Millennials Hard Hit Twice
Millennials were hit hard in the Covid recession and the Great Recession as well.
Generations Defined
The above chart from Think Tank – Defining Generations
- In 2019 Millennials were ages 23-38
- In 2009 in the Great Recession they were 13-28
- The corresponding BLS age groups during the great recession were 20-24 and part of 25-34.
- The corresponding BLS age groups now are 25-34 and a part of 35-44.
Unemployment Rate by Age Group 2007-2020
In 2008-2011 the oldest millennials were fresh out of college seeking employment in the worst jobs market since the Great Depression.
They are now 10 years older. The youngest millennials are now fresh out of college in the midst of a Pandemic shutdown.
But even the older millennials are faring poorly.
The worst two groups in terms of unemployment are age groups 20-24 and 25-34.
Millennials, the Screwed Generation
In April of 2018, I noted Millennials, the Screwed Generation, Blame Boomers For Making Their Lives Worse.
51% of millennials claim boomers make their lives worse. Only 13% of millennials say boomers make their lives better.
Screwed Generation
- Consider Obamacare. It was purposely designed to make millennials overpay for healthcare. Millennials subsidize boomers who are better off financially.
- When I went to the university of Illinois, tuition was $250 a semester. One realistically could have worked summer and part-time jobs to pay for an education. Now kids are graduating from college with mountains of debt and no way to pay it back.
- Social security is projected to be bankrupt by the time millennials can collect. Benefits must drop.
- A pension crisis looms. The boomer solution has been to kick the can down the road, always raising taxes. Those tax hikes go nearly 100% to pension funding. What do millennials get out of it? Nothing!
- Millennials are likely to be the first US generation in history that is no better off than their parents, if not worse.
Payback
Within a decade Millennials will be running the country and they may not exactly be sympathetic to the pension plight of boomers.
Mish
When I was young there was a draft and the Vietnam war. Probably, over a million young men had life ruined by forced military service. Millies can whine but they aren’t facing that.
So I guess these are the boomers kids. So much for wanting their kids to have a great childhood. Or maybe they did now they got nothing.
Millennial’s are in general a generation that does not have a clue how to make their own destiny. They have had everything handed to them their whole lives and their sense of entitlement is something that confounds older generations.
Millenials should blame democratic policies. Not boomers. Particularly the existence of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Sallie Mae. Without them, home prices and college tuition would be far lower. They had to end racist policies that prevented negros from buying homes and attending college. All it did was make them poorer.
“Millenials should blame democratic policies.”
…
Sure sure. Republicans have been carping for years about ending (spinning off privatization) the GSEs. Between 2003 – 2007, 2017 – 2019 Republicans held the WH / Senate / House. Zippo done.
Both parties supported the GSEs as Tony correctly points out.
Are we now living in the twilight zone? Having totally whiffed on his handling of the Covid epidemic here in the US, Trump is now considering a capital gains tax cut while at the same time millions are unemployed and looking to Washington for help. And please don’t buy into his line that a capital gains cut will spur job growth. Nothing more than trickle down economics that never worked before and won’t work this time either. Time to kick his ass out of Washington all the way back to Florida.
Wife and I make > $300k annual combined and we can’t afford to buy a house in a neighborhood with decent schools (e.g. rated 10 on GreatSchools.org) here in Bay Area. Daycare costs $50k per year (after tax money), alternatively you can pick a location where kids don’t learn diddly squat, and you have to pack their own breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m sad to even think what kind of “education” kids are getting in poor neighborhoods. After each of us contribute $18k to 401k , and spend $3k on rent, plus food there doesn’t remain too much discretionary money.
We buy and cook almost 100% costco food plus a low cost local Mexican fresh fruits and vegetables grocery.
We travel once a year from CA Bay Area to CA So Cal for Xmas and bring grandma over once or twice per year for summer , reverse trip. We don’t watch any sports , don’t travel anywhere else, and seem to work around the clock.
I have no idea how someone here can survive on <$100k income with kids.
At the same time I see CEOs making 10’s of millions, completely disproportionate to their contribution.
True, I used to live in Cali, both NoCa and SoCa. But you won’t get any sympathy from the Midwesterners 😉
You can have a pretty okay life in the Netherlands on $50k before tax, with plenty of almost free (for you) and decent schools, paying about 3k for medical ensurance and bills… Maybe not in the most expensive area’s, but still… Maybe move?
Local county taxes account for 80%+ of school budget here, the rest being state and federal.
If you are both contributing 18k to a 401k you don’t really have much to complain about.
That’s 36k a year in retirement contributions, or more than nearly anyone else in America percentage wise. Most people don’t even have a 401k available to them.
I wish I did. I earn 45k a year and save 20k of that for retirement and feel I’m doing well. I have 3 kids who are homeschooled by my wife for free (no day care costs) and own my house outright having never inherited a dime from anyone.
So just by a few lifestyle changes I’ve saved 36k a year on housing (3k rent for you), 50k on child care (homeschooling) and probably another 70k in taxes since I didn’t earn 300k and wasn’t taxed on that. The total difference in income when the extra expenses are counted is still around 100k.
I get to come home at noon on Friday, take lots of nice weekend trips and enjoy life fishing.
If I were you, I’d move to a low cost area, take a huge pay cut and enjoy life. The Bay area isnt’ worth it. My opinion of course.
I’d rather earn 45k a year in NC than earn 300k in that political cesspool called the Bay area. It’s beautiful there but it’s been destroyed by policy.
You make all good points. Been in Cali for 20+ years, hard to imagine making a drastic change. I wouldn’t complain so much if it wasn’t for the house prices.
$2mln for a house built in the 60’s , no thanks.
Or $4k-5k / mo for a 3 bed / 2 ba.. in a neighborhood with good schools
You can thank McKinsey, another GREAT American Institution for the disproportionate pay discrepancy. Americans are bestest at screwing people, from Private Equity, Consulting, to our Military establishment. If you complain, they’ll say you are against human rights, freedom, creativity, etc, etc.
There’s a special place in hell for Americans, and I for one feel thankful. And Millennials will be Boomers in the future, and they too will screw the next generation. As I said, screwing other people is an American specialty.
Take away all the entrepreneur ideas that came to be sold, the buildings, these younger generations live in, phones, cars, and clothing, whatever the business is, thank the boomers! If, these younger generations, would realize how hard we all worked to make our childrens lives better, as well as our older parents, where is the gratitude? If, I didn’t give all those trips, travelling all the time, I’d have more $ for myself. What did I get, from next gen or gen x, ungratefulness!
HAHAhahahaha!
Yes – your generation sure is the bestest. Based on your comment, I can’t imagine why you seem to get such attitude from those young’ens around you.
Hate to say it but I fear we are all intercoursed. We are not getting back to full employment any time soon. The impending tsunami of deferred rent, mortgage and student loan payments will put the economy into a whole new world of hurt. Factor in our hopeless and clueless representatives in Washington and its game over.
The Fed and the Corrupt Crooks on Wall St. are in a panic and are very desperate.
Do not sell your gold or silver stocks cause you ain’t seen nothing yet…
GOLD IS KING…..$5,000-$10,000
Gold is the money of Kings.
Silver is the money of Gentleman.
Barter is the money of Peasants.
Debt is the money of Slaves.
The quiet revolution: China’s millennial backlash Society puts pressure on young people in China to find a good job, buy an apartment, and get married — in that order, before the age of 30 link to ft.com
It kind of makes you wonder why millennials are so insistent that it is their right to keep Covid spreading. Given that it hits they economically the hardest, you’d think that they would have the strongest motivation to help try to limit the spread.
You have it backwards IMHO. The lockdown, declared by Boomers like Andrew Cuomo, is for the benefit of the Boomers (it was certainly not for the benefit of the older generation in nursing homes). Millennials suffer the most not because of COVID, but because of the Boomers desire to protect themselves at the expense of the economy and of the younger generations.
In my state we never locked down, yet business goes up and down with the number of cases. Millennials suffer here, not because of lockdowns, but because of Covid. So long as Covid continues to spread, they will continue to suffer, yet they seem to have little interest in slowing the spread.
In Feb/Mar, Millennials were calling COVID “boomer remover.”
I don’t want to be too harsh, but America has lost patience. We expect things now.
I work with millennials that are frustrated that they don’t have their parents wealth now. Well it took their parents decades to get to the point where they now are. In the internet age we expect everything instantaneously.
What are they doing to build that wealth? I have a millenial coworker that does Starbucks every morning but refuses to participate in her 401K and we get a 1 for 1 match up to 5%.
I have a good friend that takes trips every year to places like Hawaii, Jamaica, etc… Throws parties with beverages of expense, always has the latest iPhone and Apple product, has nicer vehicles than me and literally told me that it is “impossible for the middle class to invest and get ahead.” Personal choices be darned.
My wife’s cousin is on welfare but manages to get NFL Sunday ticket on his cell phone. My wife and I have a nice household income, I would love to watch my Lions lose on my cellphone, but we have financial goals and make choices.
I hear millennials say they have it worse than any generation ever. Laughable with all of the modern conveniences in 2020. I asked one how they have it worse than the generation raised in the Great Depression and then forced to fight in WWII and I got a Bernie Sanders campaign response about the rich stealing from the workers and the 1% not paying their fair share.
Older generations have set us up in a debt trap, but the millennials aren’t helping it any in my mind. American culture is set to fail. Either party I vote for in November is just killing us slowly.
I know a 32 year old who owns a house outright. Is smart. Respectful. Has a great job. I know 10 more Millenials in the same position. Certainly every one of them is responsible for the public debt they’ve inherited.
I agree that there are people doing it right in all generations. I think the national statistics shows that most aren’t in all generations though.
In my line of work I constantly hear about who is a victim and what group is a victim. Millennial is one that pops up a lot as a victim. I am just tired of victim this and victim that. I think we are generally speaking more responsible for our own outcomes than anyone on the outside.
P.S. Depending on the source I am either a millennial or a Gen X. I am doing fairly well.
Wife and I make > $300k annual combined and we can’t afford to buy a house in a neighborhood with decent schools (e.g. rated 10 on GreatSchools.org) here in Bay Area. Daycare costs $50k per year (after tax money), alternatively you can pick a location where kids don’t learn diddly squat, and you have to pack their own breakfast, dinner and lunch. After each of us contribute $18k to 401k , and spend $3k on rent there doesn’t remain too much discretionary money.
We buy and cook almost 100% costco food plus a low cost local Mexican fresh fruits and vegetables grocery.
We travel once a year from San Francisco to San Diego for Xmas and bring grandma over once or twice per year for summer. We don’t watch any sports , don’t travel anywhere else, and seem to work around the clock.
I have no idea how someone here can survive on <$100k income with kids.
Perhaps live in a less expensive area. My husband and a have 5 kids age 4-14. Income of around 75K per year. Own a house and business and our kids go to good schools. Not rich but doing fine and have money left over each month, yearly vacations. We’re in coastal NC. Cost of living much more reasonable here and even lower inland.
Well the good news is that you are in fact saving $36K a year per your own estimates.
You say that you make over $300K a year as a household. Let’s say after taxes that is $200K. $36K in the 401K, plus $36K for your rent a year, plus $50K for daycare that is $122K. Seems like you are doing great and would have tens of thousands of dollars a year to spend on other things.
The quiet of the graveyard–the silent generation.
The older boomers sputtering out.
Seems like a CV broom clearing out of the expensive oldsters.
It’s worth pointing out that the ‘boomers’ demographic is stretched over a longer period of time than the others. It was often referred to as the ‘generation gap’ back in the day. I have observed that the first boomers had more opportunity. The latter boomers entered the workforce exactly at the time that the longest and most pernicious inflation clobbered the nation, virtually robbing them of their earnings.
Most never recovered.
Inflation still continues, robbing every latter generation, but is slower except where gov protected edu/med monopolies rule all. This inflation is expressed as the overwhelming debt that so much of the young have assumed.
Millenials stuck with student debt is a huge problem for the housing market. If they can’t enter the market that’s a key underpinning missing.
Millennials are still in an age group presumed no to vote in significant numbers and are young enough to move back in with mom and dad.
They’re definitely getting short changed and in the process we’re short changing ourselves. It was a huge mistake to let the banks and the lobbyists rewrite the bankruptcy laws carving out student. The result is rising education costs, huge debts, misallocation of capital and a lost generation of home buyers
The problem with millenials is asset inflation and financialization of everything, especially the housing market.
The houses currently cost what they are because of mortgages that people can get approved for, not intrinsically priced.
I would add:
If DJT’s proposal to end payroll tax comes to pass, it will hasten the demise of social security / medicare trust funds.
The older generations own the bulk of assets. And fedgov and Federal Reserve are bent on asset inflation (widening wealth inequality) no matter the damage done to those who hold little or no assets. Either price of assets must fall … or civil unrest will only grow.
Powellie, you’re doing a heck of a job …
Some good points here. I don’t know why, on sites like ZH, so many older people make comments supporting a generational conflict. The old inevitably give way to the young so you’d think they would want to work together or develop some sort of goodwill, but no. Apparently basic niceties are contrary to today’s American values.
This is just the beginning of a long stagnation/decline and I think even we X’ers will fare worse than Boomers over time, but we’ll still be better off than Millennials and Gen Z.
Some people lament that X’ers are invisible, but I like it that way. I’d hate to be thought of the way Boomers are when I’m older.
Maybe the stereotype of them being soft, entitled, lazy snowflakes has validity. idk.
On the coasts, probably; here in the heartland, we’re doing just fine.
Edit: At least as character development goes lol
Far from being entitled and lazy, Mellenials work harder for longer hours and lower pay compared to Boomers during their prime. They are soft though, otherwise they would have held pitchforks and demanded Boomers stop screwing them just so the latter can keep their pension money safe and get to enjoy martinis on the beach.
I’ll agree to the soft-heartedness; that’s been one of my biggest things to overcome.
Im ready to cancel social security. I never thought I’d get it anyway. get rid of Medicare too. Let them die. And provide free daycare and tax credit for making kids. Selfish? I learned it from the boomers.
“Selfish? I learned it from the boomers.”
…
I remember talking to some Tea Partiers. All for cutting expenses that effects others … but don’t you dare touch my entitlements.
Whatever. Anyone spending a solid minute looking at the fedgov expenditures will realize that ALL the deficit and then some attributable to social security / medicare.
There is no pension crisis. People should know pensions aren’t guaranteed once they go to PBGC and can be reduced. Most pensions have been returning well in excess of inflation if they were invested right. Reduce the pension return to 2% year.
Many pensions have been way underfunded for years. Even with years of double digit growth they will still be in the hole … and if assets ever fall …
I have a theory on these Fed bailouts. They are as much to prevent a pension crisis as anything else.
assets will never be allowed to fall. the sky will fall before assets fall. time to lever up with private equity.
Good Luck!
buy any of the fangman+blk, and enjoy the ride. you can’t go wrong.
PBGC does not apply to public sector pensions which have been consistently underfunded by politicians. The pension crisis is real unless public sector employees take a haircut (often barred by state constitutions, but not the Federal BK code) or taxpayers pay more.
No pension crisis — bail out time! The Democrats already were trying to bail out the state and local funds using the last Bill.
SS — will be means tested! If you saved over X dollars, no or little SS for you! Kind of like the covid bailouts — if you make over X dollars, no bailout for you.
AND you get to keep paying the tax.
Thing is, if your “savings” consist of anything other than dollars/cash; you have already spent your entire life being bailed out by the asset pumping rackets, which has robbed all those with less savings than you, in order to feed you.
I am age 71.
I have been saying for years that it is time for the Boomers and Oldsters to exit the political stage.
If we can declare an age of majority for voting why not declare that people over a certain age cannot vote?
I thought the opposite. I think anyone alive who is a citizen should get a vote. That includes every child. We let parents do other things for their kids who can’t. It isn’t like the kid doesn’t deserve a vote. Do they magically become important at the age of 18 but at 17 and under they are not counted ?
I would limit the age that a citizen is eligible to run for office. Old enough to have experience and young enough to have to live with one’s generation of bad government decisions.
I’m not sure I agree with limiting the age you can run for office but I would sure be for term limits for congress. There comes a dimished point of return for constituents when their representative is in office for decades.
Voting solves nothing. Ever.
Only direct action effectuates change.
Dear gods, I can’t believe some of the off-the-wall ideas that people have sometimes on this board…declare that older people can’t vote past a certain age? Why? They’ll still have to put up the money for whatever cockamamie schemes the political class comes up with.Have you heard the kind of ‘gimme-free-stuff’ ideas Millennials and Gen Zers support? Older people already feel largely powerless, unwanted and mostly forgotten in today’s society – so the answer is let’s make sure we make them feel even less valued. Wonderful! Then we have the ‘give every child a vote’ by parental proxy idea – how in the hell would that work? Assume the parent knows what a child wants? How about when these children grow up and they decide their parents misrepresented their political desires?
Then we have the ‘change only happens at the point of a gun’ crowd…ironic considering this person’s previously stated ethno-cultural sensitivities.
“They’ll still have to put up the money for whatever cockamamie schemes the political class comes up with.”
You mean they’ll have to work to pay taxes to pay Millennials to sit around idle?
Also, giving more of a vote to those “paying into the system” by cranking out more future taxpayers, is not at all “off the wall.”
Direct action = point of a gun. What a fucking simpleton.
Can’t vote unless properly educated? What, by the government?
I have no problem with that as long as if I am at an age where I am prevented from voting then I should be exempt from all taxation, sales, income, property or otherwise. If not then you are advocating taxation without representation and I think this country was founded in part due to stopping just that sort of oppression.
I’m not suggesting taxation without representation.
I’m suggesting having better education in this country so that the lesser educated population doesn’t get caught by demagogues and con-artists.