They’re trying to build middle-class lives in New York. But many 30-year-olds in the city feel worse off than their parents. Is it average adult angst? Or something more enduring?
Many work full time and earn enough to cover the cost of basic groceries (even if it means trips to three stores). But their salaries are losing ground to inflation, and their health care costs are skyrocketing. They’re cutting back on salon visits, social activities and fresh fruit runs — and they feel priced out of adulthood.
But so much about the lives of Americans has changed during the last three decades. In 1990, a wedding at 26, a baby shower (or two) by 28 or a first home around 30 was ordinary.
Also, yes, being a young adult now is nothing like the world we came up in. It’s why I don’t give young people advice. None of the advice GenX, Millenials, or Boomers could give doesn’t apply to the world these young people are trying to survive in.
None of the advice GenX, Millenials, or Boomers could give doesn’t apply to the world these young people are trying to survive in.
The tough pill to swallow is that no generation alive today has any advice worth a damn for the times, as far as the civil contract goes. The last generation that did have any salient points to share already passed, and even if more of their teachings had stuck, they would still have been incomplete for the velocity of the modern world.
It is time for new solutions by all participant age cohorts, not a rehashing of incompatible nostalgia markers to keep fueling distractions.
I’ve got a cousin in his 30s who posted on social media today that the reason people are broke today is just because they spend too much. He argued that spending $3 for a bottle of Pepsi is the reason people his age are broke. If they just learned to control their spending, they’d all be rich.
Like, I don’t even know where to start with this guy. How can you look at all these people struggling to find well paying jobs and afford to live - and then blame the problem on a $3 drink? It’s the avocado toast thing all over again, except this dude is young enough to know better.
But so much about the lives of Americans has changed during the last three decades. In 1990, a wedding at 26, a baby shower (or two) by 28 or a first home around 30 was ordinary.
it’s such a weird world to me, that sort of life would have left me depressed and suicidal (am an older GenX) and yet it’s apparently aspirational?
No wonder I’ve never fitted in anywhere.
I lived off grid in a mud brick cottage in the forest with my gf for over a decade, lived In various countries in SE Asia with her and now live in a modest cottage on the edge of a tiny town. I had a vasectomy when I was 19 and am now 58.
Also, yes, being a young adult now is nothing like the world we came up in. It’s why I don’t give young people advice. None of the advice GenX, Millenials, or Boomers could give doesn’t apply to the world these young people are trying to survive in.
On the flip side all the ones I know directly through family are doing extraordinarily well, as are all my contemporaries and brother, sister and cousins.
My gf and I are doing ok, (travel the world 8 months a year and home 4 months) so that’s something to be grateful for as well.
Hope everyone who is struggling comes out the other side.
Not going to get better though until societies leeces are drained though (the 1%) and the sledghammer of climate change is now striking humam civilization and those blows can only get worse.
Advice died with the 2008 financial crisis when no one knew why the market was souring and almost every news outlet was struggling to explain big loan and debt swap system. It became apparent that we live in unprecedented times and conventional wisdom was becoming obsolete.
My dad’s roofing business was never the same after 2008, and it had endured since the early 60’s. 2008 and the reaction to it by Obama and Bush is largely what turned me into a hopeless cynic. I plan for the worst in everything now.
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Also, yes, being a young adult now is nothing like the world we came up in. It’s why I don’t give young people advice. None of the advice GenX, Millenials, or Boomers could give doesn’t apply to the world these young people are trying to survive in.
The tough pill to swallow is that no generation alive today has any advice worth a damn for the times, as far as the civil contract goes. The last generation that did have any salient points to share already passed, and even if more of their teachings had stuck, they would still have been incomplete for the velocity of the modern world.
It is time for new solutions by all participant age cohorts, not a rehashing of incompatible nostalgia markers to keep fueling distractions.
Eat a billionaire.
Hey, if you know someone who was working class between like 1900 and 1933 they might have something useful to say.
I’ve got a cousin in his 30s who posted on social media today that the reason people are broke today is just because they spend too much. He argued that spending $3 for a bottle of Pepsi is the reason people his age are broke. If they just learned to control their spending, they’d all be rich.
Like, I don’t even know where to start with this guy. How can you look at all these people struggling to find well paying jobs and afford to live - and then blame the problem on a $3 drink? It’s the avocado toast thing all over again, except this dude is young enough to know better.
Sounds like something they picked up on TikTok.
So very true. At every turn homelessness is just a missed step away.
it’s such a weird world to me, that sort of life would have left me depressed and suicidal (am an older GenX) and yet it’s apparently aspirational?
No wonder I’ve never fitted in anywhere.
I lived off grid in a mud brick cottage in the forest with my gf for over a decade, lived In various countries in SE Asia with her and now live in a modest cottage on the edge of a tiny town. I had a vasectomy when I was 19 and am now 58.
On the flip side all the ones I know directly through family are doing extraordinarily well, as are all my contemporaries and brother, sister and cousins.
My gf and I are doing ok, (travel the world 8 months a year and home 4 months) so that’s something to be grateful for as well.
Hope everyone who is struggling comes out the other side.
Not going to get better though until societies leeces are drained though (the 1%) and the sledghammer of climate change is now striking humam civilization and those blows can only get worse.
Advice died with the 2008 financial crisis when no one knew why the market was souring and almost every news outlet was struggling to explain big loan and debt swap system. It became apparent that we live in unprecedented times and conventional wisdom was becoming obsolete.
Lets be honest, the current AI market with circular investments missing ROI is very similar to the housing market in 2008.
Absolutely.
My dad’s roofing business was never the same after 2008, and it had endured since the early 60’s. 2008 and the reaction to it by Obama and Bush is largely what turned me into a hopeless cynic. I plan for the worst in everything now.