Life is tough with no guarantees. The "gimme generation" hasn't figured that out yet.
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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 had a job grossing around 5K every two weeks. The fed gov took 1500 right off the top. That didn’t include state taxes. Then you’ve got property taxes (you think you own your home, LOLOLOLOL). Then you’ve got personal property taxes on your car. Then you’ve got sales tax. Then I have to purchase insurance that I don’t need. Then there’s the gas tax. Then there’s the tolls to pay to drive on the roads that have been privatized by foreign corporations (I thought we already paid taxes to build those roads)? Don’t forget the cops that lay in wait to write you a dozen tickets for not following one of the voluminous laws on the books.
Is this really America?
Let’s put it this way. Even if we were raised under his dubious wisdom, once we are adults, it’s our responsibility.
Lack of better does not excuse older Americans for being asleep at the switch.
When did YOU become politically aware?
Catholics didn't settle America.
Exactly!
“Catholics didn’t settle America.”
Thank you for taking the heat off of me. Prepare for an all out nuclear offensive.
I try to ignore people who dump on us boomers, as though we were all draft dodgers and bums. Anyone who was around in the Sixties knows that most of us kept our noses clean, went to school, served in the military and worked hard to provide for our families. I know I did. We can’t be blamed for the rise of the global economy and the resultant end to the relatively good times we enjoyed in the post-war USA. My kids don’t have it as good as I did, in spite of their best efforts, and it’s neither my fault nor theirs.
> When did YOU become politically aware?
over a period between about 40 years ago and 25 years ago.
your point?
Well, there was that Christopher Columbus guy!
Life is tough with no guarantees. The "gimme generation" hasn't figured that out yet.
.
Hey, that’s a Lutheran thing too! Luther developed a very nice theology of vocation!
You missed his point. He’s not going to pay to support one or more of us. I don’t blame him.
> nationalist
Ok, absolutely no shit here: vote for Trump!
The “gimme generation” hasn’t figured that out yet.
Do you realize that the federal and state government confiscated over half of my income last fiscal year?
Mr. Millennial - YEAH!!
There are too many idiots even on FR, but don’t give up!
PEOPLE. Read what Mr Cooper wrote there. You’re a bunch of dumbasses to beat up on him. Mr Cooper: you can take it though. Fight!
My point is boomers have cared nothing for principle. As long as they were staying far enough ahead of the financial burdens imposed by the warping of our government to be comfortable: they just didn't care.
> Boomers wants LBJ back
Yup; just like you think, they’ve got theirs, and they want yours (FICA) too.
They spent all their money on tattoos.
TOTALLY agree. Maybe I didn’t communicate effectively to you.
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