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.
Right it’s speculation. Cause the whole situation means you can’t expect a return based on dividends and slow growth.
So it’s toss as much as you can at high volume trading, high value stocks. Pushing valuations ever higher. Then try to get out before it explodes, and do the same for the next thing.
Actual human beings can’t get in on this. Either cause they don’t have the scratch to participate at all, or because big capital is just moving to fast.
So our end of is the student loan crisis. And getting out bid by a bank offer 2x the asking price all cash on a house.
Now that I’ve made you sad, would like to hear about the solution THEY don’t want you to hear about. It’s called NFT’s and…
And of course getting hit by a surprise bill from the hospital, another aspect of the economic system built up since the 1980s that this Boomer investor is trying to distract from.
A Millennial can forego all the Starbucks lattes and avocado toast, but paying for the critical keys to a comfortable life in modern America for a young person – a decent place to live, the assurance of health care, a post-secondary degree or certificate, child daycare – will wipe out all the gains from any small savings in an instant (and often on a regular basis).
All of those keys – with the exception of child care – are currently predicated on funneling profits to the already wealthy like Mr. Smead. If they haven’t already, it’s only a matter of time before private equity gets in on daycare centres and private nurseries and kindgartens.
Well, yeah. We had well over 20 years of little to no inflation due to an understimulated economy that policy makers had no interest in actually fixing even though there were lots of extremely useful, valuable, and capactity-building things we could have done for basically no opportunity cost. Economic growth was demand-constrained by political choices our dear leaders made. Now, for the first time in decades, this isn’t true, we’re actually supply constrained in many areas, and our previous mistakes make it so fixing that is going to be a long series of many fights on many fronts with hard tradeoffs that didn’t need to be there.
So yes. There’s inflation in part because for decades, previous generations underinvested in providing the things their descendants needed to live well, and for the first time those descendants are in a position to demand that that needs to change.
Yes. Capitalism - where capital was used to invest and build things for the future. Today, however, capitalism is something very different - a rentier world for the rich and their passive incomes. They aren’t really doing anything useful - just moving money around and trying to figure out how to make everything another form of recurring monthly revenue.
Capitalism has always been that. It’s why various forms of socialism and communism were developed in the 18th and 19th century.
Between 1945 and 1980 the US and Western European economies were mixed economies (part socialist, part capitalist), and that fits what your first sentence describes far better. Also maybe market socialism (which is not what China has) and mutualism.
GenX is largely the children of the boomers who betrayed the counter-culture. The Joneses, and Gen X, raised Millennials.
The worst people I have known in my life are all of bridge Generation “I gotta get mine before you get yours” Jones. They all claim to be GenX but they are 8-10 years older and are Boomers with some cultural literacy.
And that article doesn’t even mention the use of software licenses to eliminate ownership. This is expanding beyond the traditional markets regulated by copyright, like software, books and music. Now we’re beginning to see all sorts of hardware products that include software that must be licensed to the user.
