Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-97 last
To: JRandomFreeper

Not Extortion-Care.


81 posted on 11/17/2014 5:34:22 PM PST by Varsity Flight (Extortion-Care is the Government Work-Camp: Arbeitsziehungslager)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Mill-Stoners.
Ripe for the millstones in the Government Work-Camp: Arbeitsziehungslager.

Extortion-Care Lobby and the Exempt Gang Members vs. all the rest, the Mill-Stoners .


82 posted on 11/17/2014 5:43:33 PM PST by Varsity Flight (Extortion-Care is the Government Work-Camp: Arbeitsziehungslager)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson; SeekAndFind
Besides not learning the hard way that socialism does not work.

They and their predecessors for over 6 decades have failed to realize that many of the so called degrees in college offer zero help to getting a job, keeping that job and getting raises for good work.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3228272/posts

13 College Majors Where The Pay Goes Nowhere
Business Insider ^ | 11/18/2014 | JACQUELYN SMITH
Posted on 11/18/2014, 7:48:55 AM by SeekAndFind

When deciding on a college major, students are encouraged to think about a few things: what they love to do; what they want to do; what jobs they imagine themselves in; and what the earning and growth potential is like for those careers.

For instance, they'd probably want to know ahead of time that Human Services majors only see their annual pay increase by about $7,500, or 22%, over the first 10 years of their careers, compared to the average American worker, whose salary grows by about $25,000, or 60%, in that time.

That's according to Pay-scale, the creator of the world's largest compensation database with more than 40 million salary profiles. It recently looked at the difference between starting (less than five years of experience) and mid-career (10 or more years of experience) pay by college major, and determined the 13 majors with the smallest salary growth.

“We're not trying to discourage students from pursuing these majors — we're simply offering information so that students can make informed choices and get the most out of their degree, whatever major they choose,” says Kayla Hill, a research analyst at Pay-scale.

Among the majors, Child Development has the lowest starting salary ($32,200) and mid-career pay ($36,400) — and shows the least amount of growth in the first 10 years ($4,200, or 13%).

“Human support service majors tend to be paid less across the board,” Hill explains. “Child Development workers in particular may see less growth over time because it is a field that tends to be undervalued by society. Additionally, childcare workers may not have the same opportunities for advancement as more technical jobs, where learning new skills can lead to a pay bump or promotion.”

Human Services majors had the second lowest salary growth between starting and mid-career,

83 posted on 11/18/2014 8:01:27 AM PST by Grampa Dave (The Democrats, who run America are too old, too rich, and too very/very white elitist losers!.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson

“They are learning the hard way that socialism does not work.”

The majority of them voted for it over at least two elections and put a fascist in the White House.

It would be interesting to see how they voted in this last election. After being dumbed down in our schools, I’d be surprised if they’ve learned anything about cause and effect.


84 posted on 11/18/2014 11:34:36 AM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ozarkgirl

“You might think so but I paid cash for so long I had no credit score. “

Crazy isn’t it? You were being fiscally responsible and punished for it.

On the other hand, I have about 5 credit cards that I charge just about everything I buy on. Sometimes a credit card bill will be thousands of dollars. So I have near perfect credit!

(But indo pay off each bill in full -that’s part of the credit score calculation. Sadly, my credit cards are my best safe investment, paying between 1 & 3% cashback. I’ve never paid a penny in interest on any card, so I’m surprised I still qualify for these rebates)


85 posted on 11/18/2014 11:42:45 AM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Where is the force of the problem in this article? The liberals have dumbed down education so that these millennial cannot think and don’t understand history plus liberal teachers and administrators taught the students that they are entitled to everything, including grades, without earning them.


86 posted on 11/18/2014 11:46:19 AM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hugin

“. It was liberals who destroyed the education system to the point that students need to go to college just to get a high school education.”

Here, here!

We’ve been last on the international math and science tests for decades. Yet the MSM never reports it. And less and less of our students are majoring in math, the hard sciences, or engineering. Because they are not capable.


87 posted on 11/18/2014 11:49:25 AM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: yorkiemom

That was supposed to be ‘source’


88 posted on 11/18/2014 11:50:15 AM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: yorkiemom

Actually I’m less concerned about math than other subjects. Most people don’t ever need anything beyond standard arithmetic. But the inability of high school graduates to even compose proper paragraph is appalling. Ditto their utter ignorance of our history. But with people who think FDR got on TV and calmed the nation when the stock market crashed in 1929 running this country it’s no surprise.


89 posted on 11/18/2014 12:18:51 PM PST by Hugin ("Do yourself a favor--first thing, get a firearm!",)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: Hugin

I respectfully disagree. I’d say people need math more than they need to know proper punctuation.

Most people have no clue what tax bracket they are in. Or how much they even pay in taxes each year. They are incapable of doing this simple math and so are not incensed by our confiscatory taxation.

They have no clue when they are being ripped off either - with loans or any other products, because they cannot comparison shop. No wonder the savings rate of these young kids is negative - without basic math skills, they can’t figure out how to do a simple budget.

But it shows the total dumbing down of the population. When I went to school, every student took physics. Whether they ‘needed’ it or not. How does one know if they love the subject if they are never introduced to it?

And without scientists and engineers, the number of patents and innovations in this country has plummeted. We farm out our technical expertise to India. Manufacturing goes to China. We can’t gain from what we give away - and cannot recreate later on when all this comes crashing down.


90 posted on 11/18/2014 12:35:38 PM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: yorkiemom
Most people have no clue what tax bracket they are in. Or how much they even pay in taxes each year. They are incapable of doing this simple math and so are not incensed by our confiscatory taxation.

They have no clue when they are being ripped off either - with loans or any other products, because they cannot comparison shop. No wonder the savings rate of these young kids is negative - without basic math skills, they can’t figure out how to do a simple budget.

I agree, but that's really due to a total lack of education about money. I didn't say they don't need any math skills, I said higher math, meaning algebra and beyond. You don't need algebra to draw up a budget, or trig to know what tax bracket you are in. What you need to do any of those things is a good working knowledge of arithmetic. If you want to be a scientist or engineer you need higher math, but 99% of us are not scientists or engineers. I think requiring higher math to graduate discourages many people from graduating who will never need that math.

The truth is schools don't teach about money, profits, running a business, etc. because teachers themselves are largely ignorant of such things. They look down on such things, just like Obama does. That's why they become teachers.

91 posted on 11/18/2014 1:17:02 PM PST by Hugin ("Do yourself a favor--first thing, get a firearm!",)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: Hugin

“The truth is schools don’t teach about money, profits, running a business, etc. because teachers themselves are largely ignorant of such things. They look down on such things, just like Obama does. That’s why they become teachers.”

True, the teachers came out of the same system they are now creating - one that has no idea how the real world works but feels superior to it. Ironic.

I’m not sure ‘higher math’ is required to graduate these days. But I don’t consider it really difficult math either, other than how badly teachers mangle it so the students don’t understand it. I taught calculus for a short time (I couldn’t stomach being surrounded by liberals all day) and the kids were amazing how easy it was, when explained in a way they understood.

Basically, students aren’t taught much of anything of value these days, whether on the science or liberals arts side. Reading what the founding fathers wrote, for example, shows their knowledge of the language and of communicating well was leaps and bounds above what is expected today.

” If you want to be a scientist or engineer you need higher math, but 99% of us are not scientists or engineers. I think requiring higher math to graduate discourages many people from graduating who will never need that math.”

Most of us aren’t authors either, so why learn how to write well?

I think a well-rounded education shows students where their abilities and strengths lie. If we assume everyone is incapable of doing something difficult, we steal the opportunity from them to excel. Or to just have the basics to use later on in their lives, if it’s not their strength.


92 posted on 11/18/2014 2:24:34 PM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: yorkiemom
Most of us aren’t authors either, so why learn how to write well?

There are lots of jobs other than being an author that require basic writing skills. If you are any kind of office or retail manager for example. I'm not saying you have to be able to write a novel, just coherent writing of the kind you see here on FR (at least most of the time). I have talked to employers who require a BA or better for positions that really don't need it, just so they will get someone who can hopefully write at what should be junior high school level.

93 posted on 11/18/2014 2:46:05 PM PST by Hugin ("Do yourself a favor--first thing, get a firearm!",)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: MeganC

Ever consider running for public office? IMHO you’d do an outstanding job, and are just what the Conservative Movement needs right now.


94 posted on 11/18/2014 3:54:27 PM PST by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: Paulie

Waiters and waitresses, and even iirc busboys, make less than minimum
wage. The law permits that under the assumption that they’ll make up the difference in tips.


95 posted on 11/18/2014 3:56:39 PM PST by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Hugin

I was being facetious (and showing MY lack of English ability by not knowing if that word is spelled right). Same with history, biology, foreign languages, just about every subject.

Not that I think a well-rounded education is all there is - I always thought that was a buzz word for not being able to decide what to major in. But that was back in the day when schools did teach most subjects well, so kids got the options to chose their career paths. It wasn’t all liberals artsy stuff that was pushed.

I hear ya - college degrees are required for lots of jobs now, not just those requiring writing - just to find the people that had the motivation to finish the degree. Those just might show up to work on time, LOL!

I think you said it - that college is required now because it has taken the place what high school should be. Or someone else brilliant here said it! If my niece from Italy were to come here after high school, she could start college as a junior, they are that much ahead. NOT that I advocate anything that socialist country is doing for us here, but it does show how badly we are slipping.


96 posted on 11/18/2014 4:44:43 PM PST by yorkiemom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: tanknetter

Thank you for your kind words but there are a number of reasons why I would not run for office. I don’t want to be away from my kids while they’re growing up. I like being a stay-at-home wife & mom. And I can’t imagine putting my family under the media scrutiny that gets applied to everyone who even runs for dog catcher these days.

No doubt a lot of people have the same qualms about running for office that I do.


97 posted on 11/19/2014 9:29:19 AM PST by MeganC (It took Democrats four hours to deport Elian Gonzalez)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-97 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson