How'd you know I was lobbed in?
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
No Motivation. Lack of will. Lazy. A distraught mom wrote into "Dear Amy" in today's paper, bemoaning the fact that her 33 year old daughter has two associate degrees, lives at home, pays no rent or expenses and has a part-time crap job paying $200 monthly. Amy's advice boiled down was, "kick her ass out the door..."
You got that out of the fact that I pity millennials?
At such time as the U.S. recognizes and does something about our looming bankruptcy, I imagine the millennials will be happy to end all of these Ponzi schemes. Wouldn't that be the sensible thing to do?
Puritan Work Ethic:
“The Puritans declared the sanctity of all honorable work. In so doing, they rejected a centuries-old division of callings into “sacred” and “secular”… This Puritan rejection of the dichotomy between sacred and secular work has far-reaching implications.It judges every honorable job to be of intrinsic value, and integrates every vocation with a Christian’s spiritual life. It makes every job consequential by regarding it as the arena for glorifying and obeying God and for expressing love (through service) to a neighbor.”
Sure, but keep in mind, you have to compete with Raji and his 6 cousins from India that will work the job for a 1/3 of that salary and live 6 deep in a 1 bedroom 1 study apartment in violation of every housing code on the books.
You don’t reside in reality, do you?
Highly educated in what?
From my observations, people with degrees that lead to jobs have jobs. And for those who don’t, a lot of restaurants are hiring in my city.
Other unsexy truths:
They know they’re poor.
They believe it’s someone else’s fault they’re poor.
And they expect government to fix it so they aren’t poor any longer.
Absolutely. But the boomers who supposedly are conservatives will fight tooth and nail to keep them. It’s why social security and medicare has been the third rail of politics for both sides of the aisle for 40 years now.
And now they run the government.
So if you got a history degree in 1970, did that mean you were waiting tables?
We have a mix of developers at our company. The foreign-born and US-born developers make the same salary.
Our latest hire is a 22 year old white male just out of Pitt. He started at $68k/year.
I live in reality. Where do you live?
Don’t crush his doomsday scenario with facts.
The worst of this is not that they make less than their parents. The worst of it is that their opportunities for economic mobility upwards are worse than what their parents experienced.
Capitalism, it works if you try it. We have hogtied it and as a result it doesn’t work as well these days.
Perhaps you’re the exception to the rule. But I know for a fact that most firms, larger ones especially don’t follow your example. But I am sure you’ll next lecture me that H1B is a great thing.
How'd you know I was lobbed in?
I am a baby boomer. I visit the doctor almost never, because I am on some health insurance through my employer, which costs me $603 per month, and then I have a $4,500 deductible before any benefits kick in.
I have worked full time for over 40 years, with my only “draw” on funds having been less than 6 months of state unemployment benefits, for which the employers pay into the benefit pool (not taxpayers).
I don’t think any millennials have paid for anything for me, nor do I expect they ever will. My taxes have paid for the roads they drive on, the schools in which they were educated, and probably many thousands of other benefits enjoyed by millennials.
My son and two stepsons served with the USMC for 5 tours in Iraq. My husband and his father both served in the USMC.
What have you done for us lately?
I was surprised recently when a young man I know left a very high paying job in medical technology with a successful established company and found another job paying more money in two weeks.
Unfortunately, the average college graduate has nowhere near those prospects. Our economy must compete with China, India, and third world countries.
If anybody ever figures out a way to ship plugged toilets to India to get them unplugged, even plumbers will find it difficult to make a living in the U.S.
“I am not going to be a victim and let it be taken away.”
Sounds very millennialish to me.
Actually a lot of Rabid have come here and bought convenience stores, motels, gas stations and other businesses and are doing well. Do you begrudge them the American dream?
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