The End Of The World As We Know It
Since you ask, I think an apocalyptic event, or at least the breakdown of society as we know it is highly likely in my lifetime.

When I say this, people think I’m going to go into some sort of conspiracy theory rant, but I think it’s actually a very rational thing to expect. We live in a world with out-of-control population growth, global warming, nuclear weapons… Other than the height of the Cold War, there has not been a time in human history when the likelihood of us bringing about our own extinction has been so high. And none of those problems are going away – they’re getting worse. I’m 30, so based on the average life expectancy, I’ve got another 50 or so years to go. It seems to me something could very well go seriously wrong in that period.

Even if there isn’t some sort of overwhelming nuclear or environmental catastrophe, the UK is pretty fucked right now. I’m part of a generation that can’t afford homes, won’t have decent pensions so will be expected to work on forever, has to expect falling standards of health and living for the first time in living memory… Massive changes to the way things operate in this country are bound to happen – whether for better or worse. What’s absolutely certain is that we can’t go on the way we are: even if the Tories manage to get the old fashioned boom and bust economy back on track, things are still going to increasingly get worse for the majority of people, and we’ll only be waiting for the system to crash again.

What I’m saying, basically, is that when I’m sixty, I wouldn’t be surprised to find I was either hunting rats for food in a post-Apocalyptic wasteland, or living in a country I don’t recognise from my youth. If I lived in ‘Murica I’d probably have a stash of heavy duty guns and ammo in the loft and a cellar full of water-purification tablets and long-life food. As I'm British, I just occasionally raise the topic over a pint and people tell me I'm crazy. Homeowners tend to be especially annoyed...
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 12:11, 16 replies)

It's all Albert's fault.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 12:15, closed)

Tell him I've got two flats up for sale just off the Euston Road.
The one-bedder's a steal at £295k.
( Albert Marshmallow is a completely irredeemable cunt, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 22:01, closed)

oh shut up you tedious prick.
come back when you're fifty and tell us how horrible it all is.
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 12:41, closed)

*Yawn*
Pots, kettles, etc.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 12:45, closed)

Not exactly controversial.

( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Thu 25 Apr 2013, 12:56, closed)

Maybe if you'd paid more attention at school, worked hard and passed your exams
you'd be able to afford a home now.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 13:02, closed)

Ha!
Yeah, right. I live in London. It's more relevant that my parents weren't millionaires.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:08, closed)

Or, more likely,
they'd spend years and years working as an intern, then get made redundant, move back in with their parents and never be able to find a job again.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 19:15, closed)

So you think the world will end because people are a bit out of shape, living in rented accommodation and working in their late sixties?
(Roger McGough-Pipe, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 13:06, closed)

This is the worst suicide cult I've ever joined.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 13:16, closed)

Winner!

( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Thu 25 Apr 2013, 13:59, closed)

I look forward to this eventuality
I'll never have to work in an office again, and I've always wanted to try cannibalism and rape.
(cs1ca, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 13:32, closed)

Me too...
Are you planning to eat your quarry, then rape the remains, or the other way around?
(GonkHerder, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:29, closed)

I remember saying the same thing in 1980
...hasn't happened yet.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:00, closed)

Relax
All this "My generation ..." woebegone stuff is a load of crap. You're extrapolating four years forward for another forty. Until the housing bubble, nobody expected to buy a house until their thirties.

And humans bringing about our own extinction? Give me a break. The Black Death killed half the world's population. Seen any major plagues recently? No. Because science, that's why.
(ubergeekian, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:59, closed)

A new disease epidemic
is another one to add to my list. Thanks.

And your 'no one expected to buy a house until their thirties' is bollocks: my grandparents and parents generation assumed you could get a decent house not too long after you were working. Both my grandfathers and my own parents had mortgages in their early 20s.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 16:45, closed)