What Happens When Millennials Grow Up?

[MachineGhost]

We're broke now, and we're likely to be living hand-to-mouth in later life, too. Ryan Bourne, head of Public Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs, says that our generation will go into our 40s with far less accumulated wealth and be much poorer than we should be. "This lack of wealth is partly because millennials won't own housing, but partly because they'll have always paid so much for rent that it's quite difficult to save anything to even build up to a pension, or savings and investment. That is a big problem." Generational expert Jason Dorsey agrees: "We're expecting to have people in their 30s and 40s still relying heavily on their parents—30-somethings who still live at home and 40-somethings whose parents still pay for their cellphone bill. That phenomenon is putting pressure on the older generation. Unless income increases dramatically, we'll be in trouble."

Basically, if you thought being in your 20s was high pressure, look forward to the latter end of your 30s and your early 40s. Bourne thinks we'll hit a point in our so-called middle age and realize the gravity of our situation. "The risk there is that a lot of people in our generation will get into their 40s and panic that they really haven't got enough accumulated assets to live on in 30 years time when they retire," he explains. "So you'll get a lot of people worrying in their 40s that they might not have a particularly happy retirement."

Will we ever catch up to our parents' standards of living and accumulated wealth? According to the economists I spoke to, probably not.

"The problem is we'll still chase many of the same things that other generations want, but it's more out of reach," explains Dorsey. "As our cohort enter their mid-to-late 30s, it'll be an interesting time to see if millennials achieve this idea of adulthood." VICE readers' number one fear is not finding love, which suggests we're not completely put off the idea of marriage, and our anger at the housing crisis shows—somewhat unsurprisingly—that we still value having a secure place to live. As we wait for these traditional markers of adulthood going into our 30s, said Dorsey and others I spoke to, we're likely to continue to be frustrated and unhappy.

At this age, because we're not able to afford having children, we'll be looking to have them in our late 30s and early 40s. "Having kids in your late 30s is more difficult and higher risk, and we believe there is going to be a lot of pressure around that time to get married and have kids," says Dorsey. "It's a perfect storm. The mood will be: If you are going to do it, you have to do it now. And, for the obvious reason that it's going to be more difficult and more challenging, it's going to create a different kind of conversation. You may end up with people having less kids overall, because if they start later maybe, they can only have fewer."

The psychological burden of that will lay with women—some of whom will find they can't have children—but it'll be felt throughout society. As Dr. Amy Kaler, professor of social structure at the University of Alberta, told VICE, if women stopped having children, "We'd first notice the collapse of economic activity that requires young children and parents, stores for babies, nannies, day cares. Then an upward ripple in elementary schools, kids' sports. We'd also become completely dependent on immigration to continue to exist, as a country. We'd see more efforts to attract immigrants—young immigrants—to bring more people in."

Dr. Carole Easton—chief executive of Young Women's Trust, which supports and represents women aged 16 to 30 struggling to live on low or no pay in England and Wales—is particularly concerned for the future of women. "The reason women will struggle more, in our view," she says, "is because over their lives they'll get paid less, they're more likely to be stuck in low paid and insecure jobs, and, importantly, they're more likely to be the main carers for family members."

http://www.vice.com/read/what-happens-w ... ls-grow-up

[WiseOne]

Scary picture, but probably completely accurate. This is the downside of the student loan and skyrocketing college tuition cost bonanza, among other things.

So add to this the burden of the rapidly growing, unskilled, non-English speaking underclass and remember that their birthrate is going to far outstrip any other group....

Yikes.

[MachineGhost]

Scary picture, but probably completely accurate. This is the downside of the student loan and skyrocketing college tuition cost bonanza, among other things.

So add to this the burden of the rapidly growing, unskilled, non-English speaking underclass and remember that their birthrate is going to far outstrip any other group....

Yikes.

I do think it's scary, but you know, like all fear-based projections into the future, it'll be diminished or never come to full fruitition due to market-based solutions. It's easy to overlook that the need for expensive education and working 9-5 for 50 or so years will be completely and utterly upended by algorithms, automation and robots all dramatically reducing the costs of living to near zero, i.e. post-scarcity. It's the transition period that's always so difficult and it seems like Millennials and Gen Z are unfortunately going to bear the brunt of it -- but they're also be the one's creating the new world economy as well. I wish we could look towards Japan to get a glimpse of what's coming, but they're so insular and depressed over there I don't think there's much motivation going on to create a better future like we will here. One thing you can say about immigration -- it's certainly invorigating!

I seriously dunno what we are going to do about the breeding lower classes, though. The Democrats are going to fight tooth and nail to keep them relevant, so they stay politically relevant.

I now support taxing robots that displace human labor so we can have a Citizen's Dividend. Emphasis on citizen. And not the 1965-style.

[clacy]

Most of the millennials I know have $400/mo Starbucks habits. They travel A LOT from what I can tell. They don't spend as much as previous generations on clothing, but they certainly love the high rent downtown city life.

They value freedom and flexibility in their jobs, but that often comes at a cost.

Like any other generation, they make choices and have priorities in life.

[Maddy]

I do think it's scary, but you know, like all fear-based projections into the future, it'll be diminished or never come to full fruitition due to market-based solutions. It's easy to overlook that the need for expensive education and working 9-5 for 50 or so years will be completely and utterly upended by algorithms, automation and robots all dramatically reducing the costs of living to near zero, i.e. post-scarcity. It's the transition period that's always so difficult and it seems like Millennials and Gen Z are unfortunately going to bear the brunt of it -- but they're also be the one's creating the new world economy as well. I wish we could look towards Japan to get a glimpse of what's coming, but they're so insular and depressed over there I don't think there's much motivation going on to create a better future like we will here. One thing you can say about immigration -- it's certainly invorigating!

Our parents might have said the same thing about the computer revolution. The rise of computer technology should, by the same token, have allowed us to work less than we did 20 years ago. But that hasn't happened, has it? Instead, technology has simply raised the bar in terms of peoples' expectations. Young people today expect a standard of living that is a great deal higher than anything we, or our parents, ever enjoyed.

Suppose robots did make it possible for people to get by entirely on a citizens' dividend. Wouldn't it seem logical that the same people who work now would continue to work just as hard because they simply want MORE?

[clacy]

Scary picture, but probably completely accurate. This is the downside of the student loan and skyrocketing college tuition cost bonanza, among other things.

So add to this the burden of the rapidly growing, unskilled, non-English speaking underclass and remember that their birthrate is going to far outstrip any other group....

Yikes.

I do think it's scary, but you know, like all fear-based projections into the future, it'll be diminished or never come to full fruitition due to market-based solutions. It's easy to overlook that the need for expensive education and working 9-5 for 50 or so years will be completely and utterly upended by algorithms, automation and robots all dramatically reducing the costs of living to near zero, i.e. post-scarcity. It's the transition period that's always so difficult and it seems like Millennials and Gen Z are unfortunately going to bear the brunt of it -- but they're also be the one's creating the new world economy as well. I wish we could look towards Japan to get a glimpse of what's coming, but they're so insular and depressed over there I don't think there's much motivation going on to create a better future like we will here. One thing you can say about immigration -- it's certainly invorigating!

I seriously dunno what we are going to do about the breeding lower classes, though. The Democrats are going to fight tooth and nail to keep them relevant, so they stay politically relevant.

I now support taxing robots that displace human labor so we can have a Citizen's Dividend. Emphasis on citizen. And not the 1965-style.

Taxing robots will just mean that more US companies off shore and move their operations overseas.

I agree that eventually a CD might be in order, but we may just have to print money to offset the deflationary effect of robotics/tech.