Struggling millennials are poorest generation since WWII

Washington Examiner ^ | May 21, 2019 10:59 AM | Caitlin Yilek

[Olog-hai]

Millennials have felt more financial strain than any other generation since the Great Depression.

Despite a decade of economic growth and decreasing unemployment, Americans born between 1981 and 1996 have less wealth and property, lower marriage rates, and fewer children, according to new data.

“Their economic fundamentals are fundamentally different,” Christopher Kurz, an economist at the Federal Reserve, told the Wall Street Journal.

Kurz and his colleagues found millennial households have an average net worth of $92,000, about 40% less than Generation X households — those born between 1965 and 1980 — in 2001 when adjusted for inflation. The millennial average is about 20% lower than baby boomer households — those born between 1946 and 1964 — in 1989. …

[Steely Tom]

I see Help Wanted signs everywhere I go.

I see middle-age people working at Target and BJ’s.

What nonsense is this crazy story?

[Steely Tom]

I have first-hand knowledge of a high school student who makes $13/hr after school at Target.

When I was a teenager, I worked at a McDonalds for $2.10/hr, which was minimum wage back then.

[Rapscallion]

Sorry to say they waste a lot of their earnings. There are better ways to creat personal worth.

[NorthMountain]

I worked at a McDonalds for $2.10/hr,

What year was that?

[rightwingintelligentsia]

I'm trying to be sympathetic, but at the same link is the headline:

Opinion: Survey: Millennials choose diversity over merit, environment over jobs

So perhaps their predicament is well-deserved.

[Rapscallion]

Number one get out of debt as fast as possible. Then you have the financial breathing room to use your income to create your own wealth instead of making your lender wealthier. See?

[CAGOPgramma]

Poor babies!!! Hey, $92,000/year is megabucks to me!!! I’m 73 and never made 1/3 that much AND raised 3 daughters. We made it. They all graduated college, and beyond. Had beautiful weddings. They’re strong, self-sufficient, great mothers, caring and beautiful!! Best daughters a Mom ever had!!

[Tijeras_Slim]

1975, the same time I worked at Mickeys... the old paper hat days.

[Truthoverpower]

Get a job
Get off the damn phone
Earn a living
THATS how you get “self-esteem” kids !
My daughter (b 2000). Already has a chef degree. Has had a couple jobs and has her own car ( we don’t exist anymore )

[Steely Tom]

1973.

Vicki Lawrence singing The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia was on top-40 radio at the time, I remember listening to it in the break room.

When I went out to put things in the dumpster, I could catch glimpses of Live and Let Die on the screen of the drive-in, a couple of parking lots away.

[Tijeras_Slim]

That’s not income, it’s total household worth.

[sparklite2]

My first job out of the military paid $1.50 an hour.
This was in 1966.

[central_va]

Adjusted for inflation, $2.10 in 1975 is equal to $10.17 in 2019.

Annual inflation over this period was 3.65%.

[central_va]

Adjusted for inflation, $1.50 in 1966 is equal to $11.85 in 2019.

Annual inflation over this period was 3.98%.

[Steely Tom]

Of course, gasoline cost about $0.37/gal back then, which is pretty close to what it costs now, when adjusted for inflation.

And (also) of course, an iPad cost infinity back then, as did an MRI scan. Larry Page and Sergey Brin were both born in 1973, so their net worth was pretty low too.

[sparklite2]

I bought, within weeks of the brand debuting and off the showroom floor a ‘64 Malibu SS. Paid sticker. $3290.
Yup, there been some industrial grade inflation.

[ClearCase_guy]

I certainly have some issues with Millennials. But -- seriously! -- we should understand the world they are coming into.

The 90s were good years with the internet tech boom. But that fizzled pretty famously and a lot of people lost money.
Then 9/11 happened, and the country started to change and government control tightened (never good for the economy).
Then we had the Great Recession of 2007.
Then we had 8 years of Obama.

Trump is doing a good job fixing things, but young people have grown up in a hard time. And the adults in their lives haven't done them any favors (parents, teachers, politicians, etc.).

I feel considerable pity for the young today.

[angry elephant]

Glad you could get a job in 66. I was 16 at that time and there were so many of us baby boomers that one was fortunate to get a job working at one of the drive-in restaurants or the movie theaters.

[bluejean]

If you grew up being brainwashed by your DemocRat parents and DemocRat schools, you’ve inherited the values they wanted for you. You’re entitled, unmotivated, looking for free crap, obsessed with political correctness and sexual deviancy, and attending the latest protests. You probably can’t even drive a car. Welcome to the liberal utopia.

In other parts of what’s left of America, people are working, making their own way and handling life like adults. I know, that’s SO yesterday.