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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

#161

Post by larkeith »

refurb wrote: post #99
klodolph wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree 100%. It's easy to find a scapegoat but the reasons are complex, and from data we know that Millennials and Gen Z are having greater difficulty achieving basic levels of economic stability that were somewhat easier for previous generations. Students are graduating with increasing amounts of debt and entering a job market that can make it tough to pay rent if you don't have experience. It's also easy to say…

Millennials and Gen Z are having greater difficulty achieving basic levels of economic stability that were somewhat easier for previous generations Easier than what? Their great grandparents who lived through the Great Depression? Their grandparents who lived through Stagflation of the 1970's? Or their parents who lived through the Great Recession?

Easier for members of Gen X and Baby Boomers (note that young people in the workforce during the Recession are generally classified as the older end of the Millenials).

From the Federal Reserve Board:

> Millennials are less well off than members of earlier generations when they were young, with lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth. For debt, millennials hold levels similar to those of Generation X and more than those of the baby boomers. Conditional on their age and other factors, millennials do not appear to have preferences for consumption that differ significantly from those of earlier generations.

[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2018080pap...

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

#162

Post by Iamhisalt »

challenger22 wrote: post #63
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…

If you let sensationalized news stories dominate your worldview, you will give in to apathy. If your strongest moral convictions are about events you cannot influence, redirect those convictions to something that is inside your locus of control. What I urge people is: be conscientious in your day-to-day tasks. If you can see your efforts contributing to people's happiness, the apathy will disappear. Society is built…

This post needs to be higher up. We are all connected.

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

#163

Post by SeanAppleby »

jakeogh wrote: post #101
dgabriel wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last 6 years, my rent has gone up by about 800/mo. It's the same apartment.

Why rent? You are paying that money anyway. Get a FHA loan. You could be on the other side of that equation. Sure it seems bad for you, but in actual fact, the place you are living has gone up in value. That's unambiguously a good thing.

That is not unambiguously a good thing. That's a bad thing. Think about it.

Housing is considered a good investment because it consistently has gone up in cost faster than the rest of the economy.

As this continues housing becomes more expensive relative to median purchasing power.

Unless housing becomes a bad investment, it will by definition continue to be something that a smaller percentage of people can afford over time.

We would be better off if housing became a consumption good/commodity that by default stayed roughly the same price in real dollars forever, since that's the only way housing can stay accessible to average people indefinitely.

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

#164

Post by MrRadar »

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.

> There are strong forces that need people to be in a constant state of worry. Power is derived from it.

Who is "deriving power" from sounding the climate change alarm? The people with the most power (the wealthy) seem to be trying to silence/defund/disempower the entire scientific community over it.

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

#165

Post by pard68 »

I was born in 91 and am very happy with my life. Few things that differentiate me from my generational peers is I do not have any social media accounts outside of HN, I get all my news through podcasts of people who I trust to filter through the trash, and I am married with kids and a house.

I think the last I checked I make less than the average person of my generation so money isn't the reason I am happy. I believe that this social media phenomenon has done a great deal to steal people's joy, and society doesn't help things either.

I think having family goes a long way to contributing to my happiness. I don't worry about dating, I have next to no drama in my life from the dating game, I have three really good reasons to wake up everyday, and I have a few hobbies that keep me busy when I am not working.

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

#166

Post by baybal2 »

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…

Your voice is of rare quality reasoning these days. It's admirable.

I see the West disintegrating now. Genuinely serious issues were snowballing for the last quarter century for it, without any sight of resolution on the horizon.

I was asked recently "What the hell has happened to the West?" And the answer I gave for that was "the West has happened... to itself"

I have no better words for that:

Whatever were the worst traits of the system, once reserved for "territorials", "colonials", and other lesser subject, they are now being turned on the Western society itself.

Whatever the West did to "the third world" it now does to itself.

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

#167

Post by [deleted] »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #21
klodolph wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree 100%. It's easy to find a scapegoat but the reasons are complex, and from data we know that Millennials and Gen Z are having greater difficulty achieving basic levels of economic stability that were somewhat easier for previous generations. Students are graduating with increasing amounts of debt and entering a job market that can make it tough to pay rent if you don't have experience. It's also easy to say…

Job prospects in STEM vary widely; S & M are not exactly known for being lucrative, and E is only lucrative in specific subfields.

[deleted]

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

#168

Post by prklmn »

schintan wrote: post #51
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…

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

I think institutional corruption is a much bigger problem than population size for the US.

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

#169

Post by B-Con »

CodeCube wrote: post #129
B-Con wrote: post #89

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; These generations just lack a proper understanding of civics! An untrue claim[0] that's been copy-pasted for a while. It has happened twice recently and three times before that, stop making it sound like it's unprecedented. None happened in the 1900s, so it's ver…

Sure, that point of OP's post was pedantically incorrect ... but I think the overarching point they were trying to make is that the republicans haven't had a candidate elected by the popular vote since 1989 when GHWB was elected. Since then, both elections in which a republican president won the office, was while losing the popular vote ... that's THIRTY YEARS since the last true win. Looked at from that perspective,…

It's not pedantically incorrect, it's simply incorrect as well as partially misleading. It's an 11% occurrence rate now in a system that was designed to have this kind of feature.

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

#170

Post by shemnon42 »

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?

Not many first time home buyers do a standard mortgage now. Typically 3-5% is all that is needed.

That and the lowest home mortgages rates anyone alive has seen have contributed to the home price increase. It's not the total value of the house but the amount of the monthly payment that is the driver, and 3% (today) vs 13% (early 80s) mortgage rates provide a huge swing.

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