Live data from Hacker News

Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life

usatoday.com

11–20 of 134 posts

Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life

#12
Note that even in countries where the absolute amount of money is better, the stuff on this article still applies.

I am from Brazil, and many boomers told me when I was young how awesome I was to be young, because I was living in a golden age where I didn't had to walk uphill both ways to school, could have computer, and whatnot.

But it is me that envy them now, I am 29, have zero income, lots of debt, and own no assets (not even a bicycle).

The same applies to almost all my friends and aquaintances, and even so, the "almost" is because one of them is an absolute exception (he was already rich, and made a hit game, his game is probably on top20 most sold on Steam right now...), and some of the humble and smart ones decided to ignore the "adults" advice, don't go to college and deliberately choose professions seen in bad light in the social sense (construction, plumbing, car mechanic, CNC operator, security guard...)

The few friends I have that have families, did it by accident (ie: accidental pregnancy), and all of them are unemployed, and their spouses (when they actually have one, some are single parents) are unemployed too, the "least worse" couple are the ones that have moderately rich parents, and they have both sides of the family giving their child the stuff the child needs.

And the thing is, although this is mostly about my country (Brazil), I have lots of friends outside Brazil too, that are also in this situation, one guy I know is an absolute crazy coding genius (And his game is rumored to have inspired No Man's Sky) and he is 40, and also childless, and own only a very old (20+ years I think) car, I have some Canadian friends also with problems like that, I know people that worked in AAA game studios around the planet and still failed to make enough money to pay student debts and start a family.

To be honest, the situation just feel hopeless, sometimes I get myself with the intruding unwanted thought of wishing someone would start WWIII just to see if at least life would be less boring. And from what I am seeing in the "mood" in social media and elections worldwide, I am not alone in this...

Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life

#15
post #2

Millennials prioritize entertainment and free time more than boomers as well. Millennials also start families later in life. These are the values boomers taught that money doesn't buy happiness. So this is not really shocking to see that they are not in the same place monetarily. I would view this is at least some measure of success. The boomers were able to teach a value system they believed was better than their li…

Anecdotally, most millenials I know who are waiting to start a family are doing it because they can't afford to, not by chose.

All the comments show my point. These are the values that were taught by the boomers. Ask a boomer, were they ready for a family when they got one? No, but it was the thing to do, so they did it, made it work, and life was hard. Go back and look at the old childhood photos and you'll see what I mean. These people clearly weren't ready for kids in our modern sense of being ready.

This is a quite complex subject, but the simple view is priorities. There is a priority of short term thinking with millennials focused around instant gratification. That's not to say that it's wrong but it is a priority which has and effect on how life plays out. An easy example of this is how everything is described as a "hack" and not a "grind".

Boomers, whether they knew it or not, were more long term focused. Part of it was a function of the world of the time. You had to wait for the Sears catalogue to come in the mail. You don't have a credit card so you make layaway payments etc... You just had to focus farther out. They scarified a lot of short term and gained a long term benefit.

Sadly most, including this article, equate education with motivation. It's not the same thing. Going to college because you don't know what to do next and mom says go doesn't mean that the education will give you a leg up in life.

Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life

#16
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Millennial are choosing to be lonely, poor, and own no house and car. They are choosing to be more anxious and depressed.

What a peculiar thing to say.

I think the point is to be sarcastic. Everytime somebody points out that people are worse off, any fact used to support that argument is immediately used to support the thesis that in fact everything is better.

Less money - more spending - good, or as GP put it "Millennials prioritize entertainment and free time more than boomers as well"

This of course assumes the problem is the choices boomers are making. Just so we're clear: people choose to work in Amazon fulfillment centers. Hell, boomers PAY amazon for transportation to work here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYUJjpIxkCU (seriously, when will congress bring down the hammer on companies charging employees ? It is always, always and again after that used to exploit the lowest workers). If you prefer to see this in government stats : https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12600000 and -worse- https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU02026625 and https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU02026628

From most graphs I get the impression this is the situation. Since Obama came to office there has been the GFC. I think it would be fair to say that US employment has recovered about half the losses it endured during the GFC, taking all statistics together. That does not, to me, sound like a good result at all, and at least for me, is a big part of the explanation that Trump got elected. For most people employment is worse than when Obama came to power (of course he should probably not be blamed for the GFC, but still, he's got the top job. He bears some responsibility)

Similar argument: More debt - more spending - good

Those sorts of arguments. Truth is the economics for the vast majority of the world's population have steadily worsened since about 2000-2001 (worldwide average). Silicon Valley and in fact most huge cities are an exception.

Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, most millenials I know who are waiting to start a family are doing it because they can't afford to, not by chose.

All the comments show my point. These are the values that were taught by the boomers. Ask a boomer, were they ready for a family when they got one? No, but it was the thing to do, so they did it, made it work, and life was hard. Go back and look at the old childhood photos and you'll see what I mean. These people clearly weren't ready for kids in our modern sense of being ready. This is a quite complex subject, but t…

Do you think a focus on instant gratification is anything new ? I mean you clearly do, but it seems such a weird point to make.

Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life

#20
post #8

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/millennials-to-sna...

I don't get it. Why are you calling my generation 'Snake People'? Please explain yourself.

I don't have an opinion one way or the other, but many people feel that "millennials" is an overused term in the media by journalists that either don't have a deep grasp of the subject or are just trying to get clicks. Or that it's stupid to divide people into arbitrary generations then assign them a bunch of personality characteristics. Etc Etc.

Similar to how "the cloud" is used so often it is just a meaningless buzzword. You've probably heard of the cloud-to-butt extension[0]. This is its less-famous sibling.

[0]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cloud-to-butt-plus...

Post reply on HN