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American greatness was long premised on the common assumption was that each generation would do better than previous one. That is being undermined for the emerging millennial generation.
The problems facing millennials include an economy where job growth has been largely in service and part-time employment, producing lower incomes; the Census bureau estimates they earn, even with a full-time job, $2,000 less in real dollars than the same age group made in 1980. More millennials, notes a recent White House report, face far longer period of unemployment and suffer low rates of labor participation. More than 20 percent of people 18 to 34 live in poverty, up from 14 percent in 1980.
They are also saddled with ever more college debt, with around half of students borrowing for their education during the 2013-14 school year, up from around 30 percent in the mid-1990s. All this at a time when the returns on education seem to be dropping: A millennial with both a college degree and college debt, according to a recent analysis of Federal Reserve data, earns about the same as a boomer without a degree did at the same age.
[...] Like medieval serfs in pre-industrial Europe, America's new generation, particularly in its alpha cities, seems increasingly destined to spend their lives paying off their overlords, and having little to show for it.
(Score: 4, Informative) by looorg on Tuesday February 07 2017, @12:44PM
It's not a problem unique to America. The same thing is happening in Europe. People enter into employment later and later as they stay longer and longer in education, a few extended periods of unemployment. The booming job-markets are more or less limited to the larger cities. Cities where renting is usually now out of the question or the rent is so high it will eat up most of the paycheck. People get "forced" to buy a flat or a house taking them even deeper into depth, it could still work out tho as long as the prices keep climbing. But if the market for loan fueled housing ever drops out for some reason these people will be double screwed. Since it takes them longer to enter the job-market it will leave them with a shorter period to pay off any debts and actually own their house or they'll still be paying on the loans when they retire. Their pension is going to be shit to since they at points in their youth might have spent a few years unemployed combined with 3-5-10 years in education. The pension system is really not going to work out well for a lot of young people. In some very bizarre way a lot of people might have actually been better off never working, never getting an education and just bumming around - pension scheme wise it will only be a minor difference between never having done anything or a life of some low wage job.
Free education is not really the solution. That education is free in many of the countries in Europe doesn't really matter all that much since people still go into debt to live since living isn't included in your free education. There are no or few "easy" jobs any more that you can combine with also getting an education. It's either rich parents or taking a loan to live. That said prices might not be the same as in parts of the USA. After having finished my masters I owed roughly $45k, for which I'll pay for the rest of my life - there is no incentive to pay it back sooner due to the interest-rate on my student loan being lower then the interest-rate on any decent savings account -- I guess there is some upside here to state backed student-loans.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday February 07 2017, @01:19PM
> People get "forced" to buy a flat or a house taking them even deeper into depth
In the UK the rental market pretty much follows the mortgage market. If you take out a mortgage, you get a house at the end of it (after 30 years). But you get locked-in. The parity is driven by buy-to-let folks (buy a mortgage, let the tenants pay off the mortgage, end up with a "free house" after thirty years).
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday February 07 2017, @02:06PM
Yes. I know a few people that does that over in Sweden to. They buy flats and houses and then "rent" them out to cover the mortgage and loans, ie letting other people pay for it and after a couple of decades they'll have a free house (or flat).