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There are far more Boomers than Millenials. Of course Boomers are going to have a larger "share" of U.S. wealth (compounded by the fact that Boomers are at the

by Zanni 5y ago

There are far more Boomers than Millenials. Of course Boomers are going to have a larger "share" of U.S. wealth (compounded by the fact that Boomers are at the ends of their careers, in their highest-earning phase). Here's an article [0] that looks at wealth per capita by age (and inflation adjusted), rather than by share. It shows that Gen X is doing much better than the Boomers (which matches my experience--my siblings and I far out-earn our parents), and that Millenials are on track to do the same but just aren't as far along the curve yet. [0] https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2021/09/01/who-is-the-wealthiest-generation/ https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2021/09/01/who-is-the-w...

deleted 5y ago
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beeboop 5y ago
I feel like inflation does a really bad job at adjusting for everyone's major expense: housing. It feels like gaslighting every time someone tries to tell me how fine millennials are when we objectively don't have the same opportunities for easy effortless well paying employment that makes buying a house a very achievable goal relatively early in life. Of course these are just my feelings and I don't have data to support it
- cafard 5y ago
  "when we objectively don't have the same opportunities for easy effortless well paying employment that makes buying a house a very achievable goal relatively early in life." I'm not sure where you got your picture of the 1970s and 1980s. "Easy effortless well paying employment" is not how most of my cohort would have described our jobs, particularly the "well paying" part. I'm not sure what relatively early in life is: before 30? before 35?
ariwilson 5y ago
there are more millenials than boomers: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_living_adult_generations.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_living_adult_gene...
twr0 5y ago
Is the average per capita really as useful as looking at the median per capita between generations? Also, millennials above the mean likely live in areas with higher housing prices. Furthermore it is really hard to adjust for inflation over long period of times (especially when productivity has increased as much as it has in the last one hundred years). EDIT: It looks like the same author of the above post also wrote about the median trend in the following post. However it looks like the original with the data this post is based on doesn't exist anymore... https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2020/09/30/ok-millennial/ https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2020/09/30/ok-millennia....
dredmorbius 5y ago
Successor generations to the Baby Boom have had lower per-capita wealth at the equivalent life stages, which fully rebuts this line of argument. Generation X (born from 1965 to 1980) came of age during the era of wage stagnation and growing inequality ushered in by the 1970s and ’80s. When the typical Gen Xer reached 35 in 2008, his or her share of the nation’s wealth was just 9 percent, less than half that of boomers at a comparable point in life. Millennials haven’t hit the 35 mark yet — that won’t happen until about 2023 — but their financial situation is relatively dire. They own just 3.2 percent of the nation’s wealth. To catch up to Gen Xers, they’d need to triple their wealth in just four years. To reach boomers, their net worth would need a sevenfold jump. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariousness-modern-young-adulthood-one-chart/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariou... https://www.attainablehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Baby-Boomer-vs-Millennial-Generational-Wealth-Source-Federal-Reserve-Distributional-Accounts-Attainable-Home.jpg https://www.attainablehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ba...
TheCoelacanth 5y ago
Not true, unless you are counting dead people, who last time I checked don't have any wealth.

by Zanni 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

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beeboop 5y ago

I feel like inflation does a really bad job at adjusting for everyone's major expense: housing. It feels like gaslighting every time someone tries to tell me how fine millennials are when we objectively don't have the same opportunities for easy effortless well paying employment that makes buying a house a very achievable goal relatively early in life. Of course these are just my feelings and I don't have data to support it

cafard 5y ago
"when we objectively don't have the same opportunities for easy effortless well paying employment that makes buying a house a very achievable goal relatively early in life." I'm not sure where you got your picture of the 1970s and 1980s. "Easy effortless well paying employment" is not how most of my cohort would have described our jobs, particularly the "well paying" part. I'm not sure what relatively early in life is: before 30? before 35?

ariwilson 5y ago

there are more millenials than boomers: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_living_adult_generations.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_living_adult_gene...

twr0 5y ago

Is the average per capita really as useful as looking at the median per capita between generations? Also, millennials above the mean likely live in areas with higher housing prices. Furthermore it is really hard to adjust for inflation over long period of times (especially when productivity has increased as much as it has in the last one hundred years). EDIT: It looks like the same author of the above post also wrote about the median trend in the following post. However it looks like the original with the data this post is based on doesn't exist anymore... https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2020/09/30/ok-millennial/ https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2020/09/30/ok-millennia....

dredmorbius 5y ago

Successor generations to the Baby Boom have had lower per-capita wealth at the equivalent life stages, which fully rebuts this line of argument. Generation X (born from 1965 to 1980) came of age during the era of wage stagnation and growing inequality ushered in by the 1970s and ’80s. When the typical Gen Xer reached 35 in 2008, his or her share of the nation’s wealth was just 9 percent, less than half that of boomers at a comparable point in life. Millennials haven’t hit the 35 mark yet — that won’t happen until about 2023 — but their financial situation is relatively dire. They own just 3.2 percent of the nation’s wealth. To catch up to Gen Xers, they’d need to triple their wealth in just four years. To reach boomers, their net worth would need a sevenfold jump. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariousness-modern-young-adulthood-one-chart/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariou... https://www.attainablehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Baby-Boomer-vs-Millennial-Generational-Wealth-Source-Federal-Reserve-Distributional-Accounts-Attainable-Home.jpg https://www.attainablehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ba...

TheCoelacanth 5y ago

Not true, unless you are counting dead people, who last time I checked don't have any wealth.