I think the worst part is that we do, in fact, know it will get worse… But we were raised thinking we’d all live in big houses and be free of debt by now.
Some of us millennials have been extraordinarily lucky.
I’m an old millennial but I avoided any personal impact from the 2001 recession by being in college, on financial aid.
Then the 2008 recession didn’t hit me very hard because I wasn’t a homeowner was a single childless dude who was flexible enough to just up and move wherever there was a job, across the country if necessary. I had a different job in a different state each year from 2008 through 2011, taking big raises with each move, then eventually back to school.
Then the 2020 recession didn’t hit me very hard because my wife and I both had counter-cyclical jobs (I tend to be busier when businesses are failing) and already owned a home, allowing us to bypass much of the inflation of the post-2020 period with a fixed rate mortgage we had refinanced to below 3% in 2021.
Now, the 2025 recession is probably gonna hit us hard. But I’ve basically escaped the last 3, so maybe I’m due.
Clearly you’re the catalyst in all of this… Fate has been targeting you and each time you’ve skated throu…“GUYS! I FOUND HIM! GET THE PITCHFORKS, TORCHES, AND GET THE SACRIFICIAL BONFIRE READY! WE CAN STILL FIX THIS!”
I’ll start warming up the volcano.
Clearly you’re the catalyst in all of this…
There is going to be a showdown, and then we are done.
I’ve seen that Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, so I noe!
yeah, seems like the earlier you were born the better off you are going to be in the long run right now…
No, if you look closer I actually managed to avoid the 2008 stuff by kinda being immature and “behind” by not being super set in my career path in my late 20’s. My smart friends from high school and college were decimated by the 2008 recession. When I went back to school in the early 2010’s, I basically got my law degree with a bunch of people who were younger than me, and got myself on the middle millennial track (despite being an old millennial).
My delayed career progression, as a slacker in my 20’s, saved my financial situation.
And if I were even older, 2001 might have permanently set me back, too. Lots of late Gen X never really recovered from that.
Well, at least you aren’t tying to sell us on “I made it this far alone with no help from nobody.”
I feel the same way. Im 1 phase removed, but have been very lucky in dodging them too.
01 i was in high school, 08 i was in college with minimal expenses. I was paying $975 per quarter for room and board including 9 prepare meals a week and had enough school ships that my quarterly tuition was also under $1000, coupled with an engineering coop 1/2 the year, i came out financially ahead.
Covid i was a salaried essential worker who had to work 3 days a week but still got paid full salary. That made the lack of available child care bearable. I also had a house that i purchased with 3.25% mortgage.
This next one im feeling already. I moved for my wifes job this year, so that new mortgage rate sucks
In the 2020s alone we had COVID, Russian Nazis, and now Trump Nazis. Oh, and we went past 1.5 degrees.
Trump Nazis were 2015.
I’m on the oldest edge of Gen Z, 27 year old here.
I can maybe handle my parents promising a good life for me before rug pulling that. Well, I can’t and that’s one of the many reasons why I have mental health issues.
I don’t think they could have predicted 3 economic crashes in my life before I turn the age they conceived me.
It’s just profoundly sad that there are people who were raised for this planet and the planet has changed fundamentally in the last 20 years alone. The technology, the temperature, the expected job market, the ability to own even basic things, the political climate.
Most people on Lemmy were raised with a bright future that has been dimmed each passing year. The only light we have are those we are close to.
A big reason why the old people don’t get it, is that they see young people with luxuries, and don’t realize that luxuries, like my high end gaming PC and addiction to junkfood… Still costs less than three month’s rent no matter how much I splurge
Plus quite a few luxuries are now necessary, like a good smartphone, laptop/computer and a car (in more rural areas).
The few sort of luxuries you splurge on are what keeps you from losing your sanity
Ya know I’m gonna feel real stupid stockpiling this Steam games if Valve ever becomes a publically traded company, especially if they become ban happy like Reddit or VRChat
Edit: For the record, no I’m not banned from VRChat, I don’t use it, I prefer Resonite, but I have heard horror stories of people getting 6 days bans for no reason out of the blue with staff refusing to elaborate.
I thought you were exaggerating but I calculated the cost of it… Damn, you’re right.
That’s really what it comes down to, Luxuries cost less, Necessities cost more
A computer is also an incredibly cost efficient luxury in the long run, You spend a decent amount on it once and then you’re good for essentially endless free content for at least a decade, maybe 5 years minnimum if you have to have the latest and greatest hardware.
Edit: Quick maths for building a new PC every 5 years with flagship (though not Halo stuff like 90 series) hardware works out about 10 eurodolarpounds a week.
“We don’t know why are all the younger generations depressed! They just need to buy less avacado toast and they can buy a house…”
-clueless boomers.
First year Gen X-er here. We know why you’re depressed. We went through similar things, believe it not. I often wish I could share how scary living through the 80s was – often fearing a nuclear apocalypse, environmental decline, wars, riots and unrest all over the world, politicians who didn’t give a damn or had no idea how to make things better. Nobody listens to you when you’re in your 20s. It seems most now think the 80s were just like Family Ties. Not so.
But this too shall pass. You can help make it better by getting out there and working with the good guys. Don’t give up.
Yeah there’s definitely some rose tint looking back to the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Crime was ridiculous compared to the levels these days, just for a start. But it was just ‘normal’. We’ve made a lot of progress there. Which is about to be undone as people get increasingly desperate.
There were several energy crisiss that kneecapped a lot of the 70s and 80. Nixon, the Vietnamese war, the fall of the USSR. All those things were monumental moments in history and we survived. The world isn’t over yet, but Trump is really trying to make everyone jump to the end game
I missed seeing Russia collapse, but I live in hope it will happen again in my lifetime.
My parents lived in the mountains for much of the Cold War. We crowded around the radio daily to listen if the risk of the actual apocalypse was any closer. Several times we thought it was about to happen. Several times it really did almost happen.
I hope we don’t get to that point again. I really thought for most of my adult life that the USA’s deep trade ties to the rest of the world along with other super-powers would ensure some level of stability and peace. And it did.
Past tense.
The important thing is to follow in the footsteps of our elders and obliviously cast shade on the next generation(s) (should they be so lucky to exist).
“Clearly it’s the phones fault! The phones are to blame, not us voting in fascists and ignoring the incoming climate holocaust!”
Don’t forget to stop buying those fancy Starbucks coffees.
I just turned 33. I’ve had grey hairs since 29.
That’s normal isn’t it. Every hair on your head you can keep is a win
And every hair on your back, shoulders and ass is step towards being Chuck Norris.
Yes, I remind myself that each gray is at least there. I have a wonderful, full head of hair, and I never take it for granted by shaving it off. It’s an insult to all of my bald and balding friends.
You can’t see the grey hairs if you shave your head.
Grey beard hairs were sad but people said they made me look wiser. Grey chest hairs were weird. Grey pubes were kind of terrifying. The only properly colored hair on me is on my back now, and there didnt used to be hair back there. Its itchy.
Life is all a big joke. Still wouldnt go back to being young though in the current world if a genie gave me the choice. eff that.
It’s not all roses on the other side
If I could go grey then I might not have to shave before going to the airport
Chaos is a Ladder.
But its a ladder that periodically collapses when you’re halfway up and leaves you splayed out on the sidewalk in horrible pain and with five digit hospital bills.
It’s all good I just turned 30 and I finally have a job where I can break even with my finances. Now for the second job so I can use the next 30 years to pay off my debt. At this rate I’ll be just ahead enough to get my retirement job with no social security. 😎
The future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades.
The cyclical boom bust cycle is on purpose. Can’t make billionaire’s richer if stock prices don’t go down.
I’m about to turn 39. I just want a home or apartment of my own. Why is this happening? Why did the stupids get so powerful?
King Crimson’s Epitaph lyrics, from 1969, sing:
Well, knowledge is a deadly friend, when no one sets the rules. The fate of all mankind, I fear, is in the hands of fools.
I knew these wasn’t going to well when I used Epitaph to see Trump winning re-election, King Crimson can’t skip me past the next four years…
Jojo references aside, I should listen to more of that band; Court of the Crimson King, which I listened to in order to try to better understand Diavolo’s character, was pretty damn fire
Have you tried Necrophagist’s Epitaph? Technical death metal is a much more appropriate genre for these trying times.
Oh, King Crimson is the finest wild ride ever. They did things that couldn’t be done anywhere else. However, I don’t know anything about Jojo. I just started listening to KC in the 90s, when they were producing their last memorable original works. They are truly amazing. My favorite albums are the one you mentioned, Discipline, Lark’s tongues in aspic and Thrak, though, Red is highly praised by most people. Also, if you can watch them live, even these days with the band getting old, they are an absolute delight.
Why is this happening? Why did the stupids get so powerful?
This isn’t unique to the modern moment. Your parents called their elders stupid. Alphas will call Millennials stupid. But if we want to get to the real disparity between ideologies - the reason so many people are getting MAGA pilled in the face of seemingly obvious disaster - it really does just boil down to our mass media poisoning our brains.
Fifty years of misinformation, con-artistry, and industrial scale commercial fraud has given birth to a population that is simultaneously desperate for a White Knight to come save them and so steeped in cynicism that they accept idiots and assholes in power as the best we’re capable of doing. Whether its Trump or Biden, Bezos or Musk, Wolf Blitzer or Alex Jones, there’s this baseline understanding that “My guy might suck but the other guy is so much worse”.
And the deadliest poison of them all is the pride - the implicit assumption that you can’t trust anyone but yourself because you’re surrounded by morons. We’re increasingly alienated from one another and exposed to manipulation by computerized algorithms A/B testing us for our biases. Divided from one another, with our hatreds toward The Other inflamed while our access to basic necessities increasingly gated, we’re pushed into deeper and more vulgar polarized camps micro-managed by demagogues and other influencers.
“The Stupid” is just the fear - of our looming poverty, of our dangerously polarized neighbors, of declining health and diminished free time. It’s not idiocy, its anxiety. We’re acting rashly because we all seem to know we’re being boxed in for the slaughter and none of us trust anyone else to recognize that we need to work together to escape it.
Because our priorities are wrong
It’s not the stupids, but the greeds first and foremost. You can look back at the greedy mf’s that started every single thing and they weren’t punished.
The greeds get away with it because they keep shouting “HE DID IT!” and the stupids keep falling for it.
One of my “favorite” examples of this was when Ronald Reagan murdered American Manufacturing jobs, causing mass layoffs and unemployment throughout the country, and a record high of people on welfare to deal with the job displacement… Causing the first signs of generations being born with lower standards of living than their parents.
So people naturally tarred and feathered Reagan, he’s remembered as a monster, and is the reason why the Republican Party is a faded memory that we only bring up when teaching school children about why we don’t have a Two-Party System. That wacky Trickle Down Economics… I tell ya, glad no one’s dumb enough to buy that anymore…
Oh sorry, that’s what happened in the prime timeline, here reality doesn’t run off of people learning from mistakes, this is a Murphy’s Law Ruins Based Timeline where everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
Here Reagan invented the folktale of the “Welfare Queen” to imply that black people were getting more than “their fair share” from this welfare, and that Americans would be doing fine if only this specific group wasn’t taking more welfare than they should be allowed.
A story that doesn’t make any sense since if black people were getting more in Welfare, wouldn’t Reagan be the one making that call? Ah but they thought of that, Reagan blamed a shadowy cabal of Democrats for getting the black people more then “their fair share” in a scheme to “overthrow whitey” in the name of “liberal guilt”
A story that also shouldn’t work as Democrats had neither the motive nor enough control over the government to pull off this little trick, but people are stupid, so they bought it hook, line, and sinker.
You know our reality isn’t the prime timeline, because none of this makes any fucking sense and it’s only bad writing that lets people be this fucking stupid. I can see the person in the audience cringing at the fact this reality is self-aware and seems to think pointing out the bad writing is the same as doing better.
I’m sorry audience, I wish I could join you as merely an observer who has the option to watch a better movie or read a better book, one not bound by this bullshit, but… alas, that is my fate.
So if I die in the movie, I wake up in my trailer as the actress and enjoy the privileged life that entails? Maybe I’m played by a cischick with huge cans, that’d be awesome!
Owning your own home is a privilege, which wasn’t available to the general public until 19-20 century depending on a country. And it’s still not available to many in some countries.
You want too much.
It’s not a Privilege anymore, we have more than enough to provide housing for all in developed countries
Have you ever heard about the housing crisis? The UK for example has a 4.3 million homes deficit. That’s 6.3% of the population if you want to give everyone a house. But if accounting for families of at least two people, then it’s more like 12.6% of the population without homes.
The situation is very similar in most developed countries, especially in Europe. Countries like Italy and Poland have severe overcrowding, 35% of Poles don’t have enough living space (meaning they live in house shares and only have one room to themselves).
So yeah, it is a privilege. Always was. And as the worldwide population grows, housing will only become even more scarce as land is a finite resource.
Thats already where the intention starts, I never specified there are enough homes, for a reason. Not enough homes existing is just to create an artificial crisis
You literally said:
we have more than enough to provide housing for all in developed countries
That’s false. There is not enough housing all over the world, with just a few exceptions like Singapore. But it’s much better than 100-200-300 years ago. And since this thread is about home ownership specifically, home owners are only a fraction of those who actually live in good enough accommodation.
Thus returning to the original point - owning a house is a privilege. Always was and will be for a very long time. First we need to solve the housing crisis and at the very least provide council housing, but that’s not ownership, it’s just a better rent. And if the global population continues to grow then ownership will become even less accessible.
I graduated highschool, got out on my own, got 9/11. Then we had 2008 housing. Then we had corona. Probably some stuff I’m missing.
Only to be enslaved by AI, and denied any respite.
I feel like I live in interesting times, and understand why it’s used as an insult
GNU Terry Pratchett
I’m tired, boss
Stop crying, geez.
(You’ll need those tears for your forties)I turned 40 in February. 😭
Im only slightly older, I got to experience life in the dotcom kaboom. My entire adult life’s been: this is a once in a lifetime thing every 5 years. I’m guessing this is what the 1870s were like with all the finance stuff and overall turmoil. Bit numb to it by now.
Welcome to the club, friend.
The booze is in the back.Wow, you got booze!?
After a few decades they let us keep some
I’m about to hit 50 and I’m still not done crying.
To be faaaair, i never said when it ends
sob I know sob
