MrCraig wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 6:32 am
Saint3333 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 6:09 pm
Imagine everyone in your school carrying around a $1,000 smart phone, wearing Jordan’s, and getting to live in suite style college dorms vs 10’x15’ cinder block walls with two bathrooms per hall.
Those prior generations kept raising the bar of what is provided to their children and then the government stepped in for those that couldn’t keep up the jones on their own in the name of “equity” providing tax subsidized services and goods.
The piper at some point will need to be paid, but gen Y had a much more posh lifestyle than any generation before them and they had no issue with the terrible generations before them paying the bills. You will give your kids more than you had and the cycle will continue.
Certain "luxury" items becoming more ubiquitous and affordable doesn't equate to a higher quality of life. It's statistical fact that the Millennial generation is the first generation since WWI that has experienced a lower standard of living than the generation before it. The US dollar buys less for 30-40 year olds now than it did when Boomers/Gen-Xers were in their 30-40s. The cost of education and housing has skyrocketed in the last 25-30 years. Upward mobility, through blue and white collar jobs, is harder now than any time since WWI. These are facts you can find with a simple Google search.
Your claim that Gen Y had a more posh lifestyle than any generation before them is flawed. It's also important to remember that Milennials aren't kids anymore. They are at or reaching middle age. They have kids in middle and high school. They are the target demographic for basically everything now. Why do you think there are so many news articles written about how Millenials destroyed the diamond market or the luxury car market, etc? Because they ain't got no money!
I appreciate oversimplification with little context. When did inflation increase the most, when the government increased the money supply, hopefully you were complaining each time that occurred.
The cost of education began it's skyward movement once the government began loaning money without regard to an ability to repay those loans. Couple that with the posh living quarters and other arms race amenities and it became a vicious cycle. That generation certainly lived a better lifestyle than prior generations. You can argue when they are 18-22 and were ignorant of the potential consequences for taking out a $200k loan for a major that would provide a job/career that pays under $50/annually. That system sucks, but they gladly signed up for it at the time.
The diamond market was a propped up marketing campaign for decades that was been destroyed by a lower cost, yet similar quality product in lab grown diamonds. The WSJ podcast just had an episode on this a couple weeks ago you may enjoy.
Luxury car market is a strange one to call out, the average American has never been the target demographic for those and to insinuate gen y killed that would further support the claim that gen y's expectations of the posh items they "deserve" isn't realistic for the average American. But in reality gen y values experiences versus material items, they are why travel (and "luxury" trips) is up. Another example of how they're quality of life isn't suffering all that bad.
Just maybe not everyone gets a trophy after all. Or perhaps they are just choosing different trophies than the previous generation.
