Stay at home or working spouse?

Water Cooler
#81

In general terms I agree, but SS is going to reach an inflection point at a time when a generation of people who feel screwed by rich, old people will become the majority voting class. In order to preserve some benefit for themselves, they will vote for the people who promise to cut off SS to the people who can get by without it. If people currently over the age of 55 were not allowed to vote last year, Bernie Sanders would probably be president right now. Enough of those currently over 55 will be dead in 20-30 years that the Bernie Sanders of 2040 will be a lock for POTUS.

#82

I wish.

Thanks brain.

#83

Inequality and economic conditions will have to worsen materially to effect the revolutionary change that you described. Although traces of a leftist militant movement have definitely arisen lately, their beliefs are still far from being adopted by a majority of Americans.

The other, maybe more important, thing to consider is that the current 20-year-olds will be the 50-year-olds of the future. Their political views will lean right wing over time, as they become tax contributors and their wealth increases. So we cannot count on the median voter to move leftward based on static voter preferences.

#84

^ Will their wealth really increase though? Aren’t they the lost generation economically speaking?

#85

Calling millennials (of which I am arguably one, barely) the lost generation is laughable. That phrase was coined for the 16 to 25 year olds in WWI, where a single shell would wipe out a whole village’s young male population. Thats the Lost Generation.

#86

Not my term.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/millennials-the-lost-generation_us_582aaabde4b0852d9ec21ca9

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/13/millennials-are-falling-behind-their-boomer-parents/

http://www.salon.com/2016/09/26/the-lost-generation-forget-hillary-clintons-millennial-problem-millennials-have-a-problem-we-all-need-to-fix/

https://www.hinde-smith.com/blog/view/16/generation-y-the-new-lost-generation.aspx

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/catherine-rampell-older-millennials-are-paying-the-price-for-bad-timing/2015/02/02/4ef644c8-ab1c-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html?utm_term=.d43eedf8a444

http://www.nonprofitcollegesonline.com/millenials/

#87

i think when people call millennials the “lost” generation, they are referring to the undereducated or those educated in things that are useless are now drowning in student debt. i think the millennial generation is probably the most stratified in terms of income as i am seeing swaths of millennials doing incredibly well, better than most of our parents, and at the same time i’m seeing swaths of millenials doing absolutely nothing because there is no longer much opportunity to do well unless you’re highly educated, have access to capital or are a one-in-a-million hustler. back in the day, you could walk into some retail store at 18 years old and be manager in a year or so. now the manager is a 50 or 60 year old woman who won’t and/or can’t leave. no good entry level jobs and no way to move up in manufacturing either. only good jobs for those with few skills is construction and energy but those are cyclical and you’ll get wiped out eventually.

#88

Charles Schwab gets it.

#89

ACE, isn’t that statistic just reflective that older people tend to be more financially responsible? Those 30 year olds have kids and stuff. It’s a life cycle, not a permanent attitude for each person.

I am familiar with the “lost generation” term as is applied to “millennials” and how it usually describes how they are not expected to do as well as “their parents’ generation”. In the context of my earlier comment though, it doesn’t matter. Just because they are relatively worse off than people 30 years older does not mean that they will not have career progression, pay off their loans (the motivator for “free tuition”), eventually increase savings, and evolve their political outlooks. Even if they are held back by 5-10 years due to career slowness, they will eventually reach comparable financial status to current older people.

#90

Obviously only time will tell, but I see a huge bubble of people who feel left behind by the system who will become the voting majority in this country in the not too distant future. Unless they find a way to catch up and get the capitalist bug the way the war-protesting hippies of the 60’s eventually did, they’re going to realize they have the political power to take from the prior generation what they believe was theirs all along.

#91

Yeah, that is going around the internet as a joke. Of course someone in their 30s has more financial acumen than someone in their 20s … lolol Charles Schwab really put that out, I think its hilarious.

#92

Not sure if this popular belief is correct: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/09/the-politics-of-american-generations-how-age-affects-attitudes-and-voting-behavior/