It’s a vicious circle :
- People can’t afford to have kids
- Aging population
- Labour shortage
- Use more immigrant labour
- People start getting pissy about immigrants
- People vote for right wing candidates
- Decrement the social wellbeing counter and return to 1
y’all got retirements and belonging???
I feel bad for 20 year olds now. Shit would have made me kill myself had I had to pay rent at these prices back in 2008. I barely survived on 300$ a week paychecks then. How are people even doing it today?
We’re not and trying to stave off the urge
I wonder if this really is the majority in america…its weird, I dont really see it here but im guessing a lot of people I know are getting parents help. I am seeing more homeless in my area all the time though but that does seem mental health related as well
From me and my husband’s family, 5/6 kids (late millennials and gen z) have absolutely fallen back on moving back in with Mom and Dad in order to made things work. Probably one of those could have made it work otherwise, and the one that didn’t have help lives in a tiny house. We’ve all been working the whole time, it’s just between crazy rent hikes, health issues, and hurricanes it just hasn’t been realistic to thrive (or in some of our cases thrive) without help. There’s no social safety net.
Most of my friends (we’re in our 30s) really want to start families and genuinely just can’t afford to. We couldn’t if we weren’t receiving support from family. Childcare is just prohibitively expensive (especially on top of rent and insurance).
If you knew for a fact that you’d never retire, you’d go a bit insane as well
Retirement?!?! Hahahaha!
It ain’t just them its everybody
Gen Z where? I’m guessing the USA?
I don’t see a clear reference to where those surveys where conducted.
“Retirement”
You guys have retirement savings?
no shit, same old story
Which generation isn’t going this? I don’t think it is a generational cadre thing. I think it is a class thing.
I pretty much said the same thing about my own experience then was downvoted to all hell and accused of being a boomer who caused all this. Wth is wrong with people, no wonder we can’t escape this shit no matter the generation.
Late babyboomer and early genx are doing just fine for the most part. I mean they’ve spent the last 5 decades pillaging from their children and grandchildren’s futures to keep the stock market booming.
If you put a $100 investment in the S&P 500 at the start of 1980, with dividends reinvested, it would have grown to approximately $17,427.60 by early 2025. This is the reason the vast majority of people who vote for Republicans are 55 and older, because they don’t care about anything but securing their own bag.
If you put a $100 investment in the S&P 500 at the start of 1980, with dividends reinvested, it would have grown to approximately $17,427.60 by early 2025.
WHICH CAN BUY YOU A HOUSE IN 1963.
I think the point is the 174x growth, not the final number based on the arbitrary $100. If you’d invested $10,000, you’d have $1,740,000 (simple extrapolation not accounting for dividend reinvesting, it’s too early for math)
But a ton of these people got completely obliterated is 2008 too. My point isn’t there aren’t rich people, it’s that there are poor in each generation and the wealth gap is increasing across demographics, even if not uniformly.
But a ton of these people got completely obliterated is 2008 too.
And even more made more money than ever with the bounce back. The market recovered its losses within 4 years, but wages didn’t recover until 2015-2016.
there are poor in each generation and the wealth gap is increasing across demographics, even if not uniformly.
For adults the poverty level is around 10% all age demographics, however the important thing to evaluate is the difference in wealth.
The median net worth under age 35 is about $39,000, but this rises to approximately $364,500 for the 55-64 age group.
True, some people made that money back. But crucially, some didn’t. Partly due to market fears causing sales of positions and partly because they just had to retire in that window or because their annuity was invested poorly for those conditions. Some people did get wrecked and not always because they messed up.
But yeah, some people are doing well. More yet in the older age groups as you point out. I’m just saying the problem is more directly linked to class than generation. People need to increase class consciousness if the end is ever to be in view. A poor 50 year old is sinking in the same leaky boat as a poor 20 year old.
You only got obliterated in 2008 if you took your money out of the machine.
With the S&P500 as an example, within 4 years it was back to where it was. By now, it’s worth 4 times what it was in 2007 at the peak before the trough.
It’s all about being able to save. If you can’t then capitalism won’t work for you. I feel it’s worse now, but there’s always been the poor and always will be. The world ain’t about to get fair any time soon. They just rely on the welfare state a lot more. Which is fine. I suspect some of the people struggling the most just aren’t claiming what they’re entitled to.
The people who were laid off didn’t have a choice.
There are poor people in each generation but post boomer generations are doing less well off compared to their parents.
I frankly don’t see have how new technologies can help post boomer generations. It is just like the French revolution. Each generation is worse off than the one before. Eventually people will revolt.
Right? I’m in my 40s and I’ve raised every 401k I’ve had to survive and move between jobs.
They voted for this. I’m glad to finally see they are getting what they wanted.
I mean America didn’t really vote for this. Between ramp and gerrymandering, election fraud, and a generally anti-democratic voting system, America isn’t a democracy.
I mean America didn’t really vote for this.
No no no. America is a perfect democracy in which everyone has a fully informed and equitable say in governance.
If the legislature is crippling the economy while the President crushes dissent with a massive paramilitary force, it is only because the people being impoverished and oppressed choose this for themselves.
They’ll have an opportunity to do things differently in two years, when we have another perfectly fair and equitable and fully representative elections cycle, at which point they will once again be responsible for everything that happens afterwards.
America isn’t a democracy.
Only a Russian Wumao or a North Korean Iranian bot would say such a thing. You’re trying to trick us into not voting! Well, I’m not falling for it. I’m going to vote. And then I’m going to blame everyone else, since our democracy is perfect and everything bad is the fault of my neighbors for not voting the way I did.
While its not a fully functioning it is a democracy and they did vote for it
Really? I voted for this 10 years ago when I was selling belongings to keep from going homeless? I voted for that at (lemme check) 17?
This isn’t a new problem, this has been a problem since before Gen X was born.
The US is, and has been for decades, Absolutely Fucked™
This situation in untenable. We need universal basic income. It can be financed if we tax the rich. It won’t lead to inflation higher than the extra income. It merely gives small and middle sized companies a way to compete in the economy.
I don’t know if universal basic income would really do anything in the long run. I don’t think it would lead to overall run off inflation, but I dont doubt for a second that landlords would immediately increase rent.
We don’t really need more money supply, we need more protections in areas of economics that should rightfully be considered natural monopolies.
If we didn’t have to spend so much on essentials that should be subsidized or price controlled by the government like housing, food, utilities, and healthcare, then we’d have more to stimulate other areas of the economy.
Increasing the money supply without implementing mechanisms for regulation is just a complicated economic stimulus for landlords, produce markets, and utility companies.
Porque no las dos
I mean you could, but what would be the point if housing, healthcare, and food security were a right? UBI is just a bandage some billionaires advocate for just so they don’t have to pay for a working healthcare system
Did you mean to say if they weren’t a right?
I meant if housing, healthcare, and food were guaranteed, what would be the point of UBI?
Politicians currently advocating for UBI are doing so as a replacement for things like universal healthcare, not in conjunction with it.
So that goes back to my original comment, porque no las dos?
And that would go back to my response… What would be the point?
A basic income is supposed to cover basic necessities, if those are already covered what is the point other than driving inflation and driving down productivity?
if you tax the rich, they need to ask for higher prices of the products they sell to still make a profit. this is a partial inflation.
however, small companies run by non-billionaires, like worker cooperatives and local businesses, would be exempt from the taxes and therefore have a competitive advantage. this is my goal.
however, small companies run by non-billionaires, like worker cooperatives and local businesses, would be exempt from the taxes and therefore have a competitive advantage. this is my goal.
What makes a large business more competitive compared to a small one isn’t taxation, it’s the economics of scale in regards to logistics and production. All of a corporation’s activities are already exempt from most taxation, the only thing we tax a corporation for is on their profit.
Being a non profit doesn’t automatically make you more competitive, operating at lower cost with higher productivity is what makes you competitive.
they need to ask for higher prices of the products they sell to still make a profit.
That’s bullshit, they’d make a profit anyway, but it would be less of a profit, the poor souls… and they’d still hike prices anyway.
They have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder and therefore will act in a way that maximizes profits. It’s just what they do as a consequence of what they are. In candyland this leads to overproduction as companies race for existing markets and seek to penetrate new ones, and as a consequence they end up making a hell of a lot more than what they need, which leads to better access and lower prices for the consumer. In the real world… The classic example of something capitalism is really good at making is a pencil, and you have to hand it to them. Pencils are in fact cheap as hell and very readily available. Food, shelter, and medicine, on the other hand…
I really want to see a change to that fundamental shareholder law, that allows for things like:
A) A company is structured around a particular mission, which may have nothing to do with money in particular, just set up as a “shared goal”
B) Any profit motivations must acknowledge both short-term and long-term. If a company wants to replace their flour with sawdust, then a board member can readily explain this will likely lead to a long-term dropoff in customers and that such an action should be legally barred.
Best America was will do is feudalism
Now it would be more accurate to call it technofeudalism.
Stupidly expensive cost of living in some countries and even certain regions.
