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10-15 years from now when the economy is finally running on all cylinders again, I'll be in my mid 40s approaching 50. I can't imagine closing in on my 50th birthday, having been underemployed for two decades thanks the the double gut punch of the Bush housing collapse and the Trump coronavirus economic collapse, and actually being able to compete with fresh grads for jobs. Ageism is going to be a big problem for millennials when the day comes that we finally get to experience a decent economy. I'm also better off than a lot of people in that I don't have mountains of student debt. Many aren't so lucky.
While there are some people who defy the norm, there have been few generations in US history that have had worse economic luck than people born in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Coming out of college in 2008 and then experiencing an economic catastrophe 100x worse in 2020, all during the years that should be prime career-building and life-building years, is going to be difficult if not impossible to ever recover from. While there's certainly exceptions and there are Millennials who have done well for themselves, most have never had a chance. We're going to have a generation of 40-50 year olds with degrees still renting cheap apartments with roommates (unable to afford a home) and still working as Starbucks baristas or waiting tables thanks to the economy that boomers and the GOP have left us.
Do you believe that Millennials will be destroyed economically for life? I think the 2008 crisis was enough to do permanent damage but this next decade of economic misery will finish this generation off. The lucky few who happened to be in the right place and know the right people at the right time will do well.
the last generation that got to enjoy the greatest standard of living were the boomers. It basically ended there. Never to return. Each generation produced, will just incur an even greater amount of debt and lower standing of living. Im around the same age as you. Its been the same old story since college. (Underemployment, Companies getting by with less and less of a workforce,constant "restructuring" that amount to destroyed businesses in the long run with executives running off with all the loot before the ship sinks , and layoffs galore along with never ending insourcing/outsourcing).
please you also had a period of amazing stock market growth with even modest investment in 2008 would have made you a fortune by this time in 2020. Even with the recent decline. I have a nephew who has worked in a grocery store since 2008 but put everything he could into his 401k. He just mentioned a few days ago that he still had over 100k in that 401k and the most he ever made during that time was 40k. He has several friends he has mentioned, all blue collar that also have made sure to invest in their 401k during this time. Thats what constant investment and planning for the future can do for you even working a job that required no college education just hard work, doing without somethings and planning for a future. He is 30 with 100k already put away. i am a gen-x myself and most in the same age bracket i knew at 30 were lucky to have a few hundred in the bank at that point.
America is not a monolithic society where millions of people of the same generation all share the same fate.
The economic prospects for any individual in America are still dependent to the most extent on individual effort and productivity.
Hence, just like every other generation, some will be successful, some will not.
Millennials have the deck stacked against us though.
The last generation to face a comparable economy to what Millennials have been saddled with were the people who were young adults during the 1930s. It's not directly comparable though because the economy was so different then. Of course their entire generational fate changed when WWII broke out. I hope nothing like that happens in our near future.
Millennials benefited from the early 2000s, post great recession period, and what we are about to come out of. The only thing that could be holding millennials back is incompetence and housing prices. Yes, housing prices have increased faster than any other period. But millennials will also benefit from the increase in housing that will become available as boomers die.
Are you a Gen Z that is self-reflecting with overgeneralizing a large subset of the population? Or is it just irony?
Guess you haven’t dealt with these people. Somehow worse than millennials.
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