Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

randalolson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 320 posts

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#191

Post by WalterBright »

roenxi wrote: post #177
WalterBright wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> transfer of wealth from those who don't have it How can you transfer wealth from people who don't have it? > saddled college graduates with massive amounts of debt by defunding universities The debt came from rising tuitions due to the government making it too easy to get loans. > created great security for older people by taking away opportunity for younger people. ???

> ??? Worth expanding on these ??? I think - old people have less security if young people have less opportunities. The opportunities of the young is the surplus generation that creates the resources to support free riders (like old people). In the extreme case, if the young literally don't have any opportunities at all, eventually they're going to have to just let the old people die off horribly because there aren't…

It's nuts that people can retire with full pensions after working for 30 years. A more appropriate number would be 45.

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#192

Post by WalterBright »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #179
WalterBright wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lost money on the houses I've bought. This is because I factor in the cost of the mortgage, property taxes, real estate commissions, maintenance, insurance, etc. Houses are lousy investments.

You may be the worst real estate investor I've ever heard of. If housing was actually a lousy investment Blackrock and Berkshire Hathaway wouldn't have real estate holdings and they're both in the residential market in a big way.

> You may be the worst real estate investor I've ever heard of.

You may very well be right. However, everyone I hear saying how much money they made off of their house neglects to mention any of the expenses I listed.

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#193

Post by [deleted] »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #179
WalterBright wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lost money on the houses I've bought. This is because I factor in the cost of the mortgage, property taxes, real estate commissions, maintenance, insurance, etc. Houses are lousy investments.

You may be the worst real estate investor I've ever heard of. If housing was actually a lousy investment Blackrock and Berkshire Hathaway wouldn't have real estate holdings and they're both in the residential market in a big way.

[deleted]

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#194

Post by SecretDreams »

SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #147
SecretDreams wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It's a k-type curve where the high deciles are getting higher and the lows are getting lower, so to speak. There is increasingly becoming more of a divide between haves and have nots, and it has a temporal component because of how equity has appreciated over the last decade or so. Both housing and stocks. People from a decade ago have seen absolutely unsustainable appreciation in their assets while doing nothing.…

Looking back in human history, what was the ultimate outcome for similar economic conditions?

A lot of let them eat cake

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#195

Post by latentsea »

ryeguy_24 wrote: post #131

I keep going back to the debate with myself. Do I give my now-young kids 500K in an ETF in 14 years or do I send them to college? And the debate is not about how they will spend it (I can hold on to it too), it’s about whether to spend the money or just pass on the wealth to them. People have given me tons of reasons why college is good for them - independence, etc etc. I can find a way to give them independence with…

Send them to a country where college is much cheaper and then also be able to give them like $400k ~ $450k

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#196

Post by danny_codes »

WalterBright wrote: post #176
epistasis wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building adequate housing also brings down the medium cost, by a lot. At worst, it prevents the median house from rising in price. Prices are set through a combination of supply-demand and cost of providing housing. Almost all increase in housing costs are coming from land price increase, due to land shortage from planning policies that limit land use density. Housing has been made into an investment first, and a hom…

I lost money on the houses I've bought. This is because I factor in the cost of the mortgage, property taxes, real estate commissions, maintenance, insurance, etc. Houses are lousy investments.

You might want to revisit your analysis under more standard accounting guidance.

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#197

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #176
epistasis wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building adequate housing also brings down the medium cost, by a lot. At worst, it prevents the median house from rising in price. Prices are set through a combination of supply-demand and cost of providing housing. Almost all increase in housing costs are coming from land price increase, due to land shortage from planning policies that limit land use density. Housing has been made into an investment first, and a hom…

I lost money on the houses I've bought. This is because I factor in the cost of the mortgage, property taxes, real estate commissions, maintenance, insurance, etc. Houses are lousy investments.

[deleted]

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#198

Post by horns4lyfe »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #98
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #93

I think the article is correct to point out remote work as a big culprit, but for the wrong reasons. The article says "Employers, the Fed argues, are wary of hiring inexperienced people into remote roles, where the on-the-job mentorship that turns a new grad into a productive worker is hard to deliver." And I agree that's a factor, but I really think that what changed in the late teens is that remote software and net…

So what are remaining high-paying white collar jobs which aren't exposed to this type of foreign competition? I'm thinking lawyer, since legal skills aren't as portable across international borders?

Sales

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#199

Post by sarchertech »

weakened_malloc wrote: post #157
ashdksnndck wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget white collar. Figure out a career that makes use of your hands. Or make enough money to retire in the next couple years.

Unironically the most simple (note; not easy) way to become a multi-millionaire. Do a trade in your 20s, leverage that into running your own trades business in your 30s, and have a >10m valuation business by your 40s. Really regret not doing that myself.

I know enough of trade business owners to know that a business worth $10 million is rare.

Just using some back of the envelope math from numbers I found. On the high end a plumbing company is valued at 5x EBITA. A very very good plumbing company has a 20% net profit margin (and no debt, no corporate taxes or anything so that net income and EBITA are essentially the same), and a good plumbing company makes $350k in revenue per truck.

So a $10 million plumbing company would need to have 30 trucks, all with high performing employees. They’d need to bring in $10 million in revenue at best in class profit margins.

That’s a huge operation. Very few plumbing businesses owners will ever get to that level. There are 3 times as many doctors in the US as there are business owners with business that do the kind of revenue in the above example. If you’re capable of running an operation like that you can probably succeed at plenty of other things.

Re: New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker

#200

Post by shepherdjerred »

ryeguy_24 wrote: post #131

I keep going back to the debate with myself. Do I give my now-young kids 500K in an ETF in 14 years or do I send them to college? And the debate is not about how they will spend it (I can hold on to it too), it’s about whether to spend the money or just pass on the wealth to them. People have given me tons of reasons why college is good for them - independence, etc etc. I can find a way to give them independence with…

Would it make sense to keep that money in a trust and pay a portion of the interest out to them each month/year?

e.g. assuming $500k/yr at 4% interest, that would be $20k/yr which is not enough to live on but is still a nice cushion

Post reply on HN