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Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents, Only Poorer

bloomberg.com

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

#261

Post by asdff »

rootusrootus wrote: post #208
Waterluvian wrote: post #123

This is a very complex subject and I'm not trying to reduce it to something simple. But a big smell to me that something's just plain messed up is this fact: I make more money (inflation adjusted) than my parents did combined when they bought the house I grew up in. I would have to double my salary to afford buying/maintaining that house today.

There could be lots of reasons for that, however. Since you have not provided enough information to make speculation possible, I will mention my own to illustrate my point: My parents bought their house in 1970, when my dad was making about 15K. The house was about 30K. To buy that same house today you would need to make about 150K. Inflation adjusted, my dad's income then would only be about 100K now or maybe a litt…

Housing prices has risen more in some areas than others for sure, but the trend of housing rapidly outpacing wages still holds when looking at much larger data sets.

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

#262

Post by brokenmachine »

malvosenior wrote: post #150
gambiting wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's not very enticing to start a family when you're renting and have no stability though.

When it seems like owning a home is completely unachievable, there's no point in saving so you might as well have those experiences.

Also I'd separate travel from those other things. Witnessing other cultures through travel is a very valuable experience IMO.

Community? What's that?

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

#263

Post by rootusrootus »

asdff wrote: post #261
rootusrootus wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There could be lots of reasons for that, however. Since you have not provided enough information to make speculation possible, I will mention my own to illustrate my point: My parents bought their house in 1970, when my dad was making about 15K. The house was about 30K. To buy that same house today you would need to make about 150K. Inflation adjusted, my dad's income then would only be about 100K now or maybe a litt…

Housing prices has risen more in some areas than others for sure, but the trend of housing rapidly outpacing wages still holds when looking at much larger data sets.

The last time this topic came up on HN, I recall someone bringing up numbers that show that if you control for house features, in particular size, the price actually hasn't gone up that dramatically. Average house used to be about 1600sf houses 40 years ago, now the average is 2600+.

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

#264

Post by brokenmachine »

joncrane wrote: post #80
tssva wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Now it's our job to bring peace and prosperity to the next ones.

The boomers have made it so difficult to buy a house that I chose to not have kids so I have a chance at having some peace and prosperity myself. Sucks but true.

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

#265

Post by brokenmachine »

tubbs wrote: post #99
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…

The greatest takeaway from this is that we [millenials] ought to make an effort to treat Generation Z with a respect that we are often not given. Let's not propagate that nastiness down the line.

I'm not having kids largely as a result of the mismanagement of the boomers.

I'm holding on to my nastiness.

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

#266

Post by vfulco2 »

iagooar wrote: post #6

It'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?

Chinese talk about generations classified in decades by when they were born too.

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

#268

Post by dang »

philodough wrote: post #78
LiterallyDoge wrote: post #4

Millenials 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…

Please keep tedious generational flamewars off HN.

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

#269

Post by dwd »

throw_away2 wrote: post #47
iagooar wrote: post #6

It'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?

The whole thing was invented by two boomers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generatio... My personal theory is that it is just an artifact of US boomer navel-gazing and self-exceptionalism. Also that it fits in nicely with peoples' tendency to want to drop other people into little buckets so that they don't have to think about them too hard. People do the same thing with race, believing these diff…

It's annoying how the media continues to perpetuate their shit by parroting the labels as if they meant something.

Thinking about it further newspapers have always printed daily horoscopes, so obviously there's money to be made pandering to peoples self identity.

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

#270

Post by dwd »

vfulco2 wrote: post #266
iagooar wrote: post #6

It'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?

Chinese talk about generations classified in decades by when they were born too.

For perspective there is also the chinese zodiac where you will exhibit particular traits depending on which part of a 12 year cycle you belong.

People like to categorise and be categorised to justify their actions or lack of action.

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