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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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“everything so expensive that even someone with a six figure salary struggles to make ends meet.”
You are a flat out liar. If you can’t make it on a six figure salary, then the problem is you.
And Gen X is the most whiny bunch of pansies to come down the pipe in 500 years.
L
Exactly. Lots of vacations, door dash, and me time.
You hit the nail on the head. I might add that I am worried for my Millennial and Gen Z kids. They are doing ok, but I don’t think they will ever be able to afford the lifestyle I had. However, they are not working nearly as hard as I did, and they are not willing to sacrifice much to get ahead.
Taxes were a lot lower in the 80s too.
You never hear Democrat voters complaining about taxes.
Funny how that is.
These millennials are welcome to the life I had, but I doubt any of them would be willing to make the sacrifices I made to acquire a better paying job, or work full time days while going to college full time at night, and raise two sons at the same time. This boomer never had anything handed to her.
Sorry about that.
😬
The cost of everything is astronomical, it can all be lain at the feet of the Federal Reserve, Congress and debt.
I saw a video that showed a 1971 Datsun, that sold for $1,780 new. In that year, I was a 17 year old, soon to be 18 year old, who made $1,120 a month gross as a Carpenters apprentice. I had side jobs, and lived with my parents paying them $25 a week for rent.
I could have purchased this new car in 6 weeks of savings. The house we lived in, my parents bought in 1965 for $17K.
Inflation is a scam, it is deflation of the worth of Money. 40 Million Billion in debt does that, commonly referred to as 40 Trillion dollars.
We are poor, because our currency is debased.
How many have a few thousand silver coins? 1K Silver dollars are worth $70K more or less right now.
A US dollar should have the same purchasing power. It doesn’t, because its worth was stolen for the rich to get richer, and the working class to be slaves.
The equivalent pay for a person making $7 an hour in 1970 approximately would be $490 an hour. It is not, it is closer go $40 an hour in reality.
Our country and WE THE PEOPLE, are now debt slaves, only a very few ever make it out ourselves to generational freedom.
In 1965 after graduating from high school, I took a Civil Service job working for Monroe County in Rochester, NY. I got paid every two weeks. My take home was barely $100. I had to pay $100 to my parents for room and board. I took two buses to get to work every day. We didn't have a car growing up, and so I never learned to drive until after I got married. Even after that, I never owned a new car until I was working for the State of New York in the mid 80's.
Before I went to work for the State, my salary with the County was about $6,200. The beginning salary with the State (Corrections) was about $12,000. I had to move myself and my two sons two hours away. After 12 weeks it went up to $14,000. When I retired as a Sergeant in 2003, my ending salary was about $65,000, which is the salary new officers make upon starting today.
The term “rat race” first entered common usage in the late 1930s to describe a chaotic, competitive struggle.
However, it exploded in mainstream popularity during the 1960s and 1970s, popularized by the counterculture movement and post-war suburban white-collar workers critiquing the endless, draining grind of the corporate “9-to-5”.
Sounds like my 35 years of working for a living...
“40 Million Billion in debt does that, commonly referred to as 40 Trillion dollars.”
Math check, please.
“The equivalent pay for a person making $7 an hour in 1970 approximately would be $490 an hour. It is not, it is closer go $40 an hour in reality.”
I would ask for a math check but not sure you are able.
Do know how to use AI? It can do the math for you.
When I was in my 20s, I held down two jobs while attending college part time. My Millennial children are doing much, much better that I did at their age. My son and his wife both bring home more than $100,000 a year each and have their own home and several new cars, whereas when I was in my 30s, I was making $5.00 an hour and renting a cheap one bedroom house and had one older car to drive between my wife and I.
Maybe if they didn't want everything like a home, a brand new car, and personal toys up front, instead of putting off their wants when they could actually afford to purchase those things, they wouldn't feel as if they'd been gypped. I think instant gratification plays a big roll in the lives of these millennials. They want things when they want them, and go out on a limb to have them, even if it puts them in financial jeopardy. My two sons had brand new cars in their 20's. I grew up without a car, and was never able to afford my first new car until my mid to late 30's.
Uh huh.
That’s why I got $1.60 per hour in 1964 working in a plant 2nd shift and at midnight it was 100F inside so I’d have some money in a couple of years to start college.
“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”
In 2017, the average starting salary for an entry-level Information Technology or Computer Science graduate was roughly $50,000 to $74,000, depending on the specific degree and region.
https://www.google.com/search?q=2017+it+starting+salary
Same here, worked full time days, went to college full time nights, and raised my two sons alone at the same time. I graduated with honors. The fact that I went to college later in life, made me appreciate the experience that much more.
👍👏
The professoriate, or especiallycollege admin that put kids in deep debt before they start is the highest bar and biggest difference maker, I know because as a dad x 4 I’m still paying on Gen x ( maybe Z, I don’t keep track of that nonsense or “boomer” either) college debt wrrl oast retirement age, Imy wife and I signed on for the voyage
“I had a calendar I would cross out every day as I got closer to graduation.”
I had a Calendar. I would cross out every day as we got closer to surfacing.
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