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Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#41

Post by gonzo41 »

4636760295 wrote: post #28

Yeah, this makes sense. I got it especially bad, since I joined startups that raised a huge amount of money on promises of riches, and then failed after burning through hundreds of millions of dollars. The founders cashed out before the companies imploded, but regular employees were left holding the bag. I have lots of illiquid startup stock that's now worthless, after about 10 years in Silicon Valley. I do feel like…

Please tell me you've spent some of those last 10 years working on your woodworking skills so you can direct some friends to in the construction of guillotine. Because without one of those i don't think much is change anytime soon.

When amoral billionaires die, their children inherit the money.

I'm not trying to be overly pessimistic, but it's pretty good fun.

Note: I'm also a millennial and don't care that much about money but I'm pretty sad about climate change.

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#42

Post by 4636760295 »

gonzo41 wrote: post #41
4636760295 wrote: post #28

Yeah, this makes sense. I got it especially bad, since I joined startups that raised a huge amount of money on promises of riches, and then failed after burning through hundreds of millions of dollars. The founders cashed out before the companies imploded, but regular employees were left holding the bag. I have lots of illiquid startup stock that's now worthless, after about 10 years in Silicon Valley. I do feel like…

Please tell me you've spent some of those last 10 years working on your woodworking skills so you can direct some friends to in the construction of guillotine. Because without one of those i don't think much is change anytime soon. When amoral billionaires die, their children inherit the money. I'm not trying to be overly pessimistic, but it's pretty good fun. Note: I'm also a millennial and don't care that much abou…

I'm also very concerned about climate change. I feel like boomers have robbed young people of their futures.

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#43

Post by ghiculescu »

4636760295 wrote: post #40
ghiculescu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were fortunate enough to get multiple jobs in Silicon Valley - even if they didn’t go as well as they could have - it’s hard to honestly claim the cards are stacked against you. Most people drew a much weaker hand.

That's fair, I am well aware of my luck in this case. I guess I just wish that someone had explained to me the real value of SV lottery tickets when I was younger. FWIW I grew up poor, and am certainly not wealthy now (I'm still a wage slave), but at least I can afford to buy food and new clothes. Growing up I had to rely on charity.

Congratulations (seriously) on making it, then. I only called your comment out because I think many people in the HB bubble have very inflated standards about a “good” life.

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#44

Post by fxtentacle »

voisin wrote: post #27
netsectoday wrote: post #7

Reading this article as a millennial really hits home as I remember entering the workforce as a teenager mid 2001 as soon as I could drive (months before 9/11), re-entering the workforce as a young adult early 2008 as soon as I had a degree (months before the great recession), then building a company as an adult for two years and launching it January 2020 (months before the end of the world). There have been no break…

Fellow millennial at apparently the same age. I agree with your sentiment. I remind myself that what goes around comes around. Boomers and GenXers bid housing prices up to absurd levels and stayed working longer than past generations (mainly because they failed to save when they could have and have to service debt that is unheard of in past generations). Eventually these assets will be poured back into the market and…

Sadly, the owning class could just transfer their housing assets into a corporation which will rent it out in perpetuity and pay the profits to their heirs. As such, there's no guarantee that the housing market recovers when the current house owners die.

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#45

Post by karatestomp »

voisin wrote: post #27
netsectoday wrote: post #7

Reading this article as a millennial really hits home as I remember entering the workforce as a teenager mid 2001 as soon as I could drive (months before 9/11), re-entering the workforce as a young adult early 2008 as soon as I had a degree (months before the great recession), then building a company as an adult for two years and launching it January 2020 (months before the end of the world). There have been no break…

Fellow millennial at apparently the same age. I agree with your sentiment. I remind myself that what goes around comes around. Boomers and GenXers bid housing prices up to absurd levels and stayed working longer than past generations (mainly because they failed to save when they could have and have to service debt that is unheard of in past generations). Eventually these assets will be poured back into the market and…

The only real models we have to base our “normal” on for the post-depression post-WWII, modern postindustrial society are the Greatest and Silent generations. It’s not like the Boomers broke with long-standing tradition. What they inherited was a world and economy unknown just a couple decades earlier.

They probably did fail to move us forward, socially and in terms of long-term large-scale planning and saving (on the scale of nation-states, I mean—welfare fund-building and other things that ought to have happened in the “good times”) but it’s not like there were 200 years of people dealing with a similar situation before them.

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#46

Post by giantrobot »

voisin wrote: post #27
netsectoday wrote: post #7

Reading this article as a millennial really hits home as I remember entering the workforce as a teenager mid 2001 as soon as I could drive (months before 9/11), re-entering the workforce as a young adult early 2008 as soon as I had a degree (months before the great recession), then building a company as an adult for two years and launching it January 2020 (months before the end of the world). There have been no break…

Fellow millennial at apparently the same age. I agree with your sentiment. I remind myself that what goes around comes around. Boomers and GenXers bid housing prices up to absurd levels and stayed working longer than past generations (mainly because they failed to save when they could have and have to service debt that is unheard of in past generations). Eventually these assets will be poured back into the market and…

Part of the problem is that in the meantime millennials can't save anything and have to overleverage in order to get by. At some future Boomer Great Dying a lot of millennials wont have a lot of liquid cash to take advantage of the situation. Millennials (on average) had to take on massive student debt just to get entry level mail room positions where previous generations did not.

Millennials are entering their 40s. Their adult lives have been filled with Black Swan events which says those aren't Black Swans but the new normal much shittier swan.

So not only did Millennials have to start from behind they keep getting hit with externally imposed crises that make it extremely difficult to get ahead. Germane for a lot of HN Millennials, housing prices in areas with tech companies are insane and even a Boomer Great Dying isn't going to help get a toehold in real estate.

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#47

Post by [deleted] »

ghaff wrote: post #18
maxerickson wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's ~0 reason for housing to get more expensive over time in countries where land is not scarce. It's an abject policy failure.

There's plenty of inexpensive housing out in the not scarce land. It's just that a lot of people (for various reasons) want to jam themselves onto islands and peninsulas where land is scarce.

[deleted]

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#48

Post by mdorazio »

api wrote: post #33
Jeema101 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I am about the same age as you and agree completely. That optimistic world of the 90s (and 80s IMO) no longer exists. The country never did recover from 9/11 and has stumbled from one crisis to the next ever since - the War on Terror, Iraq War, Katrina, oil crisis, subprime mortgage meltdown, Occupy Wall St, college tuition debt crisis, and now the pandemic and current protests. Where it all ends I don't know…

The thing is nothing much actually changed, at least not physically. We lost a few thousand people and some buildings. More people die every year of the flu. Covid has killed over 50X 9/11 and yet 9/11 felt like a much more profound loss of... something. It's all in our heads. Digging out is going to be tough though because the shift was profound and deep. I don't think we can go back. That's not exactly what I'm say…

To me, 9/11 represented the loss of some key aspect of American Identity. For the first time in a very long time, America was vulnerable and that realization of vulnerability sparked so many enduring negative responses we see today - endless wars abroad, non-stop attacks on privacy, militarization of police forces, tribal identity politics, unhealthy nationalism instead of healthy patriotism, etc. It's hard to put into words for people who weren't there, but there's a distinct before and after 9/11 when looking back at America.

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#49

Post by cgshep »

This thread resonates a lot having graduated in 2013. I've worked for several years in three major European cities — London, Cambridge and Brussels — on above average salaries as a data scientist in the financial sector. I'm also a former Samsung employee; I received a good hand from life's lottery.

Yet, a modest family home is out of my reach once childcare and other bills are considered. This is in sharp contrast to my parents who school without degrees, bought a 3-bedroom house in their early 20s and who are now both retired.

What went wrong?

Re: Data and graphs showing millenials' bad economic odds

#50

Post by sharkweek »

netsectoday wrote: post #7

Reading this article as a millennial really hits home as I remember entering the workforce as a teenager mid 2001 as soon as I could drive (months before 9/11), re-entering the workforce as a young adult early 2008 as soon as I had a degree (months before the great recession), then building a company as an adult for two years and launching it January 2020 (months before the end of the world). There have been no break…

Same age as you, I remember graduating and then the entire global economy collapsing. It has left a lasting impression on my psyche.

That being said, I do think our generation will start taking political power soon-ish (decade maybe?) and policy will shift toward larger safety nets being the norm(1). My hope is that because of what we’ve seen, our future politicians will write policy accordingly.

(1)Totally open-minded to the fact that this might be wishful thinking.

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