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Gen Z does not dream of labor

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431–440 of 510 posts

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, white American boomers had the easiest economic opportunity in human history for the reasons you stated. That time is now over. Millenials/Gen Z are jealous they never had the opportunity. Boomers and younger people who have been indoctrinated can't comprehend why the vast majority are struggling. The post war capitalist system they enjoyed was a temporary anomaly. It isn't compatible with modern life, yet the…

> Millenials/Gen Z are jealous they never had the opportunity. Oh they definitely have the opportunity (speaking as a Millenial). If you're in the US, payed attention in school, are median IQ, and worked a bit at programming, you have your choice of $120-200k remote software jobs all over the US where the median home is $400k.

Not everyone can become a competent programmer, we have to let this belief die.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention that plumber probably doesn't have health coverage. The people who love to talk about what a fine profession that would be (for other people's kids, of course, never their own kids) are the same people who fight tooth and nail against any kind of health care policy that might make a non-white collar career more viable.

In my area United Association Plumbers get $42.77/hour and have great benefits including healthcare/pension. I agree though we need truly universal healthcare like medicare for all. The system we have now is hopelessly broken.

Doesn't seem like the rest of the world's universal healthcare did any better than ours?

You have farfetched dreams that government run anything would somehow be not shit. You'd hardly get any coverage and I doubt the deductible would be anywhere sufficient.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#433

“For millennials and for some members of Gen Z, they’ve witnessed two recessions, back-to-back. This is a very different labor market experience than what their parents and grandparents encountered.” I don't for a moment deny that kids entering the workforce today are entering an environment that's challenging in many ways, but this particular claim is inaccurate. Let's take a look at the list of US recessions. https…

I agree with your last point on growing wealth inequality and lack of upward mobility, but I would say the global financial crisis and pandemic are notable because of the severity and consequences of each event. I don't blame gen Z and millenials (of which I am one) for wondering what global catastrophe is lurking around the next corner and changing their behavior in anticipation of it.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#434

Curious how all of the issues are resolved. If workers (as they should imo) get paid more, it will result in more inflation, resulting in their purchasing power on key things like housing effectively not changing as inflation adjusts the cost of housing to be more expensive. I'm also curious to see if companies run by Gen Z pay better or worse than Boomer run companies. If they're not I don't see how the situation wi…

The answer is to build more housing, it is simple supply and demand

Or just continue raising interest rates. At least where I live, the majority of the excess demand during the pandemic came from investors. It was easy to leverage up and buy more houses using home equity loans while interest rates were low and home prices were appreciating rapidly. Higher interest rates should in theory pop all of these asset bubbles we're seeing.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the most interesting aspects of our modern economy. We have rockets that go to space. We have nuclear weapons. We have automated industrial facilities. We have advanced healthcare. We have the internet and computers. We have basically everything, except the basics. The reason for that is the same and will stay the same, for the entirety of humanity. Land is a finite resource that must be shared with ot…

Since around the 1960s, we've had large economic forces greatly increasing the supply of labor affecting wages: 1. Women entering the workforce, essentially doubling the labor pool. 2. Immigration - at least a million a year, every year. 3. Globalization - instead of local workforce, many companies can now outsource labor to cheaper countries without regulation. 4. Manufacturing - due to NAFTA, companies who once man…

US benefitted significantly from being the only major power that didn't have its labor pool and industrial base crippled by WWII.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my area United Association Plumbers get $42.77/hour and have great benefits including healthcare/pension. I agree though we need truly universal healthcare like medicare for all. The system we have now is hopelessly broken.

Doesn't seem like the rest of the world's universal healthcare did any better than ours? You have farfetched dreams that government run anything would somehow be not shit. You'd hardly get any coverage and I doubt the deductible would be anywhere sufficient.

You don't get completely fucked if you lose your job and then get sick/injured? Is that not better? I pay literally $0 to go to the doctors or emergency room.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Millenials/Gen Z are jealous they never had the opportunity. Oh they definitely have the opportunity (speaking as a Millenial). If you're in the US, payed attention in school, are median IQ, and worked a bit at programming, you have your choice of $120-200k remote software jobs all over the US where the median home is $400k.

Not everyone can become a competent programmer, we have to let this belief die.

Median IQ means 50%.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having unreasonable expectations would be okay, but people are calling it broken because a generation before this had this luxury but pulled the ladder behind them. We are supposed to progress forwards, not backwards.

Housing prices were unreasonably low, people realized it, and now we ran out of housing inventory in the very desirable parts of the country . Still plenty of housing in other areas. Manhattan used to be very cheap, but it hasn't been that way for at least 30 years. Too many people want to live there now. Basic economic rules of supply and demand dictate the prices. The only solution is to not play the game. You want…

No house in Manhattan on a cashier’s salary has always been the case, that is not something that has regressed. You should check what areas people complain about being unaffordable before dismissing it as “of course NYC and California are expensive”.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#439
post #390
post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So assuming that person in their 20's doesn't want to move to the Bay Area/Seattle/Austin/NYC they can find a nice house in a metro area within a 20-30 minute drive of plenty of medium-high paying jobs, for around $200k. Maybe in 2000. I don't think that's true in any major metropolitan area (say over 1 million). Which is also coincidentally where most people live.

You would be wrong. I just pulled up Metro Detroit (4.5 million people) on Zillow and set my filter to $200k or less and there are hundreds of homes available within the metro area. Hmmm...maybe that's cheating let's check again with - Cincy, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St Louis, KC, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Albuquerque etc. Working my way down the list of metro areas exceeding a million and there are tons of homes under…

You left out the "within 20-30 minutes of a high paying job" limitation. I looked on Zillow as well, it wasn't uncommon for those houses (if they were within 30 minutes) to be in such disrepair they needed to be leveled and rebuilt. It's disingenuous to look only at a sticker price.

But yeah, within the hour and a half commute zone of a metro area, you can find affordable housing.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#440

As an immigrant, no matter how many times the story about problems of work and wealth inequality and similar theme being brought up, I could never sympathize with it. I think I was raised in the time and place where working just doesn't ever get the luxuries of life. For example, working as a plumber and can afford 2 1/2 kids, a house and a car, that is always impossible. At least in my country. I think America is an…

Out of curiosity, do you plan on having kids?
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