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The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

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Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#31

Post by klipklop »

malandrew wrote: post #29
throwaway6734 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first should be prioritized much more than the second anyways. There's no reason SS is age based and not means based

That’s not the contract though. I and many others here have been paying in for years with the expectation that I can withdraw at 65. Honestly we should allow people to opt out entirely if they can demonstrate that they are adequately funding their own retirement/disability on their own plan. Social Security as it exists now is a Ponzi scheme.

Yeah if given a chance I would 100% opt out. Even if it was post tax dollars. I would rather manage my own future.

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#32

Post by kelseyfrog »

ramesh31 wrote: post #11

Does anyone under 40 right now seriously expect to be able to collect social security at retirement age? It just seems like a cruel joke at this point.

Yes, because once I stop believing then the FUD raised around social security will have worked and I don't want that to happen. It would imply the people who generate such FUD have a stronger ability to hyperstitize[1].

1. There does not appear to be a verb form of hyperstition

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#33

Post by DeRock »

staringback wrote: post #27

And yet home ownership rate is higher today than it was at any time between (1965-1997) with an upward trend. If housing was so easily affordable back "then", why didn't everybody buy a house? Source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N

It would be interesting to see that metric normalized for average population age. US over time has skewed older (and will continue to do so).

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#34

Post by echelon »

staringback wrote: post #27

And yet home ownership rate is higher today than it was at any time between (1965-1997) with an upward trend. If housing was so easily affordable back "then", why didn't everybody buy a house? Source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N

People are looking at modern times as if they're worse, when they're almost strictly better than everything that came before us. Far less of the world lives in poverty. People in developed nations have more access to information, entertainment, lifestyle choices, etc.

Big media sells fear. Social media amplifies rage. They both create a miasma of doom that isn't reflective of the upward trajectory we've been on and continue to ride.

The Boomer era economics were not the norm and comparing ourselves to them is a great deception. Postwar America was growing and factory to the entire world. That was unsustainable and the differential between the US and the rest of the world (especially developing economies in Asia) has diminished. We can't compare Boomer McMansions and low cost of infrastructure and development to our modern state in any sort of fairness. Our wages grew too much, and that's a good thing! (Automation will bring us right back to this recipe anyway, and we're getting there.)

Compare America today against the broader world history and you'll see that we're wealthy, growing, and improving by almost all measures.

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#35

Post by anigbrowl »

ramesh31 wrote: post #11

Does anyone under 40 right now seriously expect to be able to collect social security at retirement age? It just seems like a cruel joke at this point.

I too was told in my youth that social security would be bankrupt long before I would ever retire, probably by the same people that told you that. Consider making a quantitative rather than an emotional argument, and let's see the assumptions on which that argument relies.

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#36

Post by wincy »

browheresmychar wrote: post #3

It's crazy how we make 10x more money for our companies than our grandparents or parents did but are unable to afford basic lives (wife, house, kids). My dad did it delivering pepsi products.

Okay so let’s say I accept your statement is true and also I’m making good money these days with low expenses. Where should I put my money so I can be one of these people taking advantage of the fact that we’re exploiting workers? Because I’d sure like to become part of this bourgeoise class everyone keeps talking about. Do I just put money into lots of stocks?

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#37

Post by malandrew »

ch4s3 wrote: post #16
_dain_ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Living standards" is such a weaselly term here. Yeah maybe you can afford a dishwasher and a car and nice clothes, but what about when you step outside your door? Being in a city with interesting things to do is an intangible good that many people like, compared to being in a smaller town with fewer amenities (nevermind well-paid jobs). It used to be affordable, now it's expensive. That's a regression no matter how…

I see where you're coming from, but talking to my father-in-law who grew up in Queens in the 60s and he remembers something quite different. The city was a dangerous mess and they never went to Manhattan, they essentially never left Astoria. They didn't take vacations, have A/C, his room was basically a walk in closet with a window, they ate awful food most fo the time, and went to a low cost catholic school. He has…

Came here to say the same. The cities boomers grew up with are not the cities of 2022. Most of the interesting things that exist today in cities either didn’t exist for boomers when they were our age or was incredibly scarce and only within the reach of extremely wealthy.

If you want the boomer city experience, you need to go pick a city today that compares to a NYC, LA, Miami or SF in the 1960s and 1970s. Nothing like 2022 NYC, LA, Miami or SF existed in the 1960s and 1970s.

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#39

Post by magicalist »

staringback wrote: post #27

And yet home ownership rate is higher today than it was at any time between (1965-1997) with an upward trend. If housing was so easily affordable back "then", why didn't everybody buy a house? Source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N

Note that's the somewhat unintuitive "proportion of households that is owner-occupied". Kids moving back in with their parents after college, for instance, would still count as owner occupied.

Re: The Grinch Stealing the Future of Gen Y and Z

#40

Post by dragonwriter »

ericmcer wrote: post #10

It feels like social security should be split into two things: disability for workers pre-retirement, and a Trust fund for retired workers. They are using the first as a justification to plunder the second. If it was just a retirement trust fund it would be ludicrous for the government to handle it in the way they do.

> It feels like social security should be split into two things: disability for workers pre-retirement, and a Trust fund for retired workers.

It...is: the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund are separate funds that pay for different programs administered by Social Security.

> They are using the first as a justification to plunder the second

No, “they” (who?) aren’t.

> If it was just a retirement trust fund it would be ludicrous for the government to handle it in the way they do.

The OASI trust fund is, essentially, just a retirement trust fund, but it doesn’t seem like you have a clue how SS is run.

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