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

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

#51

Post by maxerickson »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #35

I cannot say I'm very impressed with the article. I could pick out a number of millenials who are doing better than their parents at the same age. But I wouldn't use that to argue that everything is okay. One thing that has stuck out at me has been the ways in which people have money drained from them. I think there is a huge student loan problem where young people were "sold" a crappy education. But setting that asi…

When the world tells them every car has to have backup cameras

Do you mean they will pursue the camera's aspirationally? It's going to be a mandate soon:

http://www.autonews.com/article/20140331/OEM11/140339979/u.s...

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

#52

Post by samatman »

anguswithgusto wrote: post #42

I'm surprised at how much flack this article is getting here on HN. Is it because we're all making those sweet 1% salaries in tech? All my non-tech/finance friends are paying obscenely high rent, crippled with student debt, can't afford houses, can't afford cars, and three times as educated as their parents, but paid less than their parents were. In the case of unpaid internships (unavoidable for lots of industries,…

I hope that, within my lifetime, "unpaid intern" sounds to the average ear the way "indentured servant" sounds today. It's a despicable racket.

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

#53

Post by QuercusMax »

peteretep wrote: post #45
sean_patel wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I thought my (Millennials) generation was born in 1992 or afterwards. So I was about to challenge your 'mid thirties' assertion. Wikipedia also has a wide range of start and stop birth years, ranging from 1976 to 1996 as the start birth year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials#Date_and_age_range... Then I saw this. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/25/millennials-... It claims that Millenials were…

I've always thought it was people born before the millenium, who turned 18 after it, so 1982-2000. Easy to remember that way, as well ;-)

I'm riiight on the cusp; born in '82, graduated in 2000. My wife was born in '81, graduated in '99. We're definitely more millenial than GenX - my older siblings (born in '70, '72, '75) are total GenX'ers. The GenX'ers had computers as tweens/teens, so they definitely grew up as all this tech stuff was developing, but I've literally never lived in a house without a computer. Quite literally: my parents bought a ZX-81 for my older siblings the same week I was born.

We both have younger siblings who were born in '84 (graduated in high school 2002). They're the oldest of what I'd call "true millenials" - I think one of the big distinguishing things is that those who graduated after 2000 had Facebook in college, whereas I didn't. Sure, there was ICQ, IRC, various web forums, Myspace and Friendster and all that stuff, but it wasn't quite the same; those didn't have nearly the reach of Facebook, and most of the people I interacted with pre-facebook I didn't know IRL. I used Facebook to keep in touch with College friends after we all graduated and did the whole post-college-diaspora thing, but my brother and his friends used Facebook constantly as a key part of their social life.

Additionally, cell phones were much more prevalent for the "true millenials" - my brother and I both got cell phones in '03, and for him it was a core part of his college experience.

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

#54

Post by hibikir »

gnerix wrote: post #41

The boomers inherited the only advanced country in the world that hadn't had its industrial capacity reduced to rubble over the course of two world wars. The US was the only manufacturing supplier left, so naturally every working age adult had a wealth of employment opportunities. Another way to look at the plight of the millennials (full disclosure, I'm a millennial) is "hurray, society hasn't faced a major setback…

The situation is not just unique to the US though: Many countries which had their industrial capacity reduced to rubble are still in the exact same boat: People that started working in the 50s 60s and 70s did a lot better comparatively than those that started after 2000. The 50s were far less happy in Europe than in the US, but there was just so much progress to be made that hit everyone. A big part of it was also population growth.

There's plenty of progress to be made in this decade, but a much smaller percentage of the population is part of this boom: Even for those of us that saw the dot com boom, tech is a picnic.

I look at the outcomes of people that went into science, for instance, and I see them against a wall of tenured professors that will not retire, and an industry that has less demand than there's supply. Those that just picked the wrong major in college are struggling, and those that didn't even go to college, even more so. The only ones ahead of their parents went to tech or got a career by using their connections as a stepping ladder: It's easy to do well in law when daddy makes you partner, stays a few more years and then retires.

As a society, we have to do our best to avoid becoming Brazil, and find ways to improve total outcomes. Having a small group of people that make a whole lot of money, and who give their advantage to the next generation, while a lot of people have worse outcomes than their parents is not exactly a recipe for a happy, peaceful society.

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

#55

Post by darksaints »

Now throw in the fact that we:

1) have much higher housing costs, due to housing policies created by boomers

2) have much higher out of pocket education costs, due to education policies created by boomers

3) have much higher out of pocket health care costs, due to health care policies created by boomers

4) have much higher payroll taxes due to social security raiding and general mismanagement by boomers

5) have much higher sales taxes due to erosion of property tax revenues from policies created by boomers

6) have much higher future income taxes due to decades of deficits from policies created by boomers.

And they after they are done FUBAR-ing us, they call us entitled for wanting reform.

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

#56

Post by maxerickson »

QuercusMax wrote: post #53
peteretep wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought it was people born before the millenium, who turned 18 after it, so 1982-2000. Easy to remember that way, as well ;-)

I'm riiight on the cusp; born in '82, graduated in 2000. My wife was born in '81, graduated in '99. We're definitely more millenial than GenX - my older siblings (born in '70, '72, '75) are total GenX'ers. The GenX'ers had computers as tweens/teens, so they definitely grew up as all this tech stuff was developing, but I've literally never lived in a house without a computer. Quite literally: my parents bought a ZX-81…

Facebook launched in early 2004. So people graduating high school in 2000 didn't have it for much of their college career.

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

#57

Post by echlebek »

closeparen wrote: post #43
ChuckMcM wrote: post #35

I cannot say I'm very impressed with the article. I could pick out a number of millenials who are doing better than their parents at the same age. But I wouldn't use that to argue that everything is okay. One thing that has stuck out at me has been the ways in which people have money drained from them. I think there is a huge student loan problem where young people were "sold" a crappy education. But setting that asi…

You are slamming an entire generation by claiming that the problem is spending irresponsibly on frivolous things. I don't blame you - it must feel great to feel that the problems of the world are rooted in others being less virtuous than you. The trouble is, my generation faces lower real wages and higher housing costs, and those effects are so large that Starbucks habits are basically noise in comparison. That narra…

Millennial here. I just got the property assessment notice on my modest 1 bedroom condo. The "value" of it has gone up by $200,000 (around 30%) in the last two years according to the assessment office. So I can expect a nice fat tax bill later this year.

The boomer generation, in full control of politics my entire adult life and for the foreseeable future, has made real estate in my city into a ponzi scheme, and I don't ever expect to live in a house here.

What I can expect is to shoulder the tax burden of a large population of people who have not saved nearly enough for retirement, are leveraged against their massively overpriced properties, and are projected to live for a very, very long time. And the data shows that quite clearly.

> Between 1982 and 2010, mortgage debt grew from $99 billion to $994 billion (in current dollars), while consumer debt increased from $48 billion to $460 billion. [1]

> The average market value of an owned dwelling quadrupled, from $71,800 to $303,500 (current dollars) between 1982 and 2008. [1]

> The indebtedness of Canadian households increased from $147 billion in 1982 to $1,454 billion by 2010—in current dollars. [1]

> More than 1.5 million families who have a main provider between 45 and 64 had no private pension savings in 1999, the agency reported Friday. These households will have to rely almost solely on public retirement plans Old Age Security and the Canada or Quebec Pension Plans. [2]

[1] http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/2011002/article/11429-... [2] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/many-not-saving-enough-for-ret...

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

#58

Post by freshhawk »

anguswithgusto wrote: post #42

I'm surprised at how much flack this article is getting here on HN. Is it because we're all making those sweet 1% salaries in tech? All my non-tech/finance friends are paying obscenely high rent, crippled with student debt, can't afford houses, can't afford cars, and three times as educated as their parents, but paid less than their parents were. In the case of unpaid internships (unavoidable for lots of industries,…

> Is it because we're all making those sweet 1% salaries in tech?

Probably. We all know wealth inequality has risen quite a bit as well, so that average of 20% less is not distributed evenly. So to those in places like the valley, where you have a statistically huge chance of making more than your parents did it probably seems wrong. If you have any contact with the rest of the world it is pretty obvious.

And culturally, I think that's the impact of all that education. Their parents and grandparents lived in the culture that invented the "mid-life crisis" as a description of when you realized that your life choices were the result of being lied to about what makes for a good life. I wouldn't be surprised if the lessons of this finally sunk in. Helped along a whole lot by the lack of similar options due to boomer politics.

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

#59

Post by akaru »

anguswithgusto wrote: post #42

I'm surprised at how much flack this article is getting here on HN. Is it because we're all making those sweet 1% salaries in tech? All my non-tech/finance friends are paying obscenely high rent, crippled with student debt, can't afford houses, can't afford cars, and three times as educated as their parents, but paid less than their parents were. In the case of unpaid internships (unavoidable for lots of industries,…

Sure, but Millennial's parents are Boomers. So Millennials had the advantages, and still have, of this greater income, from childhood on.

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

#60

Post by kristopolous »

gnerix wrote: post #41

The boomers inherited the only advanced country in the world that hadn't had its industrial capacity reduced to rubble over the course of two world wars. The US was the only manufacturing supplier left, so naturally every working age adult had a wealth of employment opportunities. Another way to look at the plight of the millennials (full disclosure, I'm a millennial) is "hurray, society hasn't faced a major setback…

There was also over 100 years of labor struggle to build a middle class that later generations have been foolishly dismantling.
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