Should a 78-year-old woman who lives frugally and buys her clothes in charity shops really be the target of so much bile? Last week in our How I Spend It column, we featured a pensioner living on £18,000 a year in London. The reporter who interviewed her told me she was a “remarkably positive person with an infectious appetite for life”. And her income is by no means unusual. The average gross income of a single pensioner in the UK was £16,952 a year in 2015-16. In London it was £19,968. Even adjusting for the fact that the average figure is distorted by some very high earners, an £18,000 income hardly qualifies her as living in the lap of luxury.

Yet the response on the Guardian website, Facebook and Twitter was astounding. Much of the personal abuse we would have deleted off the Guardian’s web pages (we didn’t open it to comments), but we don’t control Facebook or Twitter. But if you put aside the trolls, what the response reveals is the deep anger among younger workers over the hand they have been dealt in life.

‘I’m 78 on an £18,000 income and live a very good life in London’ Read more

Many took it to be an older person smugly lecturing young people about how to be canny with their money. It wasn’t meant to be; the aim of the How I Spend It column is simply to throw a light on spending patterns in today’s Britain, across the entire income range. This week’s one is a higher earner, but so far we’ve featured a young adult on little more than minimum wage at Amazon; a part-time teacher on £22,000 a year; and the pensioner on £18,000.

So why was this woman targeted so much? As nearly everyone pointed out, that £18,000 was after housing costs – the mortgage had been paid off 20 years ago. “Ah yes, of the generation that bought a house when it was affordable before prices went up 20+ times, have a good pension, got a job without any student debt,” said one.

“My generation is the first who will on average not be better off than their parents. So, no, my future is not as bright as yours was, actually ... young people can’t strive for what this woman did, as life is not the same as for her. For many, secure and well-paying jobs are unobtainable, rents are more expensive than ever in relation to earnings, and house prices have increased at a far higher rate than wages have, so many can’t even aim to own their own home,” said another.

The Amazon worker: paid £18,000 a year to shift 250 items an hour Read more

Last Saturday morning, I happened to be playing in a tennis competition. My opponent, whom I’d never met before, was an engineer in his 20s. He was despairing of his financial life – his rent for a small flat plagued with damp was taking a huge chunk of his income, there was no way he could afford inflated house prices, and his only way out was to move back home 200 miles away.

I’ve long felt that the day of reckoning is coming, as the generational gap has become indefensible. It’s not just London – the crazed rent/house price cycle is, if anything, worse in cities such as Dublin, Auckland, Vancouver and even Lagos. The solution? Too little space here, but adding supply (building affordable homes) and restricting demand (foreign resident purchases, higher taxes and rent controls) are a start.

In the meantime, if you’re in your 20s or 30s, then tell us how people from your generation are being stretched to bits. Just email spend.it@theguardian.com, and I guarantee we’ll feature you in the new column. It will have rather more impact than a whinge on Facebook.

p.collinson@theguardian.com