Post by doctorwho on Feb 24, 2010 9:10:08 GMT -6
When you exclaim that the younger generation has more opportunity to $ave when compared to the portly, "environmentally unfriendly" 50 something generation, I have to ask how?
When looking at the average cost of a college education parked at a cool 100 grand, one must ask wouldn't these young'ins be at a substantial savings disadvantage. My generation spent nearly half as much in today's dollars to get a 4 year college degree. Team this along with the lack of good paying entry level jobs, a high cost of living for housing, medical, and transportation expenses, and it is hard to see how this younger generation will be able to save like our generation was able to.
I suspect that many of our children instead will question my generation's squandering ways. They will have very good cause to do so based on the lack of preparedness and self indulgence that is all around us. It never ceases to amaze me how the human race can justify wasting precious resources as if it is their "God given right " to do so. And then once the "crap has hit the fan", go out and blame some gov. agency for their lack of vision.
I had more free money when I was 21 ( adjusted for time value) then today ... and to use your math if we spent half as much on a college education, I was making a whopping $2.50 cents an hour working at a Clark gas station... what is minimum wage today ? Almost 4 times that is the least kids make at similar jobs.
When I said they have more time to save -- here is why. I started at xxx Major Corp in 1977. From 1977 to the early 1990's I was building a pension with =which to retire in 2007 ( 30 years )- with full benefits. The extra 401K savings I started was 'extra' money for over and above the pension - no one saw the end of pensions coming in 1977 or the 1980's .
So in 1999 when they cancelled our pension plans ( as did many other companies) - I had lost 22 years of 'prime savings time' because I thought by working I really was saving for my future. Now how do I get back those 22 years- answer is I don't. ( and again when I say I - I know they are multitudes inexactly the same situation).
Kids start today and aside from these ridiculous public job pensions, no one has one, They know they are on their own and can start saving from day 1.
What I see are a lot of kids that grew up in suburbia, very nice life, good schools, vacations...nice houses, relatively crime free and they want exactly the same kind of life- but are not willing to put in the sacrifices many of us did.
well noted here , I am many of my friends grew up on the south side of Chicago, the Englewood area. You know it from the news.. We didn't have a house not did many people, no one could afford it. Gangs were a way of life as were Chicago Public schools for us. Vacations - yeah if you count a drive to Cedar Lake Indiana once every summer for a day. And unlike our president and his wife who somehow managed to supposedly grow up in the same realtive area ( although it is not) - and found their way to Princeton and Harvard - we didn;t know those schools even existed. If you wanted to get ahead you worked 2-3 parttime crappy jobs - you went to school at night and busted your backside to move forward...and if all fell right you did. Most did not. I see NONE of that drive or effort - maybe our ( parents) fault for making things too easy..that is also a possibility.
my kids ( and almost all kids around here) have it much easier. Now don't get me wrong, that was one of my goals to make sure their life was better than mine.. but with hard times upon us, and maybe harder coming, did I equip them with enough fortitude to survive when things don't flow smoothly. I just don't know.
