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

>What I can expect is to shoulder the tax burden of a large population of people who have not saved nearly enough for retirement

Them saving more wouldn't help much. Saving has a counter-party, someone who gets real goods and services now in exchange for repaying the debt later. Who's the counter-party for the retirees' savings? Obviously it can't be the retirees, since they're busy, you know, being retired.

What'd increased saving would cash out to is shoveling money into repaying education loans held by pension funds that pay the boomers, rather than paying taxes that fund retirement programs. It doesn't mean you don't support retiring boomers, it just means that you get better compensation today for doing so.

I agree with you. Our whole economy has been restructured around fat cats finding ways to eek people out of more and more. Without taking a step back, it's hard to realize just how pervasive that's become. I don't attribute this as much to greater discipline by older generations as to cultural and economic differences that made a simpler, more sustainable life the default course.

There are a lot of things about life that are much better now than they were a long time ago. There are new challenges too. To me, this sounds less like an opportunity for a cross-generational blame game and more like an opportunity to collaborate and work to find a good solution.

I personally don't think we're on a stable trajectory as a civilization. Many boomers have virtually no retirement savings (I've heard numbers that say up to half) and over the next decade, continuing to work is not going to be an option anymore for lots of them. They're not going to be able to pay their house payments anymore, let alone anything else. This is what I see as the next major economic crisis.

People don't realize how different our lifestyle today is from any commonly established convention of human habitation. That's been increasingly true over the course of the last 100 years, and we may be far enough detached from the roots now that toppling over is a concern.

People usually live on land that's established as familial territory, aren't required to "pay rent" for much of anything, and use their own land to feed themselves. While this may sound "primitive", it's a lifestyle that can be maintained without the permission of an outside employer, and if you can't make it to your 9-5, you're not imperiled.

Suburban lifestyles are dependent at least on a large existing distribution network and supply chain, and in most cases, the continuing ability to pay rent (or "a mortgage payment") for a very, very long time. Then the children move out and reboot that cycle instead of using the advantages that their progenitors had secured (somewhere to live without paying rent). More traditional family living arrangements are likely going to be needed moving forward.

>carrying debt to maximize life now can potentially destroy your future, but the alternative is minimizing life now to improve your potential (and non-guaranteed) future later.

Isn't this just called "work" or "discipline"? You put up with the drudgery of effort because you want to be able to enjoy the benefits of your labor later. Everything works that way. Not going to get around it.

You're right, though: there is absolutely a balance to be struck. I think the parent's point is that the balance is not being struck well by many. My POV is that that's true, and that cultural and economic forces that encourage this imbalance make it difficult for your average Millennial to avoid.

I forgot about the phone. My sister and her husband fell for that trap. They went further into debt and locked themselves into an expensive family plan for 3 years for their new iPhones.

We live in a really odd time. The concept of money is abstracted away in virtual credit cards - at amounts our parents never had access to. We buy computers and cell phones - things our parents never had. The very idea of spending that kind of money for what you get in return would have been entirely inconceivable for their generation. Today, these things are considered as necessary essentials rather than luxuries.

Good on you for your hard work. I can attest to the fact that it is extremely difficult to ignore conventional modern consumerism. It took me a suicidal "early life crisis" 4 years ago - at the age of 27 - to "get it". I went from being severely in debt (no student loans, just a voluntarily repossessed car and maxed out credit cards), to responsibly paying off every penny. For the first time in my life, I actually have a savings account with some money put away. My spending habits are still not ideal, but I'm doing far better now than I ever did before I hit bottom.