ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the material conditions of those in their forties and fifties. In his pioneering investigation of the relationship between age, income, saving and wealth, Harold Lydall concluded in the early 1950s that, 'As people pass from youth to middle-age, and thence to old age and senility, their economic behaviour passes through various phases. It was this propensity for saving, rather than consumption, that made the middle aged of such interest to producers, suppliers and advertisers. However, the relationship between middle age, work, wealth and consumption was a good deal more complicated than such generalisations suggest. It is not difficult to show that the gap between middle-class and working-class incomes grew wider in middle age. Indeed, it has been suggested that in the years following the Second World War, age became the major determinant of unemployment, with young workers and men in late middle age especially at risk.
