Why do people think Boomers had it so good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents bought their house in suburban Boston in 1970. They sold in 1996 for 11 times what they bought and had upkept the house but did not add or significantly renovate. DH and I bought in 1996 - and we renovated extensively. We are about to sell for 4 times what we bought. Housing prices have not gone up as much in the past ~25 years as much as they did in the previous ~25 years. Both houses are in highly sought after neighborhoods.

How can you complain when your house value has gone up 4 times?

Because everything else has gone up four times as well?

A house is a home, not an investment. If its value keeps up with inflation you are doing OK.

DP but if PP's house keeping up with inflation means that they're doing OK, why is it verboten to say that Boomers' houses beating inflation by 5-10x "had it so good"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

Millennials were born between 1986-2011.

Someone born in 1986 was 17 years old in 2003, and 25 in 2011. There were definitely millennials in Iraq.

Also, US service members were dying in Afghanistan as recently as 2021-even Gen Z were killed.

Do you honestly believe that there were more deaths in Iraq than Vietnam? It's mind-boggling to me that millennials are trying to argue that Iraq was more impactful on the population at large, or more deadly. Or that it was a millennial war instead of a GenX or even Boomer war. Millenials have serious main character syndrome and I'm not sure how they get out of it. A book maybe?

Do you really not know how to read? It's mind-boggling that you would quote my post and then just make something up. I never said there were "more deaths."
I'm Gen X, not Millennial, and so is my husband who did two tours of Iraq. Many of the people he served with over there were (yes, WERE) Millennials.

Which is still irrelevant to the point at hand. Vietnam was a more impactful war - hands down - on society, national psyche, and by way of total death count. Iraq War, while terrible, did not have the same impact. Did Millenials serve? sure, I guess the older ones. But it did not impact the generation in the same way. One of the many reasons being that the generation was not up in arms over being drafted - against their will - for 1 in 10 to return dead.

You are arguing a totally unrelated point that - per your argument - really has no relevance to the issue at hand.

And the younger ones.
And Gen Z

Your argument about the draft is irrelevant to the point at hand. Millennials HAVE served and still do.
Your argument really has no relevance.

Sure, some have but it would have been a millennial shit storm if they reinstated the draft.

LOL the pivot from "you cannot imagine the horrors of a draft, it was terrible for Boomers" to "millennials probably would have whined if there was a draft". Is a draft a good, character-building exercise now? Or are Millennials whiners for ::checks notes:: volunteering to fight instead of being drafted and/or fleeing the country or claiming bone spurs to avoid it? You're spiraling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Same with Mortgages. In 1981 it was 18%. It also used to be much harder to qualify for a mortgage, There were no creative repayment terms or 3% down. It was straight up 30 year mortgage with 20% down.

That actually was a good thing - it meant fewer of them got into serious trouble by buying a house they couldn't afford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

Millennials were born between 1986-2011.

Someone born in 1986 was 17 years old in 2003, and 25 in 2011. There were definitely millennials in Iraq.

Also, US service members were dying in Afghanistan as recently as 2021-even Gen Z were killed.

Do you honestly believe that there were more deaths in Iraq than Vietnam? It's mind-boggling to me that millennials are trying to argue that Iraq was more impactful on the population at large, or more deadly. Or that it was a millennial war instead of a GenX or even Boomer war. Millenials have serious main character syndrome and I'm not sure how they get out of it. A book maybe?

Do you really not know how to read? It's mind-boggling that you would quote my post and then just make something up. I never said there were "more deaths."
I'm Gen X, not Millennial, and so is my husband who did two tours of Iraq. Many of the people he served with over there were (yes, WERE) Millennials.

Which is still irrelevant to the point at hand. Vietnam was a more impactful war - hands down - on society, national psyche, and by way of total death count. Iraq War, while terrible, did not have the same impact. Did Millenials serve? sure, I guess the older ones. But it did not impact the generation in the same way. One of the many reasons being that the generation was not up in arms over being drafted - against their will - for 1 in 10 to return dead.

You are arguing a totally unrelated point that - per your argument - really has no relevance to the issue at hand.

And the younger ones.
And Gen Z

Your argument about the draft is irrelevant to the point at hand. Millennials HAVE served and still do.
Your argument really has no relevance.

Sure, some have but it would have been a millennial shit storm if they reinstated the draft.

LOL the pivot from "you cannot imagine the horrors of a draft, it was terrible for Boomers" to "millennials probably would have whined if there was a draft". Is a draft a good, character-building exercise now? Or are Millennials whiners for ::checks notes:: volunteering to fight instead of being drafted and/or fleeing the country or claiming bone spurs to avoid it? You're spiraling.

No the PP is exactly right. Today's parents would stage a violent overthrow of the government if their darlings were sent off to war.

They won't even let them sit in the front seat of the car!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

Millennials were born between 1986-2011.

Someone born in 1986 was 17 years old in 2003, and 25 in 2011. There were definitely millennials in Iraq.

Also, US service members were dying in Afghanistan as recently as 2021-even Gen Z were killed.

Do you honestly believe that there were more deaths in Iraq than Vietnam? It's mind-boggling to me that millennials are trying to argue that Iraq was more impactful on the population at large, or more deadly. Or that it was a millennial war instead of a GenX or even Boomer war. Millenials have serious main character syndrome and I'm not sure how they get out of it. A book maybe?

Do you really not know how to read? It's mind-boggling that you would quote my post and then just make something up. I never said there were "more deaths."
I'm Gen X, not Millennial, and so is my husband who did two tours of Iraq. Many of the people he served with over there were (yes, WERE) Millennials.

Which is still irrelevant to the point at hand. Vietnam was a more impactful war - hands down - on society, national psyche, and by way of total death count. Iraq War, while terrible, did not have the same impact. Did Millenials serve? sure, I guess the older ones. But it did not impact the generation in the same way. One of the many reasons being that the generation was not up in arms over being drafted - against their will - for 1 in 10 to return dead.

You are arguing a totally unrelated point that - per your argument - really has no relevance to the issue at hand.

And the younger ones.
And Gen Z

Your argument about the draft is irrelevant to the point at hand. Millennials HAVE served and still do.
Your argument really has no relevance.

Sure, some have but it would have been a millennial shit storm if they reinstated the draft.

LOL the pivot from "you cannot imagine the horrors of a draft, it was terrible for Boomers" to "millennials probably would have whined if there was a draft". Is a draft a good, character-building exercise now? Or are Millennials whiners for ::checks notes:: volunteering to fight instead of being drafted and/or fleeing the country or claiming bone spurs to avoid it? You're spiraling.

No the PP is exactly right. Today's parents would stage a violent overthrow of the government if their darlings were sent off to war.

They won't even let them sit in the front seat of the car!

Millennials' parents -- the ones who you're saying would have overthrown the government if there was a draft for Iraq or Afghanistan -- are Boomers. Round and round we go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

Millennials were born between 1986-2011.

Someone born in 1986 was 17 years old in 2003, and 25 in 2011. There were definitely millennials in Iraq.

Also, US service members were dying in Afghanistan as recently as 2021-even Gen Z were killed.

Do you honestly believe that there were more deaths in Iraq than Vietnam? It's mind-boggling to me that millennials are trying to argue that Iraq was more impactful on the population at large, or more deadly. Or that it was a millennial war instead of a GenX or even Boomer war. Millenials have serious main character syndrome and I'm not sure how they get out of it. A book maybe?

Do you really not know how to read? It's mind-boggling that you would quote my post and then just make something up. I never said there were "more deaths."
I'm Gen X, not Millennial, and so is my husband who did two tours of Iraq. Many of the people he served with over there were (yes, WERE) Millennials.

Which is still irrelevant to the point at hand. Vietnam was a more impactful war - hands down - on society, national psyche, and by way of total death count. Iraq War, while terrible, did not have the same impact. Did Millenials serve? sure, I guess the older ones. But it did not impact the generation in the same way. One of the many reasons being that the generation was not up in arms over being drafted - against their will - for 1 in 10 to return dead.

You are arguing a totally unrelated point that - per your argument - really has no relevance to the issue at hand.

And the younger ones.
And Gen Z

Your argument about the draft is irrelevant to the point at hand. Millennials HAVE served and still do.
Your argument really has no relevance.

Sure, some have but it would have been a millennial shit storm if they reinstated the draft.

LOL the pivot from "you cannot imagine the horrors of a draft, it was terrible for Boomers" to "millennials probably would have whined if there was a draft". Is a draft a good, character-building exercise now? Or are Millennials whiners for ::checks notes:: volunteering to fight instead of being drafted and/or fleeing the country or claiming bone spurs to avoid it? You're spiraling.

Guys, PP is clearly a troll. No way someone is actually this stupid. Her English is not coherent so my guess is it's a rando on the internet. Most normal Americans understand that the Vietnam era, the draft, and the death toll were far greater than anything inflicted by Iraq on the US public. Plus, millennials were not greatly impacted by the Iraq War. Sure, some millennials may serve in the military but it is such a smaller percentage of the overall population than generations past. In fact, it pales in comparison. So all of this "the millennials volunteered!" is really not something to attribute to the generation.

Military participation by generation breakdowns show the numbers: Greatest generation - 35% military participation; Boomers - 18%; GenX - 7%; Millennials - 3%.
So no, millennials have not been impacted by wars anywhere near the same way as their parents or grandparents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

Millennials were born between 1986-2011.

Someone born in 1986 was 17 years old in 2003, and 25 in 2011. There were definitely millennials in Iraq.

Also, US service members were dying in Afghanistan as recently as 2021-even Gen Z were killed.

Do you honestly believe that there were more deaths in Iraq than Vietnam? It's mind-boggling to me that millennials are trying to argue that Iraq was more impactful on the population at large, or more deadly. Or that it was a millennial war instead of a GenX or even Boomer war. Millenials have serious main character syndrome and I'm not sure how they get out of it. A book maybe?

Do you really not know how to read? It's mind-boggling that you would quote my post and then just make something up. I never said there were "more deaths."
I'm Gen X, not Millennial, and so is my husband who did two tours of Iraq. Many of the people he served with over there were (yes, WERE) Millennials.

Which is still irrelevant to the point at hand. Vietnam was a more impactful war - hands down - on society, national psyche, and by way of total death count. Iraq War, while terrible, did not have the same impact. Did Millenials serve? sure, I guess the older ones. But it did not impact the generation in the same way. One of the many reasons being that the generation was not up in arms over being drafted - against their will - for 1 in 10 to return dead.

You are arguing a totally unrelated point that - per your argument - really has no relevance to the issue at hand.

And the younger ones.
And Gen Z

Your argument about the draft is irrelevant to the point at hand. Millennials HAVE served and still do.
Your argument really has no relevance.

Sure, some have but it would have been a millennial shit storm if they reinstated the draft.

LOL the pivot from "you cannot imagine the horrors of a draft, it was terrible for Boomers" to "millennials probably would have whined if there was a draft". Is a draft a good, character-building exercise now? Or are Millennials whiners for ::checks notes:: volunteering to fight instead of being drafted and/or fleeing the country or claiming bone spurs to avoid it? You're spiraling.

You are responding to a collection of different PPs. Not the same one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I purchased my first home in 1986 with a mortgage rate of 11%.

For like 10k

This is seriously exaggerated.
My family bought our south Arlington home in 1976 for 30K, in a neighborhood suffering from white flight. It was NOT a nice neighborhood and definitely did not get any nicer.
30K was a lot of money back then. They had to borrow from their network to make the downpayment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers have had 40 years to build their wealth, millennials maybe 15. Forget housing costs, mortgages etc., it’s really education debt where the boomers have had an advantage. Education inflation has outpaced just about everything else.

+1 and they benefitted twice.

Boomers went through college for next to nothing (or nothing). They had no college debt.

But then a lot of Boomers convinced their kids that not only was college essential, but you should aim to go through the best college you could get into. And if the family couldn't afford it, well there are these student loans now. It's "good debt." You'll make so much money when this degree from a school I get to brag to other boomers about you'll pay then off in no time!

(JK you'll get laid off twice and spend 30 years crawling out if that debt and be unable to buy a house).

So Boomers had to pay for zero college educations because theirs were mostly free and their kids were paid for through loans.

Meanwhile millennials had to pay for their own education cations via loans and, if they have kids, have to save up the cost of college because it will be even more expensive for their kids and they don't want their kids burdened with loans as they were.

And yes: not all boomers. Not all millennials. But when you find someone railing about boomers take a look at their background-- you'll find a lot of people who borrowed money to attend colleges their parents really wanted then to attend (colleges that sound impressive) and are bitter that their parents unwittingly led them down a path of debt.

A lot of Millennials got bad financial and education guidance from their parents and when they complain about boomers they are talking about their specific boomer parents. And they have a reason to be upset, frankly.

I don't think all Boomers went to college. As a Gen-X, I remember even thinking that college was optional and a few of my high school classmates did not pursue college.
This idea of "college for all" wasn't beaten into everyone's head back then as it is now.

If you are griping about Boomers and their college costs, you are griping about educated, and therefore, likely wealthy Boomers. Not the average Boomer who might be blue collar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, it's all being able to look through the rearview mirror and then make the determination that Boomers had it good.

However, if you were to magically transport back to 1981, you would never envy the Boomer generation.

The Dow was 9400 in 1965...and it was 2700 in 1982...can you imagine living through 17 years where the stock market collapsed by 71%? It was a slow-moving trainwreck. Inflation was also nuts...like over 10% per year.

Now, between 1982 and today the Dow went almost straight shot from 2,700 to 40,000. All those boomers that just left their accumulated savings in the market made a fortune.

Also, the WSJ just published an article saying that housing affordability today is essentially the same as it was in 1984. It become significantly more affordable between 1984 - 2015...then zoomed higher to unaffordable through today.

The big differences are that both college and healthcare as a %age of income were way lower back in the day. You could go to Harvard for literally $650 in 1955...which would only be like $10k in today's dollars.

Only the very wealthy had money in the stock market. Middle class boomers and their pensions and cheap houses and were pretty comfortable. They had housing, [/b]affordable medical car, and cheap colleges, [b]and one spouse didn’t have to work to make this happen - so no childcare camps. Maybe they don’t travel as much or have fancy phones? But millennials recognize that giving up a phone and avacado toast is not going to close the gap on housing costs. The income to housing ratio has been terrible for 20 years.

Link to that WSJ article about housing affordability?

Medical care was adorable because it was more basic car and fewer technologies and treatments.

College is still affordable if you attend state schools.

Public college is extremely cheap if you go to the local state school. In NY, tuition and fees are $0 if parents make under $125k. Considering there is a state school in NY less than a 30min drive for 99% of the population means your only expense is the commute and books!

Other states have similar programs if not quite as generous or convenient.

You’re posting on a Washington DC based forum. Why would you think New York’s education policies are relevant to most people here?

New Yorker here and I'll bite -
UVA is running about 32K/year tuition. I'll bet VCU, Richmond, Tech and W&M are below that.
UMD is about 12K/year tuition.
If one cannot afford private, there are many decent state flagships for DC regional famlies that are frankly superior to NY state flagships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help this old man out here. Yes, we bought a house in the 80s (with a 12% mortgage) and it has appreciated tremendously since then. So we sell it and get a windfall. Then what? The so-called windfall is not enough to buy another house, even a small one. And the rental at senior living / assisted living facilities is way out of line. And we should know how corrupt those places are. So we decide to stay here until we drop.

You bought at 12% for a low price because of that 12%. You should have refinanced multiple times to cut the interest rate which should have given you an extremely low mortgage payment. That money had had 40 years to grow

You didn't answer my question: What would we do with the windfall we make if we sell the house? Where can we afford to live during old age?

This. Even my Gen-X friends say the same thing about their Brooklyn home that was purchased around 2000.
"If we sell, we'd make a pretty penny but can't afford to buy back into this same neighborhood" - this was said around 2007 when they still had young kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers have had 40 years to build their wealth, millennials maybe 15. Forget housing costs, mortgages etc., it’s really education debt where the boomers have had an advantage. Education inflation has outpaced just about everything else.

+1 and they benefitted twice.

Boomers went through college for next to nothing (or nothing). They had no college debt.

But then a lot of Boomers convinced their kids that not only was college essential, but you should aim to go through the best college you could get into. And if the family couldn't afford it, well there are these student loans now. It's "good debt." You'll make so much money when this degree from a school I get to brag to other boomers about you'll pay then off in no time!

(JK you'll get laid off twice and spend 30 years crawling out if that debt and be unable to buy a house).

So Boomers had to pay for zero college educations because theirs were mostly free and their kids were paid for through loans.

Meanwhile millennials had to pay for their own education cations via loans and, if they have kids, have to save up the cost of college because it will be even more expensive for their kids and they don't want their kids burdened with loans as they were.

And yes: not all boomers. Not all millennials. But when you find someone railing about boomers take a look at their background-- you'll find a lot of people who borrowed money to attend colleges their parents really wanted then to attend (colleges that sound impressive) and are bitter that their parents unwittingly led them down a path of debt.

A lot of Millennials got bad financial and education guidance from their parents and when they complain about boomers they are talking about their specific boomer parents. And they have a reason to be upset, frankly.

I don't think all Boomers went to college. As a Gen-X, I remember even thinking that college was optional and a few of my high school classmates did not pursue college.
This idea of "college for all" wasn't beaten into everyone's head back then as it is now.

If you are griping about Boomers and their college costs, you are griping about educated, and therefore, likely wealthy Boomers. Not the average Boomer who might be blue collar.

It's true that not all Boomers went to college though the GI bill and growth of public universities definitely offered many Boomers an opportunity for a free or cheap college education.

But one thing you are missing is that college became essential between Boomers and millenials. You are right that college was viewed as optional in the 70s and 80s even by many middle class people. That is because it used to be possible to get a pretty decent job without a college education and to make enough to support a family and maintain a middle class lifestyle. There are a lot of jobs that never used to require a college degree but now do. Often you even need a masters in order to just move into middle management even in fields like marketing. People also used to enter the workforce after going to vocational schools for a year or two and getting a certificate.

But by the time millenials were graduationg high school in the late 90s the idea that you could maintain a middle class lifestyle (true middle class not dcum middle class) without a college degree was held by almost no one. In some states you can't even become an elementary school teacher without a masters degree! I have a relative who became a teacher in the 1950s after attending a 2-year teacher's college program. She retired with a full pension. Good luck finding a gig like that now.

I think this all comes back to education and jobs. We think it's about housing but it's not. It's about what the arc of a life now looks like and the expectations we put on people to be considered to have lived a good or worthwhile life. Housing is part of that but it's much bigger than that. We have raised the bar for what it looks like to be a middle class American family and thrown up a ton of obstacles and credentials that are suddenly necessary for this life that was once considered something you could obtain simply by working for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers have had 40 years to build their wealth, millennials maybe 15. Forget housing costs, mortgages etc., it’s really education debt where the boomers have had an advantage. Education inflation has outpaced just about everything else.

+1 and they benefitted twice.

Boomers went through college for next to nothing (or nothing). They had no college debt.

But then a lot of Boomers convinced their kids that not only was college essential, but you should aim to go through the best college you could get into. And if the family couldn't afford it, well there are these student loans now. It's "good debt." You'll make so much money when this degree from a school I get to brag to other boomers about you'll pay then off in no time!

(JK you'll get laid off twice and spend 30 years crawling out if that debt and be unable to buy a house).

So Boomers had to pay for zero college educations because theirs were mostly free and their kids were paid for through loans.

Meanwhile millennials had to pay for their own education cations via loans and, if they have kids, have to save up the cost of college because it will be even more expensive for their kids and they don't want their kids burdened with loans as they were.

And yes: not all boomers. Not all millennials. But when you find someone railing about boomers take a look at their background-- you'll find a lot of people who borrowed money to attend colleges their parents really wanted then to attend (colleges that sound impressive) and are bitter that their parents unwittingly led them down a path of debt.

A lot of Millennials got bad financial and education guidance from their parents and when they complain about boomers they are talking about their specific boomer parents. And they have a reason to be upset, frankly.

I don't think all Boomers went to college. As a Gen-X, I remember even thinking that college was optional and a few of my high school classmates did not pursue college.
This idea of "college for all" wasn't beaten into everyone's head back then as it is now.

If you are griping about Boomers and their college costs, you are griping about educated, and therefore, likely wealthy Boomers. Not the average Boomer who might be blue collar.

It's true that not all Boomers went to college though the GI bill and growth of public universities definitely offered many Boomers an opportunity for a free or cheap college education.

But one thing you are missing is that college became essential between Boomers and millenials. You are right that college was viewed as optional in the 70s and 80s even by many middle class people. That is because it used to be possible to get a pretty decent job without a college education and to make enough to support a family and maintain a middle class lifestyle. There are a lot of jobs that never used to require a college degree but now do. Often you even need a masters in order to just move into middle management even in fields like marketing. People also used to enter the workforce after going to vocational schools for a year or two and getting a certificate.

But by the time millenials were graduationg high school in the late 90s the idea that you could maintain a middle class lifestyle (true middle class not dcum middle class) without a college degree was held by almost no one. In some states you can't even become an elementary school teacher without a masters degree! I have a relative who became a teacher in the 1950s after attending a 2-year teacher's college program. She retired with a full pension. Good luck finding a gig like that now.

I think this all comes back to education and jobs. We think it's about housing but it's not. It's about what the arc of a life now looks like and the expectations we put on people to be considered to have lived a good or worthwhile life. Housing is part of that but it's much bigger than that. We have raised the bar for what it looks like to be a middle class American family and thrown up a ton of obstacles and credentials that are suddenly necessary for this life that was once considered something you could obtain simply by working for it.

+1 Well said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomers always point to housing interest rates because it's the only metric that they can bring up to show hard financial times. College was basically free.
Retirement was taken care of for you as long as you punched in on time. All you had to pay for was a house and whatever your hobbies were.

But the resentment is much more about how public policy supported middle class people through Boomers' youth and early professional lives, they benefited from those policies, and then voted in landslides to reverse them and allow all the wealth to be hoarded at the top of the distribution chart so that they could save 3% on their personal taxes. Then when their kids and grandkids get out of college and look around like "how exactly am I supposed to save for retirement *and* my kids' college *and* a down payment??" Boomers' reaction is to pretend like those very real and overwhelming concerns are symptoms of entitlement and a result of Millennials' personal choices like toast toppings and not Boomers' decades of selfish votes.

Since you asked.

+1.

Too many of them. The bubble they represented drove inefficient infrastructure spending. The school district where I live had 15K students during the Boom, now has 5K. Great little town. School Board had to knock down a bunch of elementary schools. We still have several schools that are about 100 years old. So it wasn't age but lack of need that got the schools torn down.

The hippie/free love thing. Then the AIDS crisis was tied to that generation. Because of all their bad judgment we got to live in the "S3x can kill you" era.

They have clogged up the workforce. Very hard to rise with grandfathered pension elders who won't stop working.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/lifestyle/im-a-millennial-and-i-am-sorry-for-killing-everything-20170813-gxvbne.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Millennials see them as pigs at the trough. Lived in 4000 sq ft homes 30 miles each way from work and drove ford expeditions to commute.

Boomers? Sorry, we lived in 1600 square foot ranchers that were never remodeled. Most people lied within 10-15 miles of their jobs.