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

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111–120 of 134 posts

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

#111

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…

Housing costs are probable twice as much... unless you live in CA...then they are 10 times as much. Imagine buying that ranch in the Oakland hills for 70k in the 80s that's worth 800k. There is the ability of these same boomers to fight new construction. Oh and prop 12! Why not defer all the taxes until the sale of the house!? Boomers in CA living in 800k houses paying taxes frozen at 70k. Awesome deal.

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

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, did you just complain about making 30% ROI on $200k over two years? Oh no, your tax burden.

This is nonsensical. I have to pay that extra tax NOW. That's real money that I have to pay out. An extra 30% on something I nominally own? That's not real. I can't pay the taxes with that. What should I do to get that extra 30%? Take out an extra mortgage on that alleged increase in house value? Sell it and move to a worse house in a worse neighbourhood, somewhere I don't really want to live that I can still afford…

That is exactly the kind of thinking that brought Prop 13 to California back in the 70s.

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

#114
post #98

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. 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 futur…

Given the energy policies our President is going to be taking, I'm willing to bet your friends in oil will be employed within two years. We'll see, but there's quite a bit of excitement with my chemical engineering friends.

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

#115
post #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 ass…

> 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).

I have a hard time feeling sorry for people who write such essays. You are clearly a talented writer. Are you unable to start some kind of a business and hustle for 14 hours a day?? Why do you have time to be here and not there?

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

#116
Income in a vacuum isn't all that useful a metric. What matters more is what you can do with it, leading to what matters most: your actual quality of life.

Without feeling compelled to do a deep analysis, taking a 20% hit in exchange for, say, being able to afford broadband and a smartphone/notebook to use it is a deal I'd make all day.

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

#117

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,…

It's because of survival bias. The people who are successful believe it's because of their hard work and don't attribute some parts of it to luck. So if someone complains because of missing luck they haul out know-it-all advice on how hard work must always lead to success.

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

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nonsensical. I have to pay that extra tax NOW. That's real money that I have to pay out. An extra 30% on something I nominally own? That's not real. I can't pay the taxes with that. What should I do to get that extra 30%? Take out an extra mortgage on that alleged increase in house value? Sell it and move to a worse house in a worse neighbourhood, somewhere I don't really want to live that I can still afford…

That is exactly the kind of thinking that brought Prop 13 to California back in the 70s.

The thinking is fine. The thinking is identifying a problem. Prop 13 was wrongfooted and created a new set of problems. We shouldn't ignore a problem just because someone else once royally screwed up a solution to it.

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

#119

Earlier 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…

>> those effects are so large that Starbucks habits are basically noise in comparison Right, because spending $1500-2000/year on Starbucks and another $2000-$4000+/year on McDonald's and other takeout for 2-3 meals a day is "noise". Consumerism is a very real thing today. There are lower middle class people who blow $30-50 a day on Starbucks, energy drinks, going out for lunch, and ordering pizza for dinner. Throw in…

Putting anecdata in spreadsheet form doesn't fix the problem. If you look at spending data people are putting less into things like food and clothing and transportation than ever before in part because housing and medical costs are out of control. That isn't some made up feel good story pulled out of the air, it is solid verifiable data from government agencies that collect this data as part of tracking people and transaction for tax collection and other reasons.

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

#120
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i used to make fun of millenials until i found out i was one myself.

We detached this thread because blah blah blah...

You ought to have pulled out the ol' “Please comment civilly and substantively or not at all”, which we ban accounts for refusing.
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