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It depends on what Gen X you were. Older Generation X graduated into one of the worst job markets in history, the early 1990s. It's just that living was quite cheap back then, especially in big cities which had not yet started to gentrify. People could be "slackers" for years. It was no big deal that you had a crappy low wage job or even that you were out of work for months when you could pay $400 for an apartment share...in Manhattan. Even as late as 1999 I was able to rent a place in Williamsburg Brooklyn for only $750/m. The same apartment is now over $3200/m!
One big issue with young adults now is that there is nowhere for them to go. Renting in any place that has decent jobs or something to do is incredibly expensive. They can't even qualify for a shared apartment rental. They are basically trapped.
Absolutely. An entry-level office job that a college grad would be lucky to get straight out of school may pay $11-12 an hour in a major city. Meanwhile, that grad is sitting on $40k student loan debt in a studio apartment that costs $800+ month, and if they need a car for work it's pretty easy to see how quick you're in the red, even being one of the lucky ones with full-time employment. So day after day, you throw yourself into your job in the hopes of moving up (not likely in this day and age) while barely able to feed yourself. This is the reality of the luckiest of recent college graduates.
Don't listen to bootstrappers. Any young person who believes that in this day and age is an ignorant benefactor of the silent hand of their rich daddy.
I'm sure any time now the corporate apologists will show up and egg them on to suicide or make up billion excuses as to how the "real problem" is that they are all "lazy, stupid, and lacking in skills."
I could mention the facts yet again regarding how there are nowhere near enough jobs to go around - in this nation alone, there are 2.6 to 5.1 people out of work per job opening, with 3.6 million people working at or below the poverty line, and the only jobs growing are poverty wage work, but those facts always fall on deaf ears.
As for the UK's unemployment numbers, they are probably just as fake as the U3 number in this nation - they probably cook the books and don't count: the long-term unemployed, forced early retirement, the grossly underemployed, those who never entered the workforce, etc.
I can't blame the young for feeling that way. The opportunities simply no longer exist, and no matter how hard one works, it is still easy to end out without a job because they aren't enough to go around. And when you bring up the facts, you're met with stubborn hatred from the ignorant who refuse to acknowledge reality and instead seek to blame the victim to make themselves feel superior. Putting up with that hatred and hopelessness day after day can drive a person over the edge.
Well they can go somewhere else then, there's no reason to sit on your arse for years just because there's no work in the area or even the country you grew up in. I'm 26, British, that's what I've done and what it looks like I'll be doing for a while yet.
It depends on what Gen X you were. Older Generation X graduated into one of the worst job markets in history, the early 1990s. It's just that living was quite cheap back then, especially in big cities which had not yet started to gentrify. People could be "slackers" for years. It was no big deal that you had a crappy low wage job or even that you were out of work for months when you could pay $400 for an apartment share...in Manhattan. Even as late as 1999 I was able to rent a place in Williamsburg Brooklyn for only $750/m. The same apartment is now over $3200/m!
One big issue with young adults now is that there is nowhere for them to go. Renting in any place that has decent jobs or something to do is incredibly expensive. They can't even qualify for a shared apartment rental. They are basically trapped.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I am an older Xer myself.
20 years ago most young people started out the same. Even the go-getters I knew back then made a salary of around 25K, so it was more evened out.
One of the differences now even in the worse economy is that some college graduates with very desirable job skill sets could be making 90K in several years, starting at 60-70K, with the rest still making 1992 wages at 12 or 15/hour are being left further and further behind. The rents go up as long as there are people who can afford to pay them, which there are.
I even remember in the 1990s distinctly a Cambridge friend of mine telling me he came to Boston from NYC, because people could float in Boston, not NYC. Now Boston is no place for someone to float.
And you are right about the rentals. In Boston, so many of the post-college multi-families that could be shared situations are now condominiums with entry level of $400K or higher.
Absolutely. An entry-level office job that a college grad would be lucky to get straight out of school may pay $11-12 an hour in a major city. Meanwhile, that grad is sitting on $40k student loan debt in a studio apartment that costs $800+ month, and if they need a car for work it's pretty easy to see how quick you're in the red, even being one of the lucky ones with full-time employment. So day after day, you throw yourself into your job in the hopes of moving up (not likely in this day and age) while barely able to feed yourself. This is the reality of the luckiest of recent college graduates.
Don't listen to bootstrappers. Any young person who believes that in this day and age is an ignorant benefactor of the silent hand of their rich daddy.
Fact: Average starting salary for 2013 was $45k.
Of course, economic losers and economic winners tend to not occupy the same social circles, so if you surround yourself with economic losers, you could honestly think that it's the "lucky" ones who are landing jobs at starbucks for $11/hour.
I even remember in the 1990s distinctly a Cambridge friend of mine telling me he came to Boston from NYC, because people could float in Boston, not NYC. Now Boston is no place for someone to float.
And you are right about the rentals. In Boston, so many of the post-college multi-families that could be shared situations are now condominiums with entry level of $400K or higher.
to be fair Boston is now practically equal if not more than NYC on the lower and mid end
Well they can go somewhere else then, there's no reason to sit on your arse for years just because there's no work in the area or even the country you grew up in. I'm 26, British, that's what I've done and what it looks like I'll be doing for a while yet.
Who's going to pay for the travel expenses? What will they do if they have to live in an expensive place to get work ? Panhandle?
I'm tired of people using the skilled trade as the "De facto" alternative to college. The average HS grad today could never cut it in a skilled trade. Just look at how high schools routinely graduate students who don't even know basic math.
he sounds dumb as hell
lol in Georgia the mexicans were doing alot of those skilled trade jobs for less than a fraction of the money the guys usually charged and put alot of them out of buisness
they were the main ones complaining about the mexicans taking all their work lol
who is going to pay an america to fix their roof when you can get five mexicans to do for $50 i kid you not back in 2009 around my area. Everytthing from getting work done on your car , to plumbing , to air conditioning i could always find an illegal and pay them half the price i would pay an American to do the same job.
the work was almsot never as efficient and sometimes it actually cost more money in thel ong run but its cheap labor and was better than paying full price.
Of course, economic losers and economic winners tend to not occupy the same social circles, so if you surround yourself with economic losers, you could honestly think that it's the "lucky" ones who are landing jobs at starbucks for $11/hour.
you do know what the word average means and I laugh how in America its alwyas white males who talk about the bootstrap method as if white males haven't received a leg up on everyone else since they stepped foot in this country. You can't comapre some upper classwhite guy with rich mommy and daddy to a working class guy **** most real republicians i know in the south are only a step above poverty shows you how much the bootstrap methods works for the majority of white people lol
i know alot of yall like to throw out stats without actually looking at the raw numbers which tells a more accuate story than actual sats
where 150 people with $60k a year jobs can throw off average
A working -class guy in the South who votes for the GOP is thoroughly brainwashed...just the ultimate stupidity..
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