Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday May 27 2019, @06:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-all-the-millennials'-fault dept.

The World Socialist Web Site, publication of record of the ICFI (SEP), on May 24th released a report about the grim situation many millennials face:

The stock market is booming, and President Donald Trump is boasting at every turn that the unemployment rate is lower than it has been in five decades.

However, the working class, the vast majority of the population, is confronting an unprecedented social, economic, health and psychological crisis. The same processes that have produced vast sums of wealth for the ruling elite have left millions of workers on the brink of existence.

Perhaps no segment of the population reflects the devastating consequences of these processes so starkly as the generation of young people deemed the "millennials," those born roughly between the years 1981 and 1996. More than half the 72 million American millennials are now in their 30s, with the oldest turning 38 this year.

A recent exposé by the Wall Street Journal noted that millennials are "in worse financial shape than prior living generations and may not recover." The article, "Millennials Near Middle Age in Crisis," [paywalled] concludes by stating that people born in the 1980s are at risk of becoming "America's Lost generation."

Selected bullet points from the WSWS article:

  • Millennials have taken on 300 percent more student debt than their parents' generation. [Source: The College Board, Trends in Student Aid 2013]
  • By 2014, 48 percent of workers with bachelor's degrees are employed in jobs for which they're overqualified. [Source: Labor Economist Stephen Rose, published by Urban Institute.]
  • The number of workers in the United States participating in the gig economy is expected to triple to 42 million workers by 2020, and 42 percent of those people are likely to be millennials. [Source: Freshbooks]
  • Between 1978 and 2017, according to the EPI, CEO compensation rose in the US by 1,070 percent, while the typical worker's compensation over these 39 years rose by a mere 11.2 percent.
  • In the 40 years leading up to the recession, rents increased at more than twice the rate of incomes. [Source: Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.]
  • One in 5 millennials say they cannot afford routine healthcare expenses. Many of these millennials are uninsured because of the cost. An additional 26 percent say they can afford routine health-care costs, but only with difficulty. [Source: Harris Poll]
  • Men and women in their thirties are marrying at rates below every other generation on record. [Source: The Atlantic, "The Death (and Life) of Marriage in America"]
  • It is predicted that most millennials will not be able to retire until age 75. [Source: NerdWallet analysis of federal data]

The report concludes, "Far from becoming the 'Lost Generation' predicted by the Wall Street Journal, this generation of workers carries within it an enormous source of revolutionary potential."

[Ed. Note. I debated whether or not to run this story given the partisan source for the article, but the list of references suggested it was more than a simple opinion piece. So, are things really as grim as portrayed here? I'm too old to be a millennial, but have both personally experienced as well as witnessed many others facing the same trends listed here. Where do things go from here?]


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday May 27 2019, @09:21PM (3 children)

    i haven't had a legitimate raise in pay in over a year at my current day job

    Um... You're not supposed to get one at all unless you either earn one by increasing your value to the company or it's a reasonably expected regular cost-of-living raise once every year to three years. If you didn't get the latter you have reason to bitch and should do so but people don't merit a raise just for existing.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:21AM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:21AM (#848426) Journal

    *sigh*

    Disagree. Whatever happened to lengevity raises? It was once recognized that unless a guy is a complete idiot, he will get better at his job as he continues to perform that job. I see people being hired at minimum wage, and five years later, he's still making minimum wage. WTF? And, forget about promotions to higher paid positions. Unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labor are locked in place, while management "recruits" from their circle of family and friends. Craftsmen have it little better - we aren't welcome in the ranks of management, despite the fact that we are often times better qualified to manage than the idiots brought in.

    The labor pool is being openly exploited, as near as I can see. Management is doing an end run around most of the gains that labor made in the last century, and labor is powerless to stop it.

    And, reminder: I am most certainly NOT a union man! I don't WANT to see unions regain all the power they have lost. I just hate seeing the working man screwed over so badly.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 28 2019, @10:23AM (1 child)

      It was once recognized that unless a guy is a complete idiot, he will get better at his job as he continues to perform that job.

      I thought I covered that with "unless you either earn one by increasing your value to the company...". Getting better at your job is part of that but it's not worth a raise if it's not noticeable.

      Management is doing an end run around most of the gains that labor made in the last century...

      Labor didn't make any gains in the last century. It in fact became astoundingly less willing to work. Most improvements in a clock-punching laborer's ability to produce are entirely down to management. They made the decisions that increased productivity, labor just showed up and did what they were told.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 28 2019, @10:52AM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 28 2019, @10:52AM (#848455) Journal

        You may have covered "unless you either earn one by increasing your value to the company", but the corporations aren't covering that today. I see management regarding workers as plug and play - you plug them in, if they work, fine, if not throw them away, and try another. I do NOT see longevity raises. If anything, when a worker does contribute something above and beyond, I see some cockbiter in junior management taking full credit, and doing his best to discredit the worker who has made a contribution.

        May I suggest that you re-read Upton Sinclair's 'Jungle'? Labor made enormous strides in the first half of the last century. Unfortunately, like any other base of power, they accumulated too much power, and eventually became as corrupt as the corporations they were fighting. Insert something something Neitsche here, as you gaze into the abyss.