Explore how people in the U.S. aged 18 to 34 have changed over four decades

As a millennial these trends are frighting to see.

It's frustrating when I chat with friends who are a few years older than me about this (mid 30s), and they blame all of this on millennials just being lazy. Or stupid, for picking bad degrees. I think the issues are larger and more systemic than that.

Careful with your use of the word "we".

What is happening is that between 1974 and 1994, the generation that was then in power decided to stop paying off their own debts, and started deferring payment to future generations. The effect is similar to being forced to cosign a mortgage before you are even born, then when you turn 18, your parents kick you out of their house and stop making the payments. You then have to pay for two houses, and can probably only live in the worst one.

It's a really nasty thing for your elder generation to do, but all your life, they have taught you that you aren't allowed to murder all of them and sell off the assets they purchased with your labor as collateral. So it becomes somewhat of a tradition for each generation to refinance the debts of the previous with the labor of the next as security. But at some point, a generation realizes that the only way they can afford the same lifestyle as their parents is by having two incomes and fewer children.

"Our" grandparents needed to make the sacrifice back before they died. But they didn't, and now they can't. So I prefer to let their creditors go find them in Hell if they want their money back. I am perfectly willing to be responsible for my own financial decisions, but rolling over the debts of the fathers unto the fourth generation seems more than a little bit unfair.

And that is justified in large part by use of the pronoun "we". I, specifically, am being taxed to pay for the economic benefits enjoyed by entire generations of older people who reaped more than they ever sowed. And my gruel, along with that of younger generations, has become thinner ever since.

I even get angry when my spouse says "we need to do X" and really means "I want you to do X, and expect nothing--even gratitude or acknowledgement--in exchange", so I can't imagine how politicians can so easily get away with doing the same thing to entire nations. What "we" need to be doing is demanding that some specific people be held individually responsible for their own bad behavior.

A cliché? Or general agreement? I thought people generally agreed that Spain has issues in that regard.

"I know the states and bureaucracy..."

I wasn't referring to states in general, you were talking about Spain, I was responding about Spain. I'm not a ranting libertarian, I'm aware of a state's role in society. Knee jerk pouncing on a cliché that wasn't here.

we've been told over and over again that we have to stay competitive, which is just an euphemism for working more and earning less

How much of that extra work is unnecessary (in Spain)?

I'm living in California. California has a considerable amount of Spanish speaking hispanics for historic reasons. For greater SF/LA areas, actually non-native English speakers communities are growing very fast due to hi-techs and relatives immigrants.

Just to mention a few: Monterey Park, 20% whites, 66.9% asians (50% Chinese). Milpitas, 20% whites, 62.2% asians. Cupertino, 30% whites, 63.3% asians (20% Chinese, 20% Indians)

Just been to Monterey Park in LA area two weeks ago, and found I can live there naturally even if I can not speak an English word. At the contrast, I think that city would be a bit harsh for non-Chinese speakers...

Governments don't have to be competitive if they mutually limit migration - and this is one problem.

People need the option to leave a system that doesn't work for them, or that system won't see a need for change. The same competitive forces that are so important to capitalism should apply to nation-states as well.