I read a trash article yesterday about how Millennials are having to live like "their Boomer parents" - complaining about having to cut back on their spending habits and all the luxuries they have become accustomed to. It really was trash.
That aside, the rising inflation and the "cutbacks" actually shows something about the younger generations, as many have next to nothing saved and have largely been living hand to mouth. Not all mind you, as about 20 percent of them are doing okay, but the rest is what really matters, because while the top 20 percent can survive anything, it is the middle and the lower that impact heavily on the economy and, also take the majority of support.
But, it was the closing couple paragraphs that I found interesting.
I’m young; I should be buying $20 cocktails, getting Ubers home at 2am from nightclubs with sticky floors and ordering UberEats the next day to treat my hangover. I shouldn’t be telling my friends how enraged I am about the rising cost of blueberries – although I am infuriated!
The whole point of being young is that the pressures of children and mortgages don’t burden you, and financial decisions don’t rule your life. However, suddenly I’m at the point where the cost of a night out is becoming so expensive that I have to forgo experiences of my youth to keep a roof over my head. And that is a national shame.
Do you know why it is interesting for me? The writer is a millennial, which is someone born between around 1980 and the mid-1990s. That makes this person at least 27 years of age at the minimum. At the start of the article she talks about being childless and having a fulltime job, so should be able to afford the costs, yet, she is also talking like she is a teen wanting to get drunk at prom in the back of a limo.
The "boomers" she feels she is acting like, were acting like that before they were twenty seven, with most shifting into careers earlier, buying houses earlier and having children earlier. Rather than acting like teenagers, they were taking on additional responsibilities and obligations in their lives, which affected their financial habits and profiles. And, because they were doing this earlier, investing earlier, there were the "time in" benefits that came with it.
Of course, this isn't the whole story, because the economic conditions coming out of a war and rebuilding the world in what was a very profitable time in history meant there were compounding interest for doing so, the behaviors still were there. Not just saving, but also investing.
It doesn't matter what the market is doing if you spend all your investment potential on entertainment, never saving for when there is an opportunity dip, or investing for a yearly dividend reward. Instead, if they do invest, they do it in the hope for a pump, so they can dump and buy the disposable consumer good they have had their eye on, but are unable to save for or afford on the salary they get - the salary that is never enough, because the appetite to consume consumables grows with each pay rise, each new job opportunity.
What we consume matters.
We are all consumers in some way when it comes to how we spend our money, but whilst some are buying "experiences", others might be consuming investment vehicles with the goal of additional return. And yes, experiences matter, but a lot of people seem to have whittled the meaning of what is a valuable experience down to going to the movies, eating takeout and going on a holiday to spend the time sitting on a beach.
When does diminishing returns on the experience set in? When is it no longer an experience worth the cost?
Experience is valuable, but this doesn't mean all experience is equally valuable. Whilst a lot of younger people shun the idea of having children, the experience of having children can be a clarity and focus to what is important in life and often, all that takeout and fancy clothes loses its importance. Children can be expensive, but they can also affect the way we see the world and our behaviors. They tend to make us less selfish to satisfy our needs, as we find ways to satisfy theirs and, try to ensure they are safe and healthy. This includes financial health.
The experience of a "bad boss" might not be pleasant, so it is easy to quit if unhappy, when there are few other obligations. But when there are obligations, the experience of dealing with bad bosses can be valuable in building the habits that lead to greater success. The young have a mantra of "knowing your worth" yet their inability to deal with even the slightest discomforts or less than ideal conditions, makes them largely worthless.
They are fragile.
Spoiled.
Perhaps the experience of some economic hardship that forces them to cutback on their selfish lives will be one that teaches them that they have responsibilities too, even if they are unwilling to acknowledge or accept them. They complain about the world they have inherited, yet do nothing to improve it themselves, other than the bare minimum that they use to get some attention through virtue-signaling on social platforms. And if the don't get the attention they crave, they become outraged, depressed and unable to cope with the world.
That is an experience too.
Are they learning from it?
The current economy is indeed a shambles, but the fact is that no matter what kind of society we have, there is always economics involved. The term refers to the ability and art of managing a household and perhaps, this is points to one of the challenges that the young face. Because they have isolated themselves and compartmentalized themselves into a "all about me" approach to life, they haven't learned the lessons of household economics, such as everyone has a role to play, everyone once able, pulls their weight. Instead, they think that the economy is something that happens to them.
They don't want to change the conditions of the world - they want the conditions of the world to change for them.
And because most don't seem to have any grasp on the causes and influences of the conditions, they are impotent in their ability, they have no agency. They are like hungry babies sitting in front of the door of a full fridge, powerless to feed themselves until they have had the experience of growth and learning to be able to open the door for themselves.
The difference is, they are no longer babies, they are adults.
Children are our future. But in the interim, we have adults acting like children today.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]