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Notes -
Hard to take these economic complaints seriously:
Compare the old age of a working class war veteran of the 1939-1945 war to the old age of a working class veteran of the Crimean War, or the First Boer War, or the Napoleonic Wars of a few generations before at the height of the glorious British Empire and the difference in treatment is rather visible.
People who returned from WW2 as able-bodied young men had their peak earning years at the height of the greatest economic boom in history (the baby boomers, for the criticism thereof, had to deal with the terrible 1970s as juniors and retired on the eve of (or just after) the 2008 recession that destroyed the value of any market-linked pensions). They lived through the greatest asset pricing boom in history having been able to acquire houses at the pricing nadir of the postwar era. They are unimaginably, almost incomprehensible richer than their parents’ generation, and benefited from extremely generous pension schemes that were successively whittled away for younger generations.
As for immigration, the hostility is much more reasonable (and justified). Still, the final blow, dealt by Tony Blair, was acquiesced to by this generation. White men over 65 did (as I understand it) vote for Labour in 1997, by a smaller margin than some other groups, but still they did. They are not blameless, and it is irksome when the elderly throw up their hands and relieve themselves of all responsibility for the present state of affairs.
The UK did not have the post-war boom that the US did. The Empire slowly collapsed and rationing continued into the 50s. Our baby boom also did not happen at the same time as the US. Yours was in the 50s. Ours was in the 60s
The UK did have a smaller postwar economic boom in the 50s and especially 1960s, until around 1972/3. Yes, GDP growth never reached American levels but it was a time of large-scale increases in prosperity, particularly for the working class. That’s as I understand it anyway.
Just to be clear, are you arguing then that people who returned from WW2 as able-bodied young men had their peak earning years about 15-20 years after the war ended?
Yes, that is typically the case.
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