Millennials Are Screwed

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/?ncid=newsltushpmgHighl__Highline__121417

by acjohnson55 • 9 years ago

103 91 9 years ago

highline.huffingtonpost.com

nixpulvis• 9 years ago

I can only skim these kinds of articles. Mixture of truth and sensationalism makes me upset and uneasy.

That combination should make you uneasy, because it's a red flag that you're reading propaganda of one sort or another. Propaganda always contains some truth, but usually not all of the truth, and an appeal to your emotions..

eplanit• 9 years ago

You've described modern Journalism in America quite succinctly.

acjohnson552• 9 years ago

I submitted the article because I thought they executed some really stunning design [1], but gotten through most of it yet. But it would be more constructive for a discussion if you cited something specific that you felt was inaccurate or hyperbolic.

[1] I helped launch Highline when I worked for HuffPost. I'm certainly proud of that fact, but I don't go out of my way to share its content.

bllguo• 9 years ago

I'd identify with this in the past, but now I'm coming to dislike this mindset. How do you effect change without extreme, dramatic examples or tone? It's all well and good to promote moderation and cooperation until you actually want to see something done.

If you can concretely point out what is false or sensationalist, that's a different story... obviously lies should not be tolerated.

mcguire• 9 years ago

Like most such articles, it mentions student loan debt, making it appear to be a massive problem.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-typical-household-wit...

"The average balance of outstanding student loan debt for households with some debt was $25,700. The median debt was $13,000, and seventy-five percent of borrowers had less than $29,000. These burdens are relatively modest given the annual earnings of these households. The average annual wage earnings among this population was $71,700."

There same example involved a man who couldn't get a job as a bank teller, but apparently had no trouble getting one making more money as a bus driver. (I guess the implication is that blue collar jobs are bad?)

tomc1985• 9 years ago

Well, it is HuffPo

meddlepal• 9 years ago

Millennials are learning as a generation that the real world isn't as happy, meritous, equitable and safe as school and that the world is and will always likely be pay to play. If Millennials want to change the world and succeed they need to start doing it with money.

khalladay• 9 years ago

What parts of the article drove this comment? I admittedly skimmed it, but the whole thing seemed to be about why millenials aren't just "doing it with money," and that reason wasn't that they wanted life to be like school.

leggomylibro2• 9 years ago

...Which is why the large incumbents and aging boomers without sufficient retirement savings are currently bleeding off as much money and future earnings as they can in an audacious eleventh-hour raid.

Y'know, if it's too audacious, the reprisals are gonna be financially brutal once the pendulum swings back. Two can play at the game of literal and baldly-stated wealth redistribution, if that becomes the norm. But by then most of the current decision makers will be dead, so who cares?

cmurf• 9 years ago

Indeed. I point to Half Life (ST:NG), the Resolution. That's the compulsory suicide episode once you reach a certain age.

As an Xer over 40, I'm definitely more sympathetic to Millenials than the Boomers.

My stereotyping: The Baby Boomers politically have bought off Democrats and Republicans to get the lowest top bracket tax rates seen since income taxes began, but they demand complete payout of Medicare and Social Security benefits without any haircuts, while also exploding the national debt, and supporting optional wars of aggression. This compared to the prior generation who taxed themselves like crazy while still building massive private and public infrastructure, balancing the budget, and having middle class wealth that was the envy of the world.

At best, Baby Boomers are coasters. At worst, Baby Boomers are a useless generation that has given us nothing terribly useful or innovative. Millenials early on grew up with the idea they could coast like the boomers, and then the 2008 financial crisis happened, and they had a rude awakening.

Why do I give more crap to Baby Boomers? Because they've had their chance and they pissed it away. They have left the country far worse off financially, and massively wealth disproportionate, compared to the country they were handed. Whereas the Millenials had been, up until about now, young and entitled to be a little stupid and irresponsible - but they did not make this bed at all.

Anyway, it's going to be up to Millenials and Xers to deal with it.

michaelchisari• 9 years ago

You forgot to make some asinine comment about participation trophies.

deagle50• 9 years ago

I'm not quite a millennial and I have plenty to complain about regarding younger people but your comment ignores (or attempts to cover up) the fact that they are facing much more dire circumstances than previous generations. If you can't see how bad the hand they've been dealt by the baby boomers really is, I can't help you.

ivraatiems5• 9 years ago

Millennials don't have any money to do anything with. The world isn't just unhappy and inequitable, it's specifically unhappy and inequitable for millennials, more so than for previous generations, because of the actions of those previous generations. Blaming millennials for the hand they got dealt is exactly the behavior the article argues against. It feels from this comment like you didn't read it closely.

CodinM• 9 years ago

Can someone enlighten me on the tech used to create such pages? I vaguely remember someone posted about it but lost the bookmark.

vichu• 9 years ago

The technique is known as "parallax scrolling". Not sure on the exact tech, but here's an example library: https://github.com/Prinzhorn/skrollr

lagadu• 9 years ago

Is there a version in regular, normal text available to read? Shitting all over your content with useless animations that do nothing but take my time, force me to scroll excessively and annoy me is a fantastic way of having me move on to some other, better presented content.

acjohnson552• 9 years ago

If you use Firefox, try Reader View. I tried it after reading your comment, and it appears to render a stripped down version really nicely. I'm guessing something similar exists in other browsers, if you're not a Firefox user.

yathern• 9 years ago

Mention “millennial” to anyone over 40 and the word “entitlement” will come back at you within seconds

And then a paragraph later...

Generalizations... fall apart under scrutiny.

As a 24 year old millennial - this article painted with a very emotional and us-vs-them brush which detracted from it's core. These sorts of articles love to blame baby boomers for the problems of the world - and while that's not necessarily incorrect, it's a convenient way to avoid blaming human nature - something we all share. It makes me wonder if in 40 years, the "Cyborg Generation" or whatever will be talking about how those crusty old millennial ruined the world by not doing XYZ which we all know now we should've.

vkou3• 9 years ago

It makes me wonder if in 40 years, the "Cyborg Generation" or whatever will be talking about how those crusty old millennial ruined the world by not doing XYZ which we all know now we should've.

They almost certainly will. But thanks to climate change, I doubt they'll be called the cyborg generation.

__s• 9 years ago

Why not? Humanity can survive famine by replacing their need for food with cybernetic implants. Potentially live underwater, why not

kazinator• 9 years ago

Also, you're not magically protected from everything that a 35-year-old faces just because you're 45 or 50.

stcredzero3• 9 years ago

Given the precedent of mass political killings in the 20th century, all of the above groups might have their heads bashed in by teens and 20-somethings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution#Death_toll

stcredzero3• 9 years ago

It makes me wonder if in 40 years, the "Cyborg Generation" or whatever will be talking about how those crusty old millennial ruined the world by not doing XYZ which we all know now we should've.

Sure, if XYZ == "protecting freedom of speech." Not doing so might complete the collapse of the US political process, which precipitates a series of events causing the collapse of civilization.

http://78.media.tumblr.com/a7020c8d003c0ccb2168abc4b8b5c8e6/...

fellellor• 9 years ago

Civilization will survive just fine without the burden of enabling idiots. Civilization wasn't invented in 1970, it has existed for millennia.

JauntyHatAngle• 9 years ago

The emotional brush is how you generate any kind of meaningful grass roots support, but I digress...

The article was not blaming baby boomers as such, but the generation always inherits another generations decisions, and will always continue to, that's just how life works.

I feel like your comment is not relevant to the articles core points, and derails discussion to the oft repeated, non-consequential points, the article has a number of interesting points about why millennials face a difficult future, and references reasons why - the emotional parts of it are normal for this style of article and what make it powerful.

Emotion to generate the further interest, references to keep it in some solid grounding - I would say that's a good combination to start the discussion personally.

austincheney5• 9 years ago

Yes, millennials are screwed. I do also largely agree with all the mentioned stereotypes against millennials, which largely explains just why they are so screwed. After having lived in third-world countries for some time I don't feel sorry for them either. I know that sounds cold and callous, but I don't care. They still have it better than most people in the world. Suck it up.

I see this in my own kids too. I warn them about wasting time on stupid crap, but they largely blow it off. At some point they will be out the door, on their own, and poor. Hopefully they make it on their own, because they aren't moving back in. They have had sufficient warning and preparation which they dutifully ignore.

If rent is half your pay check then either increase your income or move to a different location with a lower cost of living. I have known numerous people who have moved from California to Texas for exactly that reason and I have also met some people who have completely left the US for this reason.

As a software developer I see where entitlement creeps in at various places. Sometimes it is from young people who cry because they suddenly realize they are drowning just need a little life raft, which because a crutch for their next life raft. Sometimes it is from old people who are tired of keeping up and just want to retain their position in life. At the end of the day it all comes down to being competitive with your quality of output.

Here is a simple way to identify the behavior behind the problems many millennials face. Ask a simple question: "Should I feel sorry for you?" Clearly, the answer is yes, but that an affirmative answer challenges the cognitive complexity that allows a person to exist in that state in the first place. Again, don't care.

vkou3• 9 years ago

One day, you will grow old, and less-able.

You may need the kids that you blew off to take care of you.

austincheney5• 9 years ago

I was careful to mention that I am not blowing them off.

sdwa2• 9 years ago

The problem is that if you go by the fact that someone somewhere has it worse then where's the motivation to change anything? Should we not be holding our societies to a slightly higher standard than what passes in the third world? You may not care, and that's good for you, but I'm sure you can appreciate that such an attitude is pretty much useless if we ever want to progress beyond a society where someone's worth is directly tied to their "quality of output" (maybe you don't).

austincheney5• 9 years ago

The problem is that if you go by the fact that someone somewhere has it worse then where's the motivation to change anything?

Initiative. People with initiative tend to be better off regardless of how bad anything else is.

Should we not be holding our societies to a slightly higher standard than what passes in the third world?

You should hold yourself to whatever standard is most appropriate for you. Crying about how bad life is, or expecting sympathy, probably won't get you what you to where you want to be.

There is a world of difference between sympathy and empathy. One of those is a childish quality that results in nothing positive. The other allows you to improve yourself and the world around you. If you cannot tell the difference you are no position to suggest such opinions of others.

ameister14• 9 years ago

I think it's a bit sad that your relationship with your children is one of 'well, you're 18 now, I've done my job. I will no longer help you.' Almost all wealth (and almost all successful families) is created over generations by parents and children assisting each-other.

austincheney5• 9 years ago

Before you get all sad on me do you actually have teenage children of your own?

I have watched my much younger sisters-in-law go through something like this with strung out dependency on Mom. At some point you actually have to cut the cord. It is safer the younger they are. You hope they go to college, graduate, and get a great independent job. This doesn't always happen. Like with everything else life is much easier when expectations are set early.

murph-almighty• 9 years ago

I have to agree with you because I'm in a similar boat.

I've worked out an arrangement with my dad to pay back about half my loans interest free. The interest itself doesn't amount to much on the principal, but it's a significant chunk of money. However, because we refinanced those loans onto his home equity line, he can deduct that interest.

Currently I live at home and commute 1.5-2 hours into work. I don't expect to be doing this forever, it's a 1-2 year gig to knock my debt down by overpaying as much as possible.

It helps that I have a well paying job for my major/area, too.

All said and done, this is not ideal for me- I'd like to live on my own and shorten my commute. But my debt is not ideal either, so I'll take what I can to reduce that, even if it means living out of my childhood bedroom.

ivraatiems5• 9 years ago

A lot of this is not new information to me, but it's a great succinct summary and the design is cool (though, to be honest, I think some of the animations are a little too 'showy' and take a little too long, distracting from the content).

What I'd love to be able to do is find a way to break out of the traditional debate about this topic: One person (usually a millennial) brings up the issues the article raises, then another person (usually not, often a boomer) counterpoints with the "participation trophy" or "what about motivation" or "the Internet" responses.

But in many of these cases, both exist at once: Millennials feel entitled because they were told to be by parents who told them they were entitled, either explicitly or through teaching, because those parents grew up in a world that made those entitlements possible. As the article points out, the system is complicated. It's so complicated that both sides are right, but neither is fully comprehending the consequences.

I think the question therefore must be not "how did we get to this place and who is to blame?" but rather "what societal changes are necessary to fix it?" Presuming enough of each generation want to fix the problem, by asking the latter question rather than the former, it may be possible to effect the kind of change that will prevent the genuine collapse we seem to be racing towards.

adrr• 9 years ago

Not sure if its fixable in the millennial's lifetime. Government can't do anything as boomers ran up the national debt by slashing their taxes. There's no money to go around. There's also a huge infrastructure bill thats also coming due as it wasn't upgraded. Bridges, public utilities, dams, mass transit all need to be fixed at they are past their lifespans. Lot of it was built during "greatest generation" period and not touched afterwards. American Society of Civil Engineers estimate at least $2 trillion to fix our infrastructure over the next 10 years.

peatmoss• 9 years ago

at least $2 trillion to fix our infrastructure over the next 10 years.

I can only hope that some of this translates into some kind of New Deal work. Being just older than the millennials, I have felt for some time that I grabbed the last rung of a ladder being dangled from a helicopter as the building under me was crumbling into flames.

eli_gottlieb• 9 years ago

That sounds like a hell of a lot of well-paid jobs to rebuild that infrastructure, and some great productivity improvements from modernizing.

colorint• 9 years ago

national debt [...] no money to go around

Let's imagine that I'm a government that reserves the right to be sole issuer of my country's currency (though for political reasons I've delegated that power to a government-sponsored enterprise whose leadership I appoint). Now let's say I also issue securities denominated in that money. From my perspective, what's the difference between money and claims on money? From a holder's perspective, what's the difference between them? Even the obvious difference, one has yield and one does not, is pretty misleading, since the interbank rate tracks the securities rate.

jbob2000• 9 years ago

I've had this thought for a while, and I'm wondering if it holds any validity.

I think it comes down to healthcare. We're good at keeping people alive now. Really good. Cancer mortality has dropped 50% in the last 10 years. I'm sure there are similar statistics for other common causes of death.

We have older generations who should be dying off and getting replaced by younger ones. It's not happening. Anecdotally, my parents are in their late 60s and working just as much as they did in their 30s.

I see this at work; my office building is chuffed full of grey hairs. My coworker at 40 years old is at the same level I am (late 20s) and can't move up because the hierarchy is full of people who should be retiring. Just look at the US senate and congress, the average age is 61, the oldest in history. These guys are ancient!

In my city, we have a housing problem. If you drive around during work hours, the streets are packed with retirees going about their daily business. What the hell are these people doing living in a bustling suburb? Move out to the country for god's sake, why are you living next to a school? This city should be for families, it was built as a bedroom community.

junkscience2017• 9 years ago

...and yet they still line up to go to university to study humanities

instead, enroll in a community college program for anything construction related...in Santa Rosa, home builders are naming their prices. the same will soon happen in Ventura. in the Bay Area, construction tradespeople turn down work due to demand. there is work to be done that will earn you a comfortable living that does not require a university degree.

tzar• 9 years ago

A recent review on the same topic, with a more serene presentation: https://nplusonemag.com/issue-30/reviews/not-every-kid-bond-....

RmDen2• 9 years ago

>My rent consumes nearly half my income

When I was younger... I had 4 roommates in Astoria.. This allowed me to save a lot of money. Why do people insist on living alone and then bitching about rent being high??

sizzle2• 9 years ago

Oregon coast? Beautiful place to visit I hear?

RmDen2• 9 years ago

nope..Queens, New York

baybal2• 9 years ago

We will never retire

Pretty much it, work your own pension fund. That looks to be the only solution after "havings lots of kids" who will look after you

jancsika2• 9 years ago

Spiritual Guide - Becky
Becky is an 8-bit creation living in Brooklyn. You can find her Kickstarter here.

This links to a sign-up for an email newsletter.

Is this an inside joke? Is Becky the name of the artist or not?

Why do I have to ask questions like this about the credits for a piece of professional journalism?

synicalx• 9 years ago

piece of professional journalism?

Does the Huffington Post count as professional journalism though?

jancsika2• 9 years ago

I want to sharpen my teeth, so I'm going to ignore the fact that this response is a joke.

Yes, it does count as journalism.

* It is written by a Michael Hobbes, a contributing editor of Highline which is a new online magazine apparently owned by Huffpost

* It credits an additional reporter-- Gregory Barber, who appears to have written previously for the Washington Post-- plus two additional research assistants. (Ignoring for the moment the enormous team of designers who I guess put together the novel scrolling system.)

* I'm seeing fairly standard/reputable references for some of the stats-- The College Board for the stat about how much debt. students are taking on, some U.S. census references, Journal of Labor Economics out of the University of Chicago, etc.

* looks to be structured as a broad advocacy piece interspersed with "slice of life" stories about millenial's struggles to get jobs with decent wages and benefits to be able to support themselves

default-kramer• 9 years ago

The median white household will have 86x more wealth than the median black household by 2020.

I had to look up median to make sure I wasn't confusing it with the mean. This is almost unbelievable. I would have guessed 10x at most.

tanderson92• 9 years ago

Foreclosed: Destruction of Black Wealth During the Obama Presidency

http://peoplespolicyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/F...

This white paper goes a long way to explain why this occurred.

partycoder• 9 years ago

Millennials joined a monopoly game in its late stage.

runako• 9 years ago

As a proud member of Generation X, I hate how articles like these show a neat handoff from the Boomers to the Millennials.

Many of these same problems bit Gen X, but at least the millennials are big enough to have articles written about their plight!

larzang• 9 years ago

Gen X gets rightfully ignored in these discussions because they're less affected by it, having come of age before the big downturn, and less responsible for it, having come of age after the damage was done.

I'm 34, I graduated high school just in time to watch the economic prosperity I had viewed through the eyes of older friends and relatives immediately explode out from under me. I can remember when everything wasn't totally doomed forever, but I never got to experience it first hand.

Gen X did, and while it's not like they haven't suffered along with us since, it's not quite the same. You don't get our sympathy, but you don't get our anger either.

foofoo55• 9 years ago

What if equity purchases were forced to occur more slowly? Such as being locked into that equity for a cooling off period before it could be sold? What about other ways to allow, if not coax, investors and corporations to think long term again? You know, force greed to chill out a bit.

From my perspective as a parent and employer of several millenials here in the Vancouver BC area, those that go into a skilled trade seem to do far better right now than those getting a desk or general labor job.

jzawodn• 9 years ago

Is there... like a text only version of that article? WTF with all the retro-video-game animation and crap?

saas_co_de• 9 years ago

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that an article about how millennials are financially screwed is elaborately animated and credits order a dozen people for its production?

apo• 9 years ago

Contrary to the cliché, the vast majority of millennials did not go to college, do not work as baristas and cannot lean on their parents for help.

Maybe the vast majority don't graduate from college, but the majority enroll according to BLS, and have for some time:

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/69-point-7-percent-of-2016...

One of the hallmarks of a bubble is that the conventional wisdom support it wholeheartedly. The early 2000s US housing market is a case in point.

I remember vividly discussions with prospective first-time home buyers at the time. I told them they were taking a big risk borrowing money to pay for something that could quickly decline in value. Let's just say the conversation didn't go much further than that.

Today I have similar discussions with parents of high school children. Debt is still the funding mechanism, but the asset is a 4-year college degree. As before, this is a guaranteed conversation-killer.

There are many causes for the challenges faced by millenials, but worship at the altar of 4-year degrees, and especially the appetite for debt financing, is one of the biggest.

wahern• 9 years ago

During the bubble homeownership rates deviated from the 50-year average by a whopping 5%, more-or-less.[1] And for that entire time taking out a mortgage was also the norm.[2]

The bubble wasn't so much in ownership rates but in prices.

I appreciate your link to college enrollment. I never realized it was so high. But at the same time it's been relatively high--at least, much higher than I believed--since long before there was a so-called bubble in college enrollment.

I appreciate your points but I feel like you're trying too hard to affirm the current narrative among millennials that eschew both home ownership and college. Whatever the merit of that argument, the premise that there's a recent bubble in the numbers of people pursing those things is belied by the evidence. The only concrete thing we can say in both cases relates to price inflation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United_S...

[2] I couldn't find historical numbers on the percentage of first-time home buyers taking out a mortgage. I feel like this point is uncontroversial, but I could very well be wrong.

revelation• 9 years ago

Where did this idea come from that you should buy a house where after you've lived in it for 40 years, it should still be able to turn a profit? That seems like a uniquely American derangement. If only you guys would approach car ownership with the same mindset.

mixmastamyk2• 9 years ago

I agree in theory but am amazed at how many jobs are unavailable to me without a BS degree. If I could go back and tell my twenty year old self, I’d say not to take those high paying 90s jobs and stick it out two more years.

sizzle2• 9 years ago

Never too late

artur_makly• 9 years ago

there’s pure nuggets of wisdom here from Chamath Palihapitiya, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk&app=desktop

RickJWag• 9 years ago

Life gives us all different cards to play.

In some ways, I agree today's kids have it tougher. In other ways, there are opportunities that did not exist in the past.

I have hopes for today's recent grads in that things remind me somewhat of the mid 80s. (That's when I graduated college.) The economy was ready to boom for a good long time. Some jobs were going away, some were opening up. I was lucky enough to get a job in programming, the economy carried me forward to this day. I wish the same good luck to future generations.

tatersolid4• 9 years ago

As a Gen X, I have to say: Grow up.

Guess what: despite a CS degree from a fairly prestigious school, I started out my career sucking shit on the help desk and fixing bugs in legacy code.

You need to suck shit at the start of your career, learn, and advance. This also means living in a shithole apartment and eating Ramen instead of blowing your cash at da club or on a new car. It’s been that way since the industrial revolution.

You are not special. You are not snowflakes. We cannot hold your hands. Work it out for yourselves, just like we did, and the boomers did before us.

ivraatiems5• 9 years ago

This comment makes me think you didn't read the article. Do you understand how difficult it is to even get a job "sucking shit" right now? Do you understand that if you get that job, it doesn't pay as much as you got paid when you had it, because wages haven't risen with inflation? Do you understand the years of experience and massive student debt you'd have to get into to get the college degree to even get your foot in the door of this job with inferior wages and benefits to the job you got just out of school?

You need to suck shit at the start of your career, learn, and advance. It’s been that way since the industrial revolution.

For many - perhaps most - millennials, there simply are no opportunities for advancement. There is no reward. People like me, who are software engineers and do well for themselves, are the exception. The arguments in the article are economic, and grounded in economic data and realities. Ignoring those systemic problems because you're doing just fine is just willful ignorance.

You are not special. You are not snowflakes. We cannot hold your hands. Work it out for yourselves, just like we did.

Nobody's saying anyone's "special." The whole point of the article is that no millennial is getting what previous generations got - nobody is asking for special treatment. The ask is for treatment equivalent to what their parents got, the same treatment that you received. We can't "work it out for ourselves" when we have no power, no money, massive debt, poor wages, no benefits, no retirement plan, and no way out. We can't "work it out" when your generation - and those before you - are draining and then destroying the social safety nets that you relied on to get where you are.

We don't deserve the privileges your generation had any more than you did. We deserve it exactly the same amount. Why do you blame us while you rescind them?

tatersolid4• 9 years ago

The entire premise of the article is that millenials are “special”.

There is near-zero difference between what a millennial faces and what I faced in the last “great depression” coming out of school in the early 1990s, post the 1988 crash.

It took months or years to find a job, and you had to work your ass off when you found one to keep it. I had lots of debt.

Boom and bust cycles are normal. Millenials are not special in being screwed by the timing of their birth.

heedlessly2• 9 years ago

for millennials specifically in CS, i'd argue that things are better now any other time in history.

Many are getting $125k+ salaries in the Bay and Seattle. Of course, not everyone will work for a Big N. Even still, getting a $70k+ offer in CS is very common for a mediocre dev coming from a mediocre college with a mediocre gpa

andrewjl• 9 years ago

That may well be true, but those same millennials face higher rents and also higher state taxes (in the Bay, not Seattle obviously). They also missed out on the post-2008 stock market boom that the boomers 401k's got to ride.

RestlessMind• 9 years ago

And unless something changes, our calamity is going to become America’s.

Yes, there is one thing which Millennials can change. It is very easy and should take less than 1 hr (on average) per year. Go and VOTE in the elections.

The reason why policies favor Boomers is because Boomers go and vote. Politicians are scared to touch social security and medicare for anyone over 55 because those folks turn out and vote. There is simply no excuse for Millennials to have a huge turnout disparity when compared against Boomers[1].

[1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/16/millennials-...

candiodari2• 9 years ago

One might wonder why huffington post is

a) ridiculing the people who complained that ever since the great recession job statistics are made up [1]

b) publishes large and beautifully animated articles about how millenials face "never ending job insecurity", facing years of unemployment between jobs they lose for the slightest of mistakes (see post these comments are about)

I mean exactly one of these articles is not a complete lie. Unfortunately, both are published by the same news organisation ... (perhaps because we currently no longer have Obama's government ? [2])

Frankly, I got my first real job in July 2001. Yes, that 2001. As a tech consultant. It almost sounds like a joke. I had colleagues who made 10 TIMES my wage just because they were hired a year earlier, and I was far, far more capable than some of them. And let's not mention the company cars. Let's just not. Granted, they fired some of those, but still.

Tell me about unfairness.

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/trump-unemployment-jobs-n...

[2] https://successstory.com/people/arianna-huffington

lucozade• 9 years ago

Tell me about unfairness

Well. My grandfather lost an eye in WWII so was a fitter for Czech pilots. They'd been kicked out of their country by a genocidal megalomaniac. When the war finished and they returned, a new megalomanic wouldn't let them leave again. Occasionally by using tanks.

My father grew up in Egypt where the only source of income was sand crabs and running errands for Italian PoWs. He got kicked out too eventually as he wasn't of the appropriate religion. The only country that would take him was the other side of the world.

Me? I've had it easy. The Cold War and the odd IRA bomb aside, I thought my life has been a bed of roses compared to my forefathers.

I've never had a company car. I had no idea I was so hard done by until now.

candiodari2• 9 years ago

Whilst I cannot claim anything like your grandfather I have spent time doing the dishes (in too hot water) for 8 hours a day for minimum wage.

I have been very lucky since.

JoeAltmaier• 9 years ago

I slopped hogs, ran farm equipment way to dangerous for my age (starting at 8yo), and dealt with animals an order of magnitude larger than me. Lost hearing, lost feeling, joint damage from work. Never had more than a dollar or two to my name.

But I worked my way into some money. That's what the Millennials are missing I think, the plausible way forward. Never mind where they are starting from; can they make any progress at all? That's the issue.

SQL2219• 9 years ago

...This worked well when rents were low enough to save and homes were cheap enough to buy. In one of the most infuriating conversations I had for this article, my father breezily informed me that he bought his first house at 29. It was 1973, he had just moved to Seattle and his job as a university professor paid him (adjusted for inflation) around $76,000 a year. The house cost $124,000 — again, in today’s dollars. I am six years older now than my dad was then. I earn less than he did and the median home price in Seattle is around $730,000. My father’s first house cost him 20 months of his salary. My first house will cost more than 10 years of mine.

3pt14159• 9 years ago

I keep saying it, but I don't really ever think it changes anything, but it is the interest rates. You can't keep interest rates at 3% for 30 years and expect things to keep working like they used to.

mixmastamyk2• 9 years ago

And nimbys.

throwaway2016a• 9 years ago

Off topic: this page design is truly a work of art. Please don't let this be a trend though.

squozzer• 9 years ago

Keep in mind the world is not frozen in its current disadvantaged-for-millenials state.

A couple of forces might actually work to millenials' favor --

1) Boomers are retiring and dying off. Somebody will buy their homes.

Right now it seems investors are buying them all but as the demographic trend continues, the supply might outpace investor demand, the second-derivative will go negative, which will slow investor demand, and probably cause the first-derivative to go negative.

This trend will also affect other forms of investments as boomers cash out their portfolios.

2) Social movements such as #metoo will probably make certain types of people hiring liabilities (too "old-school"), and younger people might benefit.

OTOH, other forces might work against millenials --

1) Human obsolescence, especially if current social assumptions hold and keep programs such as basic income politically untenable.

romdev• 9 years ago

EPILEPSY WARNING: this page flashes rapidly with multiple colors.

This comment is unlikely to protect anyone, but hopefully raises awareness that fast-blinking text has been known to induce seizures: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epilepsy-site-hacked-with-seizu... Please be responsible.

Millennials Are Screwed

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