“To some, millennials — those urban-dwelling, ride-sharing indefatigable social networkers — are engaged, upbeat and open to change. To others, they are narcissistic, lazy and self-centered.” …
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/opinion/sunday/were-making-life-too-hard-for-millennials.html
Maybe, they should have skipped college, and just started working?
Still more striking is that millennials have endured falling earnings even though they have attended college in record numbers.
http://moneymorning.com/2013/07/29/u-s-unemployment-three-million-jobs-in-america-are-waiting-to-be-filled/
My kids were first gen college, and neither one had to move back home after graduation.
They would have certainly been welcome, but they didn’t have any delusions about the status of their first job. They also worked in college and high school, so they have perhaps stronger resume than students who participated in academic camps or exotic vacations instead.
Youngest has the best gig, imo. She is living where she can take photos like my avatar weekly.
What we * are* doing is making life too hard for those who should be retired.
By repeated raising of the retirement age, we are putting a burden on those whose health problems keep them from working as mch as they need to live.
Very few jobs have pensiona, and cost of living is a real struggle.
It is a sobering thought that millennials earn less (inflation adjusted) than their parents.
Are we seeing the end of the American Dream?
@emeraldkity4 – you’re right, of course. Which means both generation seem well, screwed? (Moderators feel free to change if that’s against the rules…)
^^not for us greedy boomers! 
Maybe The Millenials need to get together and publish a manifesto in which they describe what their minimum requirements are so that life and employment, I guess, won’t be “too hard”.
I grew up in the 60’s-70’s.
My parents had been to college, but we really struggled. *Very *few books or toys, Starting when I was 14, I picked berries summers to have money for school clothes, we didn’t have camps or outside lessons, vacation was an instate camping trip for a week once a year. I left home when I was 18, as we all did. My brother joined the military, my sister got married and I worked.
My kids had * lots* of books and toys. Camps and lessons, and they didn’t need to work for school clothes.
We don’t have as big of a house as a lot of their friends, and we have never flown anywhere as a family, but they both have college degrees and a good work ethic, they are doing fine.
No crushing student debt, rising median wages, and adequate levels of housing would be nice.
I think the WW II generation benefited greatly from government benefits, one way or the other, which helped put the government perpetually in debt. I wonder how well today’s generation will do compared to previous generations if you adjusted out all the government help previous generations got. I’m not arguing against what the government did, the war vets deserved it, but you can’t write too many blank checks, know what I mean?
I dont think the deficit can be blamed on the paltry care that the veterans recieve.
I want nothing more than to start out with exactly what my parents’ generation started out with: no debt and good employment opportunities with just a high school diploma.
If that makes me a whiny spoiled brat, as so many like to characterize my generation, so be it.
I have never said millennials are spoiled, but without work experience, can’t expect anything but very entry level work.
The boomers are retiring and lots of jobs opening up.
http://www.npr.org/2015/02/02/383335110/economists-say-millennials-should-consider-careers-in-trades
My 20-year-old, with only a HS diploma, just got a job as a bank teller at 60% more than minimum wage in our area and good benefits. I’m pleasantly surprised! The bank interviewed several people for the job but liked him the most - they kept calling him! He has excellent people skills, so that probably helped.
I’m guessing I am your parents’ generation, and I had tons of SL debt, and The HS diploma route did not lead to much back then either. The grass wasn’t greener…
The one thing the millennials can complain about: tuition costs. outrageous.
Student loan debt has [url=<a href=“http://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/total-federa-nonfederal-loans-time%5Dskyrocketed%5B/url”>http://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/total-federa-nonfederal-loans-time]skyrocketed[/url] over the decades. The average load my generation carries far exceeds what my parents’ had. This will harm the economy in the long run.
Baby boomers have less income, adjusted for inflation, that their parents did, I believe.
@emeraldkity4, he wasn’t talking about contemporary veterans benefits. He was talking about the GI Bill for WW2 vets, followed by social security, medicare, etc. Things that THEIR parents did not have. (Not to mention the long post-war period of expansion…)
My dad was in the navy for 28 years. He was WW II generation. He also served in the Korean war. After he got out he got a pension for the rest of his life. He is now deceased, but he would be the first to tell you that was too generous. The kicker is, even though he is deceased, my mom still gets his pension. It is a blank check. If you add up all the costs of war, many of which last many, many years after the conflict, you’ll see that we can’t be the world’s policeman. Although someone will have to balance out against China over the next 100 years and there really is only one country on earth big enough for that job.
The point is Congress really has to start thinking about the checks it writes. Maybe 1-year of post service pension for each year of service greater than 10-years or something like that or maybe switch to the defined contribution model, like 401K’s, instead of defined benefits. If you serve for 25 years, you get a 25 year pension, not a 55 year pension.
Our society has chosen a college degree as the norm for many jobs previously done without one. Perhaps this is because there are so many college grads they can choose to make it a requirement- an assumption being that those who didn’t go to college in the past labor pool now do. The population has increased without a comparable increase in jobs to match the increased college grad numbers.
I agree that our parents’ generation had a lot of government support including the GI bill et al as mentioned. My father got an entire college degree through the Navy, the war ended and he got GI benefits for more classes after that without going overseas (plus, the military was downsizing and did not need those men they educated). btw- women typically only benefited by marrying those 1950’s men and being housewives. Now our sons need to compete with equally educated women (YES!).
Increase the education levels and double the pool of workers. No wonder the typical college grad is not as well off as previous men who went to college.
Consider the level of goods and services now considered the norm. Computers/cell phones/other electronics. Dishwashers/air conditioning… So many things that are part of everyday life now that weren’t when I was that age. Despite lower relative wages today’s young adults are accustomed to so many things considered luxuries or not available in our youth. Perhaps if we added in those things wages would seem higher. (btw- I know Seattle lacks A/C even in upscale environments and most academic UW buildings- not so elsewhere).
Perhaps we should instead be asking if the top percentiles are better or worse off relative to previous generations. The norm was once an 8th grade education, then HS. Are too many going to college? Have we really improved the work done by populating offices with college grads instead of HS grads? So much more I could say.
They did not realize yet, that their life will be much harder, because they did not realize how much debt we are leaving for them to pay off to Chinese. When this truth hit, it may be way too late, the country will not belong in the free world so to speak. We will be Greece…
Haha, Greece said they didn’t want to be North Korea.
Most Americans really do not understand the national balance sheet. If they did they’d be riots in the streets. Oh sure, you will hear about it in the next election, it will be one topic amongst many, but most folks don’t really take government spending seriously. If they did, there would be far less BS government programs I guarantee you that.