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Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

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Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#141

Post by ravenstine »

The millennials in my social circle unanimously believe that they are far behind where their parents were in life at their age. In fact, that's exactly what I heard from my best friend a couple nights ago. Both of us make six figures, and all of my friends in my generation are well educated.

My parents were married in their 20s. I'm single and the majority of my friends are unmarried. In less than a couple years from now, I should own a single family home if I want to catch up to where my parents were. Myself and all my millennial friends rent apartments. (Ok, I know one millennial who has a house, but he lives in the middle of nowhere and he's a douchebag) Only one of my American friends is currently pregnant, and whilst more of the people I went to high school with when I lived in New Zealand have already had kids for years. None of my millennial friends are in leadership or management positions, or at least ones where they actually have any clout.

My dad got into the career he has today by hard work, but also from having opportunities being thrown at him left and right. When he was my age, his current field of work was still being pioneered, and the industry was taking anyone they could get. He happened to work in a slightly related field, his company opened up a new department, and they offered him an opportunity there. He was hardly qualified and had no formal training or college degree.

I know his industry intimately, and there's no chance in hell that his younger self would get his foot in the door today without extreme talent. To get in today, you need above-average talent, you have to attend school, and you need connections.

The same can be said for parents of many of my friends parents.

Keep in mind that the gap between wage growth and buying power was already in acceleration, but it seems like there were more opportunities for people to hit the ground running without too much personal overhead. Now there are Gen Xer and some Boomer bosses who expect younger people to hit the ground running in the same way that they did, yet hold those young people to a different set of standards because of market saturation.

I don't view life as some sort of race to the finish line, but I can see how most millennials are demoralized and even embittered that they seem to be struggling more for less than what their parents and their friend's parents got. The best thing that Gen Y and Gen X can do is experience ego death, realize that their parents lifestyles are flawed and come with other hidden prices, move out on their own if they haven't already, and learn to appreciate the relatively good cards that have been dealt to them.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#142

Post by eropple »

rukittenme wrote: post #91
crooked-v wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some simple examples, inflation-adjusted home prices have gone up by a factor of 6 and inflation-adjusted education prices have gone up by a factor of 3 over the past few generations [1], while inflation-adjusted average wages have only gone up by $2/hour [2]. That single mom would have had a dramatically easier time providing housing and education for kids even with lower purchasing power for most consumer goods…

You're not accounting for the higher interest rates of the 1980s. Which home would you prefer to buy: $150,000 at 15% over 30 years. $350,000 at 4% over 30 years. Hint : they both have approximately the same total loan cost and payment. You can do this calculation with your parents. My home cost $350k at 3.8%. My parents bought my childhood home for $88k at 8%. Adjust my parents' home price for inflation and run the…

The hitch in this whole thing is that down payments have gotten ridiculous, it's gotten harder to save in desirable areas because rents and many expenses have grown out of pace with income for normal folks. Even as the percentage necessary for down payments has dropped, house prices have gone into orbit so much that it hasn't kept parity.

My girlfriend and I had to buy a house for $520k, at 5% down, just for the privilege of dumping $100K into it to make it livable. And we are the fortunate ones who can do that; we're both 31 and I'd say maybe a quarter of my friends are in the same boat.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#143

Post by jakeogh »

RubberbandSoul wrote: post #82
Kye wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote" There aren't a lot of data points--less than 100--for this, so it might not be statistically significant. Both those presidents are awful , but that could be an anomaly once seen in the context of a more significant sample.

It could also be that candidates are getting better and better at playing the system. Why aim for the popular vote when it's the electoral vote that counts? If the popular vote would count the candidates would change their campaign strategies.

Ya, visit 5 states because the rest wouldn't matter. Right back to the real Tea Party.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#144

Post by ac29 »

gizmo686 wrote: post #79
schintan wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

many of the problems in this world can be explained by one thing : too many people.

Except our per capita productivity has gone up, and we are not facing any fundamental shortages.

They're not making any more land in high-demand areas.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#145

Post by jnbiche »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #42
Kye wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote" There aren't a lot of data points--less than 100--for this, so it might not be statistically significant. Both those presidents are awful , but that could be an anomaly once seen in the context of a more significant sample.

Trump hasn't gotten us into any trillion dollar boondoggles in the middle east (knock on wood) so I think the history books in 100yr are going to consider W "bad" and Trump "mediocre". I'd still rather have W in the white house though. Uncouth comments and geopolitical stupidity get forgotten in the long term. Iraq, the GWOT and the accompanying erosion of our freedoms will be what's in the history books. Obama will…

> Is this at -2 because I'm wrong or because people lose the capacity for critical thought when the orange man is involved?

I didn't downvote, but I suspect it's at -2 because Trump is chiseling away at our rule of law and societal norms for a president. That's a big net loss for our democratic system of government, which for many of us is what matters most, far more than any D or R after a name.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#146

Post by eropple »

will_brown wrote: post #139
rukittenme wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not accounting for the higher interest rates of the 1980s. Which home would you prefer to buy: $150,000 at 15% over 30 years. $350,000 at 4% over 30 years. Hint : they both have approximately the same total loan cost and payment. You can do this calculation with your parents. My home cost $350k at 3.8%. My parents bought my childhood home for $88k at 8%. Adjust my parents' home price for inflation and run the…

A standard 30 year mortgage requires 20% down...what’s the percent of households that can put down $70k to purchase a home?

I just posted similarly about down payments, but 20% seems to not generally be the case anymore. FHA loans are as low as 3.5%. I paid 5% down for a non-FHA loan.

PMI is then a thing, of course, but you can get in the door.

(This is not to say that down payments, as well as initial habilitability outlay, might not crushing. Our small, train-accessible single-family in the Boston area cost half a million dollars and we had to immediately gut the place for remodeling and for asbestos remediation, to the tune of $100K.)

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#147

Post by wcoenen »

jakeogh wrote: post #61
makerofspoons wrote: post #30

"Climate change, protecting the environment and natural disasters topped the list of most respondents on a personal level, but less than three in ten of both the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts cited it as a worry." This is surprising. As a Gen Z-er this highlights the kind of bubble I find myself in- my friend group is almost universally in a state of despair about the collapsing biosphere. Climate change and mass exti…

In elementary (late 80's) were constantly propagandized that the whales were going to be extinct, the ozone layer was going to be gone, and killer bees were going to get us all. Not a peep of optimism that we could solve problems. It was presented as inevitable. There are strong forces that need people to be in a constant state of worry. Power is derived from it.

The panic about the ozone layer was the correct response. It lead to the Montreal protocol which banned CFCs. Quote from a NASA page[1] about what would have happened without that CFC ban:

> By 2040, the ozone hole is global. The UV index in mid-latitude cities reaches 15 around noon on a clear summer day (10 is considered extreme today).

[1] https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/38685/the-ozone-lay...

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#148

Post by algaeontoast »

bfrydl wrote: post #97
ddebernardy wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the future is going to be a better place either, but I don't buy for an instant that it's a good reason for you to not have kids, or the actual reason you don't have any. Firstly, life is pointless and meaningless without children, or as a fallback without taking care of others. And secondly, why should you, who are aware of this, be the ones ending up not reproducing, essentially mimicking the storylin…

> Firstly, life is pointless and meaningless without children That seems like a very personal opinion you should be stating with much less certainty about other people's lives.

Yeah, I get enough of this as is - outside of HN.

It still blows me away how having a kid is used both as a "meaning of life" play and a "look at how much money I have" play (akin to humble bragging about a $70k BMW in the driveway). During my time living in Los Altos with three other Google engineers (in the same house) this was common place in our neighborhood.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#150

Post by psychometry »

jdoliner wrote: post #116
syn0byte wrote: post #15

A single mother working as a waitress at Denny's in the 1980's had more spending power than a college educated cubicle drone in 2019; Let's talk about how is social media's fault! Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote; These generations just lack a proper understanding of civics! The beatings will conti…

There have been 4 or 5 (one is a bit ambiguous) elections where the winner lost the popular vote. [0] So no, this isn't more than any other time in US history combined. But more importantly, who cares? They lost the popular vote in an election in which the popular vote didn't count for anything. If the popular vote had counted for something in these elections, you would have gotten a different result. The candidates…

This might be the dumbest, most unnecessarily pedantic comment I've ever read on HN.
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