It’s a shallow dive that sounds good at a glance, and avoids casting blame where it actually belongs: the corporate wealth stealing class snapping up properties left and right over the past ten to twenty years. It also avoids any messy “supply chain” problems that are still ongoing, and the fact inflation is a worldwide phenomenon now, so it can’t possibly be because “the millennial generation in the United States is really big.”
In other words, bullshit remains bullshit. Take them apart, folks, they’ve earned it.
Seems like he’s saying “it’s cyclical” since he admits the Baby Boomers caused their own inflation in the 1970’s, but it’s being exacerbated by population increases. . . ?
I don’t think anyone really understand macroeconomics, we all just think we do.
Either they’re truly “necessities” – which means they can’t be put off purchasing for seven-plus years due the greed of their parents – or they’re not – which means people find a way to live without them. I’ll give this Boomer credit for being generationally consistent in wanting to have things both ways.
In regard to housing, my theory is the only reason that Boomer NIMBYs in California have suddenly relented on auxiliary dwelling units is that they finally collectively realised “holy crap, we priced our own age 30+ kids out of the housing market and they’re about to move out of state just when I need them to stay nearby.”
Exactly. David Brooks’s beloved “Bobos”, who betrayed the ideals of the counterculture they claimed to have led (they were followers – Silents were the leaders) and spent years afterward commodifying “authenticity” and “rebellion” into understated but pricey consumer categories.
There are plenty of individual Boomers who’ve suffered since Reagan, who are in bad shape at the moment, who understand things went wrong after 1980. It’s the selfish white “winners” who defined the rotten generational culture – the ones you describe and the ones like this Smead guy – who have left all subsequent generations holding a very ugly bag thanks to their wasteful greed during the post-war economic anomaly. Nothing will change for the better until they lose their clout.
True, but a lot of Boomers will insist they were part of it anyhow. Claiming unearned progressive cred (and then expressing it through stuff they bought later on) to show how cool they were in HS and college is a generational trope.
Can confirm. I’ve seen a similarly young person make the same complaint in an interview. It was was mind-boggling.
It’s a reflection the disproportionate level of influence Boomers still have on the culture in 2022. In the main it’s not Gen Xers or Millennials themselves or the remaining Silents conveying that perception to Gen Z.
Not all of those boomers remained that type of boomer. I’ll never forget an interview with either Crosby, Stills or Nash talking about a concert in which they got booed for making an anti war statement in the early 2000’s.
And don’t forget “already deeply in debt with student loans,” as another cause for millenials to delay home purchase. Personally I blame the repeated attempts to goose the economy through low interest rates that have led Wall Street having a ton of money to loan for the explosion in debt levels, and the great increase in the price of things bought with borrowed money, like real estate and college educations.
I am currently being wracked by covid so I’m probably about to drift off on the details. But IIRC that’s part of the explanation for our real estate crisis, crypto, the absolutely insane funding numbers flowing around startups too.
Those low interest rates, and how long they’ve stuck around. Are connected to the way there’s zero gains to be had in tradition savings accounts, and interest based savings vehicles. With the stock market parked in a loop around “all time high” and “oh no it’s down slightly”. There’s apparently very little return on any sort of traditional investment or savings options. Everything from government bonds, to college savings accounts. The best they do for you is fail to keep up with inflation, and some tax write offs. Whether you’re big investment banks, or the rare person with enough scratch to plan ahead.
At the same time. Money is cheap, the low rates have flooded the market with capital.
So big capital, banks especially. Are practically throwing money at anything that shows any kind of reasonable return. Mostly real estate. It’s why they’re snapping out houses and apartment complexes left and right. But also high risk, purportedly high return, options like anything block chain related and the start-ups. Any IPO of any kind. It’s a massive trillion dollar influx of speculation, cause otherwise that money sits there and shrinks. And there’s nowhere else to put it.
Actually know a start up that cancelled it’s IPO. Friend used to work there. Actual business model, customer base, good product. Took very limited outside investment, and kept ownership and shares close to the actual company. Mostly avoided involvement in the tech sector bullshit. Long standing plan to IPO last year.
Weren’t worried it would fail. They were concerned that in the current situation the company would be over valued in an IPO. And the subsequent collapse in the stock price would kill them, and fuck all their employees with stock and options over.
And of course those stock market highs are mostly driven by the huge amount of money going into Wall Street, rather than estimates of future dividends. Like real estate, stock prices are a zero-sum game. For every extra dollar a seller gets, the buyer has paid an extra dollar to secure the benefit of ownership (housing or future dividends) Stock prices have long ago stopped being primarily driven by estimates of future dividends and are now based primarily on estimates of how much extra money for investment will drive prices higher.