The Screwed Generation

[Desdinova]

I thought this was an interesting article on how fvcked the younger generation is...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/15/are-millennials-the-screwed-generation.html

 

[Scaramouche]

Dear Des,
Probably didn't tell me any more than I knew,but none the less it is a disturbing situation...Consider though,the incredible value of Infra structure the young generation have landed in their lap,they only have to maintain what took several generations of hard work to achieve....There is no solution to our problem it is intractable.....The globalisation of the Worlds Economy means that should some incredible new Technology be discovered,capable of generating millions of jobs.....Could be fusion,anti matter,who knows,then one of the Eastern Nations will by nature of their cheap Labour be able to cash in on the goodies...No its War or A Trade Wall along the Monroe line...Nothing short of that can save you,but then as Disraeli said "There is a deal of ruin in a Nation"....The States will still be a great place to live in for generations.

 

[Desdinova]

I like thinking about what's going to happen when the baby boomers actually do exit the workforce. Not only are there going to be less workers, but companies will be forced to change their criteria for hiring. They will be competing with each other for competent employees. The job hunter in the future will have more choosing power than that of today's job hunter. I also believe that smaller companies are going to continue to be eaten up by larger companies, but some larger companies may end up toppling over due to too much administration at the top and too few workers at the bottom. This is already becoming a problem, but currently there's still enough laborers to fill the needed jobs.

 

[synergy1]

A lot of the disparity between generations, as aptly noted, is timing - the older generation was able to leverage the boom between the 80s and late 90s where wages were reasonable, housing prices were affordable ( they still are to some degree), and college was affordable. The last one is a real factor here. College costs have drastically outpaced inflation , real wage growth, and even the CPI. To give you an idea, in the early 2000s, there was 300 billion in outstanding debt and now there is over 1 trillion.

How can someone who basically is earning the same wage, but with higher costs of living and a mortgage of debt even get ahead? Baby boomers had to worry about this much less than we do. Wealth creation doesn't occur when you are paying off debt.

The entire system is at odds right now with its own inertia. Botched monetary policy can only persist for so long before it starts to implode. We saw it in 2008, we are seeing it in Europe, and we will see it again here. So whats going to happen to a generation of people who already have no money and end up losing what they have in 401ks when the markets go to ****? (this assuming QE3 doesn't happen).

 

[SecondHalf]

Thanks for the article.
It's quite upsetting when you put all those statistics together.

When my 15 year old son and I talk about his career (he's starting to think of such things), it's saddening that the safest career with the least effort would likely be a mortician. I'm still trying to gently plant seeds to pursue something in the medical field, but I'm not sure he's willing to commit to so much school.

SH

 

[Burroughs]

The entire system is at odds right now with its own inertia. Botched monetary policy can only persist for so long before it starts to implode. We saw it in 2008, we are seeing it in Europe, and we will see it again here. So whats going to happen to a generation of people who already have no money and end up losing what they have in 401ks when the markets go to ****? (this assuming QE3 doesn't happen).

What will happen to us is the same thing that is happening in Spain but on a much larger scale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ag058hZK3A&feature=relmfu

money printing and debt is a sure fire recipe for disaster

 

[mrRuckus]

Is there any way that this generation didn't **** us? Feminism, terrible economy, prison system filled to the brink, whited out sections of the Constitution..

oh well no use cryin about it

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

One of the misleading things about this article and many others like it is the idea of a "wealth gap." These are statistical categories, not flesh and blood people.

Sure, "the rich" may be far richer than "the poor," but these don't comprise the same people every year.

Studies that have actually tracked flesh and blood people find that those in the lowest brackets frequently move up to above average brackets. Also, those who comprise "the poor" are made up of teenagers and recent immigrants, who can't earn more than minimum wage anyways.

And people in the wealthiest brackets don't usually stay there for long

Here's a video that explains it quite concisely:

http://www.learnliberty.org/content/are-poor-getting-poorer

ALSO, the government (whoever happens to be in power) does everybody a double disservice because they:

1) Create laws which distort the economy and make it harder for people to move up from lower brackets to higher brackets

2) Distort the statistical brackets themselves, because the average salary/benefits of government workers is much higher than the average non government worker. In short, through their policies, the governments are stealing from the poor (people in the lower brackets trying to make a living) and giving to the rich (mostly themselves and those connected).

Of course, then the government looks at these discrepancies and claims they need to institute more government meddling in the economy, which only makes things worse.

To make things worse, they blame "the rich" as if the poor had some money once upon a time and "the rich" came and stole it.

It's government and it's corrupt policies that do most of the damage, and it's government that needs to be eliminated altogether.

 

[Bible_Belt]

money printing and debt is a sure fire recipe for disaster

Notice that you never see the phrases "currency debasement" and "regressive tax on the poor" used in the same discussion. But I think "tax on the poor" is the best description of the dollar going to sh!t.

Whenever we create a tax scheme, we always exempt the very poorest people, with the idea being that we don't want a tax to keep someone from being able to buy the food or medicine that they need to live. But by not calling it a "tax," we can have a government policy that does just that. For people who can barely afford to live, as the value of their dollars goes down a little more each day and prices correspondingly go up, it is "quantitative easing" that is killing them. We are p!ssing on the dollar to prop up the financial schemes of the elite, and it is the poor people who hurt the most because of it.