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They definitely enjoyed life far better than anyone before or after or anyone in the future thats or sure. Plentiful job openings and career growth, a pension (Which have disappeared) and fantastic job security.
But its not all their fault. The politicians/crooked corporate cronies are the ones who sold American workers down the toilet. Thats where most of the rage should be be directed.
We have a chance to improve things under Trump but of course everyone is resisting change. IDIOTS would rather stick to the status quo. Outsourcing, globalism, being sold down the river, crooked politicians who would steal a coin from a dead mans eyes.
People vote against their own best interests. Do you really think anything will change if you keep the same old tired status quo????
So get behind Trump while he is maybe the only who actually GIVES a s*** for America and the people who voted him in. Finally, we got a guy working for US. Not Wall Street, Not China, Not Mexico. And people are whining daily about it? WTF is up this mentality?
Do you want to go back to the same old CROOKED politicians like anything will change under their leadership?
I don't think that last statement is true. There is a lot more competition now in all of the white collar fields. There is much more emphasis on education because globalization made it unlikely to succeed in occupations where college was not necessary.
Undergraduate schools that I considered my safety schools, are now considered competitive schools.
You used to be able to graduate Law school and be guaranteed a good living. Same with CPA's, PhD's MBA's, etc.
I used to see foreign medical graduates getting choice residency spots, and now even American medical school graduates are failing to match for residency positions.
My Millennial cousin is trying to get into medical school now. She has better scores than I had and she is having a tough time. She is considering doing an extra year in a masters program to better her chances. And this in in spite of the fact that many new medical schools have opened up since I graduated.
So you are right, that once you get passed all of that, an anesthesiologist will still earn a good living, but the odds of getting to that point are lower.
It seems the real money to be made in the US is in the places people don't want to look. Many times it is because they see the work as beneath them. The real money to be made to have a GOOD income but it requires hard work is in the skilled blue collar industries. Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs show fame) talks about the over 5 million jobs out there that employers cannot seem to fill because they have a hard time finding GOOD workers. People can typically be trained for these positions in a much shorter time AND at nowhere near the expense of a BA/BS much less a MA/MS degree.
The jobs are out there. A couple days ago I searched my States employment postings for jobs withing 25 miles of zip codes. For my tiny town there were 60 some jobs. A town of 25K there were over 600 jobs. A town of 100K there were over 1500 jobs. Jobs are out there. People just need to get trained for the right jobs, have good work ethic, then not limit themselves to that job. Keep learning, keep building skills and making yourself more valuable. Keep improving what you have to offer. Finally... when an opportunity presents itself, sometimes you just have to take a risk. Don't have it be a stupid risk, but most of us have had an opportunity out there that we simply never grasped by reaching out, getting a little out of our comfort zone and taking that risk.
None of this is new. Maybe you younger folks aren't being taught this, but it certainly isn't new.
I worked for minimum wage at several jobs as a teen and a young man on my own. I made serious sacrifices. My first all my own (rented) home was TINY. It was someone's converted garage. It was perfect for me and it was what I could afford. I've NEVER bought or owned a new car... ever. I sacrificed, I worked, I sacrificed some more. Heck I mowed lawns and delivered pizzas during the summer while I was in college (started college at age 30). I worked hard and refused to give up. I EARNED what I have. I didn't have a silver spoon. When my father passed away, even though he had a decent estate worth over $300K, he left me $100.00 It was MY job to earn what I got, not his because that wouldn't be earning anything.
For at least 20 years I have offered to help kids, typically between 12 and 14, set up, own and run their own business... a lawn care business. I've offered it to at least 60-70 different kids and only 1 took me up on it, then he didn't want to work after 3 weeks, so it failed. My offer was to buy them a used but decent riding mower that ran great and would work for a year or two, a push mower, weed trimmer, gas cans, oil, tools, spare parts including belts and blades, a wagon to pull everything in and show them how to work on and maintain their equipment plus show them how to bid jobs and how to do the work so their customers would be happy. One kid out of numerous took me up on the offer. He still has what I bought him, but he thinks mowing is BENEATH him and he'd rather play video games.
I owned and operated my own mowing company (so I could eat and pay rent) during summers in college. Like I said, I was 30 before I started college. I paid off all my student loans 4 years after I graduated. I sacrificed to do that. I was 40 before I bought my first home. No job and no work was EVER beneath me. I worked HARD to earn and I earned everything I have.
But these kids want to look at what I earned, and YES, I earned great money AND I invested as much as I could all my life so that I could retire comfortably, and they think they are entitled to it? Are you serious?
Believe it or not, I had a car that I was $10k upside down in even after two years+ of paying $620/month. It was to the point where I even had trouble trading down because of the negative equity, and when I finally did, I was able to trade it in on a car that cost half as much (had to go new because of the negative equity), but the negative equity added like $150/month on to what would have been a $250/month payment. If I had just sold the car, I still would have been on the hook for $10k.
I had no trouble making the payments, but was looking to reduce expenses all around
A new car certainly isn't an investment. You need to have a plan and work the numbers before choosing new or used, lease or buy.
The housing market is back. The auto industry is back. Wall Street is back.
The Baby Boomers didn't have globalism to deal with. As a Gen Xer, I'm glad I was established before globalism really had a foothold.
And, every day now that we have removed those that were trying to force globalism on us, it will get a little better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KonaldDuth
Translation:
Incomes are stagnant, meanwhile housing prices are skyrocketing and Millennials can only "afford" new cars because there's an auto loan bubble.
Perhaps if they held off on the new cars and accumulated some savings, they could afford a house. One of the issues I see is that younger people want immediate gratification. Funny thing is, all of these younger people that can't afford a house tended to support Hillary Clinton who would have continued to dig us deeper in the hole that globalism has been for our country.
President Trump is on the job and changes are on the horizon.
Mike Rowe... In this 1st video at the end of it, Mike Rowe says there are 5.8 million skilled blue collar jobs out there per the government. It's not like there aren't any jobs.
Yes, Baby Boomers did have to deal with globalism, it just wasn't called that. Critical mass for it, when people started to pay attention to it, didn't really hit until the 1990s. That's when we started to realize that those jobs weren't coming back because they'd been sent to Korea (steel), Poland and South Africa (coal), South America and Spain (glass containers), India, Bangladesh, Viet Nam and Malaysia (clothing and shoes), Mexico (cars), Taiwan (wiring harnesses), Canada (lumber, mostly due to unrealistic environmentalists).
This was something started not by the Baby Boomers, unlike what the millennials want to believe, but those in charge right after WWII through the 1980s. The WWI and II generations. It was part of US policy to rebuild those countries devastated by the Second World War to give them some measure of prosperity and keep them from going Communist.
That was the whole idea behind the Marshall Plan and later extended almost world wide.
They definitely enjoyed life far better than anyone before or after or anyone in the future thats or sure. Plentiful job openings and career growth, a pension (Which have disappeared) and fantastic job security.
But its not all their fault. The politicians/crooked corporate cronies are the ones who sold American workers down the toilet. Thats where most of the rage should be be directed.
We have a chance to improve things under Trump but of course everyone is resisting change. IDIOTS would rather stick to the status quo. Outsourcing, globalism, being sold down the river, crooked politicians who would steal a coin from a dead mans eyes.
People vote against their own best interests. Do you really think anything will change if you keep the same old tired status quo????
So get behind Trump while he is maybe the only who actually GIVES a s*** for America and the people who voted him in. Finally, we got a guy working for US. Not Wall Street, Not China, Not Mexico. And people are whining daily about it? WTF is up this mentality?
Do you want to go back to the same old CROOKED politicians like anything will change under their leadership?
Have you taken a look at his cabinet? Wall street and more wall Street. Trump is busy easing regulations so wall street can once again gamble with our money. 2008 anyone?
As a still working Boomer (some of us are still in our early 50's!) sure, let's hear about guaranteed pensions (we lost 1/2 way through our careers). Let's hear about cheap housing when we didn't have no doc loans and low down payments. When you had to WORK for years to SAVE no less than 20% down. Oh, and of course, there were those 14% interest rates! And a college education? What was that? My family couldn't afford it and the colleges and Sallie Mae were not exactly throwing money at you back then trying to get you to put out 100K for a degree in the liberal arts........
Sounds to me like you're just a little jealous that some people in the Boomer generation have gotten ahead by working for it.....
If the Millennials squander that Wealth, then that's on them.
Yep, once the boomers are gone the wealth doesn't disappear. Wonder who Bill Gates is going to give his money too?
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As a still working Boomer (some of us are still in our early 50's!) sure, let's hear about guaranteed pensions (we lost 1/2 way through our careers). Let's hear about cheap housing when we didn't have no doc loans and low down payments. When you had to WORK for years to SAVE no less than 20% down. Oh, and of course, there were those 14% interest rates! And a college education? What was that? My family couldn't afford it and the colleges and Sallie Mae were not exactly throwing money at you back then trying to get you to put out 100K for a degree in the liberal arts........
