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This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

thelastpsychiatrist.com

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Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The Greatest Generation" refers to the parents of the baby boomers.

The open question is if gen-Y will be even worse than the baby boomers. I don't think they can be, if only due to numbers.

The work of Gen X is cleaning up after the Boomers and babysitting the Millenials. Gen Y could go either way.

Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The Greatest Generation" refers to the parents of the baby boomers.

The open question is if gen-Y will be even worse than the baby boomers. I don't think they can be, if only due to numbers.

Interesting, I guess I wasn't aware that was question anyone cared about. Keeping in character with the 2nd greatest generation (X), I certainly don't.

Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#13
Sigh, another blogger trotting out the tired, false cliche that college is useless. From the article: "Were you smarter at 21 post college than your Dad was at 21? And whatever the difference, was it worth the $50k-$200k he paid to get you it?"

Yes. Yes I was smarter. And I didn't pay 200k because I went to a state school. I graduated a wholly different person with a completely different world-view and a ton of applicable skills that landed me a high-paying software engineering job instead of doing the manual labor or trivial office tasks that I was qualified for before college.

If you go to a private school to get a history degree then sure, it was 4 years of expensive partying that doesn't leave you any more employable. Go get a science/engineering/JD/MD heck even an MBA and you damn well better be smarter at the end.

Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume by greatest generation you mean baby boomers. The article doesn't OP doesn't refer to them as the greatest generation. And by given way, I think you mean enabled, because the OP is making the point that Scotts parents have paid his whole way and still pay for him while he declines job offers. I have issue with calling the baby boomers the greatest generation. They've saddled this country with an unimaginable…

"The Greatest Generation" refers to the parents of the baby boomers.

The "Greatest Generation" who guaranteed themselves the "Greatest Retirement" package. In the fairy tale, all the goods and services they consume will come from the magic money tree that the government fertilized somewhere with all the money they paid into social security.

Back in reality land, a smaller population of heavily taxed and badly paid members of the Gen X and Gen Y cohort will have to change grandma's bed pan and they better be damned productive given how long everyone's living.

Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#16

Or to put it succinctly: The Greatest Generation has given way to The Laziest Generation.

I really have a problem with the label "Greatest Generation". The greatest generation should be the next one. I sometimes wonder if it was a backhanded way to say America's best years were behind it.

Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#17
Just out of curiosity, the article derides the fact that his job search begins and ends in the morning- when I read that, I thought "well, you could certainly use the rest of the day for self-improvement- fitness, projects relevant to the job you want, volunteer work..."

Is that a bad strategy, or when job hunting should you be pounding the pavement 24/7?

Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The Greatest Generation" refers to the parents of the baby boomers.

The "Greatest Generation" who guaranteed themselves the "Greatest Retirement" package. In the fairy tale, all the goods and services they consume will come from the magic money tree that the government fertilized somewhere with all the money they paid into social security. Back in reality land, a smaller population of heavily taxed and badly paid members of the Gen X and Gen Y cohort will have to change grandma's bed…

Considering they were born between 1901 and 1924, the Greatest Generation is mostly dead.

Re: This Is Why The American Dream Is Out Of Reach

#19

Sigh, another blogger trotting out the tired, false cliche that college is useless. From the article: "Were you smarter at 21 post college than your Dad was at 21? And whatever the difference, was it worth the $50k-$200k he paid to get you it?" Yes. Yes I was smarter. And I didn't pay 200k because I went to a state school. I graduated a wholly different person with a completely different world-view and a ton of appli…

I agree. However, another route would be to take a sum equal to your 1st year college tuition, and use that to seed a bootstrapped startup. Take a year, $20-50k, and see what you can build. If you fail, you still have (ostensibly) three years of college funding left to go, and you can probably pay off that 4th year through hard work by the time you graduate. When you graduate, you have the degree and a really interesting line item on your resume.

Of course, this all presupposes that family or savings can fund that $50-200k in the first place. Unfortunately, many students are dependent on loans. Because the government backs student loans, bankers are willing to lend money for school where they won't do so for a startup.

If there was a provision that would allow you to get fully-backed "startup loans" that carry the same terms and guarantees as student loans, I firmly believe our economy would be stronger and default rates probably wouldn't be much higher than they are for student loans.

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