I am a Baby Boomer and I don’t have a lot of respect for my generation as a whole. A lot of Baby Boomers seem to not realize that they were born at a really perfect time. Economic prosperity would never be easier to attain. Societal changes made everything fun — sexual revolution! Yee haa! Hippies! Disco! Yuppies! Lots of good times. Just about everyone gets a house! Lots of people get pensions!!
Yes, people worked hard. Yes, not everyone achieved a life of prosperity. Not everyone partied. But the Baby Boom was the luckiest time in human history.
I think the least that older people can do is at least acknowledge that they were born at a fortunate time. Younger people today are growing up in a very different world. They aren’t lazy — they’re screwed. They will own nothing and they will be happy(?). The game is rigged against them and they know it. The American Dream isn’t there for most of them and they don’t see why they ought to be wage slaves for a system that still favors people born in 1950.
1) The article mentions buying a house while young adults. My grown kids (late 20's to early 30's) are having trouble buying a house. That is, until they realized that their first home can't realistically be expected to be as big as the one they grew up. My first home sure wasn't. Once my kids came to that understanding it was fairly easy for them to find one.
2) Young adults not marrying. Well, that goes hand-in-hand with item #1 above. Two incomes can afford a home easier than one income. I hear from some young adults that they don't want to marry because their parents modeled marriage horribly. I don't blame those. But at the same time don't think a single income can get what a double income can.
3) This article and others like it always use some caveat like this one's "or more in major cities". Of course a young couple can't buy a starter home in the most expensive areas. That's not a generational change argument. As long as I've been alive you had to pay more for a home with a shorter commute, regardless of which generation is having to buy it.
4) Not mentioned in the article is the effect of massive immigration. More people = more demand for housing = higher prices. Especially with Section 8 housing now paying for families to rent a house within subdivisions of home owners and non-welfare renters. In other words, lower middle class families are now competing with welfare housing (govt money), where as in prior generations the welfare housing was only in the projects.
I’m a Boomer, on the late side, but still one. I totally acknowledge that I have lived, especially in adulthood, a charmed life. (My childhood was not a pleasant one, but no need to go into that).
Younger people are growing up in a different world. True.
However, I never once took a vacation that I couldn’t afford, that I hadn’t saved up for. I didn’t go to the spa for massages or treatments. We lived on one income in our marriage. It was our agreement. There were a few years when the kids were older that I worked outside the home. Before that time, I volunteered my time to our church, my kids’ school, and the community as a scout leader.
I purchased two new outfits for my kids every season, but other than that, everything was second hand. That was ALL we could afford.
We didn’t try to keep up with the Joneses.
The younger kids today who complain so much about the housing spend their money on frivolities. They rack up credit card debt like you wouldn’t believe. However, they take lavish vacations, eat out FREQUENTLY, throw ridiculous birthday party celebrations for their kids, and seriously, indulge themselves at nearly every turn.
My own kids do some of these things. Amazingly, the one with the lowest income is in the best financial shape, because he doesn’t live lavishly. He pays his bills and saves his money.
Our oldest is the one who is up to his eyeballs in debt, though his undergrad schooling was completely paid off within a year of graduation. He lives in a place where he can’t afford to live, but somehow doesn’t put 2 and 2 together.
The middle child is a cross between the older and the younger. Completely paid off her college several years ago. Has a lot in savings, owns a home, but still lives a very comfortable lifestyle.
The one that bellyaches about Boomers the most is our oldest, who is trying so hard to keep up with the Joneses that I think he and his wife ARE the Joneses. One day, if they don’t start to get a handle on it now, they will really be hurting. What do they say? The more you make, the more you spend? That’s him (and his wife) to a T.
I don’t recall the 70s as being a picnic