# Why Millennials Like SDC's Delusion? - It's NOT About Saving Lives. They Are Angry About the Money.



## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

*America's Millennials Are Waking Up to a Grim Financial Future * - Job prospects, savings, safety nets, life expectancy-the data show just how bad a mess they face.

Lately I've been losing track of how old everyone is. Friends, co-workers and family members are resisting middle age with vigorous exercise, careful diets and regular doctor visits. Even when 50-year-olds look like they're 50, they often dress or party as if they're still in their twenties.

Our capacity to fetishize youth never ceases to amaze. But while older Americans definitely want to look like younger folks, they certainly don't want their finances. *That's because the wealth gap between generations keeps widening, and their children's future is beginning to look ugly*.

Just two years ago, the median American born in the 1980s-the cradle of millennials-had family wealth that was 34 percent below what earlier generations held at the same age, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reported last month. And all the data show it's probably going to get worse.

As affluent baby boomers thank years of soaring markets for their paid-off mortgages and plump portfolios, millennials and the next cohort, Generation Z, are weighed down by student debt and stagnant wages. They can only contribute the bare minimum to their retirement plans and struggle to find affordable homes within commuting distance of their jobs.










Of course, it's perfectly normal for people just starting out to have less in the bank. However, the St. Louis Fed warned that, even when taking that into account, young Americans are slipping dangerously behind. For a time, Generation X was also losing out, thanks to the 2008 financial crisis. But its members managed to make up most of the shortfall in the years since, tapping into the longest economic expansion in decades.

For some reason that period of tremendous growth barely helped millennials. The St. Louis Fed called this anomaly "a missed opportunity because asset appreciation is unlikely to be as rapid in the near future." That's pretty bad news for twenty and thirtysomethings who may have been hoping to catch up. But it gets worse.

By 2034, Social Security won't be able to pay out full benefits, the program's trustees estimated this month. Any solution that would rectify its finances will probably require more taxes and more benefit cuts-all coming out of the pockets of younger workers. Boomers, who are exiting the workforce in droves, will already be comfortably seated when the music stops, or out of the picture.

Fixing Social Security is hardly the only issue where younger Americans have different priorities than their elders. U.S. President Donald Trump was elected on the votes of older Americans favoring tax cuts and less government, while young voters flocked to Senator Bernie Sanders, who supports rebuilding social programs and establishing national healthcare.

Alicia Munnell, the director of Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, recently lamented that government inaction on Social Security means "that most baby boomers have escaped completely from contributing to a solution." This month, she offered some depressing advice to younger Americans about what they can do to make up the difference: *Work longer*.

The reaction to her earnest advice was rage.

"Wait, this is the good news?" read one indignant post on Twitter, echoing many others. Slate's Jamelle Bouie called it "a great example of 'we turned the economy into a miserable hellscape and you're just going to have to deal with it.'"

Ouch. But Munnell assured young people that they don't need to cancel their retirements entirely. "In fact, my research shows that the vast majority of millennials will be fine if they work to age 70," she wrote for Politico. (Small solace given that life expectancy for Americans recently took a turn for the worse.)










Still, Munnell has a point. Across a generational time-frame, people are still living much longer than their parents. As my colleague Peter Coy recently pointed out, a man who is "chronologically" 65 is actually more like a 55-year-old from the perspective of 1957. With the extra years, a longer career doesn't necessarily mean a shorter retirement.

Retirement-age Americans are already working in record numbers. Whether by choice or necessity, because of boredom or fear, a full third of those between 65 and 69 were in the workforce in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, along with 19 percent of those aged 70 to 74-together almost double the number 30 years ago. 

Paychecks aren't reflecting the improving economy. Hourly wages were unchanged in May from a year earlier. And according to a Fed survey, four in 10 Americans said it would be tough to come up with $400 for an emergency expense. The same 2017 survey found 27 percent skipping medical treatments because they can't afford them. Another poll this month reaffirmed the inability of many Americans to save any money at all.










So work longer? First you have to live longer, and that's not guaranteed.

Wide swaths of the country are getting sicker and dying younger than just a few years ago, with a widening health gap between educated, affluent Americans and everyone else. Alcohol abuse and obesity, upticks in suicide and an epidemic of drug overdoses have all played a role in an ominous milestone: Year-over-year declines in American life expectancy while the rest of the world lives ever-longer.










Perhaps it's a statistical blip. If not, the U.S. faces an almost dystopian future-one of hyper class-stratification in which the few are rich and living longer while the many postpone retirement, struggle to get by and ultimately die younger.

There is some good news for younger generations, though. As they focus on the hand they've been dealt, they will find there is one good card to play, one that may allow them to address the myriad problems they face: numbers.









It's no secret the widening gap in financial security is shadowed by a similar gap in politics, setting up the potential for generational warfare at the ballot box in coming elections.

The outcome of the 2018 midterms may largely come down to whether left-leaning millennials and Gen-Xers, who make up a majority of eligible U.S. voters, show up. In recent elections, these two demographics voted at much lower rates than previous generations at the same ages, according to the Pew Research Center. Unless that changes, wealthier, right-leaning baby boomers and the remaining members of the so-called Silent Generation will once again swamp them at the polls.

Regardless of turnout, or even who wins, academics predict a growing animus between young and old to match the polarized party politics currently roiling the nation.

"I think you're going to see growing conflict," said Susan MacManus, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Florida. One sign that "this huge generation is awakening to things is that we have seen record levels of younger candidates stepping up to the plate and running for office at every level," she said.

*And she said these young people, just now realizing how bad their prospects are financially, are increasingly angry.*
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...paign=news&utm_medium=bd&utm_source=applenews


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## Rat (Mar 6, 2016)

Whining millinials.
Wonder why they think they are entitled to everything?


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## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

Rat said:


> Whining millinials.
> Wonder why they think they are entitled to everything?


I know what you are saying and I agree with most of the young generations getting it wrong about entitlement and convenience. The article though shows how even if they will work as hard as their parents and their grandparents, they'll still be behind what their predecessors where at the same age.

The only thing I need to mention though, is how the article touches only on the numbers and somehow on the social aspect of the uncertain future, when IMO, _*the main problem American capitalism has is with the big corporations*_. There is no healthy competition anymore and millenials are encouraged to have an entrepreneurial spirit while working for a big company, not while having their own business (even if nobody stops them from having one).

Facing a lower life standard than their parents had, I think anger is the correct feeling, and again big corporate America is there to associate these people's anger with stupid technologies, empty promises and insane stories about self driving or flying cars, artificial intelligence or trips to Mars.

We keep hearing politicians screaming how the economy is doing great, but in reality, more end more businesses are disappearing on a daily basis.

The truth is millenials react to promises the same way people reacted to religion for centuries - the more you believe he's watching, the more pills you need to stay alive.


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## Rat (Mar 6, 2016)

jocker12 said:


> I know what you are saying and I agree with most of the young generations getting it wrong about entitlement and convenience. The article though shows how even if they will work as hard as their parents and their grandparents, they'll still be behind what their predecessors where at the same age.
> 
> The only thing I need to mention though, is how the article touches only on the numbers and somehow on the social aspect of the uncertain future, when IMO, _*the main problem American capitalism has is with the big corporations*_. There is no healthy competition anymore and millenials are encouraged to have an entrepreneurial spirit while working for a big company, not while having their own business (even if nobody stops them from having one).
> 
> ...


Once again, why do you assume you are entitled to a better life than your parents? This is the trouble with entitled people, they can not view the world except through their own desires and assume those are somehow "rights"


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## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

Rat said:


> Once again, why do you assume you are entitled to a better life than your parents? This is the trouble with entitled people, they can not view the world except through their own desires and assume those are somehow "rights"


Because they were told the future will be better. Because they really believe in "progress". Because they watch too many scifi movies. Because they have no clue, because NOBODY tells them or shows them, how the rest of the world is doing (poverty, hunger, suffering).
Because they grew up and live in a bubble.


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## iheartuber (Oct 31, 2015)

Robo fanboys can go on about how “cheap” a robo car ride will be in their fantasy world, but run the numbers, plan out ALL REALISTIC costs involved and there’s no way an SDC taxi company can charge much lower than what uber already does. (Unless they want to go out of business?)

But how can that be? After all, no human to pay. 

It’s true, Uber pays me, but they get a lot more than just a driver. They get insurance, a mechanic, a garage, and a car washer. Take away the driver and you still have to pay for the above. 

Not to mention the software updates and hardware maintenance costs.

If these guys are supposedly “businessmen”, how come they completely ignore a lot of these things?


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

iheartuber said:


> If these guys are supposedly "businessmen", how come they completely ignore a lot of these things?


They are well aware, I don't think they are dumb. But it doesn't have to make sense. The point of a Ponzi is to keep it going as long as possible, getting investors excited enough to keep pouring in their money to keep it afloat for as long as possible. Bernie Madoff kept his scam going for decades. Because many investors are blinded by their greed, and will gladly hand over their life savings to you when you promise them the world, and a pony.


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## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

*Being 30 then and now*
In the mid-to-late-20th century, the American economy and culture were ripe for 30-year-old men, who - more than European and Japanese - typically landed well-paid careers, bought homes, and supported large families. But since then, getting ahead has become much harder.









Data: College attendance, median income, and home ownership from U.S. Census Bureau; cost of tuition from CollegeBoard; median debt from "The Great American Debt Boom, 1948-2013" by Alina Bartscher, Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick and Ulrike I. Steins; marriage figures from a Pew Research Center analysis of the 1960-2000 decennial censuses and 2010 and 2016 American Community Survey (IPUMS). Note: All dollars are inflation-adjusted to 2016. Chart: Harry Stevens/Axios
What's going on: Today, 30-year-old millennials are more likely to be still living with their parents and, while earning about the same or less than boomers, are typically saddled with college debt.

One consequence: Possible trouble for an older generation that will rely on them doing better.

The background: Millennials now comprise almost a quarter of the population and are the largest generation participating in the workforce. But their median salaries are lower than the prior generation of 30-year-olds, and the financial burdens they carry are heavier, limiting how much their lifestyle can mirror that of their parents:


So far, the trends suggests a break with prior American rites of passage, including marriage and child-bearing. According to some demographers, this break could slow economic growth.
Men are more likely to earn less. In 1975, only a quarter of 25 to 34-year-old men made less than $30K per year, but that number rose to 41% in 2016.
Going deeper: As a measure of upward mobility, 92% of 30-year-olds in 1970 earned more than their parents at that age, according to a 2016 study led by Raj Chetty, a Stanford economist (h/t Roger Lowenstein). But of those who were 30 in 2014, just half earned more.
Chetty attributed most of this erosion to slower GDP growth and a change in the distribution of GDP favoring higher earners: GDP would have to rise by 6% a year to get the same impact, he said, and wealth would have to be distributed much more evenly.

In other words, Chetty suggested, it has become much, much harder for young lower- and middle-income workers to earn as much of the nation's growing wealth as they once did.

*Today, 30 year olds are:*

Living with their parents: In 1975, when the oldest Boomers were 29, 57% of 18 to 34- year-olds lived with a spouse in their own household. Even as late as 1990, almost half lived with a partner. But in 2016, 31% were living in their parents' home, making it the new, most common living arrangement for young adults, according to Census data.
Paying more for college: In 1975, college tuition cost $2,450 for public, four-year colleges (in 2017 dollars). In 2017, it was almost $10,000, according to CollegeBoard.
In more debt: In 1989, less than 20% of families had student debt, compared with 41% in 2013, according to the Census. The amount owed almost tripled in that time.
Less likely to be homeowners: 57% of 30 to 34-year-olds were homeowners in 1982, compared with just 45% in 2017.
The impact of significant student debt can be seen in lower marriage rates, according to Dora Gicheva, an economist at UNC Greensboro.


In 2017, 57% of millennials were never married. In 1985 - when boomers were around the same age - only a third had never been married, Pew Research's Richard Fry told Axios. Even accounting for unmarried living partners does not make up the difference, he said.
Having fewer children: When Boomers were in their 20s, the fertility rate was 2.48, well beyond the replacement level of 2.1. Today, it is just 1.76.
When a recent survey asked why they were having fewer kids, most young adults said "child care is too expensive."
"Millennials are more risk averse than earlier generations at the same age. People 50 or even 25 years ago didn't wait to be 'financially well established' before starting a family. Now it's considered irresponsible not to."
- Richard Jackson president of the Global Aging Institute, told Axios
Exceptions:

Opportunity for 30-year-old women has improved, which contributes to falling fertility rates, says Eric Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck College.


Millennial women are likelier to hold a Bachelor's degree than men.
Women's pay has increased substantially from one generation to the next
The share of young women who are homemakers has decreased from 43% in 1975 to 14% in 2016, according to Census data.
And the percentage of 25 to 29-year-old African Americans and Hispanics with at least a Bachelor's degree has increased even faster than white Americans since 1980, although a gap still exists, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.


Twice as many African Americans have graduated from college than in 1991 and there has been a 60% increase for Hispanics over the past 20 years.
Still, an income gap between young, white Americans and racial minorities has persisted. Median income for African Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 as a percentage of white Americans has hovered around 75% since 1974.

https://www.axios.com/one-big-thing...570-b03dd961-0c1e-4734-a577-78c28ae346d9.html


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

The only reason Social Security is in jeopardy of not being able to pay benefits is because the Feds keep raiding it to pay for other shit.


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## jeanocelot (Sep 2, 2016)

iheartuber said:


> Robo fanboys can go on about how "cheap" a robo car ride will be in their fantasy world, but run the numbers, plan out ALL REALISTIC costs involved and there's no way an SDC taxi company can charge much lower than what uber already does. (Unless they want to go out of business?)
> 
> But how can that be? After all, no human to pay.
> 
> ...


But zero is cheaper than non-zero. Or are you trying to say that Uber drivers will be cheaper than the cost of building & maintaining the software?



uberdriverfornow said:


> The only reason Social Security is in jeopardy of not being able to pay benefits is because the Feds keep raiding it to pay for other shit.


They haven't raided anything. They might be crowding SS out, but that could be addressed by simply letting the USD fall, something that Trump is in favor of.


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## iheartuber (Oct 31, 2015)

jeanocelot said:


> But zero is cheaper than non-zero. Or are you trying to say that Uber drivers will be cheaper than the cost of building & maintaining the software?


To compare apples to apples let's compare an Uber driver that drives about 50+ hours a week to a robo car (since that's about how much those cars will also drive)

The Uber driver gets paid about $40 grand a year but pays for gas out of that so now we're down to $28k

He also pays for maintenance so now we're down to $22k

He also keeps the car in his garage which is free but would cost Waymo About $1200/year so now we're down to $20.8k he also pays for car washes so now we're down to $20k

He also pays for insurance so now we're down to $16k

$16k a year to build and maintain the software AND hardware (sensors, cameras, etc)? Is that enough? Even if it's $6k then we're talking $10k a car?

And with that you have to assume ALL responsibility? One lawsuit and you can kiss that $10k goodbye

Uber drivers do this all day long. They know this stuff like the back of their hands.

You know who doesn't know this stuff? The people who run autonomous car companies!! Haha


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## jeanocelot (Sep 2, 2016)

iheartuber said:


> To compare apples to apples let's compare an Uber driver that drives about 50+ hours a week to a robo car (since that's about how much those cars will also drive)
> 
> The Uber driver gets paid about $40 grand a year but pays for gas out of that so now we're down to $28k
> 
> ...


I thought Uber indemnified its drivers, so that while they're driving, Uber is paying for the insurance. And for Uber to get a better deal with humans, the human would have to be safer. However, that ex-GM executive said that autonomous cars will be so safe that the government will outlaw human drivers.

I could see how a Uber driver/owner using his garage would be essentially adding the value that could be realized by renting out his garage on the open market. Of course, I could also see a Uber facility with a huge parking lot that wouldn't cost all that much.


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## iheartuber (Oct 31, 2015)

jeanocelot said:


> I thought Uber indemnified its drivers, so that while they're driving, Uber is paying for the insurance. And for Uber to get a better deal with humans, the human would have to be safer. However, that ex-GM executive said that autonomous cars will be so safe that the government will outlaw human drivers.
> 
> I could see how a Uber driver/owner using his garage would be essentially adding the value that could be realized by renting out his garage on the open market. Of course, I could also see a Uber facility with a huge parking lot that wouldn't cost all that much.


"Wouldn't cost all that much?" LOL

Uber has an insurance policy, Lyft does not. They require you to use your own.

Admit it- you just didn't consider a lot of important details. that's ok.


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## Yam Digger (Sep 12, 2016)

I’m in my 50’s; and the the average millennial has better finances than me.


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## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

This proves the numbers are reflecting an inconvenient reality -










On the other hand, a very important percentage of the Silicon Valley nerds, working for relatively large salaries for technology companies are also millenials. But they fight to PRESERVE the inequality while preaching for "progress" and "a bright future".

Gregory Stevens, a former pastor from Palo Alto _"has resigned from his church after calling the city of Palo Alto an "*elitist shit den of hate*" and criticizing the *hypocrisy of "social justice" activism* in the region."

"I believe Palo Alto is a ghetto of wealth, power, and elitist liberalism by proxy, meaning that many community members claim to want to fight for social justice issues, but that desire doesn't translate into action," Stevens wrote, lamenting that it was impossible for low-income people to live in the city. "The insane wealth inequality and the ignorance toward actual social justice is absolutely terrifying."

"He later added: "The tech industry is motivated by endless profit, elite status, rampant greed, and the myth that their technologies are somehow always improving the world."

"He argued that the church's rich neighbors could afford to "feed and house" all the homeless people in Palo Alto and surrounding cities, but instead focused on passing laws that further criminalized this population, encouraging police to harass those sleeping outside or in cars. The city had also made it hard for the church to provide meals for the homeless by requiring costly permits, he said."_

Those Silicon Valley millenials are ruthless and greedy. They think they've found a way to survive and thrive under the harsh conditions millenials face in general, and now they want to protect that by any means.

The pastor is correct - "But Palo Alto, he said, "*wanted nothing to do with actual justice and was more interested in guarding their enclave of power and wealth*".


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

jocker12 said:


> *America's Millennials Are Waking Up to a Grim Financial Future * - Job prospects, savings, safety nets, life expectancy-the data show just how bad a mess they face.
> 
> Lately I've been losing track of how old everyone is. Friends, co-workers and family members are resisting middle age with vigorous exercise, careful diets and regular doctor visits. Even when 50-year-olds look like they're 50, they often dress or party as if they're still in their twenties.
> 
> ...


Im Angry Too !


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## Ubering My Life Away (Jun 11, 2018)

jocker12 said:


> *Being 30 then and now*
> In the mid-to-late-20th century, the American economy and culture were ripe for 30-year-old men, who - more than European and Japanese - typically landed well-paid careers, bought homes, and supported large families. But since then, getting ahead has become much harder.


When the American economy was the sole economy intact and functioning post-WW2. Everyone else was broke, Communists, or the defeated nations.


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## Seven77 (Oct 26, 2018)

75 million millennials know and support that autonomous cars will be safe, 100+ souls a day that human drivers slaughter will live and governments worldwide will outlaw human drivers.


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## goneubering (Aug 17, 2017)

Seven77 said:


> 75 million millennials know and support that autonomous cars will be safe, 100+ souls a day that human drivers slaughter will live and governments worldwide will outlaw human drivers.


You're living in fantasyland.


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## iheartuber (Oct 31, 2015)

goneubering said:


> You're living in fantasyland.


It's a new Tomato username



Seven77 said:


> 75 million millennials know and support that autonomous cars will be safe, 100+ souls a day that human drivers slaughter will live and governments worldwide will outlaw human drivers.


Hi Tomato! Love the new username


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