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Fed Says Millennials Are Just Like Their Parents. Only Poorer (bloomberg.com)
Millennials, long presumed to have less interest in the nonstop consumption of goods that underpins the American economy, might not be that different after all, a new study from the Federal Reserve says. From a report: Their spending habits are a lot like the generations that came before them, they just have less money at this point in their lives, the Fed study found. The group born between 1981 and 1997 has fallen behind because many of them came of age during the financial crisis. "We find little evidence that millennial households have tastes and preference for consumption that are lower than those of earlier generations, once the effects of age, income, and a wide range of demographic characteristics are taken into account," wrote authors Christopher Kurz, Geng Li and Daniel J. Vine.
Their findings [PDF] are grounded in an analysis of spending, income, debt, net worth, and demographic factors among different generations. The conclusion that millennials aren't all that different also holds for the researchers' more granular examination of expenditures on cars, food, and housing. "It primarily is the differences in average age and then differences in average income that explain a large and important portion of the consumption wedge between millennials and other cohorts," they conclude. So much for the young folks favoring "experiences" over tangible goods.
Their findings [PDF] are grounded in an analysis of spending, income, debt, net worth, and demographic factors among different generations. The conclusion that millennials aren't all that different also holds for the researchers' more granular examination of expenditures on cars, food, and housing. "It primarily is the differences in average age and then differences in average income that explain a large and important portion of the consumption wedge between millennials and other cohorts," they conclude. So much for the young folks favoring "experiences" over tangible goods.
The reason they have less is simple, we have more.
And we like it that way.
--The Top
They have fallen behind government decided to balance the budget on their backs.
School loans have destroyed the future for a generation and everyone knows it.
When did being a millennial get equated to materialism per se? I thought the trope had more do with growing up as latch-key kids, and being taught hard to feel special, entitled, and enabled by over-compensating or guilt-ridden parents, teachers, and the participation trophy mindset.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Else I'd have said something. Yes, the only reason millennials don't participate in the good ol' "shop 'til you drop" game is that they can't afford the fee. And this is the only reason they don't buy your crap and don't drive the economy. If you want people to buy your stuff, you need people who have the money to buy your stuff.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
While this may seem like an obvious conclusion. Many studies and news articles have reached different conclusions.
Personally, I think most of the complaining about millennials to just be old people becoming out of touch, as they always do.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
The group born between 1981 and 1997 has fallen behind because many of them came of age during the financial crisis.
We aren't poor. We've just seen what happens when the financial markets collapse and don't see the need to be leveraged out the ass with 2 car notes, a second mortgage (for those of us who were even lucky enough to find housing while it was still actually reasonably priced), and paying off 3 credit cards. We're spending less than we have so we aren't completely screwed come the next bust cycle. We'd love to be able to spend money, but we remember being un- or under-employed and how much that sucked while the Boomers with guaranteed pensions and social security (both being paid for by us with us likely to see no benefit or payout ourselves) trying to grab more and more.
Besides, any extra money we would have to spend on consumer goods that our parents bought with credit card debt is most likely wrapped up in another type of debt: student loans. The bonuses I've gotten from my company the last few years, instead of helping the local economy by being spent on house repairs/upgrades has gone towards paying off student loans. And this years'll be no different.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Millenials aren't actually lazy, they're getting paid stagnant rates and the money supply has increased. Inflation happens and spending power has gone down as a result. The same or greater productivity is expected and "kids these days" aren't the ones seeing the benefit of it.
This isn't even news. Gone are the days when a part time summer job is enough for that year's college tuition. A part time job might barely cover rent any more. And you can forget about having a savings account without at least one full time job and a part time job on the side.
Employers are offering fewer and fewer long term incentives, which results in lower employee loyalty in return.
It's not a mystery, it's not a secret. It's the economy, stupid.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
I think you might have a point there - I'm not sure where all the disparagement towards millenials is coming from. I'm in my 50s, and I work with plenty of interns and new grads in an engineering setting. My experience has been that most of them actually make an effort and bust their ass to get the job done, and are much more aware of needing to plan for the future than my generation was. Yeah, culturally there are differences and sometimes generational gaps in experiences, but I can't see any real reason to dogpile on them just for that.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Part of that may be taxes.
You can sell a car to pay the taxes on the other prizes you won. It's pretty hard to sell a vacation.
OK, so what do you propose doing about it?
Well, for one thing, pretty sure that bringing in countless foreigners to compete for jobs isn't going to help, but what do I know.
It's unpopular to say that, so not enough of us do say it. But popularity doesn't seem to be taking care of the problem.
I know your just derping. But how is Trump's debt different from FDR's (and every other scumbag in between)?
FDR: Debt for government spending to get us out of the Depression and then to pay for WWII.
Clinton actually balanced the budget....then...
W.Bush sstarting spending like a mad man for unecessary wars that created ISIS.
Obama, had to bail us out of a Republican causes financial mess.
Trump's debt is for the tax cuts for the Republican and his donors because that's what they paid for.
Some reasons why Trump sucks and his supporters are all morons:
1. N. Korea is back at their old shenanigans. More nukes! (So much for the "master deal maker")
2. After all that Reality TV Drama horseshit and pissing off Canada and Mexico, the new NAFTA is basically what was originally signed into law by Clinton.
3. The whole Caravan and border shit is nothing but a distraction and an overblown problem.
4. The tax cut did jack shit for me. And in the meantime, the national debt will increase another trillion or so and because of it, interests rates will rise, our standard of living will decrease, and our economy will slow - all to give his and the Republican donors their tax break at our expense
5. He undid Obama's environmental protections.
6. The wildfires in California were his fault: he didn't appoint an under secretary of Natural Resources and Environment until September of this year.
7. He hasn't been appointing people to important government positions - but playing golf
8. A useless tradewar that’s costing too much and hurting our economy.
9. Neutered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
10. We still don’t have a better healthcare system than Obamacare. He did promise one!!
11. The wall hasn’t been built. (Good thing, but still a broken promise)
12. Still no trillion dollars in infrastructure spending. (Another broken promise.)
13. Firing people who are doing their job and not doing Trump's unethical and illegal bidding.
Indeed, it's pretty simple. It's just too bad that we'll have to keep trying supply-side economics until it either shows some signs of working for the first time ever, or the economy sucks itself in like the house at the end of Poltergeist.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
FDR's spending extended the depression, it was ended by WWII.
Clinton had one _projected_ balanced budget (if you included SS accounting tricks), but it never happened. Dotcom imploded and the Clinton recession ended the hope, no balanced actual year.
The rest of your post is just idiotic.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
2008 great recession
crushing student debt
'gig' economy and decades of union busting
Future insolvency of social security
High rent and housing costs
Medical costs primary cause of bankruptcy
I wonder why millennials and gen-x have less money to spend, and those who do have some aren't spending as much.
Perhaps more are concerned about survival, than frivolously wasting money on consumer products that are engineered to be disposable and non serviceable. Perhaps seeing our parents struggle with credit card debt also had an effect.
Do you call back when people are eliminated from consideration? No? There's your explanation.
They got a better offer, then _deliberately_ fucked you. No doubt it was payback for how you treated them during the interview process.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Only because he wouldn't commit. WWII was where he and the government were forced to commit, hence the Depression ended. Before that there was a cycle of "Spend, OK, we don't like spending so let's stop even though the problem hasn't been fixed, OH FUCK, let's try again"
(No, just because Trump and Bush are terrible doesn't mean Obama is good, he looks good compared to those two, but he's one of the most mediocre Presidents in history. There, I said it.)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
There is so much erroneous crap around the Social Security trust fund.
First, the trust fund really got it's start after the Greenspan Commission finished in 1983. Before that, Social Security basically did not have a trust fund. It was more-or-less spending everything that came in, as designed.
This broke down when GenX was much smaller than the Baby Boomers. There would not be enough money coming in from GenX and what would be called the Millennials to pay for the Boomer's retirement.
The Greenspan Commission's solution was to increase Social Security taxes so that Boomers and GenX built up a large trust fund which would pay for the Boomer's retirement.
The trust fund was never intended to be permanent. It was always supposed to be spent by the time the Boomers die. We're on-track for that, and the fact that the trust fund will be depleted around the time that the Boomers have died off means everything is working to plan.
The trust fund has always been invested in special US Government bonds. There were not new, special bonds created later by some president you hate to "loot" the trust fund. There was never any cash to loot.
The government can not default on only these bonds. If the government defaulted on these bonds, that would make all US government bonds be considered worthless. Because if you break a promise to one bondholder, no other bondholder can trust you to keep your promise to them. Even if Mitch McConnell pinky-swears.
The money is not "gone". It was never a big bank vault full of cash. It has always been invested into special US government bonds.
The debt does not "come due" at some specific point in the future where it all suddenly has to be paid back. Each bond has their own maturity date, and a constant stream of bonds are "coming due" at any particular time.
It was never "your money". Social Security is not a savings plan. You don't have a pile of cash with your name on it. The money you paid went into the pool that paid current retirees (or the trust fund to pay current retirees later). When you retire, people younger than you will be paying you. This is a good thing for the majority of people, because you will be paid significantly more than you paid in, including interest on that money.
No, you can not accomplish the same thing with a 401k with "safe" investments. It will not make enough money, because the return on safe investments is terrible.
We now return to your regularly scheduled lying about Social Security so that you blindly follow attempts to end it.
I would mod you up if I had the points. Thanks for injecting some reality into this misleading discussion.
Then explain how there are more Millennials than GenXers.