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Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

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Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#81
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Venezuela is nowhere close to what Bernie Sanders believes in.

Now Bernie supporters wouldn't get caught dead with Maduro, but Hugo Chavez was quite popular with the American left back in the day: https://www.google.com/search?q=hugo+chavez+american+celebri...

It's a somewhat poor comparison because Venezuela is primarily an oil economy.

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#83

There are mitigating strategies that we can use to our advantage. Rejecting car & home ownership culture, enforcing various frugal lifestyle patterns (cook and eat home, body weight exercise), cheap travel (couchsurfing/airbnb), geoarbitraging income can do wonders on a personal level. There are several changes on the horizon that could cause interesting ripples soon - for example, what happens when mobile solar powe…

While interesting I cant see these things having a huge effect on the global macro economy, the crushing weight of globalization and mechanism will march on, while the technocrats might avoid it, the vast majority of the working class are in trouble.

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#84
post #9

Young people in developed nations are the next wave to get hammered by globalization. The capital markets aggressive search for efficiency will leave no developed world worker unscathed until they are all at parity with developing nations. But if it's any consolation they aren't the only ones. The only difference is that most of the baby boomers made it into the asset class before globalization was in full swing.

the appropriate response for ordinary americans seems to be democratic isolationism, imo. oppose trade deals like ttip, tpp and tpa -- these deals serve to enrich those who are already the global winners and provide nothing for the emerging intelligentsia of the first world. globalism might benefit those in power at the moment, but it provides nothing for those of us who need to work through a career or two to be comfortable. i may be poor, but i have far more in common with a poor texan than a rich chinese man.

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#85

Isn't it also true that Millenials put less value on financial success and more value on fulfillment and life experiences than did previous generations? Could it be that Millenials are "set to earn less" because they are actually fine with earning less? Perhaps they watched their Baby Boomer parents chase after money and accumulate stuff and end up unhappy anyways and decided that they would pursue other more rewardi…

People justify things in many different ways; it's entirely possible this mentality is because it's further out of reach.

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#86
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the same boat, born on a cusp year of the two generations, and I have long felt like a surfer who is struggling to ride the crest of a wave but who knows that the crash to shore is fast approaching.

I think a lot of us are. My parents are Boomers and we were born between 78 and 82. Technically being born in 78 makes you GenX. Yet if you have a brother born only 4 years later, it's another generation? We had the exact same experience, Atari 2600 on a TV that is now weird to even think existed. No TV remotes, walk up and change the channel. Rotary phones, city directories and phone books. Need the time and temp? Y…

Different sources and countries use different ranges, so where you fall depends on which you consult (for Millenials, some use 1976 as a starting year, others use 1978, and still others use 1980 or 1981.) Some also carve out additional generations (MTV generation / Doom Generation / XY Cusp Generation along with Echo Boomers / Generation McGuire) for people born in the edge years. Here's more:

http://www.esds1.pt/site/images/stories/isacosta/secondary_p...

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2008/04/fin...

The old Wikipedia article on XY Cusp before it got edited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JCDenton2052/mh5

Excerpt: "The XY Cusp includes those people born in the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s. The word XY is used because their generational identity is mixed, uncertain, or deviant from X or Y or both, but do not constitute a separate generational group in themselves. Some place the years between: 1976-1983 [3] [4][5] [6] People born within this group are in parallel situations with people born in between previous generations: Generation Jones between Boomer and X - late 50s, early 60s, (teens of the 70s); between Silents and Boomers - late 30s, early 40s (teens of the 50s); and the Beat generation between G.I. and Silents - late 10s, early 20s (teens of the 30s). They are referred to as Cusper Groups, Transitional Times, or Buffer Zones. John Losey states "If you couldn't neatly place yourself in any of the [generations], then you're probably a Cusper. 1943-1947, 1962-1967 and 1976-1983 are each considered transition times. Many people born during these cusp periods identify with the generations on either side."

There's definitely no single standard.

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#87
post #22

Might want to consider the increasing drain on the economy that the government takes. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1900_2020... One way or another, it comes out of our pocketses.

Do you have any evidence that increased government spending harms economic growth? It seems like an a priori certainty in right wing thought, but what evidence I've seen suggests that the effect is minimal or even beneficial (within the spending ranges that we see in modern developed nations).

Do you have any evidence that increased government spending harms economic growth?

It depends on the spending....the obvious counter-example are roads, which had a huge positive effect on growth when they were built. Alternately, spending on bombs for war have a negative effect....they blow up in the desert and don't help anyone except the people who built it (so you might as well have left those dollars with the taxpayers).

A similar argument is "more/less regulation." It really depends on the details of the regulation.

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#88
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're entirely right, government spending does not harm economic growth.

Not to champion austerity (and no, I'm really not championing austerity), but if increased spending is paid for with increased borrowing, government bonds will complete in capital markets and make borrowing generally more expensive for everyone. Of course right now capital is ridiculously cheap and the economy still isn't doing very well...

And government projects improve people's ability to work, whether it's by education or welfare, or negotiating trade treaties, or protecting trade routes (military).

For example, the US gets immense economic benefits from it's oversized military, being able to lean on people to give it favourable terms - something to remember for the people who want to 'stop being world cop' (a self-imposed role, taken to improve it's economic power).

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stagnating wages, rapidly increasing house prices, bad terms for renters, increasing university costs. If I were 20 I'd consider working remote and just go live in a much cheaper country. You could get a boomer lifestyle yet!

What the best way to get gigs thats not race to the bottom style jobs on Upwork? I am in that exact situation right now trying to work remote, I have some professional experience but I'm still a junior dev.

Work on open-source software: https://bountysource.com/

Re: Millennials 'set to earn less than Generation X'

#90
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stagnating wages, rapidly increasing house prices, bad terms for renters, increasing university costs. If I were 20 I'd consider working remote and just go live in a much cheaper country. You could get a boomer lifestyle yet!

As an X-er watching the millenials and the boomers lobbing grenades at each other, it amuses me that the millenial argument sounds like this: "Those greedy boomers have fucked up the world for everyone else with their overly lavish and unsustainable lifestyles... and they won't let us into their cushy club!" Point of fact is that if you were to give the choice between today's 20-year-old lifestyle and the same in 197…

First that first paragraph is a Straw man argument. So I will ignore.

Your other point is they if A gets better it is ok if B gets worse.

I think lack of affordability of essentials like somewhere to live is of grave concern. Unaffordable housing causes homelessness. It means people have to start families later and have less time to raise their children.

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