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Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
101–110 of 284 posts
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#102It's funny how this "generation" thing only quite exists (as far as I know) in the English-speaking world. There is no such idea of generations of people where I come from. It's hard for me to even grasp the idea of it. Who draws a line between generations and why? People do not stop being born, nor do they magically change because they supposedly belong to an imaginary generation. Am I missing something?
"Am I missing something?" Yes - you're missing the detail of the first of these generations - those returning to the United States from having served in World War 2, took full advantage of the economic preeminence of the US, and begat the "baby boom generation". So of course you are correct - births happen continuously and there is not an obvious "banding" of "generations" ... but in this case there was a very clear…
Not to mention general shifts in population sizes, methods of upbringing, shared cultural watershed moments, shared childhood information sources, cultural norms and expectations at a given time, experiences of war or famine or financial crisis, etc etc. Essentially all your priors from a Bayesian point of view.
I don’t know what’s not clear — if you grew up in China during the cultural revolution, you will be different than if you were born before or after. Your basic assumptions about humanity and government will be affected by such experiences and it will carry with you thru life.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#103Sorry but I kinda disagree. I'm a Millennial with Baby Boomer parents and I'm definitely not poorer than them. No, I wasn't born rich, but I'm definitely earning more than my parents. Okay, maybe not as much as my Mom but this article is such BS. It all just depends from person to person you know. I hate it when generations always crap on millennials like we're the worse thing that's happened in the world. Have you m…
Welcome to statics. You are a tail.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#104I always find it a bit strange when people pit generations against one another. It's common to find articles complaining about millennial, I also often see young people online complaining about how "baby boomers ruined everything". I mean, do we seriously believe that if we magically swapped these generations around things would've gone massively differently? I know that Americans put the individual first and foremos…
Thinking that entire generations of people are really different at their core is fallacious, but looking at their behaviors and indications of differences in the system they operate inside seems valid to me.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#105Millenials are killing everything. Except the economy. Boomers killed that.
Boomers made the economy grow incredibly and had some busts along the way. They got up and kept going. The boomers are the most creative and productive American generation period. Millenials are still living with their (wealthy) boomer parents, delaying marriage and waiting for their boomer parents to die, whereupon the millenials will inherit their boomer parents' wealth. Unfortunately this will fail, b/c millenials…
It's a real shame that boomers weren't creative or intelligent enough to prevent issues related to automobiles and climate change. It's also a shame they didn't come up with a decent fix for Social Security that will only benefit their generation and no one after.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#106It's funny how this "generation" thing only quite exists (as far as I know) in the English-speaking world. There is no such idea of generations of people where I come from. It's hard for me to even grasp the idea of it. Who draws a line between generations and why? People do not stop being born, nor do they magically change because they supposedly belong to an imaginary generation. Am I missing something?
You don't work in marketing/advertising. Companies need to segment populations of consumers with similar characteristics to effectively advertise, tailor products, and sell to them. One of the most common demographic dividers is age. Different "generations" are grouped together because the members of their population exhibit similar income and expenditure patterns on average.
Generation and age demographics are not the same thing though. Age demographics are constantly shifting and you go through several of them as you age and you situation changes, generations stick. Of course that means that a given generation will tend to go through the same stages at the same time but all generations went through the "kids" phase and the "teenager" phase at some point.
Generations are really a blunt and rather useless tool IMO. Besides "only 90's kids will remember this" memes.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#107I think the big problem is that there are less stable paths now. Previous generations had a clear path to getting a house, affordable education and stable retirement whereas now you have to take on a lot of debt, gamble in the stock market and have to have some level of luck to retire safely. Any major health expense or company layoff may destroy your well laid-out plans and put you back to zero.
I think today's life is just more stressful. With some luck you can do incredibly well but it can also go the other way big time.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#108It's good to see a study that quantifies what we have suspected for a while now: millennials aren't doing as well as their parents were at any given age. This is why certain "life thresholds" such as getting married or buying a house are delayed, sometimes significantly. The annoying thing is that this is typically blamed on imaginary negative traits that millennials possess, such as laziness or spite borne out of fe…
> who now have to live with, and pay, their debt. No you don’t. You don’t have to pay your parents debts. Not sure what “debt” you are referring to?
"No you don’t. You don’t have to pay your parents debts. Not sure what “debt” you are referring to?"
I can think of lots of debts that boomers incurred that will need to be paid (or absorbed) by subsequent generations.
- A vietnam war whose costs changed our economy and lead to the end of the dollars convertibility.
- A transition to urban life without investment in public transportation leading to a half century of malinvestment and disjointed transport infrastructure.
- Failure to invest the time and thought into learning how to eat and walk when you don't live on the farm anymore. Three square meals a day combined with driving everywhere has lead to an obesity and diabetic crisis.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#109I think the term "poorer", and the monetary analysis done here, is too high level to extract real meaning. The average young person/couple that I know are able to do and buy far more than their parents (e.g. eat out, order takeaway, take holidays, go to bars, buy things for hobbies, buy clothes, ...). They just don't own property and have no path that leads there. In some sense you could say that they have higher inc…
One of the things I've been contemplating is how student debt is a retirement issue. Especially with Social Security in a bind with all of the Baby Boomer retirements it's really important for people to take charge of their retirement early, but they can't if they are saddled with school debt. It adds up in a hurry too.
Assumption: Average student loan debt in the US is $25,000 with a 6.8% interest rate, with a 10 year repayment plan. Graduation age is 21 and retirement age is 65. Market return rate is 7%.
If you took that student loan money and instead invested it in the market after the 10 year loan period you would have $49,673. Leave it in the account until retirement and it grows to $495,642.
Of course half a million bucks won't be worth as much in 2062, but the difference between having the loan and not is substantial. This is one of those cases where subsidies up front can save a whole lot of money in the long run.
Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> > Who draws a line between generations and why? > Same people that draw a line between lemons and limes I mean, I doubt it is really the exact same people who do this. At the very least it is a separate department that does the lemon-lime distincting.
You might be surprised. Ernest Hemingway, an avid drinker, coined the term "lime" so he could distinguish it from other types of citrus in the Daiquiri, one of his favorite drinks. He also popularized the term Lost Generation, generally regarded as the first generational cohort with a name, although the term was originally coined by Gertrude Stein. (Ohyyfuvg.)
Hemingway also took a phrase from the Spanish bull fighting rings, "la hora de la verdad" and rendered it into English "The moment of truth." This immediately became a cliche in all kinds of journalism, especially sports reporting "They've only got 5 minutes left and they are down by 3, so this is the moment of truth."