Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds • Hacker News Board

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

#411

Post by thrower123 » Tue, May 21, 2019, 10:50 AM UTC

wickoff wrote: post #388

Consultant32452 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Constantly hitting records for economic highs. Lowest unemployment rate for blacks and Hispanics in the history of recorded unemployment rates. Rising wages. Just took a huge step in eradicating HIV in the US by securing free treatment for 200k poor people every year. Between the technological advances in solar/wind/batter, renewed interest in nuclear, and shrinking CO2 it seems climate change is well on its way to b…

Economic highs seem to be part of the problem. Only about 15% of Americans participate in the stock market, most of the rest of the world doesn't even have the access. The best investment opportunities are being reserved for the elites. 2009 housing crisis resulted in a massive wealth transfer to the people who happened to be in position to take advantage of it. Capital gains are the primary cause of inequality. Tech…

> 57% of Americans cannot afford a $500 surprise expense.

This is mostly a self-inflicted problem. A little discipline and saving straightens this out in short order, if people can accept a little inconvenience to live within their means. But people have a shockingly poor understanding of personal economics.

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

#412

Post by Consultant32452 » Tue, May 21, 2019, 10:50 AM UTC

entropea wrote: post #362

Consultant32452 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Constantly hitting records for economic highs. Lowest unemployment rate for blacks and Hispanics in the history of recorded unemployment rates. Rising wages. Just took a huge step in eradicating HIV in the US by securing free treatment for 200k poor people every year. Between the technological advances in solar/wind/batter, renewed interest in nuclear, and shrinking CO2 it seems climate change is well on its way to b…

Things are only getting better for those blatantly out of touch with the reality of lower classes. Wages are not rising when you factor in Inflation[1], for some portions of the country even going down in buying power since the early 70's. Nearly half of Americans are poor or low income [2]. [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us... [2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/census-data-half-of-us-poo…

That buying power you're talking about in the 70s is largely the buying power of white men. Women largely weren't allowed to have real jobs. Minorities either. What do you think that chart looks like when you include their buying power in the 70s? We've also pulled over a billion people out of abject poverty and food scarcity since then. Out of touch with the lower classes indeed.

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

#413

Post by pimmen » Tue, May 21, 2019, 10:59 AM UTC

jakeogh wrote: post #143

RubberbandSoul wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One could reply with "Yeah, visit less than half the population 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

#414

Post by Consultant32452 » Tue, May 21, 2019, 11:32 AM UTC

vkou wrote: post #299

Consultant32452 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world is building and deploying solar panels at break-neck speeds. Electric cars and other pollution reduction measures are coming online. I'm well aware of the risks from existing coal burning plants, new plants being built in China/India/etc, shipping, feedback loops with stored CO2 in the ocean, all of it. It's nice to imagine that the world can turn on a dime, but it can't. The global "situation" is going to…

> The world is building and deploying solar panels at break-neck speeds. It doesn't matter how many solar panels are deployed[1] What matters is how many gasoline cars, coal plants, and gas plants are going dark. Net-over-net, they aren't. [1] And this decade of break-neck speeds got us to... 2% solar deployment. We may hit 5% in another decade - and we need to get emissions to net zero in six years, if we want to av…

Some amount of catastrophe is baked in. Coal is bad, but there's a lot of places in the world where coal + global warming is better than no coal without global warming. And some of those simultaneously have precarious economic situations and nuclear weapons. We're only going to nudge them so hard. Honestly, I'm impressed with how well it's going. I suppose we have a different perspective on what we think is actually achievable from a geopolitical standpoint.

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

#415

Post by imtringued » Tue, May 21, 2019, 11:54 AM UTC

oldjokes wrote: post #194

ranie93 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the OP, and they may be overstating statistics (happy to be shown otherwise). At the same time, wage stagnation is no myth: "From 1973 to 2013, hourly compensation of a typical (production/nonsupervisory) worker rose just 9 percent while productivity increased 74 percent. This breakdown of pay growth has been especially evident in the last decade, affecting both college- and non-college-educated workers as we…

The really weird thing about wage stagnation is that there are millions of jobs going unfilled, companies are so desperate for people that they can't find anyone and are just dumping cash into stock buybacks instead of raising wages. Something is fundamentally broken in the labor market, it is not responding to supply & demand forces as it has in the past. I am not sure what terminology to use to describe what's goin…

When you're in the stock market for the capital gains then you only need to hope for a quantitative easing windfall. The idea behind QE is to drive yields of the most popular investments down and therefore make other investments like small businesses more profitable which didn't really work out and is actually backfiring.

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

#416

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee » Tue, May 21, 2019, 11:55 AM UTC

internet_user wrote: post #60

danielecook wrote: post #53

Started chatting with a guy at the airport about work / careers. Within 5 minutes he started ripping on millennials and their work ethic. I am a millennial! Sucks to be saddled with debt after college, have lower paying jobs, and still be shit on by the older generations. And I have things relatively good.

I am also a millennial. The work ethic problem seems to actually exist (from my limited but numerous experiences, including my own), however I am convinced that it is due to learned helplessness. Just imagine hearing your entire life that the world is just about to end any minute now, the icebergs are melting, everything is polluted, everything is so very bad, financial depression, no jobs for you, etc etc. Seems lik…

What about prior generations that had “duck and cover” exercises during school, as kids? I’m a millennial but never was exposed to this level of disaster planning as a kid, if duck and cover can be called that, more like preparation for dying.

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

#417

Post by imtringued » Tue, May 21, 2019, 12:22 PM UTC

derekp7 wrote: post #343

oldjokes wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The really weird thing about wage stagnation is that there are millions of jobs going unfilled, companies are so desperate for people that they can't find anyone and are just dumping cash into stock buybacks instead of raising wages. Something is fundamentally broken in the labor market, it is not responding to supply & demand forces as it has in the past. I am not sure what terminology to use to describe what's goin…

Let's say you have a company that makes smashed widgets. So you need to hire widget smashers, but all the good ones want to be paid $20 per widget that they smash. But consumers won't pay more than $5 per smashed widget, so there is no way you can charge enough to pay for that labor. So yes, you can get the labor you need if you pay enough. But then you won't have a business, because business need to turn a profit (o…

>But consumers won't pay more than $5 per smashed widget, so there is no way you can charge enough to pay for that labor.

Yeah except the worker already gets paid $18 at his current company. Producing $5 worth of goods with $20 worth of labor is economically impossible. Someone has to eat that loss. Either it's the company, the customer or the worker and as far as we know the customer always picks the cheapest stuff regardless of how sustainable it is and the company will always yield to the customer. The worker will always receive the short end of the stick.

Ok lets assume the worker accepts the $5 job. Previously he could afford buying lunch for $18 but now he desperately needs super cheap $5 lunch because his job doesn't pay as well anymore. The restaurant cook can't be paid $18 per lunch anymore because the worker switched to fast food. The cook now has to work at a fast food place and only gets $5 too.

This scenario is called deflation. Prices go down and with them worker compensation starts shrinking and through lower compensation prices must go down too. It's a vicious cycle with awful consequences for workers. Meanwhile investors benefit because their investments appreciate without doing anything at all.

What if the opposite scenario happens? What if the worker wins and get his pay increase? Well exactly the opposite happens. The worker will spend the extra $2 per widget on better lunch. The cook will now receive $20 for his lunch and use it to buy more expensive widgets.

Obviously this is inflation. Some inflation is good. Excessive inflation is just as harmful as deflation.

So what we need is a healthy balance between inflation and deflation.

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

#418

Post by volkl48 » Tue, May 21, 2019, 12:37 PM UTC

entropea wrote: post #362

Consultant32452 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Constantly hitting records for economic highs. Lowest unemployment rate for blacks and Hispanics in the history of recorded unemployment rates. Rising wages. Just took a huge step in eradicating HIV in the US by securing free treatment for 200k poor people every year. Between the technological advances in solar/wind/batter, renewed interest in nuclear, and shrinking CO2 it seems climate change is well on its way to b…

Things are only getting better for those blatantly out of touch with the reality of lower classes. Wages are not rising when you factor in Inflation[1], for some portions of the country even going down in buying power since the early 70's. Nearly half of Americans are poor or low income [2]. [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us... [2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/census-data-half-of-us-poo…

Long-term trends - I agree.

I would note that over the past year though, that wages have been ticking up for the poorer groups at a solid pace (~4%) and inflation has remained low.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/business/economy/wage-gro...

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

#419

Post by sjapkee » Tue, May 21, 2019, 12:38 PM UTC

tathougies wrote: post #55

Millenial here, and I just don't understand why my generation is so pessimistic. Things are simply better than when we were children. Perhaps it's having immigrants for parents, but my life just seems great compared to my parents and my aunts and uncles.

Because now people have time to think about how bad the world is. It was always like this, just now people have learned to notice it.

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

#420

Post by imtringued » Tue, May 21, 2019, 12:44 PM UTC

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…

I once did the math. Refinancing from high interest to low interest or refinancing low interest to high interest will cost you the same amount in interest over 30 years assuming identical house prices. However during times of low interest house prices are higher than during times of high interest and this means if you get a mortgage with high interest you end up paying less overall for the house but a bigger portion of your payments are used to service interest.

Therefore the 15% house is the best deal.

>closer to town, larger, better schools, You're shifting goal posts now. Buying a more expensive house doesn't get you any of that. Only buying more expensive land does.