Matthew Birchman 🔰🇺🇦🇪🇺

@PaulRWebster @OliverJBradshaw Old people are the ones blocking housing.

@OliverJBradshaw Yes, the world has changed, but older people are not going to give away what they have worked their whole lives for. You should campaign to build houses and look forward to a long retirement when AI replaces your jobs.

This weekend, boomers have been calling my generation entitled, ungrateful, and straight up lazy for questioning the state pension triple lock. Apart from a barrage of playground insults, the same old arguments kept coming: “We paid in our time,” “It’s your turn now,” “Just move somewhere cheaper,” “16% of you lot are out of work,” and “Stop buying coffee and going out.” Here’s the nasty truth they conveniently ignore. You talk about a fair “pay-it-forward” deal. But back when you worked, there were roughly five workers per pensioner. Today it’s 3.6. By the time we retire, it’ll be closer to 2.5. You had far more people sharing the load. That contract got stretched thin on our backs. You say you worked harder, faced 15% mortgages, had no luxuries, and Uni was basically free. Interest rates were brutal, sure. But you bought houses for 3-4 times your wages. Ours cost 8-10 times or more. Over-60s now hold 55% of the country’s entire housing wealth, nearly £3.84 trillion, mostly mortgage-free. Many of you enjoyed full mortgage interest tax relief (MIRAS) until 2000. We pay sky-high rents with zero tax relief while real wages have barely grown against inflation for 15 years. My generation was sold a lie, study hard, get the degree, land the good job, buy the house, pay your National Insurance, and the system will look after you. I know friends and colleagues who followed that script to the letter, straight-A students, graduate schemes, full time work from day one. Now in their late twenties, they’re still renting, saddled with £50k+ in loans, watching every spare pound vanish into rent and bills, while being called “entitled” for noticing the numbers don’t add up. “Just buy a house somewhere cheaper!” Sure, in towns where property is dirt cheap and jobs are non existent. Good careers don’t magically appear out of thin air. That advice is pure fantasy. “Just cut back on coffee and nights out”? As if skipping a £4 latte can magically fund a house deposit when homes cost 8-10 times our wages. Our money has far less purchasing power than yours ever did. We spend nearly 30% of our income on housing (up from 20% twenty years ago), and under-30s households devote 70% of their budget to essentials versus just 56% for over-65s. We’re not splashing on luxuries, we don’t want to live like hermits just to scrape by, and nor should we have to. You throw out the 16% youth unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds and call us bone idle. That’s not laziness, it’s a brutal job market. Job vacancies have tanked. We’re stuck in retail and hospitality roles that get cut first when times are tough, five times more likely to be on zero-hours contracts. Nearly a million of us (12.8%) are NEET simply because the jobs don't exist. Many of us are already paying National Insurance from the first insecure job we have, yet we’re still expected to bankroll your guaranteed above inflation rises. Work in Britain no long pays. The state pension already costs £138 billion a year, the second biggest single expense after the NHS. The triple lock alone will add £15.5 billion extra every year by 2030, three times the original forecast. Pension spending is heading from ~5% of GDP toward 7.7% in the coming decades, with more than half the extra burden coming directly from the triple lock itself. Waste exists elsewhere and public-sector pensions are far too generous, but this locked in, exploding cost is the elephant in the room, and they all need reviewing. I’m not pitting generations against each other or begrudging anyone a dignified retirement. But the system you defend hands one generation guaranteed rises no matter what the economy does, while the shrinking number of us paying the bill gets saddled with a heavier and heavier bag. I’m not against pensioners. I’m against a policy that’s mathematically doomed and dumps the heaviest load on fewer and fewer contributors. The truly entitled position is demanding a blank cheque forever while slapping down facts as “division” or “whining” or pretending our small treats are the problem. So go ahead, tell me exactly where I’m wrong. But this time skip the playground insults calling me and my generation entitled and lazy. I’m done being polite about a system that screws my generation while you demand a blank cheque.

@sue3563 @rupertaesthete Old people are the overwhelming majority of busybodies who block planning permissions.

@MatthewBirchman @rupertaesthete Yeah because mass generalisations are always fair….

Boomers are the first generation to not believe in objective values at all. They have no social contract between their ancestors or descendents because everything is relative. A they have is 'live and let live' liberal self-interest - and a boomerbox house market bubble.

@sue3563 @rupertaesthete Maybe they should allow housing to be built instead of moaning about the view from their window.

@rupertaesthete How fair is a generalisation like that? ‘Boomers’ don’t set the house prices. They paid for the generation before themselves’s pensions, just as is happening now. Not a boomer but I’d love my adult kids to be having an easier time of it with housing etc but can’t make that happen

@Akalves01 @JayinKyiv I'd be lining up artillery like the north Koreans do on Seoul.

@JayinKyiv Absolute lunatics 😂😂😂 In all seriousness though, we need a battle plan to seize Kaliningrad, just in case that opportunity would present itself through an attack on any of our baltic states.

Russia's most popular bloggers all progressively getting on the same page, talking up a new invasion of the Baltics as a "more promising direction than Ukraine".

@mohammad_rona Glad for at jeg stemte på dig. Den yderste højrefløj har fuldstændigt smadret blå bloks legitimitet, så jeg håber moderaterne kan bringe noget liberal økonomisk tænkning ind i en eventuel rød rød regering.

Hold da op bølgerne er gået højt i disse dage. Siden hvornår er det blevet et højt aktuelt tema at kalde sig for dansker med afghansk baggrund uden at pisse den yderste højrefløj af? :) Vi har vigtigere ting i sigte i den kommende tid - jeg glæder mig 👍

@MoodyBlueliner @RasmusJarlov @akoz33 I mean, why would we like retarded rednecks?

@RasmusJarlov @akoz33 All the more reason to end our alliance, don't you think? It's just not working anymore. The only thing we can agree on is that we don't like each other!

Europeans delude themselves if they imagine that if Trump leaves NATO and the Democrats win in 2028, America will return & everthing will be as before. In fact, isolationism is actually stronger among the Democrats than among Republicans and, more importantly, is anti-West.

@mandivalby @thorborg Smut dog til Alabama, tror du vil finde dig bedre tilpas blandt dine indavlede åndsfæller.

JA, det er mange danskere, når de i 6 årtier lader fremmede klaner med inkompatible værdier vælte ind over Danmarks grænser og sætter vores velfærdsstat og kultur over styr. Som en tidligere socialdemokrat (jeg husker ikke lige hans navn) engang sagde; "Vælgerne er ikke kun dumme. De er snotdumme".

Alle dem der mener man kun er dansk hvis man har "danske gener", hvor langt skal man så tilbage? Vi stammer oprindeligt fra Ukraine sciencenews.dk/da/100-skelett…

@U8N20 @RasmusDamgaard5 At folk bosætter sig steder hvor offentlig transport ikke kan betale sig er vel ikke folk i storbyens problem?

@RasmusDamgaard5 Vest for Valby ligger der noget der hedder Danmark udenfor København- prøv at vise os alle sammen at du kan relatere til at der hverken findes metro og s-tog der - busser kører en gang i timen og togforbindelser virker ikke - og prøv så komme med samme påstand - tåbeligt tweet

Nej, vi skal ikke have lavere brændstofafgift. Den skal være langt højere! Det er komplet skævt, når det koster samfundet 50 kr at du tager bilen til Køge, men du kun betaler 10 kr. Det skal være billigere at tage s-toget hvis du kan, også selvom du har bil alligevel.

@jespertagen @RasmusDamgaard5 Udkantsdanmark er massivt subsidieret.

@RasmusDamgaard5 Sig du kommer fra København uden at sige det højt. Det ævl kan sgu da ikke lade sig gøre i Udkantsdanmark! Og så skulle hr og fru hakkebøf tage cyklen i sommerhuset ?

@EmilMoller10 Jeg forstår ikke hvordan rentestigninger skulle hjælpe noget på et pris chock, og tror heller ikke centralbankerne gør. Renten har kun effekt hvis inflationen er demand-pull, men det her er klassisk cost-push.

Som forventet stiger det politiske pres for at skærme forbrugerne. Nogle lande vil håndtere det fornuftigt, men de fleste vil nok gøre som Norge. At sænke afgifter under et udbudschok svarer i praksis til at sende penge direkte i lommen på producenterne. Det er dumt. Andre vil formentlig lette indkomstskatter eller hæve overførsler- Herhjemme kan det måske ske uden de store konsekvenser, men mange steder vil det blot føre til højere renter. Priskontrol? Hvis det bliver slemt nok kan det måske give mening, men det er et risikabelt redskab.. Uanset hvad er lavere vækst og højere renter allerede ved at prise sig ind. Ikke en god kombination...

@runegreyskull @Enhedslisten @pelledragsted Kunne være fedt hvis hans parti ikke konstant blokkerede for nye boliger.

det her bliver interessant! jeg synes @Enhedslisten og @pelledragsted som nogen af de eneste i den jer valgkamp har bragt ting frem det har betydning lige nu, for helt almindelige danskeres økonomi. altinget.dk/artikel/inden-…

@TKL_Adam Rate hikes can't fight energy shocks. How exactly would a hike in interest rates help on oil prices? It's completely nonsensical.

Jet fuel prices in Europe have now risen over +100% in a matter of weeks. Soon, the discussion will be about how many rate hikes Europe will need to fight the massive wave of inflation heading their way.

@oresundsbaron Melenchon er hadet af resten af det franske politiske spektrum, inklusiv venstrefløjen.

Bardella (Le Pens arvtager) står til en jordskredssejr hvis han er oppe imod venstrefløjskandidaten Melenchon. Der er valg i Frankrig i 2027.

@MarvinTBaumann I question everything about rheinmetall as a business because of those comments.

Insane what a few Ukrainian housewives can do... Surely this couldn't ever happen to Leopards

@JayinKyiv I fully support Ukraine destroying every fertilizer plant they can get within range of. Let's see how Russia would respond to some good old fashioned starvation.

After a week of Ukraine's relentless strikes on Russia's most important economic lifelines on the Baltic Sea, Russian military bloggers cite "growing frustration among ordinary people" as "we've been kicked in the balls" and question "indecisive leadership", "while soldiers, are decisively sent forward."

@Lea_Noodles @Kali_de_Armas Idk about any of that, but it sure isn't coming from me, when girls have asked to choke them past what I found comfortable.

@Kali_de_Armas Pointing out that cishet sex exists within the confines of our patriarchal culture and cannot be removed from that context is not 'neurotic'. Purposefully ignoring that context does not make you a sex positive feminist

the thing about the endless radfem discourse on here is that the average radfem is genuinely operating from an extremely neurotic place, and they will never respond to reality testing. you can't "debunk" the statement "anal is abusive" because it isn't a logical or testable claim

@HilldurG @UsedCzarSales @Kali_de_Armas Cool, we don't believe you.

@UsedCzarSales @Kali_de_Armas I don’t believe them. that’s what I say.

@woopitywhoa @JokingDev @tigerangelfish @tippity You're trying to politicize sex, and people don't like to be told that their preferences somehow upholds patriarchy. You can discuss abuse and consent without this bullshit framing.

@JokingDev @tigerangelfish @tippity “criticises the coercive nature of heterosexual relations” “this is literally fascism you are trying to ban and police my personal sex life” you’re literally (incorrectly) levying a word that evokes a documented method of christian oppressive regime at a twitter conversation

we gotta be way more sex positive if we want to get this whole woke 2.0 thing started without completely crashing and burning. this puritanical belief that women don’t enjoy sex just as much as men is a bunch of baloney

Some people are religious and puritanical by nature, no matter their belief system. The trick is to recognize who they are, and direct them towards wacky insular cults, This way they don't spread their beliefs to others vulnerable to that kind of thinking.

@KAMxBLACKWASP @viterzistepy @shdisksgayg @GloOouD He was fighting for what he thought was easy money. Now he's worm food. Nothing of value was lost.

@viterzistepy @shdisksgayg @GloOouD He was just another soldier fighting for his country, whether you agree with Russias war or not,he was a human who believed he was fighting to protect his homeland

🫪Instead of surrendering, the 🇷🇺Russian invader made a better choice... Just the inglorious end of another Russian ❗️447th case in TOTAL❗️