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Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

wsj.com

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Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#31

Post by rubidium »

hollerith wrote: post #22

People who will have children ("eventual parents" for the purpose of this comment) are healthier, smarter and wealthier than people who will never have children. If the question is whether things have gotten harder for the average person, it is misleading to compare a group consisting only of eventual parents with a group composed of both eventual parents and non-parents. A better comparison would be 30-years-olds of…

While I appreciate you pointing out a potential source of sampling error, the data accounts for this. See: https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-RD331_CHETTY_1...

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#32

Post by NegativeK »

hollerith wrote: post #22

People who will have children ("eventual parents" for the purpose of this comment) are healthier, smarter and wealthier than people who will never have children. If the question is whether things have gotten harder for the average person, it is misleading to compare a group consisting only of eventual parents with a group composed of both eventual parents and non-parents. A better comparison would be 30-years-olds of…

> People who will have children ("eventual parents" for the purpose of this comment) are healthier, smarter and wealthier than people who will never have children.

I can't read the article, as it's behind a paywall. Does the article say that? If not, where does that claim come from?

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#33

Post by infogulch »

blakesterz wrote: post #17

This chart from the article is rather painful: https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-RD331_CHETTY_1... (I think that'll work without the workaround)

That chart is the core of the article and answers several questions from the comments here: yes it's inflation-adjusted, the ratio has gone down over time (90% of people born in the 1940's earned more than their parents at 30, and it's gone down to 50% now).

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#34

Post by harryh »

notadoc wrote: post #23
harryh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Price per square foot for housing has remained remarkably constant over time. People are spending more on houses than they used to because they are buying bigger houses.

That's simply not true, at least on the west coast in any reasonably active real estate market. It was never $1,455/sq ft like it is today in Palo Alto, nor $500/sq ft or even $200 per sq ft. This is a recent phenomena. Furthermore, price per square foot actually tends to increase nowadays on smaller homes, where you'll pay even more per square foot if you're trying to buy anything under 2000sq ft, and it gets really…

Yes, there are exceptions to the rule. Palo Alto, home to one of the biggest wealth booms in human history, is one of them.

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#35

Post by uiri »

People who are 30 now were 22-23 in 2008-9 during the Great Recession. This particular cohort (plus/minus a year or two) of graduates will likely have slightly depressed lifetime earnings relative to those a couple years older or a couple years younger. I would expect this year and next to represent the bottoming out of this trend.

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#36

Post by was_boring »

What makes me upset is that the economic realities do not match what is taught in large swaths of America. We are taught (at least in my community, and I am 30 now still living within 20 miles of where I grew up) that a very achievable ideal is a middle class existence with one parent working, and a small house in the suburbs. I am in the top 1% income earners for my generation and do not even come close to this.

I think it's important for young parents to start breaking this cliche that economic prosperity is an American standard. Instead we should be teaching that life is hard and you should count your lucky stars if you are able to afford anymore more than an apartment.

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#37

Post by godelski »

crazy1van wrote: post #13

Is this in inflation adjusted dollars? Maybe I missed it, but I don't think the article specified.

It does mention that it is adjusted for inflation. And as a side you wolframalpha is great for checking. You can do searches like "1 1970 dollar" and you get $6.34 back.

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#38

Post by dlss »

hajile wrote: post #14

About half earn more, about half earn less. Wouldn't that imply that the average earnings are about the same? If so, I don't know that I'd complain because that indicates stability.

> About half earn more, about half earn less. Wouldn't that imply that the average earnings are about the same?

Actually no, though this is a fairly standard misunderstanding of statistics. For an easy counter-example imagine generation one being [0, 100] and generation two being [1, 2]. Average wealth goes down, while every element is higher than 50% of the previous generation.

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#39

Post by godelski »

DanBC wrote: post #6
godelski wrote: post #2

I always forget, what is the workaround for WSJ?

Right click the web link to open in an incognito window. Open the top result of the resulting search.

Actually worked without incognito for me.

Re: Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Their Parents Did at 30

#40

Post by rhino369 »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #10

Compound that with the percentage of income 30 year olds spend on housing, education, health care and child care compared to their parents and we have a recipe for disaster.

The cherry on top is that our parents generation, who made more and had access to cheaper house, education, healthcare, etc., still barely saved for retirement. Unless, god forbid, your parents drop dead early, we are going to be stuck supporting them for a long time.
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