A mother had a rant about how difficult and expensive life is for the younger generation. Its no wonder there is a mental health crisis amoung the younger generation that1crazy72, TikTok I am so tired of feeling helpless as a parent. Yes, my kids are grown adults. My oldest is 28, my youngest is 25. And I thought be teaching them what I learned, which is 'you work hard, you get a good job, you're going to get the things in life that you need.' Right? Worked for me, why wouldn't it work for them? [be]cause it doesn't, because the world has f(*)(*)(*)ing changed, alright? And now I feel like I see them struggling. And before my generation comes at me, yes, I understand struggling is a part of life. We all struggled. But there's a difference between struggling and drowning... alright? So we struggled, and it was tough, but you know what? We made it. We knew there was a light and the end of the tunnel, with our struggle. It seems like kids today, no matter how much they struggle, they just get further further down into the water into the drowning point, alright. When I was their age, I was earning less than 10 dollars an hour. And I could afford to live on my own. Now you have to making six figure salary to get a decent tiny place to live. So what the f(*)(*)(*) is going on, and how do we help them as parents? I told my son, all you have to do is work hard, go to college, join the military, like I did. Um, he went to college, got his degree, got a full-time job. He moved back in with me right when he graduated from college because he said 'Hey mom, as soon as I get a job, which was within 2 weeks of him getting out of college, maybe [will] take me 2 months and I'll save up enough money for me to move out.' Cool. It's been 10 months. He has saved almost every dime and still can't afford to live. Why are one bedroom studio apartments almost 2000 dollars a month? Why? Like, I just don't get it. [...] It's literally turning into the ultra wealthy, and then everyone else is poor. Like, that's what is happening. And then I told him, 'Hey, when you turn 25 at least your car insurance will go down.' Hell no, he turned 25, and his car insurance went up 150 dollars. I tell him, 'You know, if you need health insurance, get a good job.' He did, he has health insurance. He has had a medical emergency this week. Had to go to emergency room twice. A - He had to go to the emergency room because he couldn't get anyone to see him, with the health insurance he had. Right? So he had to go to an emergency room. Now he's out money for that too. It seem like you can never get ahead. And then my daughter, I told her all you have to do - because she wanted to buy her own house - my daughter worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, to save enough for this downpayment, finally got this house... She's paying double what I'm paying for my mortgage. But her loan was the same amount. And then her mortgage company, after she's already moved in, said 'Oh by the way we forgot to tell you you need this type of coverage, which we forgot at the beginning, that's an extra 200 dollars you'll be paying a month. [...] I'm guessing she must live in a more expensive region, like California or southern Florida. related thread: Millennials' Chronic Health Problems Will Limit Their Lifetime Earnings About how stress-caused medical issues and rates of mental breakdowns are up in the younger generation, due to financial pressures.
I do think life is harder for adult children today then it was in my day, glad I grew up when I did not only does life cost more, but things you buy do not last as long
these are the top 4 issue I think lead to where we are today 1. y2k, everyone bought new pc, servers and software to be y2k complaint in 1999 (meaning no upgrades for years) 2. 9-11 3. two long long expensive wars 4. Foreign outsourcing (less jobs, less spending, less taxes collected) AI is gonna be #5 and it will really change the world, for better or worse I do not know long term, but short term will be painful
somewhat related thread: Immigrant labor decimates family owned farms in New Zealand It's about how a whole generation of young adult children who grew up in New Zealand's rural farming areas are going to be pushed out of that way of life, and no longer have the same opportunities that their parents had.
factory farming has done much harm to family farms sadly it feeds more people, so it will continue, so we will continue on that path until AI replaces the need for the working class, then what? Socialism or population decline...
Would this "factory farming" have come into being, or even continue to exist, if that immigrant labor did not exist? I think that's a valid question. I've posited in other threads that an oversupply of poor desperate workers are what has led to corporate takeovers, Walmart being one example. The big corporate model thrives under those conditions.
yes, the corporate model thrives on cheap labor, be it from foreign imports, foreign outsourcing, foreign labor, automation or Artificial Intelligence greedy Corporatism is killing Capitalism and do we think it's coincidence our products do not last as long today or is it planned obsolescence to make us have to keep rebuying a product many times in our lifetimes
Thank you for conceding this. I don't think it's all only just an issue about income and wages either. There are also considerations of working conditions and independence, the ability of the person to set their own schedule, do things the way they want, and have some flexibility to accommodate their own personal life. Corporate employers also tend to drive their workers at a faster pace too, a pace at which many people may not want to, or in some cases even be able, to work at.
agree, but those times are ending... like I said, we grew up in a good time, the future generations, I fear for them
Some, both on the Left and many free market supporters, seem inclined to only look at the supply side of the equation. Let's be sure to also take a look at the demand side, which has changed - immigration, population growth, overcrowding in the desirable cities. One of the smaller factors that has been decreasing the supply of homes for sale in the U.S. is interest rates going up. This has resulted in many people who already had a home mortgage and were looking to buy and move into another home choosing to be landlords, people who would not have normally otherwise done that, because they know they would be unable to get an interest rate that low again if they sold the house. It is contributing towards a "freezing up" in the housing market with an unusually small amount of homes being sold. The interest rates of course have only been going up due to inflation. Government policies have unintended consequences. It is ultimately problematic to just make housing development illegal, because then that removes much of the incentive to build new housing, especially when it comes to rentals. Ironically a lot of the Left's policies meant to protect renters have actually been driving up rental prices and (through market forces) pushing people into condo living, where they actually have to pay to buy the unit. This may all be "too complicated" to most people, but these are issues that really need to be thought about.
I live in a Republican State, we have the same issues here, this is really not a left or right State issue but if we are having issues now, what happens when there are fewer good paying jobs and people can't pay those mortgages
Some part of it is not a Left or Right issue, but some part of it is. When it comes to government policies that some believe could have an effect on, or may be contributing to these problems, there are political disagreements. I am mostly talking about bigger policies with far reaching impacts on society, not specific to just housing.
Oh please, I could start an ENTIRE THREAD on the various ways that the Left's policies are causing this problem. Don't pretend this is all on the Right.
I said the left and the right..... the other is excessive foreign outsourcing excessive foreign imports.... neither party is trying to fix this
People Are Sharing How Much They Paid In Rent For Their First Apartment And, Man, Inflation Is Wild article from Buzzfeed here, by Kailey Hansen "I am 73. First apartment was in Gramercy Park, NYC. $300/month alcove studio in a building with a doorman." "I'm 33. My now-husband and I moved into our first apartment 10 years ago in a town about an hour away from Seattle, Washington. Our rent was $850 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit. I just looked, and the same size unit in that complex now goes for $2,100. Still miss that apartment, actually..." "I'm 66. My first apartment was $285/month. It was a two-bedroom unit with a balcony, and I split the rent with a roommate in Toledo, Ohio." "I'm 49. My first apartment in 1993 cost me $400/month in a suburb of Chicago. Was working two full-time jobs waiting tables to keep that one-bedroom, one-bathroom roof over my head." "I'm in my mid-40s, and my first apartment was a two-bedroom, one-bath for $650. At the beach. In Southern California. In the late '90s. I had one roommate. We both worked mall retail. It was a different time." "My first apartment on my own was in 1993 in the East Village in NYC. It was a 600-square-foot, one-bedroom walk-up for $950/month. After a year, it was just too small so I moved into the top floor of an old factory in Brooklyn. Huge space but, at the time, a sketchy area. Rent was $1,200." "I'm 49, and my first apartment was in Waco, Texas. It was a fully furnished efficiency, so nothing spectacular. It was $235 a month in 1992." "My first apartment was in 2003, and I paid $400 to split a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate in LA. Better than that was a year later when I paid $275 to have a bedroom that was actually the dining room of an apartment with two other girls. I feel like I did my early 20s right." "In 1997 (mid-20s), I got my first real-world apartment: a 1BR/1BA in Seattle for $800. Great location: Eastlake neighborhood and a block from Lake Union. Had a washer/dryer and dishwasher. Underground parking was an extra $75, but was worth every penny. "I was 18 and had a lovely three-bedroom furnished apartment for about $150. Thirty years later, I live in an unfurnished studio and pay $1,600." (in Berlin) Obviously the rents in these areas are much higher now.
