4 ms·

An observation: When the older generations were her age a few decades ago, they were getting cheap educations, building big houses, buying summer cabins, inves

An observation: When the older generations were her age a few decades ago, they were getting cheap educations, building big houses, buying summer cabins, investment apartments, multiple new cars, having multiple kids. Now for the younger generation, well, this article and the link below it titled "I live in a $62/month dumpster that I built for $5,000" probably tells how great things are.

aardvarkr 3y ago
I agree. All I could think while reading this was how this is considered an aspirational goal for some people in the current generation. It made me shudder to think that our ambitions have shrunk so low. Affordable housing is certainly a major problem but if this is the solution that we’re moving towards then I don’t even want to know what’s going to happen to the next generation.
blacksqr 3y ago
Another observation: millennials now outnumber boomers.The older generation can't hold them back anymore. Millennials can vote into existence the policies, priorities and lives they want. From here on, the USA is a reflection of them and their values. It's all on them now.
- 000ooo000 3y ago
  Reminders like these are bittersweet for me. I'm torn between the optimism of voting in politicians who will improve the place I live, and the cynicism in knowing most people wielding power are still the generation who brought this situation into being and who will fight to maintain it. I can't see change happening until they are well and truly long gone.
  - blacksqr 3y ago
    You don't seem to be getting it. If your generation's attitude is defeatist, then it's your defeatism that will shape the character of the country. In the words of Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
- lores 3y ago
  Of course not, not as long as boomers are more effective propagandists and control more of the media, corporations, and public offices that matter.
pizza234 3y ago
The post-war period was a (relatively) long period of economic expansion. How things are now reflect a period of stability; a few generations before (~ a hundred years ago), things weren't so great, either. London is a particularly dense and crowded city, so it's (unfortunately) expected to be particularly expensive.
BobTheDestroyer 3y ago
[flagged]
ThrowawayR2 3y ago
> "When the older generations were her age a few decades ago..." Yeah, a few decades ago in the economic boom the United States undeservedly enjoyed after the rest of the world powers were devastated by WW2 and tens of millions of human beings lay dead. The older generations outside the US jolly well were not "getting cheap educations, building big houses, buying summer cabins, investment apartments, multiple new cars, having multiple kids", etc.; they had to trudge a long, hard road to rebuild their homes and livelihoods and recover from the scars of war. This idea that the current generation has some sort of inalienable right to do as well as previous generations is bizarre. Even a moment of thought would tell you that no such thing exists.
- zamnos 3y ago
  The spoils of war going to the conquerers is this quaint concept from history class; something that took down the Roman Empire two millennia ago. It's not supposed to be a lesson on why Millennial are getting the short end of the stick.
- sublinear 3y ago
  > This idea that the current generation has some sort of inalienable right to do as well as previous generations is bizarre. I don't assume this applies to those who genuinely "broke a cycle" and that might have been the norm long before the post-modern era.

aardvarkr 3y ago

I agree. All I could think while reading this was how this is considered an aspirational goal for some people in the current generation. It made me shudder to think that our ambitions have shrunk so low. Affordable housing is certainly a major problem but if this is the solution that we’re moving towards then I don’t even want to know what’s going to happen to the next generation.

blacksqr 3y ago

Another observation: millennials now outnumber boomers.The older generation can't hold them back anymore. Millennials can vote into existence the policies, priorities and lives they want. From here on, the USA is a reflection of them and their values. It's all on them now.

000ooo000 3y ago
Reminders like these are bittersweet for me. I'm torn between the optimism of voting in politicians who will improve the place I live, and the cynicism in knowing most people wielding power are still the generation who brought this situation into being and who will fight to maintain it. I can't see change happening until they are well and truly long gone.
- blacksqr 3y ago
  You don't seem to be getting it. If your generation's attitude is defeatist, then it's your defeatism that will shape the character of the country. In the words of Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
lores 3y ago
Of course not, not as long as boomers are more effective propagandists and control more of the media, corporations, and public offices that matter.

pizza234 3y ago

The post-war period was a (relatively) long period of economic expansion. How things are now reflect a period of stability; a few generations before (~ a hundred years ago), things weren't so great, either. London is a particularly dense and crowded city, so it's (unfortunately) expected to be particularly expensive.

BobTheDestroyer 3y ago

[flagged]

ThrowawayR2 3y ago

> "When the older generations were her age a few decades ago..." Yeah, a few decades ago in the economic boom the United States undeservedly enjoyed after the rest of the world powers were devastated by WW2 and tens of millions of human beings lay dead. The older generations outside the US jolly well were not "getting cheap educations, building big houses, buying summer cabins, investment apartments, multiple new cars, having multiple kids", etc.; they had to trudge a long, hard road to rebuild their homes and livelihoods and recover from the scars of war. This idea that the current generation has some sort of inalienable right to do as well as previous generations is bizarre. Even a moment of thought would tell you that no such thing exists.

zamnos 3y ago
The spoils of war going to the conquerers is this quaint concept from history class; something that took down the Roman Empire two millennia ago. It's not supposed to be a lesson on why Millennial are getting the short end of the stick.
sublinear 3y ago
> This idea that the current generation has some sort of inalienable right to do as well as previous generations is bizarre. I don't assume this applies to those who genuinely "broke a cycle" and that might have been the norm long before the post-modern era.