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24 Reasons Why Millennials Are Screaming Mad About Our Unfair Economy
TEC ^ | 11/15/2014 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 11/17/2014 11:28:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Do you want to know why Millennials seem so angry? We promised them that if they worked hard, stayed out of trouble and got good grades that they would be able to achieve the "American Dream". We told them not to worry about accumulating very high levels of student loan debt because there would be good jobs waiting for them at the end of the rainbow once they graduated. Well, it turns out that we lied to them. Nearly half of all Millennials are spending at least half of their paychecks to pay off debt, more than 30 percent of them are living with their parents because they can't find decent jobs, and this year the homeownership rate for Millennials sunk to a brand new all-time low. When you break U.S. adults down by age, our long-term economic decline has hit the Millennials the hardest by far. And yet somehow we expect them to bear the burden of providing Medicare, Social Security and other social welfare benefits to the rest of us as we get older. No wonder there is so much anger and frustration among our young people. The following are 24 reasons why Millennials are screaming mad about our unfair economy...

#1 The current savings rate for Millennials is negative 2 percent. Yes, you read that correctly. Not only aren't Millennials saving any money, they are actually spending a good bit more than they are earning every month.

#2 A survey conducted earlier this year found that 47 percent of all Millennials are using at least half of their paychecks to pay off debt.

#3 For U.S. households that are headed up by someone under the age of 40, average wealth is still about 30 percent below where it was back in 2007.

#4 In 2005, the homeownership rate for U.S. households headed up by someone under the age of 35 was approximately 43 percent. Today, it is sitting at about 36 percent.

#5 One recent survey discovered that an astounding 31.1 percent of all U.S. adults in the 18 to 34-year-old age bracket are currently living with their parents.

#6 At this point, the top 0.1 percent of all Americans have about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent of all Americans combined. Needless to say, there aren't very many Millennials in that top 0.1 percent.

#7 Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, close to 40 percent of all 27-year-olds have spent at least some time unemployed.

#8 Only about one out of every five 27-year-olds owns a home at this point, and an astounding 80 percent of all 27-year-olds are paying off debt.

#9 In 2013, the ratio of what men in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket were earning compared to what the general population was earning reached an all-time low.

#10 Back in the year 2000, 80 percent of all men in their late twenties had a full-time job. Today, only 65 percent do.

#11 In 2012, one study found that U.S. families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

#12 Another study released back in 2011 discovered that U.S. households led by someone 65 years of age or older are 47 times wealthier than U.S. households led by someone 35 years of age or younger.

#13 Half of all college graduates in America are still financially dependent on their parents when they are two years out of college.

#14 In 1994, less than half of all college graduates left school with student loan debt. Today, it is over 70 percent.

#15 At this point, student loan debt has hit a grand total of 1.2 trillion dollars in the United States. That number has grown by about 84 percent just since 2008.

#16 According to the Pew Research Center, nearly four out of every ten U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 40 are currently paying off student loan debt.

#17 In 2008, approximately 29 million Americans were paying off student loan debt. Today, that number has ballooned to 40 million.

#18 Since 2005, student loan debt burdens have absolutely exploded while salaries for young college graduates have actually declined

The problem developing is that earnings and debt aren’t moving in the same direction. From 2005 to 2012, average student loan debt has jumped 35%, adjusting for inflation, while the median salary has actually dropped by 2.2%.

#19 According to CNN, 260,000 Americans with a college or professional degree made at or below the federal minimum wage last year.

#20 Even after accounting for inflation, the cost of college tuition increased by 275 percent between 1970 and 2013.

#21 In the years to come, much of the burden of paying for Medicare for our aging population will fall on Millennials. It is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025. In addition, it has been estimated that Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for every single household in the United States.

#22 In the years to come, much of the burden of paying for our exploding Medicaid system will fall on Millennials. Today, more than 70 million Americans are on Medicaid, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#23 In the years to come, much of the burden of paying for our massive Ponzi scheme known as Social Security will fall on Millennials. Right now, there are more than 63 million Americans collecting Social Security benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to an astounding 91 million. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.

#24 Our national debt is currently sitting at a grand total of $17,937,617,036,693.09. It is on pace to roughly double during the Obama years, and Millennials are expected to service that debt for the rest of their lives.

Yes, there are certainly some Millennials that are flat broke because they are lazy and irresponsible.

But there are many others that have tried to do everything right and still find that they can't get any breaks. For example, Bloomberg recently shared the story of a young couple named Jason and Jessica Alinen...

The damage inflicted on U.S. households by the collapse of the housing market and recession wasn’t evenly distributed. Just ask Jason and Jessica Alinen.

The couple, who live near Seattle, declared bankruptcy in 2011 when the value of the house they then owned plunged to less than $200,000 from the $349,000 they paid for it four years earlier, just as the economic slump was about to start. Jason even stopped getting haircuts to save money.

“We thought we’d have a white picket fence, two kids, two dogs, and we’d have $100,000 in equity,” said Jason, 33, who does have two children. “It’s just really frustrating.”

Can you identify with them?

Most young Americans just want to work hard, buy a home and start a family.

But for millions of them, that dream might as well be a million miles away right now.

Unfortunately, most of them have absolutely no idea why this has happened.

Many of them end up blaming themselves. Many of them think that they are not talented enough or that they didn't work hard enough or that they don't know the right people.

What they don't know is that the truth is that decades of incredibly foolish decisions are starting to catch up with us in a major way, and they just happen to be caught in the crossfire.

Sadly, instead of becoming informed about what is happening to our country, a very large percentage of our young people are absolutely addicted to entertainment instead.

Below, I want to share with you a video that I recently came across. You can find it on YouTube right here. A student at Texas Tech University recently asked some of her classmates a series of questions. When they were asked about Brad Pitt or Jersey Shore they knew the answers right away. But when they were asked who won the Civil War or who the current Vice-President of the United States is, they deeply struggled. I think that this video says a lot about where we are as a society today...

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; economy; millenials; unfair
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To: dforest
Yes. In a few years and under the right conditions they will be able to make a comparative judgement between losing half their paycheck to pay off debt and the blithering drivel they are paying so much for now.
41 posted on 11/17/2014 12:00:52 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (At no time was the Obama administration aware of what the Obama administration was doing)
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To: SeekAndFind
"Do you want to know why Millennials seem so angry? "

Perhaps it's the appalling sense of entitlement, coupled with an utter misunderstanding of how the world works, on top of a complete lack of work ethic, added to a fundamental ignorance of our politicial and electoral system, with a big dash of mindless consumerism, plus......

42 posted on 11/17/2014 12:01:24 PM PST by T-Bone Texan (The time is now to form up into leaderless cells of 5 men or less.)
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To: IYAS9YAS
Everyone's worried about credit scores. I'd love to not have one

You might think so but I paid cash for so long I had no credit score. Considered buying a house, applied at bank, no go. She said I didn't have a bad credit score, I didn't have a good credit score - I had no credit score.

Back in the day when I did borrow money, we used a small local bank that didn't report to a credit agency (that was only about 10-15 years ago).

Point is I was able to buy a car on time (with a co-signor) so you do want to borrow money every once in awhile just to keep a credit score.

43 posted on 11/17/2014 12:02:13 PM PST by ozarkgirl
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To: Paulie

“I thought only the illegals here who pick cabbage on the farms make less”

No, people who get paid tips or commissions also can be paid less.


44 posted on 11/17/2014 12:03:33 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: SeekAndFind
#5 One recent survey discovered that an astounding 31.1 percent of all U.S. adults in the 18 to 34-year-old age bracket are currently living with their parents.

This one might not be all that bad — when families are living together that no knock raid on the wrong address down the street makes what if they'd gotten our house? hit with much more force.

45 posted on 11/17/2014 12:04:38 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: cuban leaf
Isn’t that because home ownership has been discovered to not be the panacea that everyone thought it was? Home ownership is not a sign of wealth, unless you own it free and clear.

Home ownership is still the best avenue to financial security. The problem back in the 2000's was too many people thought that home ownership was a SHORTCUT to financial security. They took out short-sighted loans (interest-only, variable interest rates, etc.) loans and leveraged themselves to the hilt thinking that they could turn around in a few years and make a killing by selling.

The way to security via home ownership is by buying a home you can afford, borrowing using conventional terms and holding onto the home for a long time (decades, not just years). Over time the fixed payments become less and less of a challenge to manage due to rising incomes (due to our increasing work experience and plain old inflation). There may be dramatic downturns on property values, but over time, they always increase.

The first several years of home ownership are always tough. The payments are at their highest (relative to one's earning power) and there are repairs and modifications that need to be made usually when one first goes into a used home. During these years we all sacrifice, which means fewer meals out... we can't be first in line to buy the latest most expensive gadget/car... those things will come in time when our payments (relative to our earnings) diminish.

46 posted on 11/17/2014 12:04:56 PM PST by Cementjungle
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To: SeekAndFind

Obama easily won the youth vote nationally, 67 percent to 30 percent, with young voters proving the decisive difference in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to an analysis by the Center for Research and Information on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. Obama won at least 61 percent of the youth vote in four of those states, and if Romney had achieved a 50-50 split, he could have flipped those states to his column, the study said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83510.html#ixzz3JMH5mVqp


47 posted on 11/17/2014 12:05:05 PM PST by Personal Responsibility (I'd use the /S tag but is it really necessary?)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Wait until the ObamasCare opt out penalties hit them courtesy of the friendly IRSS.


48 posted on 11/17/2014 12:07:30 PM PST by tflabo (Truth or tyranny)
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To: SeekAndFind

Hit enter too soon:

Elections have consequences right, millennials? We warned them as loudly as possible. They chose not to listen.

Reap, sow and all that.


49 posted on 11/17/2014 12:07:41 PM PST by Personal Responsibility (I'd use the /S tag but is it really necessary?)
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To: Cementjungle

I get that. It’s why these people don’t own homes. There was a correction.

BTW, I thought buying in the Seattle area was lunacy. But I bought my farm in central KY. It depends on the location.


50 posted on 11/17/2014 12:09:13 PM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, perhaps they will start paying attention to sho they vote for.


51 posted on 11/17/2014 12:09:14 PM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: tflabo

The argument that was never made about “redistribution of wealth” is WHO’S money will be redistributed. Those who don’t pay attention to politics and the out-and-out leftists always assumes it’ll be someone else.

They’re shocked, SHOCKED, to find it’s their wealth that’s redistributed and that the effect of redistributing wealth ruins society.


52 posted on 11/17/2014 12:09:59 PM PST by Personal Responsibility (I'd use the /S tag but is it really necessary?)
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To: Eric Pode of Croydon
Maybe a third of them heard this. The rest heard that they are special snowflakes who are entitled.

I think they do expect more than my age group did. We built our house but it was just 4 rooms (Liv, bed, kitchen, bath) until we could afford to build on. Now they get these really high dollar houses so are in debt forever.

Also our couch was given to us, our end table was a piece of countertop on a box, our friends all had spools for coffee tables. I had no car and rode to work with a friend (no public trans around here). Nowadays kids think they must have everything their parents had when they are just starting out.

And it wasn't terribly long ago I had these humble beginnings, back in the 80's.

53 posted on 11/17/2014 12:10:16 PM PST by ozarkgirl
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To: SeekAndFind
Do you want to know why Millennials seem so angry? We promised them that if they worked hard, stayed out of trouble and got good grades that they would be able to achieve the "American Dream". We told them not to worry about accumulating very high levels of student loan debt because there would be good jobs waiting for them at the end of the rainbow once they graduated. Well, it turns out that we lied to them.

"We...they...."

Who's "we"?

54 posted on 11/17/2014 12:19:09 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: cuban leaf
I get that. It’s why these people don’t own homes. There was a correction.

The correction shouldn't have had any impact whatsoever on most homeowners. It only affected those who had a need to sell shortly after the correction. Those who bought homes as LONG TERM investments weren't affected at all, since the correction didn't raise their monthly payments (in fact, in many cases it actually helped reduce property taxes).

Yes, people who were set to sell and downsize because they were ready to retire, or had to sell to relocate due to work were affected... but those who just bought recently and were expecting to quickly make a buck were the main group who were hurt.

55 posted on 11/17/2014 12:23:49 PM PST by Cementjungle
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To: JPG

It’s the Kool-Aid aftertaste... they don’t like it.


56 posted on 11/17/2014 12:25:39 PM PST by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: JRandomFreeper

“Consumer debt is voluntary.”
True, but it makes slavery more appealing as time goes on.
These suckers will be so easy to line up for the suicide booths
when they hit 75.


57 posted on 11/17/2014 12:26:04 PM PST by right way right (America has embraced the suck of Freedumb.)
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To: 556x45

Just wait till they get the tax bill. They will consider the unpaid mortgage as income.


58 posted on 11/17/2014 12:27:35 PM PST by dangerdoc ((this space for rent))
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To: SeekAndFind

Nobody told them to get a studies degree or vote for the muzzi in the white hut.They did both,Scream louder kids,I cant hear you.


59 posted on 11/17/2014 12:28:07 PM PST by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: Cementjungle

Well, it affected a LOT of home buyers. And it affected me. I rented because prices were stupid. And I owned for 20 years before I started renting. I saved a TON of money, but not as much as a relative in Seattle who bought their home in 2007, has not made a payment since 2008 and STILL lives there.

;-)


60 posted on 11/17/2014 12:29:55 PM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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