers will sympathize with Sebastian Cresswell-Turner, especially those (the majority, I think) who are far worse off than most of the people he writes about.
I think he has some valid points - especially about globalisation, which essentially puts us in the same marketplace as the Indian and Chinese billions, as well as many other upsurging nations such as Brazil, Argentina, Russia, and Israel.
Another aspect of globalisation, besides the simple fact of global competition, is that it tends to strip away the dykes and buttresses of traditional cultures, leaving us unshielded from the storms of undiluted capitalism. Being a duke, a gentleman, a professional, or a civil servant used to count for a lot in Britain. But these things mean nothing in the USA, and we are increasingly finding ourselves in a world that plays by American rules. In other words, money counts first, last, and foremost. Rich people are good; poor people are workshy at best.
Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,
My heart bleeds for these people who now suffer such deprivations as not sending their kids to private school or living inthe nicest areas.
The horror, the horror.
And, BTW, does going to Eton mean you are inteligent? I don't think so.
I live in China where millions of kids can't even afford to go to school in the west of the country and even people with jobs get paid only about 100 US a month for long and hard toil.
kev, shanghai, China
Totally agree, it is a problem that isnt going to go away. Maybe everybody will rent in the future unless there is a correctiion very soon. It seems everybody is borrowing to borrow money to buy a house without a deposit, a very dangerous game. I read last week that we are entering a new era in the property market. Last time I heard that was in 1989 and in early 2000 with regards to the stock market!
john heenan, Rethimno, Crete
This is a well argued article and I broadly agree with the authors views. I am a 28 year old public school and Oxford University entrepreneur who runs a business in China, although I am from working class stock. I think that people of my generation are broadly worse off that those of my parents generation, even considering that my parents were far worse off financially than those of the author. We are poorer in every way and getting on the property ladder seems to be only a dream for most of us.
Yet most of us own several iPods, have two or three holidays a year and have an array of gadgets and consumables that our parents could never have dreamed of. We think that we may as well have a nice TV, laptop, three holidays a year and enjoy eating out as no amount of penny pinching will get us on the property ladder in London or allow us to send our children to public school.
It seems that my generation has a lot of toys and a good lifestyle but precious little of what really matters.
Chris Stevens, Beijing, China
The author incredibly suggests that Poland and Polish nannies benefit from City bonuses while the English professional middle class remain in their miserable situation.
This line of reasoning would probably go on to conclude that the UK is a terrible place to live, the NHS is awful, the trains are worse, taxi drivers can't even speak English and everywhere abroad is wonderful.
bob, Warsaw,
This article is right on the money. When I first started earning money in London in the early 1990s I earned £10,500 and paid £303.66 per month for my single room in a rented flat. I've had a ten-year career in PR and now earn MORE as a secondary teacher three years into my new career. But I still live in a shared rented flat which costs around £350 per month each because to buy a flat here in Poole we're talking more than my £30k salary can support. I still have the same standard of living I had when I was a 23 year old fresh graduate at the beginning of my career. How is that?
Clare, Poole, Dorset
Sebastian - you might want to bear in mind that at the maximum minimum wage of 5.35 per hour, you could earn a phenomenal 11,120 per year (that's a 40 hour week for 52 weeks). Get a grip.
Catherine, Manchester,
At last! Somebody voicing what we, personally, have experienced over the last 5 years. we are a 2 graduate -working parent family with 2 children. To live in a semi-detached house we are mortgaged to the hilt. Our home is considerably smaller than the homes we grew up in. Our life style considerably less luxurious. Our friends who have found themselves on benefits have managed to finance holidays to Barcelona, trips to London and trips to the theatre. Something we cannot do without parental handouts! We are the Below the Poverty Line class that the government should worry about not the benefit class who are given "spending money". We are trapped between the "underclass" of non-workers and our peers who - if they made the right choice about their careers- live a lifestyle we can only ever dream about. our children will inherit our debt.
sally morris, birmingham, gb
This is called inflation! I'm surprised people haven't figured it out yet. Instead of a more traditional inflation of our currency hitting the cost of our consumer goods, instead, inflation has manifested itself in crippling house prices. Now, even comparatively well paid proffessional people are unable to afford a decent sized house where they can raise a family. Also consider the spending power of graduates leaving university and finding their first job. They will already have taken on high levels of debt to fund their eductaion. Now they face the prospect of finding affordable accommodation. They have no spending power at all without borrowing even more money. THIS IS INFLATION!
It really is time people woke up and realise the con trick that has been played on the people. We have been bribed into thinking inflation is under control by questionable inflation figures and the plentiful supply of cheap, imported consumer good. It is a lie
Matt Myers, Redhill, UK
The above article is very London centric as with alot of Sunday Times output. But the same is happening around all the big cities in the uk, but on a smaller (financial) scale. As a qualified professional in my early 30s, I cannot afford to live in the Shropshire/Staffordshire countryside where I grew up, which has been transformed in the last 15 years with all the "townies" moving in and doing up every building/barn/tumble down cottage in site. I would need to team up with another well paid professional to afford a similar house, having made some equity in the property market for at least 5 years - and then realise that dropping to one income to start a family is not affordable.
ARM, Birmingham, UK
Many people reading this article will be upset and offended by the sentiments expressed. There are very many dedicated professionals in this country - engineers -teachers - lecturers - health care staff - local government staff etc, who earn a pittance compared with even the "poor" salaries quoted in the article. These professionals, who mostly have good university degrees, are the group that keep this country running and are the group that are least well rewarded.
This group of people are now an underclass who cannot easily afford property [even away from London] and cannot even dream of sending their children to public schools.
The perennial below inflation salary increases of public-sector workers cannot go on indefinitely. This level of inequity will eventually lead to upheaval and the rich may very well have to wade through their own waste water when the last water treatment plant manager resigns!
D Shires, New Milton,
Maybe it's not such a bad thing that Sebastian and his friends have had to learn that Brixton and Streatham exist, maybe it's healthy that it does matter what directions individuals choose and that people can no longer assume that they have an entitlement to similar living standards as their parents. I'm not sure Sebastian has yet entered the real world where most inhabitants of our planet struggle for basics but at least he is beginning to realise that pleasant housing and private schooling are not permanent entitlements. Another few doses of downward mobility are probably needed to shake him into real action rather than morose self pity.
Graham Whitehead, Cobham, UK
The perspective and attitudes of the 'professional classes' revealed in this article are priceless.For example, you appear to have redefined 'poverty' as 'being unable to spend £3m on property and send 3 children to Eton.' You poor people, actually having to worry about not getting stuff handed to you on a plate. Welcome to the real world, it's about time you joined the rest of us!
David, London, UK
I do hate this governments determination that one system works for everyone. Imagine if you could only buy jeans that had a 32 inch waist! We should make public school and university fees tax deductable. More public schools could be built to meet demand and there would be less children in the state sector. PS bring back grammer schools!
john heenan, Rethimno, Crete
Twenty years ago a degree usually put you in the top 10%, so you were middle class. Now it puts you in the top half, out of the underclass, but not by any stretch of the imagination rich. So the middle class is splitting, City types with enough money to buy nice properties in the top layer, and semi-professionals like teachers, civil servants and the like who can just about house their families without state benefits in the much bigger layer below.
Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK
It sounds to me that Mr Cresswell Turner's idea of reasonably well (private schools, house in country flat in London) off is what I would always have called rich or at least incredibly wealthy. He seems upset at his bad career decisions, seemingly brought up unprepared for the school of hard knocks that is the real world and then wants to blame this (as so many others do) on people making a success of themselves in the City. Yes, there is big money being made in the city but also in many other places too, eg by his brother the rich retailer, there is also good money & lifestyle being made by people who put effort into their life (eg a plasterer/decorator) but settle for less than 'stucco fronted housing'. Mr Cresswell Turner seemed to expect a certain living/lifestyle to arrive just from education and deriving from the middle classes. Thats not the real world and there's no reason it should be.
rikrok, London, UK
The Road To Serfdom is paved with good intentions.
The irony of unfettered capitalism is that it can just as easily send the masses into poverty and strip their supermarket shelves bare of bread.
Friedrich Hayek would be turning in his grave.
Paul, London,
I fail to feel any pity for those who are unable to live in London through either idleness or incompetance. The same forces reducing hapless middle-class fools' social standing are also enabling talented individuals to emerge from other social backgrounds in Britain or from across the world.
Good riddance to you all
James Cameron, Barcelona,
London is not the centre of the world.
Steve, Perth, Australia
Just don't buy any property, it's a bad investment. The whole "Get on the Property Ladder" idea is propaganda.
Stephan, London,
Why do British people accept the economic situation described above? Do they think that the laws of economics are, like the gods (or God) of old, unchallengeable and tyrannical? Politics is there to help matters and to influence the distribution of wealth. Another article in the ST today points out that the super-rich pay practically no tax and it is implied that, if we want a dynamic, wealth-creating culture in London, this unfair lack of taxation must be accepted. I believe that such an implication is neither acceptable nor valid. Political debate should be presenting us with alternatives to the growing economic inequalities among the population.
Jimbo, Oslo, Norway
The same scenario is coming into play in the US fueled by rising housing prices. Powerful attorneys cannot see any hope of a retirement that does not look like a downward spiral into bare necesseities. Certainly if you have not "parlayed" your real estate into a very comfortable equity situation you are looking at a scary future
c tynes, newport beach,ca, usa
Whilst this article poses an interesting and sometimes valid view, I feel the author is over-reacting, doing nothing to disuade the view of the 'middle class' as snobbish.
Parents will endevour to send their children to the best schools, but there are many who can only dream of educating their children privately.
Many would be grateful to face the dilema of whether they can afford to take 3 holidays that year, or just one.
I would like to think that this is a tounge-in-cheek take on the current state of affairs, but I fear it is not.
Poverty is in its extreme, not being able to clothe your children. It is working 3 jobs just to keep a roof over their heads'.
To suggest one might be suffering hardship purely because they cannot 'keep up with the Jones'' (or perhaps the 'Jone-Smythes''?), is short-sighted.
If I were a sarcastic being I would suggest the author tried living on an income of 12K a year. But i'm not. I shall simply suggest he only visits the alps once this year!
S. Novak, Buckinghamshire,
Same thing happened in the Roman Empire, apparently as the upper classes bought more and more slaves, they wiped out the middle classes. Any jobs that the middle classes, ie. non slaveowning freemen could do could always be done more cheaply with a slave operation.
So it was basically a case of buy plenty of slaves to work your business, or become one yourself.
Of course, these days we don't have slavery anymore, oh no, except in other countries. but if you want slaves, just buy property instead.
It's kind of irrelevant whether Blair leaves now or not. I'm not sure what's been set in motion can be reversed now.
Ed Evershed, Winchester, SO21 2AP
I assume that this is his idea of a joke, otherwise it is in extremely poor tatse. Wiht the education he claims to have he would many times have been told not to whine, to get on with and accept your fate with a smile. Seems his parents wasted rather a lot of money
Paul Brinklow, London, UK
If I was born 30 years ago I wouldn't have had a chance. Both my parents come from poor single parent, council estate backgrounds but they have worked hard and now own their own houses. My brothers and I have continued to move on , and even though we only went to state schools, we are all accountants and brokers in top city firms earning more than our parents even though we are only mid 20's. This Chap sounds like he had an excellent start to life and has wasted his chances. If you don't work hard in this life and take your chances, whatever your start you will not get anywhere in life. Thankfully doing well these days is less about who you know than what you can do.
Nathan, Southend, Essex
Come to Australia,we have spent two centuries establishing a society that is based on merit not privilege.It is not perfect of course,but it does not burden individuals with the forlorn sense of entitlement that seems to pervade this article.
Catherine Tutton, Melbourne, Australia
About that rectory his father bought for him and his brothers to grow up in. What happened to the rector?
John Seymour, Cheshire,
The presumption that he has a "right" to a house in chelsea a house in the country and be able to send his children to Eton is ridiculous. He comes across as a jealous upper class fool....maybe this is why he can only afford to rent a flat in london. His parents must be loaded after the property boom .....maybe they can bail him out....but after spending so much on his education for so little they feel they have done enough. The era he so longing for was typified by a very inflexible labour market where people from the best schools got the best jobs. The economy is more flexible (no thanks to labour) and this means that more people from more backgrounds can get on... I went to state school and so did most of my friends...we have worked hard and have all the things he longs for...the difference is these days you get things because you work hard have talent and a little luck....but in most cases it is not because you went to some public school.
Harvey Robinson, London, UK
This is a very superficially convincing article which panders to jealousy.
Eton and parts of West London never have been and never will be open to the typical middle class wage earner. That is the very top of the market and it's like arguing that Bentleys or racehorses are or should be affordable to a wide spectrum of people. It's totally unrealistic.
I also do not believe the argument that because someone else is better off, I must be poorer. This is just disguising jealousy behind a facade of calls for equality.
Charles, Bath, UK
I think what people fail to realise what this person is trying to say. What he is saying that even with higher earning you can't do now what your parents did with less money.
Now does that not sound familiar. He is talking about that he wants to do atleast similar for his children to what his parents did for him. But even with higer income he cant.
As now a days all wealth in the UK is in property with which you can't buy education or any other such neccessity.
Think the growth today is because of the foundation laid by the previous generations. Now if you cant do it now the following generation will suffer and also keep in mind the competition from Asia will get more and more intensive as time goes on.
He is talking about just to stay standing in one place is getting difficult.
maybe this makes things clearer for some people
DC, Dav,
Jesus, it must be so hard being that poor. I just hope this man never finds himself in my situation... 15k a year, single mother with two kids...
Lora, Manchester,
As a life long carer (24/7/365) presently on £78 per week for myself and wife I feel so upset by your predictament that I will set up a 'charity' to rescue you.
J D S, Cardiff, Wales UK
I think downward mobility has always been a problem for the Middle Classes. We used to call it 'genteel poverty'. Typically it engulfed old maids and ne'er do wells who hadn't the opportunity or skills needed to resist the pull of gravity towards the 'Lower Classes'. The problem is somewhat different today as there are huge variations of pay depending on whether the skills you possess are in demand or not. To hang on to the perks of a generation ago is not easy. The disparity between the most successful and the mediocre is huge. Sebastian Cresswell-Turner and J.K. Rowling are both 'word-smiths' but he is struggling while she is one of the richest women in the world. It doesn't seem fair but clearly her words are worth much more than his (or mine come to that—I too am an author). It is unfortunate but whole swathes of Middle Class occupations are not as valued as they once were. Even so he surely must take some of the blame if he doesn't even own a home of his own. Ask his brothers.
Adrian Gilbert, Tonbridge, England
And oh so true in the U.S. also my friends.
Storm, West Palm Beach, Florida
The writer of the article is correct to point up the decrease in the standard of living for his and future generations, not just his class, the price of property IS one of the major factors, fueled by the notion of free money from property development and parastic buy to let.
For the lower order we have seen wages/fees screwed downwards to benefit shareholders, but essential costs like rent and transport racked up, that's one of the main reasons for credit card debt, not simply debtors mimicing the rich.
We also have an executive, cushioned from plebeian travails because they can continue to award themselves themselves pay rises and allowances.
These complaints from many in this country is not whingeing.
Frank H., London,
You refer to city bonuses but that is miarge too.Like the poorer middle classes most whizz kids in the city earn the minimum wage in relation to hours worked.My Oxford educated son works for Atrium bank in the city he earns 27,000 a year but his hours are 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m and he is lucky some work till midnight so after tax NI and student loan leaves him 360 quid a week nett for a 60 hour week which is 6 quid an hour he takes home.The cleanetr in his building earns 6 quid an hour plus tax credits and low council tax. Who is better off.The scandal of young 25 year old graduates working 60 to 80 hour weeks for 27 to 30 grand a year which is 6 pounds an hour!!! Its slave labour exploiting them on a promise of a big bonus one day but the bonus never comes except to the fat cats at the top of the tree
Nigel Hearn, Weybridge, England
Is this guy for real ? He's complaining that people on £60k a year can't afford to send their kids to Eton ?!!? This guy is totally divorced from reality. My heart bleeds...
AB, London,
My my the feeling that you need £330k a year to live on must be terrible. Personally I'd be happy if my wife and I earned a tenth of that. Oh wait a minute we do and we are happy.
Next weeks article will be about the businessman who had to sell his Gulfstream personal jet and was reduced to flying first class. The horror of it all.
Mike , Exeter, UK
It used to be that a good education and a degree was sufficient to mark you out for upward mobility: no more. The professional classes are facing a two-pronged attack:
Nu Labour have dumbed-down the value of a degree to such an extent that they are now two-a-penny.
Simultaneously, as the article points out, by inviting the whole world and his wife into Britain to work for half salaries. Those with a twenty year old degree have seen their salaries halved and their taxes doubled.
The professional in modern Britain is the new working class of old. Moral, if you want to get on, get out! FInd a country that still values your skill.
Edwin Thornber, Bucharest, Romaia
What Sebastian is complaining about is that the make-up of the the monied Middle Class is changing and while it was Eton boys and the landed gentry who could expect a comfy (or less comfy) public school followed by a vaselined entrance to Oxford, Cambridge or "something in the city", it isn't any more. Poor devil!
The rich are out there still but many are now professional sportsmen, property speculators, lottery winners, rock stars and drug dealers. With each "Darwinian" generation some (like Sebastian) fall by the wayside and new entrants, (like Kenny Noye or Keith Richard, to name two Kent boys), join the ranks.
Career choice is indeed important, and, let me tell you from personal experience that "translating, writing and language teaching " is a one-way road to downward mobility for all but a few. But just how much money do you REALLY need?
Grasshopper! Look for happiness in places other than in money. Lose your envy and you will find peace. Get out of Hammersmith mate!
Paolo Bagarino, Roma, Italy
What utter tosh!
Try living on minimum wage rates, or state benefits where you can't even find an NHS dentist let alone worry about private education.
Barbara, Gloucestershire,
A lot of this is down to inflation both general (not the mickey mouse CPI) and asset, especially property, due to artificialy low interest rates. A lot of people are going to be caught out now the global property boom is unwinding.
G. Buxton, Poole, UK
welcome to the club, you wanted to be financial capital of the world, there's your prize
a new yorker
ed, new york, ny
Money is undeniably important, in that it's difficult to get by without it (I say this as someone who has struggled financially for years and foresees many years of combat ahead), but this article completely overlooks the fact that people nowadays accept that they won't have the same financial security as their parents, whether those parents were very well-off or just ordinary middle-class people. Accepting this fact can be very liberating: it means that the well-educated, relatively "poor" thirty- and forty-somethings of today are free to rediscover other values, and are, in short, less materialistic than their parents. I'm not sure that that's such a bad thing. At the end of my life I hope I'll look back on the things I studied and researched, the things I created, the people I loved, etc. I doubt I'll be crying over the fact that I own only a modest flat, use a car-pool and don't go on far-flung holidays.
Helene, Strasbourg, France
I have not lived in London for some time, but is it true that a joint income of £140,000 a year leaves you no choice but to be downwardly mobile? True, you may not be able to spend on education, holidays, and houses so freely, but surely there must be a way to live comfortably in London?
Victoria, Oxford, England
What the writer doesn't get is that the lifestyle he describes was always for the privileged few. What has changed is nepotism. No longer can you walk into the best jobs by pulling a few strings, you have to compete with people from all walks of life. That there are still waiting lists and fierce competition to get into the best schools shows that plenty of people are enjoying the lifestyle, but it doesn't come automatically as Mr Cresswell-Turner seems to expect.
Catherine Flatt, Tring, Herts
"the professional poor " This includes highly trained teachers who are too expensive to employ. It is possible to have two full time teacher assistants for my salary - I keep being asked to go back to teaching. How and Where. It is too late now. Interviewed by two women who did not have my qualifications and were patronising in the extreme. The budget would not allow it so they had to find some excuse not to employ me... and they did.
I too have gone back to parts of London where I lived in the Sixties, Balham was Gateway to the South [Peter Sellers]. Now it is where people live, not some equivalent of the Outer Hebrides. Areas where I lived as a student are now home to millionaires. The "less than professional rich". London is a rich man's paradise and when I visit I am a tourist in my own homeland.
Jane Fleming, Peterborough, United Kingdom
Thank you for a very incisive, thought-provoking article. What are the chances of these trends continuing another generation ot two down the line and we see swathes of the population decanted to the continent - the former stabile middle classes to Scandinavia and the underclasses to Kosovo and Albania?
J.P. O'Donnell, Gothenburg, Sweden
The problem of course, is that the engine hasn't broken yet. The super wealth at the top and cheap labour at the bottom is keeping the whole machine chugging so people feel vaguely irritated but not in any sense desperate. Those at the bottom buy on credit to mimic the rich and as you point out, those in the middle generally escape London and then pretty much lose contact with 50% of their college friends. I see a crash within 2 years. The cost of cheap labour from Eastern Europe will start to rise as supply thins and labour rights over here catch up. The US market is looking very wobbly and will lead the way for a fall here. I can't do anything about super-money from China or Russia. But these folk are all susceptible to political change. I don't want to put middle class folk back in rectories but I'd like to see clever nobodies starting businesses instead of going on talent shows and fewer useless public schoolboys making risk-free 100k plus in the city.
Claire, Bishop's stortford, herts
This is a wonderful thing. All this says is that the class system is being broken down- there is no longer automatic access by right of birth. If children of professionals are now "forced" to go to state schools, then these demanding, knowledgeable parents will act to make standards higher. Good for the country 's education system as a whole. For those who want their kids to go into expensive public schools, surely they should earning the commensurate incomes?. My parents worked hard to make sure their children were privately educated and in our time we are doing the same. Our children know it is a privilege and not a right. In their time, If they want the same for their children they will have to earn the income. In the meantime, my husband and I will keep working hard, expose our children so they will be well equipped to make their careeer choices, and how to educate their own children. Publicly or privately, but that will be their choice, we have already made ours.
Samantha, Cheshire,
The article highlights an issue for that relatively small number of people with a similar background as the writer.
The vast majority of City professionals earn considerably less than £100K, work 60hr+ pw often suffering brutal management in this form of modern day slavery. They are thus just as much victims of spiralling asset prices as everybody else in London. Yet without the guiding benefit of successful parents, London continues to be what it always has been to them - an environment in which you must compete ferociously with everybody else in order to achieve little more than survival, an environment which dehumanises all.
city professional, London, UK
The writer really doesn't get it. Globalisation has nothing to do with it. What is going on is asset inflation. Asset inflation is caused by the increase in the quantity of money. We are in the middle of a credit bubble, created by the Government, through off-balance sheet financing and Enron like public finances. It will bust. There are two profitable classes to belong to at the moment. One is the financial people who arrange the deals, whether in the City, in real estate, in the law. The second is to be the underclass and have everything done for you.
There is more. The paradise the author describes was funded by low wages for everyone except the professional classes. However the wages of plumbers and builders and waiters have risen. So people like his friends can no longer afford to employ so many of them. It was also funded by low taxes. Since his youth the real tax burden has risen dramatically, funding an army of well paid beaurocrats. They too are beneficiaries.
George Johnson, London,
This article is very true, there is an increasing gap between the higher professions, the bankers, lawyers and management consultants, and the others, such as architects, engineers, town planners and civil servants etc. In many ways the "others" are now closer to the skilled workers than the higher professions.
Matthew, London, United Kingdom
As per usual another person envious of bankers and trying to make an opportunist politician jump on the bandwagon of taxing these "City" types (who incidently could very easily move their business to tax free zones, such as Bermuda - be warned increasing the tax burden and or regulation could see the City drastically contract). Perhaps you should also note that only the best of the best actually make it to the top of the City and earn those stellar bonuses (out of 350,000 people only 3000 earn bonuses over £1M, which is less than 1% of this group). Many analysts starting after university don't make it more than three years.
Out of all the bankers in London you would be suprised at how few can spend on education, holidays and houses as carelessly as you make out.
Steve Jones, London,
Please let me know here I can send a pound to help out. I am overcome by sobs as I write this.
Bernard, Winnipeg, Canada
It's the same here in parts of the USA - especially around the New York City metro region. Prior to '9/11' a couple earning $40k could afford a decent house in a small city or larger home in or just outside a small town (where I grew-up). Immediately following '9/11' all bets were off.
City civil service personnel, of which there were but a few in the days pre-9/11 were suddenly buying up properties nearly 'site unseen' in some cases. Thousands of others from the private sector were also now moving out to
'the sticks' (as they called our homeland) intent on living, it seems, the idealic life of a country squire - judging by the mulit-million dollar 'McMansions' they threw up in every available corn field and orchard.
As Sebastian relates; those of us who were raised in these homes can only now look back as the wealthy city-folk came-in and took over. Especially suffering are the elderly who are priced out of their homes by tax increases to offset services these folk demand.
Larry, Middletown, USA/NY
Poverty is relative .. try working in sainsburys on £15000 a year and then talk about poverty
Elwin parsley, london , UK
It appears to be a combination of incompetence on behalf of the latter Conservative and New Labours doctrine. I have absolutely no trust in any of the parties, as I am sure the majority of voters. I would give them their due they are consistant in tackling issues on a LIFO issue and appear to have no grasp of common sense. Example today Mr Blair pushing how well the NHS is over the decade he was in power. Give me a break, a blind man with ear muffs, could smell, what he is shoveling. Even the most mentally challenged individual, can see how absurd , the state of the nation is presently.
Clean slate Clean party, surely there is someone, apart from the con tricksters parites available today, who has a geniune idea of what to do.
Britain I feel has been slipping and can only get worse.
Peter Hagan, Liverpool, England
Good heavens, Sebastian! I suppose you realise that such a lack of self-awareness and such self-pitying bleating are the reasons why the Upper Middle Classes are roundly detested.
Just because we went to private school, because our parents went to those schools; does not mean that we have any reason to expect that for our own children. I suppose you're of the type who will howl at the injustice of death duties, too.
We are grown-ups, Sebastian. We deal with the hand fate plays us and sink or swim based on our skill with those cards. The "poor me" attitude won't wash when it comes from the disadvantaged working class who doesn't make the most of the education and opportunities which are available to them; it's considerably less palatable when it comes from one who has had a good set of chances from the beginning.
The goalposts have moved, Sebastian - but you're a big boy, you must adapt to the rules of the new game.
Charlotte M-W, London,
Words fail me Sebastian; I can't actually believe that you have used the words "nouveau poor" in reference to yourself.
I think there are a number of people who can be put into the "poverty" bracket before your poor little pumpkins, who have been forced to live in *gasp* Battersea and have to drive a Golf rather than a Merc and not send your children to private school.
The opportunities you have had and I am sure you have worked hard for, should not be taken for granted. There are thousands of people in this country that will never have the chances you have had or the idyllic childhood you talk of.
Emma, London,
Yes it's a terrible situation. My daughter has just left Oxford and unless she works will only be able to afford a small house here West London - without a butler.
Whatever next....
Hector Luther-Davies, Chelsea,
I believe that there is a property shortage in the uk. House prices
have risen much faster than incomes,and ordinary blue collar workers -or even the middle classes can no longer afford to buy
a 3 bed semi. We are becoming a nation of tenants.
I believe that we should identify all the boring ugly countryside
and build high density new towns on it , but protect the beautiful
countryside.
Also necessities such as council tax have risen in price much faster than luxuries(eg foreign holidays or TV sets),so there is a much smaller gap between feast and famine.At the same time
the wages at the top of the income scale have risen much faster
than those at the bottom.
BENJAMIN SMITH, TODMORDEN, U.K
Those who criticise the author for whining would presumably citicise another's view if he or she earned more than them. I think it's a valid snapshot of economic trends in Britain (and further afield) and the one that may prove the most telling. The spread of corporate fascism initially gained its foothold on the backs of the middle classes. There have always been rich and poor: the former locked into a genetic cycle of preserving the status quo; the latter illit