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Posted on 05/28/2026 11:50:55 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
For many millennials, the economy can feel like a game of musical chairs where previous generations already grabbed the seats, refinanced them at 3% interest and now insist there are still plenty left if younger people would just "budget better." Somewhere along the way, the American dream started feeling less like a finish line and more like one of those carnival games rigged just enough to keep people throwing money at it.
That frustration spilled into Reddit's r/economy subreddit when one millennial who grew up in the 1990s posted a blunt message about the growing disconnect between younger Americans and boomers over money, housing and financial expectations.
"I'm a millennial who grew up in the 90s and what boomers don't understand about us is that we're working three times as hard for a third of what they had at our age," the Redditor wrote. "And the milestones they want us to hit weren't postponed by laziness, they were priced out of reach by the economy they voted for."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
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“Using the CPI-U, the median weekly wage of $482 in December 1999 was equivalent to about $928 in December 2025. Over that span, the median wage’s real buying power grew by 12.1%.”
WTF are you driving, that you pay $100 to fill your gas tank?
In the 1950s, school banking reached its peak popularity in the United States, operating as a weekly ritual designed to teach postwar children the virtues of thrift, discipline, and regular saving.
The Weekly Ritual of “Bank Day”Tuesday Mornings: Most schools designated Tuesday as the official “Bank Day” to start the week with a focus on thrift.
The Envelopes: Children brought a special heavy paper envelope from home containing their deposit, often just a nickel, dime, or quarter.
Classroom Ledger: Students or designated “student bankers” filled out deposit slips and recorded the amounts in a classroom ledger under the teacher’s supervision.
The Vault Trip: A local bank representative or the school principal collected the money bags to take them to the local branch.
Passbooks and Incentives Physical Passbooks: Every child received a small, ink-stamped passbook that kept a running tally of their growing balance.Interest Earnings: Accounts earned real, albeit small, interest to teach children the concept of making money work for them.
Thrift Buttons: Students who deposited money consistently earned pins, buttons, or certificates to wear proudly at school.
100% Enrollment: Classrooms competed to achieve 100% participation, with winning rooms receiving banners or extra recess time.
The Role of Commercial VendorsSchool Thrift Corporation: Private companies manufactured the specialized bank vaults, passbooks, and coin-sorting machines used in classrooms.
Promotional Materials: Banks distributed posters, textbook covers, and short films featuring cartoon characters like “Peter Penny” to make saving look fun and patriotic.
Brand Loyalty: Local banks funded these programs primarily to secure lifelong customers, knowing children rarely switched banks once they grew up.
Decline at the End of the Decade Administrative Burden: Teachers increasingly complained that counting coins and managing ledgers took too much valuable time away from core subjects. High Operational Costs: Banks realized that processing thousands of tiny coin deposits manually was highly inefficient and unprofitable.
Postwar Consumerism: By the early 1960s, the economic culture shifted from the wartime scarcity and saving mindset of the 1940s and 50s toward an economy driven by consumer spending and credit.
If you’d like to explore this era further, let me know if you want to look at:The specific promotional materials or cartoon characters banks used.How the U.S. Savings Stamps program competed with local bank programs.Personal anecdotes and recollections from students who participated back then.
The Boomer generation is typically regarded as one of the greediest the country has ever seen.
As seen by who? The Whiner Generation?
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I know the article posted is about a Millennial’s comment but GenZ has been hit the hardest by what the Boomers have done.
Hit hardest, how? What, exactly, have Boomers ‘done’? Can you show us on this AI created anime figure, where, exactly, Boomers have hurt you?
~~~~~~
It used to be what can you do for your grandchildren but we see in this generation what can your grandchildren do for you? The fact is that it is quite unfair for GenZ and Millennials to have to subsidize the largess of the Boomers.
You sound especially triggered.
Boomers owe YOU nothing.
Boomers were given nothing and earned every penny they have.
What ‘largess’ are you talking about that GenZWhiners are having to ‘subsidize’??
Every Boomer I know is completely self sufficient. Are you talking about SS that they paid in to all of their working lives? Not sure what you’re even referring to.
Maybe you’re actually a bot that spews out whatever the programmer tells you to.
🤷🏼♀️
I’m so glad to hear that the median wage’s buying power grew by 12.1%.
In 1980, adjusted for inflation, Employer sponsored healthcare cost $9,200 a year; in 2026 it costs $27,000 — a 191% increase.
In 1980, adjusted for inflation, college cost $2,400 a year for tuition and fees; in 2026 it costs $12,000 a year — a 400% increase.
In 1980, adjusted for inflation, median home price was $202,000; in 2026 it costs $400,000 for a median home — a 100% increase.
Most of them don’t even want to work a 40 hour work week.
They recoil at the thought!
“And in those areas, you can find a “starter home” for about a million dollars. And average annual wage is $60,000.”
Hillsborough County, Fl, has an average salary of $69k. A 30 miniute or less commute gets you a $250k house.
That's essentially everybody alive today ...
I object to stereotyping "generations", because it's an ignorant and stupid thing to do ... and the stereotyping and the pot-stirring are impossible without the naming. So by simple logic I also object to the naming.
Naming and stereotyping "generations" as is done today is saying that a child born to a wealthy family in New York City in 1946 is essentially the same as a child born to a dirt-poor farm family in rural Iowa in 1964. The absurdity of that notion should be obvious even to someone with an IQ in the low 80s ...
In the 80s I had an Econoline with twin tanks that held 40 gallons.
In the 90s I had a Suburban that had a single 40 gal. tank.
In the 20s I have an F150 with a 36 gallon tank.
[But for just putting about locally, I have retained a ‘05 VW TDI with a 15 gallon tank that has a range of >600 miles. @ ~10 mi./day, That vehicle only needs a refill every couple of months.]
YMMV!
“Students brought small deposits (nickels and dimes) to class in specially marked envelopes. Teachers or bank volunteers recorded the transactions in physical passbooks.”
I worked with the school paper in the sixth grade. 0ne cent per copy. At the end of the day our pouch had only pennies.
No school bank programs. None could afford it.
1960s spoiled brat hippie types ...
I’m Gen X. I got my first job out of college working for a large corporation in their IT department. Started at about $40,000/yr, salaried. Rent on a fairly nice 1 bedroom apartment at that time was $650/mo. Back in the 2017/2018 time frame I was browsing through ads for IT positions. Jobs that were relatively entry-level but still required experience were starting off at about $30-35,000/year, LESS than what was offered 20 YEARS EARLIER. Meanwhile, that exact same apartment now rents for around $1,500/mo.
Sure there are other factors like the flood of H1-Bs in the industry and whatnot, but that’s the whole point. Things are NOT the same as they were for a whole variety of reasons, but Boomers are always griping about how any failure of younger generations to have what Boomers had is pure laziness and stupidity.
What has happened to the economy and the country in general may not be the fault of the Boomers, per se, but their failure to understand the dramatic changes that have occurred while talking trash about the younger generations is what gets them so criticized.
It does.
Very much.
That Econoline got ... what ... 10 miles/gallon? Your F150 is probably getting about 20 MPG.
My 2015 Corolla, which I bought used, gets 39 MPG.
A lot of boomers did some stint in the military,or their spouse did....that is a big leg up....also,a lot of us stayed married,another bonus..
I wonder if these whiners grasp basic economics 101 principles, and understand those government welfare programs that the democommies they voted for (which includes rinos) along with the blatant fraud that’s been going on for decades, are primary drivers of the inflation that’s cutting some of them off at the knees? I also wonder if they understand a whole lot of 3rd/4th worlders would take their place in an instant if given the opportunity?
Elections have consequences.
No; the ‘Boomer’ generation is generally understood to be those born between 1946 and 1964. We were not even 200 million in 1964.
And it’s not ‘stereotyping’ to simply consider the political and economic milieu in which a generation developed and to study the implications of that.
Pure BS..I have no verfiable proof of a millennial working any where near as hard as I have.
Econoline was a 300 cu. in., I-6, m/t [last year of production].
It got about 19 mpg.
The Suburban was a 350 V-8 with a m/t [also last year of production in the US]. I remember that it got 13-14 mpg.
The p/u gets anywhere between 13 mpg [80 mph on cold days into a strong 20 mph headwind] to 30 mpg [drafting a semi @ 70 using radar following cruise with a 30 mph tailwind]. It’s a bit crazy...
The TDI gets >45 mpg pretty much no matter what.
What did boomers have to do with LBJ, and how many boomers were old enough to vote in 1968 when the voting age was 21?
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