generation limbo: 20-somethings today, debt, unemployment, the questionable value of a college education

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Accounting for inflation, I spend twice as much a year on a train ticket as my (poor, immigrant) father spent on renting a two bedroom Victorian flat with a huge garden in central London in the eighties. The flat would rent for a minimum of £36k-£40k a year now. And I’m lucky! I own a house!

Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Saturday, 16 December 2017 10:33 (six years ago) link

What was his internet speeds like

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Saturday, 16 December 2017 10:57 (six years ago) link

those are very good points ShariVari, thanks

niels, Saturday, 16 December 2017 11:36 (six years ago) link

The ratio of Millennials to $120k salaries in Seattle is heavily influenced by the proliferation of software developers working for Amazon et alia. Which is to say there’s a sizable supply of kids willing to rent a studio for $2000.

.oO (silby), Saturday, 16 December 2017 15:55 (six years ago) link

every generation has seemed to rationalize selling out their potential and playing dumb in exchange for hypothetical material security, not just millenials, the poor kids

reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 16 December 2017 20:38 (six years ago) link

When you say something like that

Do you ever I mean ask

Assuming it even makes any sense as a statement never mind that it's accurate let's just assume in your head this is a coherent sentence and also a fact

Assuming that and don't forget you just made an ass out of u and ming then do you ever ask yourself why each generation does this thing you think they do

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Sunday, 17 December 2017 23:49 (six years ago) link

U ok hun

But doctor, I am Camille Paglia (Bananaman Begins), Monday, 18 December 2017 01:21 (six years ago) link

I feel like that highline article dilutes its own argument by ultimately turning out to be about every bunch of Americans who ever graduated college during a major recession.

El Tomboto, Monday, 18 December 2017 01:34 (six years ago) link

eh i'll take it, all that damn "milleniums are the worst" clickbait trash needs to be countered a little bit

Nhex, Monday, 18 December 2017 03:37 (six years ago) link

U ok hun

― But doctor, I am Camille Paglia (Bananaman Begins), Monday, 18 December 2017 01:21 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Read it aloud babes it might make more sense if it doesn't that's cool too x

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Monday, 18 December 2017 04:04 (six years ago) link

yeah average rent is like 2 K in vancouver now, it's fucking bunk. also same as jim i'm in a decent rent sitch but it's easy to put half the cheque towards rent

In a slipshod style (Ross), Monday, 18 December 2017 04:50 (six years ago) link

I live in a pretty small basement apt in Toronto and I spend about 40% of my take-home on rent.

Simon H., Monday, 18 December 2017 04:59 (six years ago) link

one year passes...

ah, here, this is the thread

j., Tuesday, 12 March 2019 23:11 (five years ago) link

Ray Liotta [V/O]: https://t.co/LR71RqUMIx

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) March 12, 2019

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:04 (five years ago) link

eleven months pass...

https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-millennialgen-z-strategy

I’ve written extensively about student loans, and the broken state of the student loan forgiveness program, here. That piece was the first thing I wrote after the original millennial burnout article, because it was the most tangible expression of the gap between what millennials were told their future would look like, if only they worked hard enough, and the lived, post-Recession reality. To understand millennial burnout, you can’t just understand the amount of student loans we’re carrying; you have to understand what they feel like. And if and when you understand that, it’s incredibly straightforward to see why so many support Sanders and Warren.

Back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, middle-class boomers and young Gen-Xers were faced with the reality that their parents’ broadly stable middle-class existence would not necessarily pass down to them. The so-called Golden Age of American Capitalism had lasted just long enough that those who grew up under it could believe that it might last forever. They responded to the decline in stable middle class jobs in a number of ways: many of them, too, went to college, but because public institution funding had yet to be gutted by tax cuts, it cost much, much, much less. (Cue: your boomer uncle who loves to tell you he worked his way through college and graduated without loans).

But as Barbara Ehrenreich persuasively argues in Fear of Falling, they responded by turning decisively inward: how can I do whatever is possible to help me and mine?

j., Monday, 17 February 2020 23:21 (four years ago) link

in hindsight, this was all very predictable. if the capitalist class wanted to keep the american population on board with their system, they should have allowed them to be part of it, not puffed them up with expectations and then let out the air.

treeship., Tuesday, 18 February 2020 01:52 (four years ago) link

it doesn't seem like they ever act in their long term class interests, honestly. their whole model relies on the american consumer, yet they are always trying to chip away at people's power to buy and invest.

treeship., Tuesday, 18 February 2020 01:54 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

Introspective Twitter thread untangling conflicted feelings about financial dependence on his parents:

a few days ago i took a medium dose of acid and wrote for several hours straight and admitted some things to myself, mostly about money

let's start here: last august my mom gave me $100,000 for my birthday. i resented her for this and also suppressed the resentment

— Magnificent Adult Baby (@QiaochuYuan) July 15, 2021

o. nate, Friday, 16 July 2021 20:08 (two years ago) link

My heart breaks for him for receiving a gift of $32k more than the median household income of an American family.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 16 July 2021 20:25 (two years ago) link

“A few days ago I took a medium dose of acid and wrote for several hours…” pic.twitter.com/jKRUx9bC1c

— Bimböcalan (@baddielaire) July 16, 2021

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 16 July 2021 20:26 (two years ago) link

let's start here: ask your mom for another $100K, then donate it all directly to people via mutual aid. then christ will come back and you will reign for 100,000 money years

Z_TBD (Karl Malone), Friday, 16 July 2021 20:35 (two years ago) link


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