primitives just can't figure out why millenials are broke

[BattleHymn]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025744056

For the record, this particular millennial is NOT broke; however, I do concede to being in a minority at this point.

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 08:02 AM
xchrom (107,008 posts)

Millennials Aren't Cheap, They're Broke

http://www.alternet.org/economy/millennials-arent-cheap-theyre-broke

 


Millennials, that perennial favorite topic of pundits, are back in the news. This time they’ve been dubbed the “Cheapest Generation” in a recent piece in the Atlantic Monthly.

Fair assessment? Or fairly out to lunch?

“Millennials,” announce the authors, “have turned against both cars and houses in dramatic and historic fashion.” Among the many reasons given for this curious circumstance are new mobile technologies “enabling a different kind of consumption” and patterns of re-urbanization.

The authors do allow that “the Great Recession is responsible for some of the decline” in purchasing. But they worry that young folks just don’t seem to want to spend as lavishly as their parents did, which is a problem because since the end of World War II, new cars and houses have powered the American economy. “Millennials may have lost interest in both,” they warn. They’re more interested in their smartphones than a new ride or a phat pad.

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 08:16 AM
Erich Bloodaxe BSN (4,548 posts)
1. Damn straight. People want homes, want transportation

want all sorts of things. They just can't afford them.

While I do actually hope that their parents are raising (did raise) them to be frugal, rather than conspicuous consumers, by and large people are people, and they usually desire more than they have, and can be lured into buying junk as long as it's trendy junk, to satisfy a different need, that of 'fitting in'.

But with stagnant incomes, more low wage jobs than higher ones, and greater college debts, they simply can't get those high ticket items.

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 08:22 AM
Star Member hobbit709 (32,795 posts)
2. a phone may be the only thing they own outside of the clothes they're wearing.

Sub $10/hr wages in a $15+/hr cost of living city doesn't leave much.

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 08:39 AM
Star Member Earth_First (14,320 posts)
3. This has me so stark raving mad...I'm not even sure where to begin!

So many are so out of touch that it's laughable in many ways.

What I find interesting is that so many want to 'study' the Millennials in such a way that attempts to analyze their consumer habits not because they sympathize with the economics of the generation, but how to further exploit them.

Absolutely The Millennial are suffering the economic consequences of the free market run muck.

However their desire to impact their communities through the use of co ops, mass transit, lower impact housing opportunities and equitable purchasing power with the capital that they do posses.

This is what impacts a community far greater than the retail district model which requires much greater effort to utilize these retail selections.

It's not about marketing to many of the Millenials. It's a trend that's been bucked, and those who are blaming the Millenials, are due on the unemployment line themselves if they refuse to implement the new direction being created by forcing an old, broken system on those who wish no participation within it...

Wake up!

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 09:25 AM
Star Member PowerToThePeople (4,874 posts)
4. Overpriced

Housing is at least triple what I would be willing to pay and new cars are at least double. Student loan debt is more than enough to debt slave me for the rest of my life, I do not need any more debt.

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 10:16 AM
Star Member hfojvt (35,080 posts)
11. I still cannot believe that is true everywhere

There are $300,000 houses around here, and more just across the river (where I went house hunting twelve years ago (and ended up on this, the more affordable side of the river)) but there are also still houses under $50,000. In fact, my own house is STILL assessed at under $50,000.

The one guy that was quoted on the news story said he did not even WANT a house. His "American Dream" was about being mobile, not about putting down roots.

Well, it looks like it's safe to say the hfovtalphabetsoup primitive is "that" neighbor. 

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 10:38 AM
Star Member SoCalDem (101,765 posts)
15. If you are not "planted" in a job, you NEED to be able to move quickly

for your next job.. House-buying inhibits people if they have to move suddenly and often..

Live like a gypsy!  It's the new American dream! 

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 09:42 AM
Township75 (3,254 posts)
6. That are not cheap, just looks t the money they have for phones/technology, tattoos, body piercings,

That isn't a criticism either. Just seems that they have money and put it somewhere other than cars and homes.

No jobs= no money.  While those little things will nickel and dime someone to death, they are not in the same category as more substantial possessions.

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 10:10 AM
Yo_Mama (5,611 posts)
10. Oh, heck. Tatts just don't add up to house payments

They seem to take on the bills they can afford to pay, that's all.

No jobs=no money.

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 10:05 AM
Star Member Le Taz Hot (18,304 posts)
8. Well, let's see,

IF they're lucky enough to be able to go to college, they owe more in student debt than I owed on my first house. There are fewer and fewer good paying jobs and the boomers (of which I am one) can't retire to make room for them because our life savings and pensions were ravaged by the last planned Great Recession. Real wages haven't gone up in decades but housing and food hasn't gotten any cheaper. Those high-paying jobs to which many of us aspired in the past have all but dried up. The .001% can't rape a country's wealth and then whine that people aren't spending money in order to make them even wealthier.

Well, let's see,

I'm "lucky" enough to go to college, I have zero student debt, and I already own my first house.  It's from busting my ass and breaking my back doing jobs that half of YOUR ilk over there are too PROUD to do.  **** you. 

Sat Nov 1, 2014, 12:03 PM
Gormy Cuss (29,084 posts)
16. Title nails it: regardless of other motivations for consumer behavior, little money=little buying

especially of big ticket items like new cars and home ownership. Cheap means having the money and not spending it; broke is broke.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record:  No jobs=no money. 

[Ralph Wiggum]

Planned great recession...

Planned great recession?  You've got to be freaking kidding me.  No one wanted a recession of any kind.  What a moronic statement. 

[Dori]

In fact, my own house is STILL assessed at under $50,000.

I may be wrong here, but I don't think your going to get a high paying job in an area with $50k homes.

[BattleHymn]

I may be wrong here, but I don't think your going to get a high paying job in an area with $50k homes.

The primitive appears to be talking about the assessed value.  I'm aware of a few blue dirtbags in my city who purposely keep their home looking all derelict, to avoid being assessed a higher property tax.  If they're not blue, someone is coming by and putting D signs in their yards before election days. 

Then again, you can probably almost guarantee that the assessed value of a home is higher than what you could sell it for, if you're stuck in a blue shithole. 

[DumbAss Tanker]

Planned great recession?  You've got to be freaking kidding me.  No one wanted a recession of any kind.  What a moronic statement. 

It's the MIHOP school of economics.

[obumazombie]

Didn't all the libs vote multiple times to elect the bum to fix the economy and everything else ? I don't see them owning that yet.

[Karin]

purposely keep their home looking all derelict, to avoid being assessed a higher property tax.  If they're not blue, someone is coming by and putting D signs in their yards before election days. 

There's a "domocile" about 1/4 mile from me that's the craziest thing.  It has, on its roof, a series of shacks, the sort of garden shed your drunken Uncle might hammer together one afternoon.  They always have D yard signs.  It has to be a house of horrors on the inside.

What the hell are those shacks up there for?   

[Dori]

There's a "domocile" about 1/4 mile from me that's the craziest thing.  It has, on its roof, a series of shacks, the sort of garden shed your drunken Uncle might hammer together one afternoon.  They always have D yard signs.  It has to be a house of horrors on the inside.

What the hell are those shacks up there for?

I'm trying to picture this.  There are shacks up on a roof? 

[Chris_]

Dormers?

[GOBUCKS]

Well, it looks like it's safe to say the hfovtalphabetsoup primitive is "that" neighbor. 

I have no idea what a "millennial" is, but it could be worse, much worse than having hfolsmft as a neighbor.

Big Mo could move in next door.

[obumazombie]

There's a "domocile" about 1/4 mile from me that's the craziest thing.  It has, on its roof, a series of shacks, the sort of garden shed your drunken Uncle might hammer together one afternoon.  They always have D yard signs.  It has to be a house of horrors on the inside.

What the hell are those shacks up there for?

Chicken coops ?

[67 Rover]

I may be wrong here, but I don't think your going to get a high paying job in an area with $50k homes.

Unless you are a meth dealer.

[freedumb2003b]

I work for one of the largest accounting/consulting/tax firms in the world and I have now and have in the past had counselees just out of grad school (and a few undegrad) who make a damn good wage.  What do they have in common?

- They work VERY hard
- They look for opportunities
- they see challenges to overcome not barriers in the way
- They are bright, cheerful and optimistic

MANY Millenials make a good living.  The article is dead-on in that they don't see the American Dream as was up until their generation.

[jtyangel]

Housing is at least triple what I would be willing to pay and new cars are at least double. Student loan debt is more than enough to debt slave me for the rest of my life, I do not need any more debt.

While I do think college at this point is overpriced, I will be coming out of a 4 year degree and what amount to 3 minors for what amounts to a car loan I have 10 years to pay back--hardly enough to make one a 'debt slave for the rest of their lives'. Of course, I didn't feel the need to live exclusively on loans and made sure the requirements were done at the CC level rather then the 4 year. And my debt includes some money used to keep us afloat when I was still with my ex so it's not even all school, but still it amounts to a car loan with 10 years to pay.

PS I even finished that residency and higher level courses at a private versus a public university too which is costlier. You have to find ways to mitigate the expense. My daughter is a senior in high school now who has probably screwed most of scholarship opportunities. She still wants to go, but I'm encouraging her to let go of the dream of living on campus and to go to the CC for the required courses so she comes out with less debt. It can still be done with minimal debt, but it may mean letting go of some romanticized notion of the college experience--not a problem at my age, but younger folks should probably be encouraged to do the same if their families are willing to keep them home while they go to school and the college is close enough to home.

[obumazombie]

Not being broke will soon be a basic human right.