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The Unsexy Truth About Millennials: They’re Poor
Daily Beast ^ | 05 August 2016 | Samantha Allen

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; debt; economy; millennials; poverty; wages; wastedyouth; youthvote
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

Go to hell.


261 posted on 08/16/2016 6:54:22 AM PDT by angcat (TRUMP!)
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To: polymuser

Only to the degree that the boomers on this board draw broad sweeping assumptions about millennials.


262 posted on 08/16/2016 7:46:33 AM PDT by WilliamCooper1
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To: WilliamCooper1

Not sure there’s a better place yet. Stay around.


263 posted on 08/16/2016 8:49:14 AM PDT by old-ager
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To: angcat
Are you of the mind that these threats to our military's honor, reputation, and effectiveness, undoubtedly the gravest threats to date, are no big deal? That these deadly PC policies being pursued by the current admin, and the anti-American losers put in place to enforce them (Carter, Mabus, et al) are good for the military and don't attract a certain number of unqualified people?

Or have I hit a more personal nerve? Are you a ball-buster feminist or a tranny yourself?

264 posted on 08/16/2016 9:08:23 AM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Police Lives Matter)
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To: fwdude

I’m a “boomer” near the end of that generation, and no, I don’t visit the doctor but perhaps once a year for a checkup.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the “productivity” of the millennials can’t hold a candle to previous generations


I’m a boomer who visits a doctor once or twice a year. I have owned several small businesses and have employed people since 1978. I have boomer friends who have also done the same.

Actually, several of us got pretty worthless college degrees and had to pursue additional training to find skills that were employable and could eventually employ others.

The millenials sadly have many factors against them. Poor college or other training advice by libtard counselors, poor grasp over seeking marketable training, a bad economy, and the fact that the boomers are a giant population where many of us still work. But we try to keep enough business in an era where the liberal politicians over-regulate and over-tax us so that we can still employ some millenials and X gen folks.

I do not know what more other generations expect us boomers to do besides running small businesses, eating right and exercising regularly so that we are a plus on the econonomy and not a drag on it.


265 posted on 08/16/2016 9:32:53 AM PDT by angry elephant (Endangered species in Seattle)
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To: WilliamCooper1

More like stereotyping, I think, after watching them grow up, watching their work and play and social habits, listinening to their philosophies, observing their communications, seeing their reactions to direction and discipline. In general.


266 posted on 08/16/2016 10:04:37 AM PDT by polymuser (Enough is enough)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

I can’t see how any self-respecting man would associate himself with a group that openly promotes faggotry and trannies.


267 posted on 08/16/2016 11:07:49 AM PDT by WilliamCooper1
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To: ConservativeWarrior

There are two types of college degrees and only two types. Those that require calculus and those that do not. Those that require calculus are real degrees that end in a S as in B.S. M.S. and MSc. The starting rate for a petroleum engineer at my company is 115k first year out of college with a 25k sign on bonus even in lean oil times PEs are hard to come by. I have an MSc and first post grad year cleared 130 in total comp not including bonus. Most of the other degrees have little to no marketability and are paid commensurate to that fact. victim’s studies and gender studies is good for one thing making me my $12 gin and tonic after work or my 8 buck coffee in the mornings.


268 posted on 08/16/2016 1:30:11 PM PDT by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici")
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To: JD_UTDallas

> Those that require calculus and those that do not.

Excellent, simple way to categorize!


269 posted on 08/16/2016 1:39:16 PM PDT by old-ager
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To: WilliamCooper1

So if you got a history degree in 1970, did that mean you were waiting tables?


It probably did mean that, hopefully while you were earning money to get advanced education to teach or to pay for law school.


270 posted on 08/16/2016 11:59:45 PM PDT by angry elephant (Endangered species in Seattle)
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