Posted on 08/06/2015 12:30:35 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
To some, millennials — those urban-dwelling, ride-sharing indefatigable social networkers — are engaged, upbeat and open to change. To others, they are narcissistic, lazy and self-centered.
I’m in the first camp, but regardless of your opinion, be fretful over their economic well-being and fearful — oh so fearful — for their prospects. The most educated generation in history is on track to becoming less prosperous, at least financially, than its predecessors.
They are faced with a slow economy, high unemployment, stagnant wages and student loans that constrict their ability both to maintain a reasonable lifestyle and to save for the future.
Longer term, rising federal debt payments and increased spending on Social Security and Medicare will inflict a tremendous financial burden on them, threatening their own prospect of receiving promised retirement benefits.
To a considerable extent, that’s the fault of my generation, the baby boomers. We were the children of the Greatest Generation, but we may also be the most irresponsible generation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Some gentle questions for the boomers beating their chests:
Can you honestly say that it is easier to succeed in the America you have handed your kids than it was in the America your parents handed you?
Do you think it’s easier now to afford a single family house than it is when you were starting out?
Is it easier to afford college now as compared to in the 1970s?
Is international competition a greater or a lesser threat to the American worker now as compared to the 1980s?
...and let’s not even talk about the national debt that the boomers are leaving their kids and grandkids...
GFY, Car Czar.
You progressive baby boomers have made life difficult for everyone you touch: Your parents, your children, and the poor group trapped between you and your offspring, Generation X.
As for your poor babies earning less despite college educations, you were the ones who pushed college on them, sent them to private prep schools, sent them to an expensive private university, and then let them major in African Queer Gender Studies.
Here is the truth: Those grievance studies majors deserve to be earning $8/hour as a barrister compared to $60K/year starting salary the middle class person who went to State Tech and got an engineering degree is earning.
For crying out loud. I basically grew up during the Nixon-Ford-Carter depression, and graduated high school right after the bottom of the Reagan strong dollar policy induced recession. In high school I watched Burger King shutter all of its stores in the area, and grocery stores go out of business, and local unemployment reach a historic high that has never been surpassed.
When I graduated college with a shiny new Aerospace Engineering degree, it was into the new world order following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But that also meant the defense industry collapsed, and took its engineering jobs with it. A short time later, Iraq invaded Kuwait, oil prices spiked, and what little was left of the aerospace industry collapsed. Many of my college classmates in the aerospace industry were laid off less than 18 months after being hired. Fortunately, I had entered the Air Force. However, the military had its own massive reductions in force sending many to the unemployment lines. I missed RIF eligibility by only a few months.
I did take on a small amount of student loan debt, quickly paid back my small private loan, and I deferred my federal loans for three years. During that time, I saved aggressively, and then paid the loan off in their entirety when the deferment was over.
I left the military for the IT industry in the late 1990s. Now earning more, I could invest more in the stock market, which conveniently collapsed with the dot com bubble burst a few years later.
I could go on. Buying houses in the middle of a real-estate boom, moving on the bust, etc., etc., etc. But, I never did a cash-out refi. I did do several cash-in refis.
Despite the timing of my life, I am reasonably financially secure because I am reasonably financially responsible.
Most of the people I knew of my generation graduated college and their first home was an apartment, often times sharing an apartment with a coworker or friend. Their first car was a used car. They probably did not have a credit card.
Your generation venerates victimhood, and because of that has raised a generation who believe they are destined to be a victim based on their conditions. They believe when they should be able to study a useless major and be paid $100K because they attended an elite college.
I can go on. Your generation kept your children away from all that was good, and taught responsibility, like the Boy Scouts. You kept your kids out of team sports, where they could learn about winning and losing. You didn’t let them work summer jobs when they were teenagers, instead putting them into SAT prep programs. And church and moral education? Forget it. You did not build responsible men and women, you built perennial children.
You have reaped what you sowed, but still blame “the economy”, “the recession”, “college costs”, etc.
And it is not your children who will have to clean up your mess, it is my generation, Generation X.
But least knowledgeable? What were they actually taught in those schools?
-PJ
They don’t realize it, but millenials are suffering from being the most regulated generation.
The cost of cars used to only be about 10% the average income, now they are over 25%. This is due to expensive required features like airbags. In fact, most insurance companies will consider a car “totaled” if the airbag deploys.
Even your appliances are becoming “unaffordable”. You used to be able to pick up stuff for a couple hundred bucks but now, loaded with “eco friendly” features, they are not only more expensive, but less reliable, meaning, you’ll need to replace them more frequently.
For example, for heat pumps/AC to meet efficiency standards, manufacturers have had to reduce the thickness of the exchange coils (only way to achieve it). However, this reduction in material means that it wears out faster due to the physics of thermal expansion/contraction (metal fatigue).
So, life is getting pretty expensive. You may not have noticed it as much as you may be established in your career, so the incremental differences may only be slight changes to your bottom line.
But when starting out, when you’re not making squat, you are totally f’d by the cost of regulation nation consuming a substantial percentage of any income you may happen to get.
The high unemployment, by the way, is the natural result of living in a socialist country like the US.
half of that in the last 8 years of a democrat administration, thank you
Boomers don’t vote for Democrats?
Just finished reading your post and all I can say is, “Oh,my!!!”.
I was the generation that preceded The Boomers,the Silent Generation (aka The Forgotten Generation).
I agree with much of what you said. The Boomers didn’t think much of folks my age and were determined not to be like us.
They succeeded-—they were nothing like us.
.
“Who dresses that woman...and WHY am I always seeing her swaddled in junk-store furniture upholstery? ;)”
She dresses that way to draw attention from her mean and angry face.
Sorry, I don't have the energy to be fretful or fearful. Let them fret on their own hook, if they feel the need.
They just know so much that isn’t true.
Well I will say this I work for the state and the old timers are sucking the system dry. They retire with a big payout then return to their old job 3 months later becaus they are the “most qualified” only to receive retirement and salary. Quotation marks for sarcasm. They suck it dry to getall they can while we peons don’t get colas or raises. I can do my job better than someone walking in off the street that should be recognized. i call the boomers the hippie generation giving us unfunded obligations, abortion on demand and the control everything govt. other than Cruz Paul and a few others all boomer politicians are worse than worthless
Excellent points.
I agree. Aside from my closest friends, I know people (neighbors, co-workers) who still have adult children...that never left!
Who, today, wants to move from that comfortable ‘womb?’
Children need to be given Roots and WINGS! At our house it was 18 and OUT.
We helped them to, ‘plan their escape’ starting at 16. *WINK*
No, of course they haven’t risen. How do I know? 40 years in the workplace. My point is that these kids have it no worse that my generation had it, ok?
“It was all inherited by the Boomers who had to live with all that krap.”
Well, they chose to live with it. If they wanted to get rid of it, or at least reform those programs to minimize the damage, they had every opportunity to do so.
Not all boomers voted for that crap. I know plenty of Greatest Generation who are all liberal thinkers and those policies were enacted by GG’s starting back under FDR and through Johnson to Carter. There were no boomers in major office until Clinton.
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