回想我作为一名教师在马德里工作的三十年，我意识到，当今这一代年轻人，比我那时候贫穷多了
我曾经花半个月的教师薪水，从马德里飞回家，搭乘西班牙空中的士（此家航空公司2007年已歇业）或者Aviaco的飞机，在旁边的卡耀广场里的电话亭，投入一个100比塞塔的硬币，只不到一分钟的时间，给我妈妈打个电话以慰想家之情。然后回到城中暴热的40C没有空调的蟑螂大量出没的寓所。我真要感谢房东（帮我杀灭蟑螂）和VIPS咖啡店（旁边唯一有空调的让我蹭）。和老人们一起说说是多么容易，嘿，你们这些年轻人玩着苹果手机，周末坐廉价的瑞安航空班机回家，觉得很糟糕吗？我们比这更惨呢。
其实不然，真的。
上个星期，正好是我离开大学30年，我开始在马德里当一名托福（teaching English as a foreign language，作为外语的英语教学）英语老师。回来后，我边啜饮着地道的西班牙加奶咖啡，边读一篇报道，关于当今20-30岁的年轻人相比出生于1960年代的人（就是我的年纪），是怎么生活更加拮据的。
在其他地方，我们高度关注个人的故事都会谈到这些真实的发现，年轻的成年人毫无疑问地有更多债务，收入的大部分要付房租，能存下的钱所剩无几，几乎都没有资格拥有一个家。工业革命以后，每一代的英国工人都比他们上一代过得好，并逐渐（若有间断的话）享有更好的住房，消费品和退休金。当今这一代却第一次看到生活水准开了倒车。有苹果手机也于事无补。
回到马德里，当托福英语老师仍是广大英国毕业生的不二通道，最大的目标国家就是西班牙和日本。今天的老师比我这一代是更差了呢还是更好了？
在1980年代中期，我税后每月拿回家90，000比塞塔（西班牙货币），在欧盟前约值470英镑。算通胀的行家告诉我1986年470英镑相当于现在每月1300英镑。但我付的房租（四房合租）是15000比塞塔，放在今天约合220英镑。那样我有很大一块剩余的钱可以出去消费。我回想当初几乎都不做饭，晚上9点教完课就到饭店吃饭，这都成了惯例。而且我每晚都打出租车回家，如果懒惰的话，上班也打车。
我打电话给马德里的学校问现在的老师每月税后净收入是多少，有一个老师告诉我，现在一个新老师的每月薪水在800 - 1200欧元。有些学校付得高些，英国文化协会（设立在其他国家）就是特别例子。但就算今天一个青春焕发的大学毕业生能挣1200欧元，比我当时的1480欧元（用1300英镑换算的）还是少了相当一块。幸运的是马德里的房租无论哪个区都不像伦敦那样疯高。一个老师告诉我他在市中心雷蒂萝高档地区附近的两房合租，每月租金是425欧元。那样还剩大约800欧元消费，可算起来今天仍然比我30年前当托福英语老师要差了10% - 20%（但请往好的方面看，马德里显然是欧洲最令人兴奋的城市）。
当他们回到英国，面临的问题是，如果没有父母的财政支持要买个房子几乎不可能。我从房屋阶梯投资当中赚到不少钱，比我过去17年在《卫报》挣到的所有还要多。房地产价格相对于薪水收入，是成指数的增长，尤其是东南片区。但这种情况再也看不到了，至少这一代人来看。所以，为什么年轻一代不反抗？很简单，他们承担不起。
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原文：
The younger generation getting worse off, why are't they rebelling?
Going back to Madrid 30 years on from working there as a teacher, I realised today’s generation are far poorer than I ever was
I used to pay half a month’s teaching salary to fly home from Madrid on an ancient Spantax or Aviaco plane, press one 100 peseta coin after the next into a phone booth in Plaza del Callao for a few seconds homesickness-filled chat with my mum, and return to a cucaracha-infested apartment with no air conditioning amid the city’s blasting 40c heat. I’d thank the lord for Cucal (to kill the cockroaches) and for the VIPS cafe (the only joint nearby with aircon). How easy it would be to join the chorus of old gits and say, hey you young people with your iPhones and cheap Ryanair weekends, you think you have it bad? We had it a lot worse.
Except we didn’t, really.
Last week, exactly 30 years after I left university and began working in Madrid as a Tefl teacher, I was back, sipping a cafe con leche while reading a report on how today’s 20- to 30-year-olds are far worse off than those born in the 1960s (such as me).
Elsewhere on the site, we highlight personal stories that talk of the truth of these findings. Young adults are, incontrovertibly, in more debt, paying more of their income in rents, less able to save, and virtually disqualified from home ownership. Since the industrial revolution, each generation of British workers has been better off than the one before, gradually (if fitfully) enjoying better housing, consumer goods and pensions. Today’s generation is the first to see its standard of living go into reverse. iPhones are hardly compensation.
But back to Madrid. Tefl is still a rite of passage for many UK graduates, with Spain and Japan the biggest destinations. Are today’s generation of teachers worse off or better off than in my day?
In the mid-1980s I took home, after tax, 90,000 pesetas a month, which was worth around £470 in those pre-euro days. Inflation calculators tell me £470 in 1986 money is equal to around £1,300 a month today. But my rent (in a four-bed flat share) was just 15,000 pesetas, or more like £220 today. That left me with rather a lot to spend on going out. I recall barely ever cooking; eating out in restaurants after a teaching day ending at 9pm was the norm. I took taxis home every night and, lazily, grabbed one to work too.
I called schools in Madrid and asked to speak to teachers about their take-home pay today. One told me the typical figure for a newly arrived teacher was €800-€1,200 a month. Some schools pay more, the British Council in particular. But even if today’s fresh-faced university graduate is earning €1,200, that’s quite a cut from the €1,480 equivalent I was on. Thankfully rents in Madrid are nowhere near as mad as in London. One teacher told me his share in a two-bed flat near the Retiro, a central and upmarket location, was €425 a month. But if that leaves around €800 for spending, it suggests TEFL teachers are 10%-20% worse off today than 30 years ago (but please still go: Madrid is easily Europe’s most exciting city).
When they return to Britain, they face the near impossible task of buying a home without help from the Bank of Mum and Dad. I have earned more from my move up the property ladder than all the money I have earned at the Guardian in the past 17 years. This exponential increase in property values relative to incomes, particularly in parts of the south-east, will not be seen again, for a generation at least. Why aren’t the younger generation rebelling? Maybe they simply can’t afford to.
