Mordko

Nope. Your article is from 2016 not 2021. The latter deals with the US. As I said a couple of times.

dbd33

Yeah, but your one, and do please point us to it, probably doesn't reference one of the great ska records.

Mordko

My son has much wealthier lifestyle than I did at his age. And I am massively wealthier than my dad was.

Given that you are landed gentry and things are getting worse, was your pops a duke?

dbd33

A postman. He, and my mother, owned a house in London; a ridiculous fantasy for a postman, or minor investment banker, now. Out of the question for me, 100 acres of Caledon is worth about the same as an ex-council flat.

scrubbedexpat091

And I am the opposite where my parents and grandparents were better off, so it goes both ways really, but I dunno, everything I found that wasn't a paywall indicates millenials are not as well off, they have higher income, but less buying power and less wealth compared to boomers and Gen X and younger Gen X like me, we are more like older millenials and less with older Gen X who got in at the tail end of the boom times.

scrubbedexpat091

My dad was a school janitor, then school delivery driver and then school warehouse worker, the starting wages didn't even keep up with inflation between 1978 and today, my mom was a paramedic from 1988 to 2008, prior to 1988 she worked in retail and a donut shop, they always had 2 cars, and we had a house, took vacations, I doubt this would be possible today in the same jobs.

My MIL worked at Sears, non-management, single mom, bought a house, try doing that today working retail.

dbd33

Not in most jobs and that's the crux of the issue.

Mordko

Doesn’t really answer the question. Did he have a wealthier lifestyle, perhaps while also supporting multiple families? I am just curious why the landed gentry has such an impressive propensity to keep moaning on and on.

Regarding London house prices, people got a lot more mobile and London is an international financial centre. Most people living in London were not born in England, let alone in London. Tends to jack up demand while supply is limited. Unless you want to go “bloody immigrants” at me, this isn’t a bad thing. Affordability is very different today too. With below zero real interest rates and much lower cost of basics like food compared to salaries, people can afford much higher mortgages. Or they can choose to invest in alimony instead.

Mordko

While going through old magazines looking for an article seems too much like work, Googling is easy. Here are actual numbers in Canada, in real terms. As you can see, mils are wealthier than GenXers were at their age. And own homes more often.








https://ppforum.ca/wp-content/upload...N-1.pdf#page20

dbd33

Ahem. The argument on one side is that young people in Vancouver today are condemned to relative poverty due to the 2015 and onward house price boom. It is unlikely that the effects of the boom would be seen in a graph of the status in 2016 even if the graph specifically referenced the people in question. 1999 is so long ago that it's like last century dude.

abner

Why would one expect that lifestyle to be achievable from those 'same' jobs, 2 generations further on?? The cars, the housing amenities, and the vacations (CoVID-period aside) have improved beyond all previous measure, not to mention the food choices (both supermarket and takeaway), the health-care, and the entertainment options.

Wouldn't the job skill / efficiency / productivity needed to both provide and afford such improvements need to move with the times as well?

Mordko

You need to try and make an effort to follow the plot. I am confident that you can if you try. The reason 1999 is quoted for GenX is because GenXers were 25-33, of the same age as Mils were in 2016. Can you do the maths? Here is the reference you might find helpful: https://www.ncertbooks.guru/ncert-books-class-1-maths/

Comparing net worth of people who are about to retire today with youngsters and claiming "young people are worse off than us" is a bit silly. Thankfully, youngsters are not as well off and need to work to support themselves. The other day I overhead my 21 year old kid talking to his friend on Skype and the latter saying that he has enough of retire in the not too distant future. One hopes most moisters are not in his position or we are all screwed.

As for the hard done by young people in Vancouver, I agree. Unfortunate the communist government of VUSSR does not give them exit visas so they are stuck behind the iron curtain.

dbd33

Not if we look at unchanging skills, a carpenter is still a carpenter, a bus driver still a bus driver. Everyday working life for many hasn't changed for decades (I'm looking at a farrier as I type). All that's changed is that working people have fewer housing options now and are more dependent on gifts from their parents.

Mordko

Except that Canada needs (in terms relative to population) fewer carpenters and bus drivers and more people working for Google. And the markets react to what the economy needs. Simple numbers say millennials are better off than their parents were at the same age. On average. And unless you are sick, in N America there is no excuse to not acquire a skill and not to have a very decent life. But moaning is more fun. Apparently.

Presumably ~10000 years ago someone moaned that cave diggers are no longer getting the same number of tusks per month and that mud-huts are all the rave.

abner

Sorry, no. Driving further efficiencies in blue-collar work-practices (e.g. "time-on-tools" for carpenters, "time-on-throttle" for bus drivers) continues to be possible even today, enabling a pattern of productivity-based wage increases that has persisted for decades. Or, where creativity and flexibility run out, wages stagnate (and decline in real terms) over time.