Re:Millennials may never be as rich as their parents
by salawat on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @02:23AM
(#17124064)
Have you or anyone you know tried making it by on with a 'normal' job through adversity?
The hiccups and bumps that life can throw at us have gone higher and higher in price. Health benefits were basically a given for my parents growing up, even when working in retail full time. Now, most places play HR shenanigans to avoid having to offer either those benefits, or enough wage for the worker to afford them themselves. Paying out of pocket is even more destructive in the sense that without an insurer backing you up, you end up having to fight shifty pricing practices on your own, where the insurance company devotes entire departments to it.
Or how bout that iPhone? Increasingly, the non-digital Rolodex is becoming an anachronism. Contact information and the ability to communicate at "normal" rates results in increased dependence on technology that is being priced inordinately high.
Or how about drug companies buying old drugs long proven and jacking up prices. Or keeping new drugs from being generic'd to bring down prices?
Or how about those bankers, and real estate firms buying up and developing land purely for rent seeking?
How about that lack of SERIOUS financial education, and an increasingly skewed and asymmetric job market where companies are paying 1970's wages, but raking in 20XX revenues?
Tried learning how to fix your car and maintain equipment that has become increasingly unfriendly to user service?
I get your message. Don't pretend it is all their fault though. The System they have to work from is pretty gnarly, and very few have any precious idea how to navigate it surefire. Even the more "Well-to-do" who have done everything right can end up with sudden massive reversals of fortune.
Before you start calling an ENTIRE generation out for having messed up priorities, remember that the priorities that lead to success had their foundations set by those that came before, and not even THOSE foundations are guaranteed to remain relevant.
The whole world seems to have this idea that there is an entitlement to greatness. The elders for the work they've done, and the youngsters from youthful inexperience.
A humble, self-sufficient life doesn't even occur to many as an option anymore, and becomes less and less probable as tech and globalised economies of scale begin to maximize around fiscal success as a proxy to improving human quality of life.
But hey, life and big picture thinking is hard and making dismissive excuses instead of recognizing our own parts we play of the problems we face as a species/society is easy, right?
The hiccups and bumps that life can throw at us have gone higher and higher in price. Health benefits were basically a given for my parents growing up, even when working in retail full time. Now, most places play HR shenanigans to avoid having to offer either those benefits, or enough wage for the worker to afford them themselves. Paying out of pocket is even more destructive in the sense that without an insurer backing you up, you end up having to fight shifty pricing practices on your own, where the insurance company devotes entire departments to it.
Or how bout that iPhone? Increasingly, the non-digital Rolodex is becoming an anachronism. Contact information and the ability to communicate at "normal" rates results in increased dependence on technology that is being priced inordinately high.
Or how about drug companies buying old drugs long proven and jacking up prices. Or keeping new drugs from being generic'd to bring down prices?
Or how about those bankers, and real estate firms buying up and developing land purely for rent seeking?
How about that lack of SERIOUS financial education, and an increasingly skewed and asymmetric job market where companies are paying 1970's wages, but raking in 20XX revenues?
Tried learning how to fix your car and maintain equipment that has become increasingly unfriendly to user service?
I get your message. Don't pretend it is all their fault though. The System they have to work from is pretty gnarly, and very few have any precious idea how to navigate it surefire. Even the more "Well-to-do" who have done everything right can end up with sudden massive reversals of fortune.
Before you start calling an ENTIRE generation out for having messed up priorities, remember that the priorities that lead to success had their foundations set by those that came before, and not even THOSE foundations are guaranteed to remain relevant.
The whole world seems to have this idea that there is an entitlement to greatness. The elders for the work they've done, and the youngsters from youthful inexperience.
A humble, self-sufficient life doesn't even occur to many as an option anymore, and becomes less and less probable as tech and globalised economies of scale begin to maximize around fiscal success as a proxy to improving human quality of life.
But hey, life and big picture thinking is hard and making dismissive excuses instead of recognizing our own parts we play of the problems we face as a species/society is easy, right?