4 ms·

Millennials and Gen Z have more wealth than Gen X had at the same age

2 points by elsewhen 3y ago

jauntywundrkind 3y ago
But cost of living is absurdly up, and the empire & opportunity are falling. Most will not do as well as their parents, even with more wealth, weird as that is.
- syndicatedjelly 3y ago
  What does “doing well” mean? What does that phrase mean in 2024, versus 2004 and versus 1984?
pyeri 3y ago
Wealth and Happiness are altogether different concepts though! As ironic as it sounds, more wealth doesn't necessarily mean more happiness, often the inverse is what happens. The more wealth you achieve, the complexities and expectations from life increase manifold leaving you in a worse state than you started with.
- adastra22 3y ago
  But less wealth usually means more unhappiness.
paulpauper 3y ago
Huge post-2010 dual booms in stock market + real estate, plus good-paying white collar jobs for college grads, despite the enduring appeal of the college-educated barista trope
starkparker 3y ago
The generations having fewer kids have more money than the generations that had more kids. I hope this isn't surprising anyone considering how expensive children are. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/03/millennials-only-children/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/03/millennia... > Both married and unmarried Americans have shifted toward childlessness in the millennial era. And levels of childlessness have actually accelerated among millennials as their homeownership rates have recently grown. > Instead, just about every source we consulted pointed to the broader economic climate. Hammered by the Great Recession, soaring student debt, precarious gig employment, skyrocketing home prices and the covid-19 crisis, millennials probably faced more economic headwinds in their childbearing years than any other generation. And, as sociologist Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, told us, it put them behind on everything you’re supposed to line up before you have kids. > And, unlike previous generations, millennials had the means to delay pregnancy thanks to affordable, long-acting birth-control options, said Alison Gemmill, a demographer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. > “Historically, one of the reasons why we think the U.S. has had such a high fertility rate compared to other countries was related to unintended and unwanted pregnancies that resulted in births,” Gemmill told us. Now that it’s easier to avoid accidental pregnancies, more women are having kids later, or not at all.

2 points by elsewhen 3y ago

But cost of living is absurdly up, and the empire & opportunity are falling. Most will not do as well as their parents, even with more wealth, weird as that is.

syndicatedjelly 3y ago
What does “doing well” mean? What does that phrase mean in 2024, versus 2004 and versus 1984?

pyeri 3y ago

Wealth and Happiness are altogether different concepts though! As ironic as it sounds, more wealth doesn't necessarily mean more happiness, often the inverse is what happens. The more wealth you achieve, the complexities and expectations from life increase manifold leaving you in a worse state than you started with.

adastra22 3y ago
But less wealth usually means more unhappiness.

paulpauper 3y ago

Huge post-2010 dual booms in stock market + real estate, plus good-paying white collar jobs for college grads, despite the enduring appeal of the college-educated barista trope

starkparker 3y ago

The generations having fewer kids have more money than the generations that had more kids. I hope this isn't surprising anyone considering how expensive children are. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/03/millennials-only-children/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/03/millennia... > Both married and unmarried Americans have shifted toward childlessness in the millennial era. And levels of childlessness have actually accelerated among millennials as their homeownership rates have recently grown. > Instead, just about every source we consulted pointed to the broader economic climate. Hammered by the Great Recession, soaring student debt, precarious gig employment, skyrocketing home prices and the covid-19 crisis, millennials probably faced more economic headwinds in their childbearing years than any other generation. And, as sociologist Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, told us, it put them behind on everything you’re supposed to line up before you have kids. > And, unlike previous generations, millennials had the means to delay pregnancy thanks to affordable, long-acting birth-control options, said Alison Gemmill, a demographer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. > “Historically, one of the reasons why we think the U.S. has had such a high fertility rate compared to other countries was related to unintended and unwanted pregnancies that resulted in births,” Gemmill told us. Now that it’s easier to avoid accidental pregnancies, more women are having kids later, or not at all.