Prophetic Manic Street Preachers?

2011: Machine Gun Preacher - Forster

OK, I know its not the role of an Independent Financial Adviser to turn music critic, but as I was listening to the "A Design For Life" on my ipod, I was reminded that perhaps good financial planning is a bit of a design for life as well. I suspect though that the Manic Street Preachers, who have certainly seen some difficult times in their collective history, may have intended different meaning behind the lyrics for their song. However in 2012 one might be forgiven for thinking that they seem to sum up the current difficulties that many students and young people are facing. Namely, that their futures look pretty difficult. Many have "done the right thing" - by going to University to develop their skills, but this year many graduates are failing to secure the jobs and careers that they thought would be available. Yes we all face setbacks, but this generation face spiralling costs of a society that lost the plot and overspent big time. Home ownership difficulty, lack of jobs, late retirement and picking up the bill for poor economic management - no wonder that so many are finding commitments hard to keep and the dulling painkiller of excessive alcohol a very real temptation. I fully accept that this may not be remotely how Nicky Wire intended the lyrics to be interpreted, which it reported in Q Magazine as suggesting the middle class high jacking working-class culture typified at the time by Blur's "Girls and Boys" single. So I guess I'm playing into a debate on that one. However, perhaps their sentiments are broader than they imagined.  There are now 2.62million economically inactive 16-24 year olds, up 52,000 from the three months to August 2011. The unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds is 22.3% which is  nearly three times the national average of 8.4%.

The song "A Design For Life" is from the Epic 1996 album "Everything Must Go" by the Manic Street Preachers. More recently the band have put a collection of their singles together with Sony called "National Treasures".

"Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now for a shallow piece of dignity

I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face to wear the scars
To show from where I came

We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told this is the end

A design for life
A design for life

A design for life..."

Lyrics by Nicky Wire. From the album Everything Must Go by the Manic Street Preachers
1996, Epic record label.