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"Performance" is relative to the times. Back in the 60s good performance meant a union job with a pension and building a house by 25. None of the things in tha

"Performance" is relative to the times. Back in the 60s good performance meant a union job with a pension and building a house by 25. None of the things in that sentence even exist anymore for the vast majority of people. If I were to say "hey let's buy or build a house right now" you would rightly say "that's a bad idea at the moment", so the opportunity that boomers had simply does not exist present day. My uncle was a grocer back in the day at a local grocery store, and he is able to live completely off of his pension that is still paying him some 30 years later. Those kinds of opportunities simply do not exist anymore. Companies don't even exist that long anymore, and if they do, they probably spend all their money and effort lobbying against unions and limiting or ending any existing pension programs they may have once had. The only exception being federal jobs and workplaces that have managed to unionize despite historic anti-union sentiment thanks to Reagan et al.

dragonwriter 3y ago
> "Performance" is relative to the times. The performance I refer to is relative to inflation-adjusted dollars. Relative to the times, obviously, people at every time do exactly as well. You would be measuring a thing against itself. > Back in the 60s good performance meant a union job with a pension and building a house by 25. Most people the 60s didn’t build a house, and, if they did, didn’t do it by 25. > None of the things in that sentence even exist anymore for the vast majority of people. Private sector union jobs and private sector pensions are far less common, and that’s a big reason why Millenials (and Gen Xers) without a degree are worse off than comparable Boomers and earlier. On the other hand, college educated Millenials (the majority) are doing better than college educated Boomers, despite being a larger share of their generation.

dragonwriter 3y ago

> "Performance" is relative to the times. The performance I refer to is relative to inflation-adjusted dollars. Relative to the times, obviously, people at every time do exactly as well. You would be measuring a thing against itself. > Back in the 60s good performance meant a union job with a pension and building a house by 25. Most people the 60s didn’t build a house, and, if they did, didn’t do it by 25. > None of the things in that sentence even exist anymore for the vast majority of people. Private sector union jobs and private sector pensions are far less common, and that’s a big reason why Millenials (and Gen Xers) without a degree are worse off than comparable Boomers and earlier. On the other hand, college educated Millenials (the majority) are doing better than college educated Boomers, despite being a larger share of their generation.