Have millennials been screwed?

By the way, i was working as well qualified engineer in germany and managed to save 200-250 per month living on 10€/day afterwards i did labouring (without any kind of qualification needed) in australia which allowed me to save 700A$/week while living a way better life standard on 50A$/day

It's always about the circumstances, but most countries just don't pay/treat you well for the work you do nor are the taxes beneficial for the working class

you have high IQ, privileged background and are all and all an outlier.

Why not both? They're trapped in a shit economy and a shit culture, which is at least partially due to them being lazy.

College bit is incorrect, friend. It can do that, but only if you let it

Yeah, not every millenial has what you've been given.

To be fair, while this user is privileged as fuck, he isn't wrong. I'm unwell to the point of being housebound, and sometimes bedbound. Go back far enough and I would have been on the streets or dead.

Instead, I'm nearing thirty, live with loving and supportive family, with a roof over my head, three decent meals, and enough disposable income to shitpost on a Belgian fishing board and even prepare (thanks to selling collectables that have increased in value, gathered over a decade) for my own future with some modest trading and a small lockbox with some minerals in it. There is no other time in history that someone as 'unfortunate' as me could be so fortunate, and nowhere else it could happen than the west.

I actually think one way in which we're a bit fucked is that the older generations have yet to catch up with the times, but have also barred us from important occupations because they don't want to retire.

In Australia it's very common to be working well past retirement because most retirees only spend about a year doing what they want before they wind up in retirement homes. On top of that lots of pensioners are still working illegally because they also don't want to go to the nursing home their parents died in.

But the dumbest thing of all is qualifications. You can use the internet to learn everything you need for any job, yet employers will only take people who have degrees, even if they don't know anything.

Instead of making kids waste thousands of dollars getting a degree they don't need, employers should just test you on your actual ability to do the job, instead of what your qualification is.

So sure, we've all got all the information we'll ever need, but it's all fucking useless because none of it will get you a job.

We are a lost generation. A lot of us wont ever progress into adulthood without proper jobs.

Gen Z is even more fucked than we are because there will be even less jobs.

>be boomer
>get whatever shit job (ie bus driver)
>able to support 2-3 kid family

>be millenial
>have decent job
>money doesn't get you shit
>living paycheck to paycheck

someone didnt get the memo that shillary lost.

Admittedly every generation thinks the current or next one is the laziest one ever and that they are going to destroy all of civilization. Our issues could be said to be more to do with our value systems and pressures within the capitalist model that have not had the steam let off in decades. There are bandages we can put on, but more long term solutions may be beyond us as a civilization without a massive change in our collective value systems. That which has been the greatest benefit to mankind may be what slowly poisons us in the end.

Think about all the opportunities that our parents had that we currently do not.

They tell me of stories about how their summer job was enough to pay for their yearly tuition and how a fucking condo downtown at 1000sq ft was something like $500,000.

You can't even get a 400 sq ft rusty shit bucket with cardboard pipes downtown for $500,000.

I also think that the internet and social media has socially retarded us as a generation as well, we are too comfortable hiding behind our phone and PC screens to cooperate with others.

I think ultimately we are a doomed generation; but I have faith in the technologies that are coming out in the coming decades, namely things such as AI, VR, AR and Quantum computing.

I really hope these technologies will even the playing field with out hopeless economic situations. I really hope that AI combined with automation will begin the universal basic income so that I can leave this rat race and just be a NEET forever with my waifu sexbot.

disagree gen z is probably the next great generation. they are better than millwnials on every which way. problem is different sources attribute different demographics with giwn labels an thus come to different conclusions. i have no idea which generation i belong to but i thing between gen x and gen y there is if you look it up a so called "xennials" but they have other names too most likely that is why i can't comprehend most of the millenial whining.

Pretty screwed

Any normal savings and investments return negative vs inflation now. You have to take more risk than ever before.

Credit is also given out like candy, most people have large debts at low rates that can only go up ontop of low savings.

This is exceptionally bad mix

>boomers
born with a silver spoon but lost everything because they are retards
>gen x
won't be able to retire because people use adblock now so they won't be able to make money off their blog posts
>millennials
the smart and hardworking with college degrees will be the next upper class, but the vast majority of them will be stuck in debt prison and retail/service slavery for their whole life
>gen z
totally fucked

There is nothing useful to do. Speaking as a Canadian citizen, unemployed, engineering degree.

Why try hard when everything is out of reach. Even shit jobs are hard to get. Going to start as a feild sales rep with 0 base salary next week.

Just because people are living comfortably doesn't mean we aren't in a state of hypercompetition right now where nepotism is king.

>Speaking as a Canadian citizen, unemployed, engineering degree

It always seems that anons who post about being unemployed engineers are Canadian. Move to the U.S what the fuck are you doing it'd be insane to have a good degree and not.

This is only if the market is competitive.

For example, the tech sector is booming in the US and it is very possible to get hired without a degree because employers are so desperate.

I'm always shocked when my parents tell me their mortgage. $1500k (and taxes) a month for a 2500 sq ft beautiful house. They only have like 6 years left on their 30 year. Fucking hell I'll never be able to do this. They didn't even buy the house that long ago, they bought it in like 1999 or 2000.

>move to the US dumbass

1. Recruiters pick you only based on geographical convenience, would pick a lesser skilled, local, US citizen over you
2. Most companies don't know we can work in the US without sponsorship, and persuading them of this fact is not simple. You have to convince them you will not be an immigration burden in the future.
3. Entry level: TWO years experience is not enough apparently to get me over to the US.

It is a constant uphill battle. A friend of mine made it to the US by getting in touch with the HR lady at the US branch and convincing her he was worth bringing over for an interview.

>A friend of mine made it to the US by getting in touch with the HR lady at the US branch and convincing her he was worth bringing over for an interview.

Def worth doing. I mean if Canada wants it's only engineering jobs to be in bumfuck nowhere oil fields.

The problem is getting an engineering job here with an international company first so I can pull the same stunt. Work for a year and suck enough dick to transfer. Not easy. The whole point was that it is impossible to get a job here to make that transition.

How fucked is someone born in 1998?

10€ a day in Germany working as an engineer? That's fucking impossible.

they are entitled because they look around and see so many well off that have everything. I guess everyone is lazy to a degree..lots of mental illness out there make it harder to feel motivated

the regular joe is screwed overall mainly because the world became a corporate dystopian nightmare last century. it might get better though with technological advance, could step away from this precipice

I've changed my mind regarding this over the years

When I was an optimistic undergraduate, I sneered at anyone bemoaning the state of the economy as reason for their lack of success.

After I left, I still had the same attitude. "I'll work hard, buy a house, invest 50% of my salary, and get promotions. In 10 years time I'll be glad I put in the hard work."

After 5 years, I haven't had any sort of meaningful promotion. Inflation adjusted, I'm probably making around 10% more than when I started. Not only that, there's no way I can afford a house where I live despite saving over 50% of my net salary during this time.

The reason I can't afford a house isn't necessarily my salary - I make slightly more than the median UK wage. Instead, the problem is house prices. My boomer parents, for example, have an extended 3 bed semi detached house in the South of England - it's on the market for £500,000

Now they are by no means rich. In fact, money always felt tight growing up. Yet for me to buy their house myself I'd need to be earning £100,000 per year with a £100,000 deposit.

this is such a meme. Productivity is up over 70% over the last 3 decades and wages are up 9%. Employers are getting a hell of a deal and still complaining. I wonder who is behind this...

If I can get a bit more personal, I really do think the boomers are, generally, a scumbag generation. They benefited enormously from the technological inovations of the previous generation, as well as house price inflation. Not only that, they endorsed reckless government borrowing in the naive belief that the kind of economic progress resulting from the previous generation would continue. BUT PROGRESS DOESN'T HAPPEN AUTOMATICALLY. They've just sat back and moved money instead of using that money to create stuff that actually improves economic output.

The result: debt grew, but the economy didn't. It was fine to borrow in the 1930s because the economic growth seen over the next few decades meant it could be paid off.

Apart from the internet (which is admittedly a huge innovation), pretty much all gains in economic output per head - at least in developed countries - has come from squeezing efficiencies from existing technology rather than developing new things that do less with more.

It's 2016 and we're still using oil and gas FFS

Squeezing efficiencies essentially looks like getting people to work longer hours without paying them for it. Look at all the mugs working 60hr+ per week graduate schemes at big 4. This was a tracked method for success in the 1980s, but there's no way it's sustainable going forward without improvements in technology - which boomers were too lazy to create

You are wrong. What's more, this graph doesn't take into account house prices - which is a much more important indicator of real wages than frivolous stuff like iphones and clothes.

How do we monetize this?

Create an assisted suicide business tailored for millenials.

Talk to the average boomer about how they made their money and they'll jump at the opportunity to impart their 'wisdom' onto the younger generation
> Study hard
> Get a job
> Invest in property
This mindless tracked formula may have worked during their time, but times have changed. Education is more expensive and less valuable. Well paying jobs are rare - globalisation being the most important reason. House prices are way too high - look at my example above: £100,000 PA + £100,000 deposit for a 3 bed semi - when will I be able to afford that? 40? 50? 60? Guess I better give up on the idea of having a family then...

But the most annoying thing of all is that the boomers don't see this. They think their success is due to hard work and skill. Oh sure, Tony the builder really knew what he was doing when he bought his 3 bed semi back in 1988 - he -knew- it would rise much faster than inflation. He -knew- he'd be on his way to becoming a millionaire just for having somewhere to live. Bravo Tony, what insight.

Talk to the average boomer and they're fucking ignorant. They don't know the first thing about making money, yet they think they do because the illusion of being in the right place at the right time makes them think they do. Look at someone like Trump. He's supposedly one of the best of the best at business - yet even he's massively underperformed the market since the 1980s. The point is: you pretty much couldn't go wrong with your investments in 1980-2000.

Veeky Forums may not be the best cross section of society but at least the people here have some idea about economic trends, interest rates, investment. At least the people here are trying to come up with business ideas. They're thinking about new technologies, cryptocurrencies, etc. - how many boomers have even HEARD of bitcoin? Most of them can't even use Google.

Fuck them

Millenials weren't given proper financial education is the real problem. Mostly because of (((them)))

22 yo can confirm am screwed for life

And the boomers were given proper financial education?

It's not education that made them well off, it's luck. I'm from the UK and if you want an illustration of how financially illiterate many boomers are you only need to look at number of them buying expensive cars via equity release from their homes

>But the most annoying thing of all is that the boomers don't see this. They think their success is due to hard work and skill. Oh sure, Tony the builder really knew what he was doing when he bought his 3 bed semi back in 1988 - he -knew- it would rise much faster than inflation. He -knew- he'd be on his way to becoming a millionaire just for having somewhere to live. Bravo Tony, what insight.

This really rings true. Most boomers are so smug about the wealth they acquired by buying a cheap house in 1975 and refuse to admit that there was any element of simply being in the right place at the right time.

It's like someone who forgot about those bitcoins they bought in 2010 when they were buying weed off the silkroad calling themselves a masterful investor.

>pic related, Veeky Forums & /r9k/'s joint venture

>Education is more expensive and less valuable

Is there any hope for someone without a degree in the UK? I honestly don't see myself having any real prospects apart from joining the armed forces (if they don't cut it again)

>Is there any hope for someone without a degree in the UK?
There's no hope for someone WITH a degree...

To succeed in this economy you'll have to get creative - start a business of some sort. Either that or move somewhere where it's cheaper to live, but there tends to be no jobs in these places.

You could get away with making financial mistakes and blunders in the past and still be ok, but now you can fuck up big with just a small mistake

Thank you for recognizing that, I need to take care of my parents everyday, my dad is blind and mom is working but she went insane and got anorexia. Thank God I gave her help but she still needs me to take care of her because she gets weak.

DESU there was a time in 2007-8 when home buying was cheap as hell but millennials never took advantage because they were too young and mostly either had college debt or wanted to spend all their money on traveling to Thailand. Just saying it wasn't always this way. If they had just spent all their money on homes they'd be the richest gen ever.

Shit culture because of social media which was addictive and also way too much time on their hands which caused everything else. Also add mass pirating and a lot of artists lost hope to make good stuff.

Admittedly, we know so much, maybe too much about politics. Trump is a Boomer and lots of people see all this crazy shit going on so we can blame Boomers for Trump. However, if we didn't know about all this stuff we might think we was a pretty awesome president who knows.

That is so true, we don't need to miss out on everything for being middle class, if we can afford VR and AI we can experience anything a rich man could. Good point.

lol read a economic report once in awhile, Gen Z has it great. Unemployment is hitting new lows in some regions, there are new industries in Space, Solar, Robotics they can play in. Plus they will have the aforementioned VR and AI.

Entitled and lazy. Definitely. This generation was raised with special snowflake syndrome. When we left home they expected to be able to carry on with all the creature comforts they were used to growing up.

Sure, they economy isn't as good. But we have the entirety of human knowledge only a few clicks away. Look at what technology has done to our everyday lives. Anybody thinking millennials are going to live harder lives is just deluded.

I hate this preachy pop science.

>universal basic income
>leave this rat race
>NEET forever
>waifu sexbot
so far I'm 2/4

Yeah, the economic prospects for young academics worsened.

But I don't believe it's a one-way trend. There are protest movements forming everywhere.

>lol read a economic report once in awhile, Gen Z has it great. Unemployment is hitting new lows in some regions, there are new industries in Space, Solar, Robotics they can play in. Plus they will have the aforementioned VR and AI.
you talk like a college student. gen-z'ers will not be getting those jobs, millennials will be, and they will hold onto them for decades. experience is what gets better jobs in the real world - only the prodigies in gen-z from top schools will be hired in the space and tech industry right out of college.

I was being cheeky with gen x, but as a 29yo millennial who was autistic enough to get a job in tech, literally ALL my coworkers are boomers and gen-x. I'm the youngest by decades.

as my more mature and egocentric peers move on, the people I graduated with that still have a mountain of debt will be taking their jobs, not gen-z'ers who will have twice the debt and half the opportunities. sure, they will be able to benefit from new tech, but they won't be able to buy it unless the govt makes a basic income, or maybe "z-bux"

>Sure, they economy isn't as good. But we have the entirety of human knowledge only a few clicks away.
Hey you're tens of thousands of dollars in debt, can't find a job and even when you do get one it's going to take you half your career to afford the house that your dad bought while working construction in his 20s

But you have it so much easier than your parents you can download the complete works of Shakespeare in 30 seconds instead of talking half an hour to go get a volume from the library

Quality of life is determined by so much more than finances.

Almost all of the expensive technology our parents spent so much of their money on would be completely useless today. A modern computer would make almost all of it redundant. Holidays are so much cheaper and more affordable too.

I'd rather rent and have today technologies than own a house and live with technology from the 70s.

This is a very critical point.

All this knowledge, foe example: self improvement crap, PUA tricks, stock analysis and day trading knowledge is just bullshit when a person born in 1950's iran as a farmer could be successful and afford 4 wives and 10+ kids.

Who here argues their quality of life is better than the farmer's? Life may not he been "easier" but it definately rewarded hard work, and it rewarded this hard work in your 20's.

wholeheartedly agreed.

t. once happy farmer become wretched ghastly day trader

>Life in the 70s/80s:
No technology
All you have are landline phones to contact your friends
You have to arrange to meet them if you want to do something
When a new film comes out, you call them up and make an event of it together
You own your own house. You are steadily building equity in an asset that keeps appreciating in value. You have a spare room and a garden. You have space to raise a family. Most importantly, your mortgage payments are only around 20% of your net salary each month.

>Life today
Technology seems to make everything easier
Instead of meeting up with your friends, you message them via whatsapp, FB, whatever
When a new film comes out you just torrent it and watch it at home by yourself whilst scrolling through your phone
Your home, by the way, isn't your own home. It's a shitty house share that, whilst fun when you were a student, is just depressing now
But you're trying to save money to buy a home
But you're steadily getting older
You'll never be able to afford to get married and raise a family

Oh well, at least I have an iphone to distract me

Deal with it then. Learn how to get to know people instead of shitposting on Veeky Forums.

Why the hell would you think that an Iranian farmer in the 1950's would feel the rewards of his hard work more than a 25 year old in 2017? What a ridiculous stance to take.

You can still do all those things that you listed in the 70s/80s, you're just choosing not to. Literally the only thing you have going is the house argument.

But you know what, while our parents made so much more money, and invested it all for the future, guess what they ended up spending it on? Us.

First post best post.

On the one hand they were raised as the "everyone gets a trophy, don't hurt anyone's feelings" generation.

On the other hand the boomers outsourced all the labor, tanked the financial markets, rose government debt through the fucking roof, inflated academic costs sky high, and expected the millenials to work their fucking asses off to help prop up the whole system so the boomers can do absolutely nothing from age 60 through to their death.

Let me put it to you this way in this scenario which is playing out around me right now.

>born mid 90s
>Australian
>worked super hard at high school
>graduate honours science, top of class from sandstone uni
>get top grades in GAMSAT
>get into sandstone uni medical school

At this point which is far above what most people can possibly achieve, your job prospects are still restricted.
Hypercompetition and indeed nepotism makes getting a job even from here extremely difficult.

So to answer your question. You're fucked, sorry kid

Woah, enlightening

>guess what they ended up spending it on? Us
How old are you? We're not talking about mum buying you some sweeties or a new bike.

I don't think you realise how frustrating the situation is until you start thinking seriously about the future - i.e. starting a family. When you're in your mid/late twenties and can't get a mortgage on anything you start to worry

What is this reddit cuck talk show?

>You can still do all those things that you listed in the 70s/80s, you're just choosing not to.
So what's the benefit of all this great modern technology you keep pointing to if you're just going to choose not to use it?

Sure you get to make the choice which is more than your parents had but you're still claiming it's a good deal to trade financial/job security for half a dozen different ways to see a movie

I'm 25. I don't think I really knew anybody in university who wasn't getting some sort of financial help from their parents.

Trust me, I get it. I'm just not into romanticising past eras. We have so much that they didn't.

>a mortgage
Volountarily locking yourself in debt for 30 years. Increase your income and buy it outright or at least with 50% down. If its doable in Rich mainland Chinese colony of Toronto, its doable anywhere. Once the interest rates rise you'll be on the street with boomers shrieking about "muh votes from home"owners".

I wasn't romanticising past eras, I was just arguing that modern technology isn't that great. I'd rather have a house, family, and less crowded cities/roads/hospitals than an iphone

> Once the interest rates rise
Personal debt keeps rising. Credit card defaults are already up this year. There's no way interest rates are ever going up significantly, that era is long gone. The entire economy is now built on credit.

>Volountarily locking yourself in debt for 30 years.
Mortgage payments work out cheaper than rent payments (see above re. interest rates) and allow you to build equity in an asset that appreciates in value instead of giving it away forever to a landlord.

Only an idiot would generalize massive populations and make assumptions upon their work ethics and experiences based on the idea that they were born between a certain small time frame.

You really do not think thoroughly, do you?

Maybe its time you pick up a respectable book.

Turn off CNN/FOX/Buzzfeed/Facebook and other media.

Not really. Unless you're a poo.

I love this line:
>get to know people teeheehee.

In a major city in the west coast where the only industry is real estate. In a country where engineers are in an exodus to the US. I wonder how you expect me to know people when the industy is Completely dead in this country. This Implys that knowing them is enough... because there are a whole other group of people that are fighting to "know them" as well.

Meanwhile a girlfriend of mine goes to the US as a dual citizen and gets the first engineering job she applied to via craigslist. I made out with here when she was here. Was this enough to get me a job because I knew her?

Give me a fucking break.

they are incapable inheritors
when they are at the top of the food chain is when class divisions will be like it was centuries ago