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Their parents drive these things:
Posted on 08/15/2016 11:06:57 AM PDT by Lorianne
Millennials are not some vast unsolvable mystery. According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau (PDF), they earn $2,000 less than their parents did at a comparable age, they are more likely to live in poverty, and they are more likely to live at home.
But Baby Boomers and Gen Xers still seem to find it hard to believe that basic economic math can explain much of the younger generation’s behavior.
After several news outlets, including The Daily Beast, reported that rates of millennial sexual inactivity in early adulthood are surprisingly high, armchair social theorists came out in force to blame it on everything but the fact that nearly one-third of young adults are still living at home.
One right-wing college news website found a way to attribute the finding to millennials’ desire for “safe spaces.”
Conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat speculated on Twitter that it was an example of the “porn paradox,” whatever that means. Others attributed it, predictably, to the effects of technology or increased anxiety. A Rutgers biological anthropologist even suggested that millennials might be too “motivated” and “ambitious” to even bother with sex.
The most likely explanation—which was mentioned in the study itself—is that parents’ basements do not make great boom boom rooms. But who needs Occam’s razor when you’re publicly opining about the behavior of an entire generation? Lower wages sending 22-year-olds back home after college isn’t nearly as sexy as complaining about porn or political correctness.
The truth is that lower wages and poverty can account for so many of the things that older generations find so mystifying about millennials.
For example, millennials drive less than their parent’s generation—and until recently, at least—were relatively uninterested in buying cars. As The Atlantic reported in 2012, this crisis prompted automakers to appoint “youth emissaries” and come up with new car colors like “techno pink” and “denim.”
But trying to make cars cooler doesn’t change the fact that, as CityLab found, there’s a significant gap in vehicle miles traveled between millenials who make over $30,000 a year and those who make less. Simply put: Cars cost money and millennials have less of it.
Millennials have also been shamed for how much they spend eating out instead of say, saving for retirement. “Millennials Are Spending an Embarrassing Amount on Brunch and Takeaway Pizza,” Vice recently declared.
It’s easy to chalk that generational difference up to some sort of narcissistic short-sightedness but the truth is probably a lot closer to fatalism: When millennials can’t save for retirement anyway, why not spring for some bottomless mimosas instead of enrolling in a 401(k)?
SNIP
I said 500 a week.
I think Trump would agree with you. Defeat Obama/Clinton.
Because HE is blaming BBrs because he did not get a decent degree, or sucks at what he does, or should have learned a trade.
Exactly right. Instead the government is borrowing the money at artificially low interest rates. The government would stagger under the load of any realistic cost of borrowing.
When I retired in 2003, the financial counselors were using numbers as high as 8 percent when calculating retirement income for potential retirees.
Fortunately for me I didn't believe a word of it. Since that time I have made approximately 3 percent from my retirement funds and that is what we live on. If interest rates were to be allowed to return to normal, we could vacation in Switzerland.
In all sincerity: Bravo Mr. Millennial. What you and _good_ boomers (lots of them here on FR!) have in common BIG TIME is that both of our generations are mostly fools.
Bullshit. He’s blaming a shit system that we had a lot more to do with than he did. He’s not happy with the prospect of paying for SEVERAL recipients, and he’s not going to do it! and I would not either.
Ad Hominem? And I was replying to him, he is a crybaby, life is what one makes it. According to WC1 Baby Boomers are the enemy, what a Maroon..
“It was the WWII generation who gave us the SS/ Medicare system.
Medicare yes,but not Social Security.
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No ad hominem, just calling bullshit and foolishness.
> Baby Boomers are the enemy
Just a word to the wise - I don’t think you’ve seen anything yet in terms of resentment about FICA tax, frustration with the crap education they received, and all the rest. I think you are misinterpreting his disgust about that. He sees MANY boomers double, triple, quad dipping, and does not like what he sees.
Make friends with the millennials if you think are going to be on earth for a while. Or maybe you would prefer degenerate muslims and black panthers.
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Their parents drive these things:
My wife has this dream of moving to another country after we both retire. I’ve already had my life extended by the US health system and I suspect I will urgently need a good cath lab at some point in the future.
Living on the beach in Costa Rica just isn’t a long term option for some of us.
FWIW, thankfully, your kids and mine have somehow maintained their objectivity while navigating the insanity of the masses.
The peer pressure to fall in line with the current Politically Correct narrative can and is too much for many millennials to deal with.
The insane crowd is bending over backwards to excuse the words and behavior of “Alternative Groups” in some twisted belief that morality is subjective.
At the end of the day, it’s an embrace of uncertainty.
To be certain, is to judge.
To judge or be judgemental is not allowed.
As a result, virtually everything is allowed.
Except for those that proclaim that morality is “Objective”.
God help us all.
And they’ve moved from their room at home to the basement!!
That's the real answer, as to why Millennials are poor. Taxes are too high. Too many taxes. And we ain't seen anything yet. Because of overspending by all government, whether fed, state or local, there is a lot of servicing of debt load. Those trillions of dollars of debt must have the loan interest paid from general funds before what's left is wasted on anything else. So the bulk of tax collections goes toward servicing debt, and government is always seeking new taxes because what is left is not enough for their wish lists. Millennials are poor because of liberal over-taxing, will get poorer, but keep electing the liberal politicians who make it worse for them. Glad I'm old and will not have to worry much more, unlike Millennials who have a lot more worrying to do.
I agree, you make excellent points.
It’s gone from:
Everyone has worth, and is entitled to an opinion.
to
Everyone’s opinion has worth.
> 64 .. Mechnical Engineer making more money than ever
My situation is extremely similar to yours. Where can Mr. Millennial recover the basics of education, patriotism, clear thinking, life experience, commonality with other Americans (not a sea of moochers, criminals and terrorists), FUN and FREEDOM that we experienced? He probably doubts that it all existed. He’s been taught all through school that it’s all evil white man exploitation. He’s been taught that he’s just a girl/woman with a pe_is. Whether he knows it or not, he needs US to fill him in on how it blessedly WAS. Don’t you understand what a hollow, meaningless existence these younger people have been taught? Or are YOU so fat and sassy that you have not thought about it?
“Soft, lazy children. Why work when the parents will give everything for free? Dr. Spock was an idiot.”
What does Spock have to do with Millennials?
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Yup. And they're too lazy to study the effects of socialism, past and present.
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Off topic, but this is not a Puritan distinctive at all. Read any Catholic spiritual manual, and you find this point hammered over and over and over again: do your menial tasks with joy in a state of prayer. They are your means of sanctification in this life.
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