Reply to NYT Opinion Piece: This Isn’t What Millennial Middle Age Was Supposed To Look Like

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a Gen Xer who graduated into the recession of the early 90s and then endured the financial crisis I find the millennial attitude/ignorance that they are apparently the first generation ever to face economic hardship laughable. This generation has been feeding at their boomer parents trough all their lives is on track to receive the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history.[/quote]

No one is arguing that they are the first ones to face economic hardship. If you can't see how things in the mid-90s were different from things 10 and 20 years later, in terms of housing and college costs, I can't help you.

Also, the people complaining are not the ones with boomer parents about to transfer a bunch of wealth to them. It's the people whose boomer parents don't have wealth to pass on for whatever reason. The assumption that everyone is going to inherit a bunch of money from boomers is myopic. Some will and some won't.  Wealth has become more concentrated so there are plenty of millennial who are not benefitting from what you think "everyone" is experiencing.

Stop being so myopic.

-- Fellow Gen Xer[/quote]

Another Gen Xer here as well. Agree. While a lot of the drama from Milennials that I see online is annoying, life is different than it was "in our day". The cost of living has gone up, the costs of college have gone up, etc. I graduated college in 1994 (born in 76) and remember paying right about $1/gallon for gas for instance. My parents purchased a house when I was in HS that doubled in value by the time they retired...great for them when they sold, awful for the next person who wants to buy it. [/quote]

Yeah and the minimum wage was much, much less than.  I saw a sign the other day paying $15 - $17per hour at target with benefits, that goes a long way in the cost differences between that time and this time.  Stop making excuses, if you only want to work fifteen hour weeks and take three day weekends then you'll reap what you sow.  Maybe someone should find that article from last weeks papers that talked about young people rejecting having to punch in at work at 9, or having to work five days a week, from home or in the office.  I was always dreaming of the house I wanted and would never have, still do, so I settled for something most on this forum would  never settle for, but I have a roof over my families heads and we are employed and enjoying our simple lives.  [/quote]

You do realize that these dramatic increases in retail wages have only started since the pandemic, right? And that $15/hr in DCUM land goes a lot less far than $5/hr did back then, right? You do understand that housing, medical care, and education costs have wildly outpaced wage gains in most places, correct? $15/hr PT is barely enough money for a teenager to cover extra curriculars and gas, let alone rent and food for a family.

I don’t think you understand just how badly younger generations have to “settle”. Some people are in a position where they are settling for not having a family so they can pay back their loans before they die. It’s not about whether they are getting 3 bedrooms or 4, it’s whether they are ever going to rent a 1 bedroom without roommates.

When the system has burned people as bad as it has, it’s no surprise that many are giving up the hussle and working the hours they are paid to work and no more. [/quote]

You do realize that wages are increasing at the fastest pace in generations, right? That recent law school grads are getting hired straight out of law school for what it has taken others 20 years to achieve? That currently young people will rapidly eclipse their elders' salaries? And that meanwhile you are not the only generation affected by the increased prices of ALL goods and services? Or do you think people older than you aren't saving for their kids education in these inflated times?

Your idea of settling is a joke-- everyone's desires and expectations are so inflated by TV and influencers and shelter shows and mags. Reality is anyone who did't marry early in our generation lived in studios and with roommates for a decade or more after college, many while working and paying for grad school, to earn wages you would laugh at today.[/quote]

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