Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer • Hacker News Board

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#141

Post by burlesona » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:49 PM UTC

tssva wrote: post #61

burlesona wrote: post #2

From the article: “What’s old is new again. The paper observes that some of the millennials’ parents were subject to similar baseless grumbles of "kids these days" from their elders.” I don’t know though. Seems like part of the nastiness of the times is the baby boomers constantly taking jabs at millennials. Perhaps the silent generation complained the boomers weren’t “frugal enough” but I have a hard time believing…

Baby boomers were teenagers and young adults from the late 50s through the 80s. So the birth of rock-n-roll, the protest movements of the 60s and 70s, emergence of drug culture, the sexual revolution, disco, the crack epidemic, and the birth of rap. As a Gen X'er I can personally remember the mid-70s to the late 80s and the hate spewed out at baby boomers by previous generations. I don't think the Millennials have it…

That’s helpful perspective, thanks for sharing :)

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#142

Post by scotty79 » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:49 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #129

will_brown wrote: post #126

Baby Boomers are directly responsible for all the debt in the country, they invented it to pay for their lavish life styles they couldn’t afford and so they invented debt to kick the can down the road to future generations, and payment has come due. 1950 federal debt was ~$250B now $21T. Credit cards didn’t exist before baby boomers now $19T in consumer debt. Student loans didn’t exist before the boomers, now it’s mo…

I agree with most of this except the part about inventing debt; come on now, debt has existed as a concept far back into human history. EDIT: Yes all, I understand credit is now more easily available than ever, and I would argue that ease of credit is a substantial problem allowing for the transfer of responsibility to future generations. @infogulch: I agree with everything you said, but that is not what OP said, and…

Sure but what's fair in terms of debt was seriously limited. Now with payday loans all bets are off.

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#143

Post by humanrebar » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:50 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #57

acconrad wrote: post #18

It's painful to see that younger people are worse off - poorer and life expectancy I see is down again. I thought we were trying to give our children a better life? How did we become so narcissistic that we don't even want to make future generations better off?

Everyone is trying to give their children a better life, not everyone else's children a better life.

Propping up housing prices and NIMBYism isn't trying to give your offspring a better life.

I guess by some math they would leave the house to the kids, but that will be when the Boomers are ideally 80 and their kids are already grandparents. Assuming the wealth isn't spent on end of life care (it will be).

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#144

Post by marcosdumay » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:50 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #126

Baby Boomers are directly responsible for all the debt in the country, they invented it to pay for their lavish life styles they couldn’t afford and so they invented debt to kick the can down the road to future generations, and payment has come due. 1950 federal debt was ~$250B now $21T. Credit cards didn’t exist before baby boomers now $19T in consumer debt. Student loans didn’t exist before the boomers, now it’s mo…

> they invented it to pay for their lavish life styles they couldn’t afford

Debit does not work that way over the entire economy. It can change the distribution of wealth, it can incentive people to act differently, it can change the cost of transactions. But it can not anticipate future wealth.

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#145

Post by awakeasleep » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #126

Baby Boomers are directly responsible for all the debt in the country, they invented it to pay for their lavish life styles they couldn’t afford and so they invented debt to kick the can down the road to future generations, and payment has come due. 1950 federal debt was ~$250B now $21T. Credit cards didn’t exist before baby boomers now $19T in consumer debt. Student loans didn’t exist before the boomers, now it’s mo…

How are boomers as a generation of people responsible for the '78 Supreme Court decision to allow national banks to export the interest rate law of their home state into any state where they do business?

Thats what caused the credit card explosion

https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/marquette-inter...

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#146

Post by uncoder0 » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

nkg wrote: post #60

But isn't the fact that they are just like their parents exactly the problem ? The GDP of the United States has more than doubled since the 80's, so how is it that millenials are as "poor" as their parents ?

Wages/GDP Graph may have something to do with it. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=2Xa

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#147

Post by burlesona » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

SaltyBackendGuy wrote: post #5

burlesona wrote: post #2

From the article: “What’s old is new again. The paper observes that some of the millennials’ parents were subject to similar baseless grumbles of "kids these days" from their elders.” I don’t know though. Seems like part of the nastiness of the times is the baby boomers constantly taking jabs at millennials. Perhaps the silent generation complained the boomers weren’t “frugal enough” but I have a hard time believing…

> I have a hard time believing they had such widespread disdain for their kids as the boomers do It's always interesting when I hear boomers complain about millennials. Didn't they have an influence on raising the same generation they complain about?

Yeah this has become my standard reply when a boomer makes a stink about Millenials to me. “Sounds like they didn’t have very good parents.”

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#148

Post by kimmeld » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #126

Baby Boomers are directly responsible for all the debt in the country, they invented it to pay for their lavish life styles they couldn’t afford and so they invented debt to kick the can down the road to future generations, and payment has come due. 1950 federal debt was ~$250B now $21T. Credit cards didn’t exist before baby boomers now $19T in consumer debt. Student loans didn’t exist before the boomers, now it’s mo…

Social Security was founded in 1935, so before boomers ever were born, although it had a different feel from today's program. Social Security is funded (you actually pay taxes for it), but the rest of the government borrows from it quite recklessly which is why republicans want you to believe it's not funded. With simply upping the ceiling on the amount taxed into it we can easily fund it for the foreseeable future. Now of course the right wants you to think otherwise so they can kill the program for future generations but that's just not backed up by facts.

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#149

Post by darepublic » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:52 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #126

Baby Boomers are directly responsible for all the debt in the country, they invented it to pay for their lavish life styles they couldn’t afford and so they invented debt to kick the can down the road to future generations, and payment has come due. 1950 federal debt was ~$250B now $21T. Credit cards didn’t exist before baby boomers now $19T in consumer debt. Student loans didn’t exist before the boomers, now it’s mo…

seems like a generalization to say 'baby boomers directly responsible for...' How do you consign direct responsibility to a group of people only tied together by their year of birth? Are you sure you are not yourself unconsciously kicking the can down the road through some horrid act or inaction on your part?

Re: Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

#150

Post by malvosenior » Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 4:52 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #36

esotericn wrote: post #16

I 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…

Agreed. I live the life of incredible luxury compared to when my parents were my age, definitely in terms of "life experiences" and material possessions....except for housing. Getting on the property ladder seems like a dream that's very far away, even when working as an IT professional.

I think it's worth noting that having a family is a "life experience" and a home is a "material possession". Many would argue that travel, dining out, bars... are shallow and hedonistic experiences while cultivating a family and community are enriching and rewarding.