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…
Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
91–100 of 134 posts
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 do…
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fair enough, my goal was to respectfully look at the number of additional expense items that are available today which were not part of the "Baby Boomer" menu. Since I'm an engineer and have been since the 80's and a hiring manager for much of the last 15 years I can tell you that the starting wage for an electrical engineer or a computer programmer with a four year degree is around $85,000 (that was IBM's "standard…
Sure Internet is $30, but it replaces a whole bundle of other services. Back in 1984 the cost to develop a couple rolls of film and make some long-distance phone calls would easily equal today's internet bill. The cost of education and health care is what is crushing today's generation, not backup cameras, Starbucks, and iPhones.
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 do…
I'm sorry, did you just complain about making 30% ROI on $200k over two years? Oh no, your tax burden.
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
And despite all that, the boomers go vote and their children do not.
Parents want nothing more than a bright and stable future for their posterity. They vote in accordance with policy that they believe will achieve those ends.
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 do…
I'm sorry, did you just complain about making 30% ROI on $200k over two years? Oh no, your tax burden.
In a "hot" city it's trivial to get very modest places that have monthly tax bills more than rent is on a similar sized place in the mid-tier NFL city I grew up in. That's a lot of cashflow to be burning - even if the investment is appreciating faster than the burn. It eventually forces you to sell and move, when your goal was not an investment but a place to live and make a home.
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#97I 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
#98I'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,…
Probably. People need to realise it's not the normal state of affairs, nor will it last forever.
Where I live, everyone was making 6 figure salaries out of school working for oil companies. Now unemployment is over 10%, and every single person my age who worked for an oil company was laid off, most are back to being bartenders and servers with no future in sight. Many are in tons of debt, a few on the verge of declaring bankruptcy now that they have a car/house/whatever they can't afford anymore.
When you look at economies in the western world as a whole (take out a few boom towns), it's pretty dreary for our generation (I'm on the upper end of what's considered a 'millennial'). Globalism and automation have decimated entire industries, where jobs still exist wages are being driven downward, inequality is increasing, leaving the 'working class' to struggle.
We'll survive, but the future won't look like the past, we'll have a lot less than our parents did (comparatively speaking). No single salary supporting an entire family with 2 vehicles and a single-family home. More like dual income, 0.5 vehicles and a tiny condo.
It's not the apocalypse, but people need to start listening to economists, open their eyes, and boomers need to take responsibility for the shit-show they've created.
Also, as an aside, every single left-wing party in the world right now needs to take a hard look at their policies. It's no longer good enough to be barely right of centre, and support a token progressive cause. Right-wingers want to fix the job situation by destroying globalism, putting up tariffs, and strong-arming companies into bringing jobs back. And you know what, it'll work. It's sound policy economically, in a game theory "fuck you, I've got mine" sort of way, though far from progressive and won't build a better world. If left-wingers ever want to realise their vision, it won't be by crying over straw-men (Russians, Nazi frogs, etc...), they need to become truly progressive economically. This means guaranteed income, an end to our lottery society. But right now, the left doesn't have answers (well, they do, but not the political willpower). The right does, and all across the western world nationalist governments are going to pop up. The writing's on the wall.
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#99Note 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 ass…
> 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. That is a damn good description of why accelerationists are gaining popularity. I think a lot of the alt-right obsession comes from this as well.
Ironically the alt-right seems to be anti-war (at least when it comes to war with other superpowers, namely Russia), but there is definitely nihilistic tendencies within the movement. Sort of a "globalism sucks, so let's kill it with fire" thing...
Re: Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
And despite all that, the boomers go vote and their children do not.
Parents want nothing more than a bright and stable future for their posterity. They vote in accordance with policy that they believe will achieve those ends.
Trouble is, the prosperity stuff is all theoretical (cutting social programs to lower taxes = eventually a better economy, trust me), but all the benefits to the boomers were concrete (shifting tax breaks and program funding towards things that help older people and away from those that help younger people).
Shockingly, after 40 years of these policies, the prosperity for everyone never showed up, but the boomers somehow managed to enrich themselves above all others, despite not (by objective measures) working harder or being more skilled than the generations that came after.
I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm sure a better future was one of the things that they genuinely wanted. I'm saying that boomers (in aggregate) are self-delusional about their greed. Judge people by their actions, not their intentions.