One topic of discussion regarding the current economic crisis is - who is worst affected?
Some argue that pensioners brought up in the tough Soviet climate are better able to adapt to the present hardships, others that the 40 - 60 year olds who can’t adapt as quickly to the new way of doing things have been the greatest casualties, not just now but over the last 20 years as well.
Deimantė suggests it is the unprepared 25 – 40 generation that is suffering most in this economy. Tell us what you think.
Some say that pensioners, teachers, social workers, librarians or other civil servants suffer from this economical downturn most. But I think that it is my generation – people who are 25 – 40 years old who suffer from it more than others.
A couple of years ago they were living very successful lives. They took loans from the banks and bought cars and flats, and couldn’t imagine a day when their salaries being reduced would ever occur, the prognosis was all just up, up up. They couldn’t imagine that they could lose their jobs, they thought just about the next promotion.
Just imagine a young Lithuanian family, parents in their early 30s, they have two children. They took a loan to buy a flat which cost let say half a million litas several years ago, now worth maybe LTL200,000 (and even worse - nobody wants to buy it anyway). Both parents have cars; they took loans to buy them. They used to go on vocation twice a year – in summer to Turkey and during winter perhaps skiing in Italy or Austria.
And now one of them has lost their job, and for the other a salary reduction of about 20%. It doesn’t sound cool, does it? But this is exactly what is happening in Lithuania nowadays.
Of course people try to find ways out of such difficult situations, some move back to their parents where all four share one room at their parents house, some move to a some smaller flat and rent their apartment to somebody else.
But the thing is that a couple years ago everything was about this generation. They were the main consumers, they were also the ones not afraid to take loans, who weren’t scared to spend and didn’t care much about savings.
They frequented bars and restaurants, spending their money in all the popular wineries, they were the ones attending the theatre, cinema, concerts, sports events, taking dancing and photography classes, taking trips and trying unusual foods, buying clothes, shoes (more than one pair per season like our parents used to do), the latest computers, dishwashers, cosmetics. And yes, they were the ones who helped to create the real estate bubble.
They were sure that things would keep getting better, never worse. Because people of this generation started their working lives in good times, their careers continually improving.
They didn’t live through the tough periods, they were children or teenagers when Lithuania was going through especially difficult times like the Russian blockade, Russian crisis etc. So it wasn’t them who learnt to cope with hardship, it was their parents. They weren’t prepared for this economic crisis, and they never imagined it could be like this.
Hopefully this one lesson will be enough to teach them to understand more about responsibility and how to appreciate values other than just money and work. Maybe the Lithuanian proverb saying ‘don’t be happy when you find something, don’t cry then you lose something’ suits this situation perfectly.
So perhaps that’s why pensioners and the elder generations can cope better, because they are the ones who expect something like this economical downturn to happen. And generation 25-40 were taken suddenly and without any preparation.
This article was published in December 2009 in newspaper LiTnews
Some argue that pensioners brought up in the tough Soviet climate are better able to adapt to the present hardships, others that the 40 - 60 year olds who can’t adapt as quickly to the new way of doing things have been the greatest casualties, not just now but over the last 20 years as well.
Deimantė suggests it is the unprepared 25 – 40 generation that is suffering most in this economy. Tell us what you think.
Some say that pensioners, teachers, social workers, librarians or other civil servants suffer from this economical downturn most. But I think that it is my generation – people who are 25 – 40 years old who suffer from it more than others.
A couple of years ago they were living very successful lives. They took loans from the banks and bought cars and flats, and couldn’t imagine a day when their salaries being reduced would ever occur, the prognosis was all just up, up up. They couldn’t imagine that they could lose their jobs, they thought just about the next promotion.
Just imagine a young Lithuanian family, parents in their early 30s, they have two children. They took a loan to buy a flat which cost let say half a million litas several years ago, now worth maybe LTL200,000 (and even worse - nobody wants to buy it anyway). Both parents have cars; they took loans to buy them. They used to go on vocation twice a year – in summer to Turkey and during winter perhaps skiing in Italy or Austria.
And now one of them has lost their job, and for the other a salary reduction of about 20%. It doesn’t sound cool, does it? But this is exactly what is happening in Lithuania nowadays.
Of course people try to find ways out of such difficult situations, some move back to their parents where all four share one room at their parents house, some move to a some smaller flat and rent their apartment to somebody else.
But the thing is that a couple years ago everything was about this generation. They were the main consumers, they were also the ones not afraid to take loans, who weren’t scared to spend and didn’t care much about savings.
They frequented bars and restaurants, spending their money in all the popular wineries, they were the ones attending the theatre, cinema, concerts, sports events, taking dancing and photography classes, taking trips and trying unusual foods, buying clothes, shoes (more than one pair per season like our parents used to do), the latest computers, dishwashers, cosmetics. And yes, they were the ones who helped to create the real estate bubble.
They were sure that things would keep getting better, never worse. Because people of this generation started their working lives in good times, their careers continually improving.
They didn’t live through the tough periods, they were children or teenagers when Lithuania was going through especially difficult times like the Russian blockade, Russian crisis etc. So it wasn’t them who learnt to cope with hardship, it was their parents. They weren’t prepared for this economic crisis, and they never imagined it could be like this.
Hopefully this one lesson will be enough to teach them to understand more about responsibility and how to appreciate values other than just money and work. Maybe the Lithuanian proverb saying ‘don’t be happy when you find something, don’t cry then you lose something’ suits this situation perfectly.
So perhaps that’s why pensioners and the elder generations can cope better, because they are the ones who expect something like this economical downturn to happen. And generation 25-40 were taken suddenly and without any preparation.
This article was published in December 2009 in newspaper LiTnews
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