The Real Reason Millennials Don’t Buy Cars and Homes

Yahoo Finance ^ | Fri, May 31, 2013 | Rick Newman

[YankeeReb]

The article kind of touches on the reasons for this trend:

There’s plenty of evidence that younger workers may face the most difficult economy since the Great Depression. The national unemployment rate is 7.5%, but it’s 16.1% for 16-to-24-year-olds.

Maybe when these kids [and their parents] see themselves stuck at home with shrunken prospects for advancement, they'll realize that most of what they learned in college sociology was pure bilge.

[GraceG]

Sounds like they make the perfect slave fodder for a 1984 style society..

[1rudeboy]

Maybe when these kids [and their parents] see themselves stuck at home with shrunken prospects for advancement, they'll realize that most of what they learned in college sociology was pure bilge.

Precisely the opposite. They'll think it's someone else's fault.

[GenXteacher]

“The percentage of 16-to-24-year-olds with a driver’s license has dropped sharply since 1997, and is now below 70% for the first time since 1963. “Millennials are demonstrating significantly different lifestyle and transportation preferences than older generations,” declared a recent report by the U.S. Public Interest Group. Overall, it concluded, “the driving boom is over.”

With gas at $4/gallon in a lot of places, nobody is going anywhere they don’t have to.

[vladimir998]

It’s not just the lack of money. It’s a matter of worldview. Many millenials want to be very free: free of responsibility, don’t want to be tied down, etc. They relish experiences. Having to pay off and keep up cars and houses limits their freedom and their cash to have those experiences of travel, freedom, etc.

[clintonh8r]

Most of them voted for the situation they’re in. They traded economic freedom for queer marriage, a “clean environment”, revenge against an imagined “1%” enemy and tolerance for every conceivable personal and cultural perversion. And there’s no sign they’ve changed their attitude. Well, they can just live with it.

[DoughtyOne]

In the last 12 years ending in January 2013, only 2,291,000 jobs were added to the U. S. Economy. Traditionally from 1965 through 2001, the average 12 year increase in jobs was 20,688,000.

When trying to figure out why those crazy millennials aren’t buying anything, this might be worthy of at least some consideration. Frankly, I think it tops the list.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3025870/posts?page=9#9

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I’ve never understood the push to get somebody into a home purchase when they cannot afford it. It’s more of an anchor if you’re not in a good stable work environment. Makes it hard to just pull up stakes and move on.

[Gen.Blather]

Cash for clunkers was designed to eliminate the $2000 starter car. It was resoundingly successful. There are no cheap cars for kids. The cars they cag get they have no knowledge, tools, or place to repair so they can drive them. Then, there’s insurance that costs more than the car. And, of course, there’s $4/gallon gas. It costs me $12-15 just to drive my Marauder into town. (But I was able to buy a VW TDI, which gets 40 mpg. Kids can’t do that.)

All of these problems are brought to you by liberal government.

[HokieMom]

Woohoo! Freeper children buck the trend. My 31 year old daughter bought and sold her first house and banked $45,000!

[SunkenCiv]

The main reason for the existence of Affirmative Action is to remove any incentive for anyone to excel or even support themselves.

Thanks YankeeReb.

[LibsRJerks]

Well, they’re definitely NOT buying homes. I have yet to meet an under 34 year old who is anywhere nearly mature enough to SAVE that kind of money, or even have a desire to settle down.

They ARE into travel and “adventures” to be had. That I know. A few of my daughter’s girlfriends are spending their money and time on “yoga retreats.” Forget finding a husband or settling down ...no way, man. They’ve got their jobs and the stress from the jobs drives their need for the yoga retreats. And the twice a year jaunts to Puerto Rico, Bermuda ...they need that, too.

Never really did consider the effect their propensity to delay adulthood will have on the economy. They are going to have a tough time in so many ways.

I will give my 25 year old credit, though — she works, she saves, she doesn’t spend on extravagances and she DOES desire marriage, home, and family ...she just knows how expensive life is and feels she needs to firmly establish her career and get a good income going. This is how it is ...I’m proud she works for what she has and doesn’t ask us for a dime ...but I worry about her, nonetheless. The young women, especially, just feel that guys their age are absolutely bozos and they are going to have to be independent earners and breadwinners...it’s really sad.

[Bryanw92]

The Millenials live in a virtual and connected world. They can play a round of golf, hang out with friends, watch a movie, do some reading, go to the library to do research for a paper, and go to their job—and never get out of bed.

The earlier generations look at that as a wasted day, but for them it is just a day. Why would they want to take on the responsibility for a house and yard when they can exist in a fraction of the space (think 1980’s Japan).

The world of tomorrow is one of part-time jobs, high tech socialism, and minimial materialism (except for technology, which must be cutting edge—always—for this generation).

They live in a different world than we do. Its like the 1950’s adults who had huge suburban houses, supermarkets, fast cars, and the desire to roam. Compare them to their grandparents who were born in the 19th century.

We don’t have to understand the millenial’s world because one day we’ll all be dead and they will be the middle age people of the world. And then they will wonder what motivates those weird people in the Class of 2060.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

My bet is that most of them are buried in student loan and credit card debt.

[DB]

Many are broke. Many have low ambitions. Many are content to live off others and vote to that end. Many now live their lives online in their own virtual world and therefore feel no need to travel out into the real world.

The future...

[x]

Strauss and Howe saw Generation X as a "nomadic" generation, like the Lost Generation of the 1920s or the Gilded Age generation of the 1870s, a generation that lived through a collapse of existing values, an age cohort that found it hard to build or maintain what was already built because the ground had shifted or was shifting so much under their feet.

In their scheme the Millenials or Gen Y were supposed to be another "heroic" generation like the GI or Greatest Generation that came into their own after WWII. Well, it looks like that didn't happen. There's a precedent for that in Strauss's and Howe's scheme, though. The Progressive Generation that followed the Gilded Generation also failed to fulfill their heroic potential according to S&H.

[Bryanw92]

>>I’ve never understood the push to get somebody into a home purchase when they cannot afford it. It’s more of an anchor if you’re not in a good stable work environment. Makes it hard to just pull up stakes and move on.

That’s exactly why it’s pushed on people. A homeowner can’t change jobs as easily as a renter. He can’t decide that the politics in his city or state are too heinous to be tolerated anymore. Owning a house in the ‘burbs with the HOAs, covenants, restrictions, and rules almost mandates keeping up with the Joneses and teaches conformity.

[dragnet2]

And the reason may be fairly straightforward: They don’t have much money.

Well duh....And most never will....

This isn't your parents America...Not even close.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I left College in 1992. In the 21 years since, the basic salary of jobs for beginning workers has not kept pace with inflation.

When I was looking at getting a “real” job that summer, I was hoping I could make $20,000 a year. That would give me enough money to live on and have some fun.

$20,000 in 1992 is equal to $33,000 in 2013 dollars.

How many kids coming out of college can expect to get a job for $33,000 a year?

$20,000 a year in terms of hourly wages is about $9.61 an hour.

$33,000 a year in terms of hourly wages is about $15.86 an hour.

It’s harder out there than many people realize.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“Cash for clunkers was designed to eliminate the $2000 starter car.”

You may be on to something there. Anybody know how many cars were destroyed by this program..?

Speaking to the original topic, though, I believe there are two other factors; one, these kids have the attention span of a gnat. and two; they see very little in the way of a conventional future where they work, build a family, gather wealth, raise kids, that kind of thing. And in my eyes, they can/might be somewhat forgiven for forsaking that kind of middle class life-path. It ain’t there any more.