Police seize 3,000 driving licences and passports from underage drinkers in Swansea

“well said Max he voice of common sense , a degree is only of use if it is revelvant in the real world. As for call centre jobs well everyone has to start somewhere I'm sure these places offer promotion and managerial prospects?

maybe the kids of today rather than get degrees should get trades? skills such as electricans and carpeneters will always be needed and you can always use these to get work all over the world

not everyone can be a company director jiffy the world needs indians as well as chiefs”

“PART III
Every year we have a family reunion in the pub my Grandfather once owned. At the last get together of immediate family, everyone their owned their own homes, all had nice cars and there were nine degrees ( one of them a medical degree) and three self made millionaires. My nephew bought his third aircraft last year. But all of us got there through our own efforts.
Here's the kicker - no-one will ever give you a good job, you have to go out and get it. We didn't get any help from our parents - they never had enough, if we wanted an education then we worked hard to get one. Actually there were four millionaires but one my cousins inherited the bulk his wealth.

If you have a degree and are working for minimum wage in some dead end job then perhaps you got the wrong degree. I remember talking to a friend of mine ( sadly now deceased) Jeremy Beadle and he was saying he had never met anyone successful in the Media who got there through having a Media degree.

Today you have the most fantastic business opportunities, communication has never been better, and the computer allows you to stretch out to the rest of the world, but all the computers and other gadgets are simply tools, you actually have to use them.

The standard of living I enjoy now would absolutely stun my father. Life back then was hard and you had to fight every single minute - just like today.

So why do we have the situation that Jiffy outlines. Well one reason is I believe that too much is given and too little earned. This has taken away our drive and determination and we need to get it back pretty quickly!

If you are working in a dead end job then do something about it. Start your own business, look for another, but don't give up and join the moaning minnies because honestly you have never had it so good.”

“PART II

Well for a start we all some things in common. We all wore hand me downs ( I was 13 before I realised my name was not the same as my cousin) and sometimes we went hungry. I can remember my sister studying for her GCE's by the light of one candle. We got a wallop when necessary, and lived in some pretty dire places, but we all came out of it determined to do our best.

My sister and my brother joined the RAF ( she becoming the only one of us to become an officer) my other brother joined the Army and I joined the Navy. The other brother decided to work for himself.
I bought my first car in 1974 from one of my brothers and my first house in 1975.
Employment was hit and miss, but when one of us lost one job we got another, regardless of how much we were paid.

So how are we today. One brother owns his own house and several other properties in Swansea, another owns his own place in Berkshire, another owns a farm and cottages in France, my sister owns a stud farm in Oxford and I own my own house ( my third) and have a BMW and an MPV for transport.

After I left the forces I went along to the Employment Exchange and instead of finding me a job they started paying me the dole. I was horrified. I took one weeks dole and then found my own job. I ended up working for a Merchant Bank making very good money but bored stiff. I started my own business from a spare bedroom and ended up exporting all over the world. I retired from that and started three more business's. I also went to college ( with 2 GCE's to my name) and graduate with an MA.

I am under contract to the Welsh Government to give talks to schools and colleges on starting your own business. Just to see how much it actually took to start a business I launched one with £20. Today that business makes me a very nice living and I export all over the world.
My son owns his house, makes a very nice living and recently traded in His Jaguar for an Audi.

So where are we all today?”

“THE CURSE OF THE ROSE TINTED GLASSES

This debate, though straying slightly from the original story as most good debates do, has raised some very interesting points. However I do feel that some of us have fallen foul of the 'Curse of the Rose Tinted Glasses', i.e. 'things were always better when I was a lad'. But is that true? Yes I suppose we could all wade through acres of statistics swear that they prove our point and disprove someone else's but why not let us stick to provable facts? So how can we do that? Simples look at your own family and answer honestly.

Let me start the ball rolling with my family going back almost a hundred years. My father was born in a room above a Docks Office in Pier Street ( it's now part of Morgan's Hotel) in 1918. This was a time when the world was just coming out of a war that saw the deaths of millions, and then just when we thought we could breathe again an influenza epidemic swept through the world killing even more. Just when we were once again pulling ourselves together the Great depression hit. My father joined the Army in 1939 and came out in 1946 to - nothing! He had a wife and a child and he couldn't even get a council house. However he paid a master for an apprenticeship - yes in those days the apprentices paid to be taught, not like today when they are paid- and became a master carpenter and cabinet maker.

Over the years my father had five children and worked all the hours to support his family. The first vehicle he owned was in 1963 when he paid £20 for a clapped out Ford Prefect van that used to belong to the local fishmonger and so had a well rotted body. He was 45 years old. He never had a new vehicle and certainly never owned a house.

But what happened to his children?”

“How far out of touch are you? There are young people with degrees working in call centres in Swansea - with no opportunity of ever doing what they have been trained for. There are many youngsters with A levels working in shops, part-time on minimum wages. There were 9 jobs advertised as train conductors in Cardiff - thousands applied. Have you actually looked that jobs available in Swansea?

Most kids are not brilliant - they are not driven by greed. All they want is a healthy, happy life.”

“are you seriously telling me that there are no jobs out there? there may not be the high paid jobs initally but we all have to start somewhere. Get good grades in school, and work hard when you get a job and youll be fine.

If these thinsg are unaffordable have a look at busy med resort in the summer and tell me who you see out there or even go to wind street on a sat and tell me the demographic on show?

stop being such a doomonger, theres a real world out there go and see it (thats my advice to any youngster)”

“Spideyjonesy - Now tell us where they are getting the money to pay for these trips around the world, fast cars and the living life of Riley?”

“Jiffy are you really syaing kids today have nothing to aim for? they have the world at their feet. They can travel , drive nice cars, play any sport they want, converse with people from all over the world via social media.

There are a lot more options for any kids with some brians and some gumption than we had back in the 40's and 50's.

I wish they had a wind street full of bars and clubs when i was a lad, i'd be putting em away two a night. Ask maxy we had it far tougher and we didn;t moan.

Your right insaying most kids are good but now is a great time to be young”

“Young at heart maxy, if that makes you feel better Sir :)”

“maxmin, people act responsibly when they've got something to aim for, something to enjoy.

What have kids got now? 60 years of working for rubbish money. No security in work, housing or medical care. Education only available for the rich. If things continue as they are, over the course of their lives, they will watch the UK become a 3rd world country, with them servicing debts caused by people so bloody rich, they don't pay taxes or live here, except behind locked and guarded gates.

The kids are not all stupid, they're not all druggies or drunks, but there are enough to drag down the lives of everyone around them.

I remember the fuss being made about the old style mental hospitals, where people could be locked up for life for supposed minor crimes. It was a huge mistake to close them. These minor crimes are today's anti-social behaviour acts. The annoying events that cause us to stay at home behind locked doors, to worry about having our cars vandalised overnight, etc, etc.”