I hate the constant barrage of smug pronouncements and snide remarks from older generations.
"Young people just don't want to work these days!"
No, young people don't want to work for the low wages and hours employers are offering these days. Too many jobs are part-time thanks to Obamacare benefit mandates kicking in and adding cost to full-time employment. We didn't ask for this, we were told it was an intervention for our own good. It failed, but since there were alleged "good intentions," we're stuck with it.
Worse still, what look like good jobs are often phantom postings from companies that aren't really hiring. Employment data is not so great once you realize how many part-time jobs there are and how many people hold multiple such jobs.
"Well, kids these days are wasteful and don't save!"
High inflation and low interest rates make it a challenge to save money traditionally, forcing more and more people into the stock and bond markets, which artificially inflates that sector of the economy. The cost of housing and food outpaces wage increases in many markets, and while some people in every generation are bad at money management, the occasional fancy coffee isn't the root problem, and there isn't a real generational fault.
In fact, debt is a growing problem in America, and many people are hiding behind a mask of prosperity concealing a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle of servicing debt just to stay afloat. Everything from motorized toys to homes is financed, and the usual question is not, "what can you afford," but "what is your monthly payment target?" Low interest rates have incentivized this spendthrift lifestyle, but it is not sustainable.
"When I was your age, I had a full-time job, a house, and a car!"
Assuming you didn't have wealthy parents co-signing your loans, you were still likely able to save (see above) for a down payment and could probably support a family on a single income (see top) with good wages. The world has changed, and it's not so easy today. But who is to blame?
"You have all these technological gizmos we didn't have, though, so why are you mad?"
Every generation for the last several centuries has seen technological advancement. Steam power, gasoline, automobiles, flight. Radio, television, color TV, HDTV. New drugs and medical procedures. That is an indicator of growing prosperity, but not proof nothing is wrong. Gen X and Millennials are seeing a systemic trend where we are worse off than our parents on average, and this is continuing for Zoomers. Gen Alpha is in major trouble. Sure, they're growing up with tablets and streaming services, but what are their prospects for adulthood and prosperity?
"Hard Times Create Strong Men, Strong Men Create Good Times, Good Times Create Weak Men, Weak Men Create Hard Times."
That old saying is dubious at best, and even if true, it's not the flex you think. Who do you think each describes? Baby boomers grew up during good times after World War II with economic expansion and opportunities to save, buy homes, invest, and build a reliable career. Then they dominated politics and the corporate world to build an economy on debt. Stock portfolio and real estate value are not indicators for broader economic sustainability. Wealth has been diverted and consumed as power was consolidated in the hands of a minority, leading to present problems. The people "complaining" are not weak, they are people handed both hard times and the blame for a situation they did not create.
If you believe in the prosperity propaganda from Trump or Biden, you're delusional. Prosperity is a consequence of wealth creation and savings, not money creation and technocratic manipulation. We're living with the inevitable consequences following decades of debt, reckless spending, and high time preference behavior instead of real investment, savings, and long-term low time preference planning. Blaming us for the situation you handed us is the height of condescending ignorance.
The Federal Reserve recently announced rate cuts to the federal funds rate. This tends to precede a significant economic recession within a matter of a few weeks to months, although it can create the illusion of an economic boom in the short term. We're still reeling from the consequences of Trump's COVID policies destroying trade and inflating the money supply. Biden continued the worst of Trump's economic policies while trying to claim credit for what recovery managed to occur in spite of intervention and control. All the bloat is still lurking behind the scenes, and the consolidation of wealth in the hands of the politically-connected accelerated.
The technocrats insist they can engineer a "soft landing," but I anticipate they will have no choice but to acknowledge a recession within the year. Blame will be placed anywhere and everywhere but at the feet of the Fed and their international central bank equivalents. Will this be used to justify more crypto crackdowns, a central bank digital currency, or even more command economy planning? I don't know. I can definitely show that the inverted yield curve is worse than any time in history, and this is typically a harbinger of recession in much milder circumstances.
We can't control the government, but we can take steps to insulate ourselves from the consequences of their mismanagement. Get out of debt. Store some food. Learn some practical skills and buy the tools you need to apply those skills. Connect with your neighbors. The more you prepare for independence and build your local community, the better off you will be, even if I am just a Chicken Little crying that the sky is falling.
