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> There really need to be some hard questions asked about why exactly a kid can't expect to move in to their own a home at 20. You can, just not a nice one in
by MattGaiser 5y ago
> There really need to be some hard questions asked about why exactly a kid can't expect to move in to their own a home at 20.
You can, just not a nice one in a major city. Given the choice between my parent's house and a small condo, house is a lot nicer.
Given the options, it will never be the case that a 20 year old can have the same standard of living as what they grew up with right away. You choices are to lower your standard of living as you just aren't as valuable economically or stay put.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoAlso, older generations lived through some of the most prosperous times in American history. Those conditions no longer exist, where you could have a comfortable middle class existence on a single income.
- jaybrendansmith 5y agoBut why don't they exist anymore? Everything I read indicates that our productivity increase is the same since 1950. Surely, there must be some explanation...
- mgh2 5y agoA complicated issue, but here is a hypothesis: a shift in culture. People are not valued anymore, the current generation only seeks "quick money". Ex: 4HWW, Robinhood, FIRE, crypto, social media, (even startups) etc. promote this mentality and are either responses or symptoms of this shift. https://m-g-h.medium.com/why-we-are-dispensable-7a577eba4f3e https://m-g-h.medium.com/why-we-are-dispensable-7a577eba4f3e
- toomuchtodo 5y agoGlobalization, a decline in unions and collective bargaining power, inflation of healthcare, real estate, and education costs, etc. Middle class America had it good after world war 2 until capital and the rest of the world caught up.
- tkris 5y agoDecline in unions is quite important. A lot more of the profits accumulate to capital than to labor these days.
- MattGaiser 5y agoA lot of it is probably just the fact that most households are dual income. You can probably live the same level of life as in the 1950s, but without trips to Mexico, two cars, twice as much house as before, etc, we wouldn't consider that middle class anymore. The standard of middle class consumption has soared.
- toomuchtodo 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two-Income_Trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two-Income_Trap
- MattGaiser 5y agoExactly.