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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Most of them are not working three times harder, but inflation means they get less for their work. Even if salaries double from 20 years ago, the cost of everything has quadrupled.
Wanting to work hard for a future and not watching your phone all day...
I don’t think they know how hard ‘Boomers’ worked, or what little most actually had.
Working since I was 10, then the military, then data processing school and then a 45 year IT career.
It’s inflation. I am gen X, very well paid, and I can’t afford the things that my Boomer relatives could even though I earn significantly more than they did. All the financial schemes over the last 6 decades, private and public, have made everything so expensive that even someone with a six figure salary struggles to make ends meet. And Covid really tipped the apple cart over - even more inflation.
“I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure Bill Ayers is a Boomer. “
Close but no cigar.
how many indian H1Bs with fake degrees and ‘friends’ in HR did you have to compete with?
I am a boomer and my 5 kids are very well off and more successful than I was at their age, but they earned it going to school (some via the military) and eating PBJ’s and driving my hand-me-down vehicles until they “made it”.
“Boomers are the first generation to be PROUD of the fact that their kids and grandkids will be WORSE off than they were. Every other generation in history hoped that their kids would be better off. Not worse. It’s ridiculous.”
Rediculous
Now you didi it. GenZ will be pissing and moaning about and coming after our greed next.
On X I see younger generations expressing hatred of boomers, and blaming them for everything. I felt sorry for them until I started seeing that. They blame us for the 1965 immigration act, for instance, when most boomers weren’t even old enough to vote then, and the generations who COULD vote (the “greatest” generation and the “silent” generation) were lied to about that immigration act. Every generation has been lied to. Every generation is struggling, especially now. But somehow it’s ALL the fault of boomers. Younger generations seem to think boomers all bought houses in their 20s and lived high on the hog. When boomers post back about how they struggled growing up, worked two jobs, had roommates, and lived on Ramen noodles, they’re attacked. Younger generations have iPhones and streaming services and buy Starbucks. They actually want boomers, who are in their 60s and 70s now, to just hand over to them all the money we worked our whole lives to save! Screw that. I guess it’s convenient to hate and blame an entire generation, but I’ve had it with those other generations. Sympathy: gone.
So many here are tone deaf to it it’s ridiculous.
“Well, yesterday was such an easy game for you to play
But let’s face it, things are so much easier today
Guess you need some bringing down
Get your feet back on the ground
Won’t you tell me
Where have all the good times gone?”
My Dad is 92. His first job was driving a forklift of bricks into and out of an oven.
He made $2/DAY. Not sure of the year, probably 1953 or so.
Baloney! Gen X here ... my starting career salary in 1992 was barely over $13k. What are these whiners making these days? They're starting at $68k on average. 1992 dollars to today and they're still starting at more than twice what I started at. Heck, that starting salary was a pay cut from the $6.50 per hour job I had before starting the career job. And the boomers didn't expect the shiny BMW and corner office upon graduating college ... if they even did. They worked hard to get where they are today.
It is harder when you’ve been sold the wrong way to earn a decent living, instead of going 6-figures into debt for a college degree to have no realistic job opportunities after graduation, someone should be telling the Genz’ers that for a fraction the price of a college degree, you can become an electrician, plumber, welder, truck driver, etc..and earn a living wage.
No young person who had their mind set on going to college is excited to drive a big rig for a living, but the trucker is making 6-figures when you count benefit in the equation.
There is also the military, not everyone in the military is carrying a gun into combat, go in, learn a trade, get out and have the GI bill or stay in for 20 years and get a pension and healthcare for life.
How many people can retire in their late 30s or early 40s with a pension and healthcare for life ??
My point is, they’re plenty of ways to earn a living wage and not be saddled with crushing debt, but it takes hard work which is what derails a lot of Genz’ers.
I’m a very late boomer. I’ll be sure to point this all out to my millenial son who earns almost twice what I do, or my Gen X son who’s not far behind my income.
Maybe these losers should work on serious career paths rather than doing deep into college debt for worthless “studies” degrees that have no potential for income.
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.
In 1980, adjusted for inflation, wages were $50,000; in 2026 average salary is $65,000 — only a 30% increase.
The essential things in life (healthcare, education, a home) have greatly increased in cost and wages have not kept pace at all.
It’s the Federal reserve failing to manage inflation. Inflation destroys the hope of accumulating wealth. It’s the Politicians building up $40T in debt. That’s mismanagement. And it’s corporate policy changes — from 1948 to 1973 worker productivity and worker wages rose together in near synchronization. The harder society worked, the more the workers earned. But after 1973 this diverged. Productivity surged and corporate profits (and the stock market) grew enormously. But wages for workers have been essentially flat.
America has been fundamentally transformed. But some people refuse to see it and think nothing has changed over the past 50 years.
fair points. But often times we hear boomers mocking younger generations and bragging about how they’re spending all their money so their kids won’t get any inheritance and things like that. There is a def. generational rift.
Younger kids’ futures have been sold out to the open border globalist neoCON cheap labor lobby and yes, many of the younger gen blame boomers for it, rightly or wrongly.
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