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Sorry but this is not the state of things if you are under 50 years old. If you are under 50, you are probably better educated but have much less wealth than y

Sorry but this is not the state of things if you are under 50 years old. If you are under 50, you are probably better educated but have much less wealth than your parents did at the same age. Your health suffers from years of having no health care. Your teeth are bad. Climate change is going to change your life imminently, and nobody in a position to do something about it cares. You are putting off having kids, or choosing not to. You’ve seen three economic crises in your lifetime and expect more. You’re not so much hoping for things to get better as much as you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. There is just little reason to be optimistic right now.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
I don't know why this comment is downvoted when the income/wealth data supports it. So much of the US economic engine after WW2 up to 2000 was driven by the fact that people were having lots of kids, and the taxpayers back then were borrowing from future taxpayers. That works if you continue to have lots of kids, but now that that has slowed down, plus the increase in labor supply via women in workforce, and outsourcing to other up and coming countries, plus decrease in demand of labor due to automation, makes for a bleak future outlook for many (as opposed to a growth outlook in the decades after WW2). This is ignoring climate change and its effects. Which can only be remediated with reduced consumption. Which would also cause a reduction in demand for labor.
- fallingfrog 6y ago
  Thank you, I don’t take it personally, you have to expect some flak when you tell people things they don’t want to hear. I think I’ll go back and edit where I said there was no reason to be optimistic about anything, because that’s not exactly true, and people on HN are very sensitive to hyperbole. If you are going to say something unpopular you have to be very careful to be accurate.
grumple 6y ago
I mean, I guess you’re right. I’m the counterexample (grew up poor, have more than the zero of my one parent and my outlook looks good) but it took some time to get here. My college friends (all from wealthy families) are all well-off, but my friends from home are still poor and have poor economic prospects. But some of that is self-imposed because they haven’t put serious effort into economic pursuits. I am quite tired of economic crashes, but I’ve failed to convince enough others to vote and advocate for changes. Those who do care about change are focused on matters other than economics, which I believe to be a mistake.
refurb 6y ago
How so? Looking at this Pew data[1] on median household income in 2017 dollars, which appears pretty comprehensive, if you have a college degree, millennials are doing slightly worse than Gen X, but better than all generations before that looking at the same age range. Even those with "some college" millennials are slightly worse off, but within 5%. It's those with only a high school degree that have seen a significant hit. [1]https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/millennial-life-how-young-adulthood-today-compares-with-prior-generations/psdt_02-14-19_generations-00-04/ https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/millennial-life-how-yo...
wyclif 6y ago
Your teeth are bad Unless you're an average citizen of the USA. I swear, I've never seen so many gleaming white and healthy sets of choppers as I have in the USA (particularly compared to, say the UK or Eastern Europe)
- fallingfrog 6y ago
  I think this speaks mostly to the kinds of people you have interacted with in the USA. White teeth are very much a status symbol since you have to be at least upper middle class to have them, so people go out of their way to have teeth whitening procedures done as sign of high social status. But if you went on a tour through an amazon packing plant you’d see a lot of people with missing or crooked or yellow teeth. Our working class is almost invisible; if you’re well off you might not interact with them much at all, but they exist.

lotsofpulp 6y ago

I don't know why this comment is downvoted when the income/wealth data supports it. So much of the US economic engine after WW2 up to 2000 was driven by the fact that people were having lots of kids, and the taxpayers back then were borrowing from future taxpayers. That works if you continue to have lots of kids, but now that that has slowed down, plus the increase in labor supply via women in workforce, and outsourcing to other up and coming countries, plus decrease in demand of labor due to automation, makes for a bleak future outlook for many (as opposed to a growth outlook in the decades after WW2). This is ignoring climate change and its effects. Which can only be remediated with reduced consumption. Which would also cause a reduction in demand for labor.

fallingfrog 6y ago
Thank you, I don’t take it personally, you have to expect some flak when you tell people things they don’t want to hear. I think I’ll go back and edit where I said there was no reason to be optimistic about anything, because that’s not exactly true, and people on HN are very sensitive to hyperbole. If you are going to say something unpopular you have to be very careful to be accurate.

grumple 6y ago

I mean, I guess you’re right. I’m the counterexample (grew up poor, have more than the zero of my one parent and my outlook looks good) but it took some time to get here. My college friends (all from wealthy families) are all well-off, but my friends from home are still poor and have poor economic prospects. But some of that is self-imposed because they haven’t put serious effort into economic pursuits. I am quite tired of economic crashes, but I’ve failed to convince enough others to vote and advocate for changes. Those who do care about change are focused on matters other than economics, which I believe to be a mistake.

refurb 6y ago

How so? Looking at this Pew data[1] on median household income in 2017 dollars, which appears pretty comprehensive, if you have a college degree, millennials are doing slightly worse than Gen X, but better than all generations before that looking at the same age range. Even those with "some college" millennials are slightly worse off, but within 5%. It's those with only a high school degree that have seen a significant hit. [1]https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/millennial-life-how-young-adulthood-today-compares-with-prior-generations/psdt_02-14-19_generations-00-04/ https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/millennial-life-how-yo...

wyclif 6y ago

Your teeth are bad Unless you're an average citizen of the USA. I swear, I've never seen so many gleaming white and healthy sets of choppers as I have in the USA (particularly compared to, say the UK or Eastern Europe)

fallingfrog 6y ago
I think this speaks mostly to the kinds of people you have interacted with in the USA. White teeth are very much a status symbol since you have to be at least upper middle class to have them, so people go out of their way to have teeth whitening procedures done as sign of high social status. But if you went on a tour through an amazon packing plant you’d see a lot of people with missing or crooked or yellow teeth. Our working class is almost invisible; if you’re well off you might not interact with them much at all, but they exist.