8 ms·

I'm an 'elder millennial' and I'm so used to seeing articles about how my generation has been screwed that I have to remind myself I'm not 'young' anymore and w

I'm an 'elder millennial' and I'm so used to seeing articles about how my generation has been screwed that I have to remind myself I'm not 'young' anymore and we're now talking about a whole new generation that's starting behind the 8 ball.

kodah 3y ago
The experience of millennials is quite diverse. Some of us are doing great, but the statistics show otherwise: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/14/millennial-life-how-young-adulthood-today-compares-with-prior-generations-2/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/14/millenn... Hidden in those statistics are also some burgeoning equity issues which are only beginning to show their face with GenZ.
- timmg 3y ago
  FYI, that article is 4 years old. I think things have changed a lot since then.
  - MattGaiser 3y ago
    https://www.redfin.com/news/gen-z-millennial-homeownership-rate-home-purchases/ https://www.redfin.com/news/gen-z-millennial-homeownership-r... Millennial home ownership rates are a bit behind, but not by a crazy amount for example.
    - timmg 3y ago
      I would think the want/need for owning a home to be enhanced by marriage/children. Since younger generations are less likely to do those things -- and more likely to do them later -- than earlier generations, that must count for some of the difference(?)
      - mrguyorama 3y ago
        You have it backwards. Plenty of millennials want kids and marriage and a home, but the shitty situation we find ourselves in means we cannot responsibly have kids.
      - ghaff 3y ago
        Certainly if someone is single/doesn't have kids, there's almost certainly less urgency to buy a place given that, money aside, it may be a fairly significant time commitment and it certainly increases the friction of moving somewhere different for a job or other reason.
- NickC25 3y ago
  Some of us (I'm 33, so old-ish millennial here) are doing well, yes, but some of us have been doing terrible. The economy has, overall, not been kind to us. Boomers need to retire already, because they've held onto the top rung of the ladder for far too long, which has caused severe ripple effects in our economy. Their mentality, while not inherently bad, has not kept up with reality. I personally have struggled and am extremely fortunate that I've had great parents who were wealthy enough to partially support me. I wasn't able to get into a good company after college and that has absolutely wrecked my career - taking odd jobs and short-term employment to put food on the table and pay rent. As I'm not an engineer, my career prospects are quite dim. Now that there's an entire new generation entering the workforce, I'm afraid that there's millions of people in my position who simply won't be able to afford anything, much less a home or a family. That's not good for the economy, but the folks at the top don't really care as long as they get paid.
  - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
    >Boomers need to retire already, because they've held onto the top rung of the ladder for far too long Boomers will just leave their wealth to their kids, so if you don't have well off parents, you'll still find yourself underneath the ladder, holding the short stick, at the upcoming generational wealth transfer. We need more inheritance taxes, at least in Europe, which at his point is a feudal state from this tax-free inter generational wealth transfers in some parts.
treis 3y ago
As a fellow millennial I don't know what people are talking about. The world is way better today than when I was a kid: All sorts of racism and prejudice are at much lower levels than when I was a kid. I went through two economic crises by the time I was 21. The US fought two wars in my prime war fighting years. (Though fortunately not me but friends died). Technology has continued it's steady march. If you gave me a choice between being born today and being born when I was I'd take today without hesitation. Things haven't become Utopian yet but they are steadily getting better.
- kjkjadksj 3y ago
  They are talking about the economic situation. You are a millenial on hn, you are probably doing fine. A lot of your peers otoh are living with their parents still, have a mountain of debt, have put off having kids, aren’t in a career path to change much of this and don’t have the skills or the money or time to switch into a more lucrative field and be competitive relative to new grads.
  - treis 3y ago
    > A lot of your peers otoh are living with their parents still, have a mountain of debt, have put off having kids, aren’t in a career path to change much of this and don’t have the skills or the money or time to switch into a more lucrative field and be competitive relative to new grads. Yes I know. This happened because they graduated into the face of one of the recessions. Or maybe they went to war and lost their 20s battling PTSD. These effects persist for a long time which is why a lot of my generation was left behind. Obviously can't predict the future, but for those that came of age post 2008 the economy has been remarkably resilient. They haven't experienced something like a chunk of engineering graduates that can't get jobs. I was lucky and made it out, but the average starting salary of my degree from my school went down significantly because of 2008. A graduate today has no living memory of what an economic recession in the US looks like. And if anyone is wondering it's a lot worse than today or what happened during Covid.
  - listenallyall 3y ago
    There's a bit of an exaggeration here... somehow his "peers" are also choosing to order enormous quantities of their meals from DoorDash (doubling the cost), getting bottle service at nightclubs, and taking Instagram-worthy vacations to exotic locales.

kodah 3y ago

The experience of millennials is quite diverse. Some of us are doing great, but the statistics show otherwise: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/14/millennial-life-how-young-adulthood-today-compares-with-prior-generations-2/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/14/millenn... Hidden in those statistics are also some burgeoning equity issues which are only beginning to show their face with GenZ.

timmg 3y ago
FYI, that article is 4 years old. I think things have changed a lot since then.
- MattGaiser 3y ago
  https://www.redfin.com/news/gen-z-millennial-homeownership-rate-home-purchases/ https://www.redfin.com/news/gen-z-millennial-homeownership-r... Millennial home ownership rates are a bit behind, but not by a crazy amount for example.
  - timmg 3y ago
    I would think the want/need for owning a home to be enhanced by marriage/children. Since younger generations are less likely to do those things -- and more likely to do them later -- than earlier generations, that must count for some of the difference(?)
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      You have it backwards. Plenty of millennials want kids and marriage and a home, but the shitty situation we find ourselves in means we cannot responsibly have kids.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      Certainly if someone is single/doesn't have kids, there's almost certainly less urgency to buy a place given that, money aside, it may be a fairly significant time commitment and it certainly increases the friction of moving somewhere different for a job or other reason.
NickC25 3y ago
Some of us (I'm 33, so old-ish millennial here) are doing well, yes, but some of us have been doing terrible. The economy has, overall, not been kind to us. Boomers need to retire already, because they've held onto the top rung of the ladder for far too long, which has caused severe ripple effects in our economy. Their mentality, while not inherently bad, has not kept up with reality. I personally have struggled and am extremely fortunate that I've had great parents who were wealthy enough to partially support me. I wasn't able to get into a good company after college and that has absolutely wrecked my career - taking odd jobs and short-term employment to put food on the table and pay rent. As I'm not an engineer, my career prospects are quite dim. Now that there's an entire new generation entering the workforce, I'm afraid that there's millions of people in my position who simply won't be able to afford anything, much less a home or a family. That's not good for the economy, but the folks at the top don't really care as long as they get paid.
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago
  >Boomers need to retire already, because they've held onto the top rung of the ladder for far too long Boomers will just leave their wealth to their kids, so if you don't have well off parents, you'll still find yourself underneath the ladder, holding the short stick, at the upcoming generational wealth transfer. We need more inheritance taxes, at least in Europe, which at his point is a feudal state from this tax-free inter generational wealth transfers in some parts.

treis 3y ago

As a fellow millennial I don't know what people are talking about. The world is way better today than when I was a kid: All sorts of racism and prejudice are at much lower levels than when I was a kid. I went through two economic crises by the time I was 21. The US fought two wars in my prime war fighting years. (Though fortunately not me but friends died). Technology has continued it's steady march. If you gave me a choice between being born today and being born when I was I'd take today without hesitation. Things haven't become Utopian yet but they are steadily getting better.

kjkjadksj 3y ago
They are talking about the economic situation. You are a millenial on hn, you are probably doing fine. A lot of your peers otoh are living with their parents still, have a mountain of debt, have put off having kids, aren’t in a career path to change much of this and don’t have the skills or the money or time to switch into a more lucrative field and be competitive relative to new grads.
- treis 3y ago
  > A lot of your peers otoh are living with their parents still, have a mountain of debt, have put off having kids, aren’t in a career path to change much of this and don’t have the skills or the money or time to switch into a more lucrative field and be competitive relative to new grads. Yes I know. This happened because they graduated into the face of one of the recessions. Or maybe they went to war and lost their 20s battling PTSD. These effects persist for a long time which is why a lot of my generation was left behind. Obviously can't predict the future, but for those that came of age post 2008 the economy has been remarkably resilient. They haven't experienced something like a chunk of engineering graduates that can't get jobs. I was lucky and made it out, but the average starting salary of my degree from my school went down significantly because of 2008. A graduate today has no living memory of what an economic recession in the US looks like. And if anyone is wondering it's a lot worse than today or what happened during Covid.
- listenallyall 3y ago
  There's a bit of an exaggeration here... somehow his "peers" are also choosing to order enormous quantities of their meals from DoorDash (doubling the cost), getting bottle service at nightclubs, and taking Instagram-worthy vacations to exotic locales.