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[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Have you heard how young people suffer now?
Scroll TikTok, Instagram, etc., you see the same message: “Young people today can’t get ahead!”
One popular meme says when baby boomers like me were young, “A family could own a home, a car and send their kids to college, all on one income.”
“That’s a fantasy,” says economist Norbert Michel. “We are much better off than we were.”
My new video takes the meme’s claims one by one, starting with “a family could own a home.”
On social media, many young people say things like, “Most people don’t live in houses because it’s too expensive.”
Yes, homes cost more now, but census data show more Americans own their homes now than when I was a kid.
And today’s homes are much bigger and twice as likely to have central air, dishwashers, garbage disposals, etc.
We want more now.
Also, young people can afford more now.
Today, Americans actually spend a smaller percentage of our money on food, clothing and housing than we used to, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics survey data.
“We have a lot more things and we don’t have to work as hard to get them,” says Michel. “Now it’s the norm to go out for dinner.”
When I was young, few people did that.
Few people flew places for vacation. They didn’t have the money, and flying cost much more. Adjusted for inflation, a cross-country flight cost $1,000. Now it’s about $300.
“People did not just go on vacation,” says Michel, “did not fly all across the country.”
But the popular narrative circulates.
It’s part of progressives’ campaign for socialism. They tell young people: Not only does capitalism foster greed, inequality, etc., but it doesn’t even deliver the goods.
Columbia Business School Professor Jeremy Ney tells me, “The game changed on the younger generations. Hard work alone is not enough because the deck is stacked against so many folks.”
“The idea that nobody had to work hard, that everybody had job security,” replies Michel, “is absolutely ridiculous. My dad would’ve laughed at that and should have. Income is definitely higher, jobs are more plentiful, opportunities are more plentiful.”
They sure are. Unemployment today is 4.3%. It was almost twice that when I was young.
Gen Z, overall, is doing better than young people once did. A typical 25-year-old Gen Z-er has annual household income that’s 50% above Baby Boomers’.
On to the meme’s claim that when I was young, “a family could afford to send their kids to college.”
Well, yes, some could, because college was much cheaper then. Tuition in 1963 averaged $10,542 (adjusted for inflation) versus $39,307 now.
Even so, “Most people didn’t go to college,” says Michel. “Roughly half of the labor force didn’t even finish high school.”
Finally, yes, it’s true — a family could own a car. But it wasn’t anything like today’s cars. It wasn’t as safe or comfortable, and it broke down sooner. Today’s cars last more than twice as long as cars did then.
Why do people spread misinformation about today’s generations being worse off when they’re clearly so much better off?
“Politically, it sells,” says Michel. “It makes it really easy for a politician to say, ‘I’m going to fix it.'”
Maybe that’s why President Donald Trump campaigned saying, “We don’t have a great country anymore! We’re going back to the old days … ”
“We always have a tendency to believe in the things that are wrong and that are bad,” says Michel. “That’s unfortunate, because overall most people have been doing much, much better.”
That internet meme should really say:
“Once upon a time, a family who rarely ate out, or flew anywhere, could afford a smaller home, a lousy car, and they didn’t send their kids to college. All on one income.”
Our High School they still do the National Anthem at all our Ball Games and fly Old Glory not the Antifa/Rainbow Flags or UN/Mexico Flags either
I was talking with an old friend about our childhood at the Mill Village where we had a big field for football, a baseball field, a Mill Operated Swimming Pool, 4th of July Community Picnic with games and free BBQ (usually the ONLY time of year we had BBQ), oh, and those GAMES? We could win a SILVER DOLLAR! You’d be RICH!! We had our Elementary School – good School lunches (I still recall the Chicken Salad and little flat biscuits and vegetable soup with pimento cheese sandwiches! We had a Community Store that had everything you needed. A Gas station for gas, oil, and tires! We had the woods, the creeks, and a railroad track to “walk the rails”! We had three or four pairs of pants – one for Sunday Church! We had a couple pairs of shoes – play shoes and then the Sunday Church shoes! Most of us had one drawer for underwear and socks and another for our few shirts! During the winter we took a bath on Saturday Night whether we needed it or not – had to be clean for Church! During the summer we never needed a bath – days and nights at the Swimming Pool sufficed! We had a couple of little stores where you could get a hotdog and “pepsi” for $.15 or a cheeseburger for an additional dime! Our QUARTER allowance could go a long way!! We never lacked for entertainment – we had THREE CHANNELS and if one didn’t come in clearly all you had to do was go outside and turn the antenna! Odd that our Parents would let us do that even if there was a lighting storm going on! But then we didn’t have our own rooms, own tv’s with thousands of channels, free porn on Al Gore’s internet (where was Al when WE needed him?), we didn’t have our own phones either! Not much eating out – rarely a “vacation” other than visiting our Grandparents! Old cars with NO A/C – windows rolled down ! No central heat or A/C until I was 18! We played till the street lights came on! We had a whole Village of parents who watched out for us and were QUICK to call Our parents about any issues! We had friends to hang out with – run around with – laugh with – drink water out of a hose pipe with – we were POOR but didn’t KNOW it! I look back on those days and feel very sad for the kids of today!
Yes, those were the good old days. I could walk to the grocery store for my mom with a note on the items she wanted. Gave to the clerk she got the items and I gave the clerk the money she put the change in the envelope and I walked back home. I was eight years old. No fear no problems. Played jump robe, hop scotch, & jacks with neighborhood girls. During the summer when I heard the ice cream truck come down the street, ran out and bought an ice cream bar for 10 cents. Took the trolley back and forth to the YMCA for swimming lessons. Those freedoms are gone.
“Oh, we used to DREAM of living in a corridor… it would have been a palace to us!”
Monty Python fondly reminisces about the bad old days.
Good article but disingenuous to equate Trump’s statements with your main point.
Why was that necessary?
As a kid in the 60s and 70s, we ate out once a month. Vacation was camping or visiting grandparents. Mom cooked from scratch and sewed a lot of our clothes. Other clothes were passed around between cousins. We shared bedrooms but we owned the home. It’s all about living within your means.
Dunno where you get yer numbers.
1955, Orange county Cal, we bough a NEW 4 bedroom tract home at $11,300. A one year old station wagon, v8 engine at $300, (which we sold in 1969 at $500 1965 I attended a private university at $3300 per year room and board included. Transphered to U Cal campus at 3700/year, room and board, next year school only at $2100 and rented a house in town, $300/month shared by three.
In 1967 a new Volvo 122s sedan cost $2200. they got 40+ mpg a highway speeds, most lasted 300 to 400,000 miles. That car today would bring about $40 to $50,000 in good condition. I’d much rathe have that car than any o the garbage being pushed on us today. Easy mainenance, at least as secure and muh ore robust than anything on market today, and they aremuch easier to work on than anything since about 1990 and will outlast them by many times over Gasoline was 10 CENTS per gallon, diesel around 12 to 15 cents. Car insurance was about $20.month, annual license in Cali was $13. In 1972 I bough a two story 2 bedroom house with a seciind 1 bedroom house, a 1200 square’ commercial shop building and a 2 car garage on a commercial lot in northern Cal at $11,300, interest rate 2.3% I ran a mechanical repair shop, my hourly rate was $15 per hour, later raised to a wallopping $20. Property tax on my “estate” ran about $75 per year. These are accurate real numbers I was personally acquaitned with. Oh, and a USPS Postal Box was $12 per year, NOT the outrageous $320 today.
Spoiled brats unacquainted with reality. They look to themselves using the echo chambers of their self-indulgent social media platforms. Many are impulsively driven lacking any comprehensive understanding of the value of delayed gratification in pursing those things for which striving and then accomplishing them have a multiplicity of benefits for building their character and earned self esteem..
They are deficient in developing self-discipline, resourcefulness, resilience, formulating worthwhile dreams necessitating persistence and courage against obstacles, developing a heart of gratitude, self-reflection, appreciation and the triumph over any adversity in striving and then attaining those goals and dreams.
Yes, doing so is a whole lotta work. It is something unfamiliar too many of these coddled kids. Those going to and then graduating from college often pursuing interests without a scintilla of evidence of that degree transferring into the real world as either initially viable or subsequently sustainable as professional employment. They seek the crutches of victimhood in subservience to being taken care of to avoid responsibility and accountability as adults.
They continue with childhood fantasies and their magical desires for instantaneous wealth without effort.
Essentially, a whining group of malcontents who when even marginally tested with the natural spectrum of vicissitudes occurring in life, shrink into a generational tizzy of avoidance.
We should reinstitute the national military draft where they must go through and successfully complete boot camp and then be assigned to a minimum of 2 years of service. Their limited choices would include various units including those designed for national infrastructure renovations and technical projects throughout the country.
Their many infantile grievances about growing up would be quite naturally subsumed into them becoming disciplined young adults with both acquired knowledge and the duly developed experience required for a successful life.
The alternative is to have a growing number of these young adults, unwilling to thrive, becoming the willful subjects to the dictates of others desiring to take control and provide them with a meager existence. And here we have the attractiveness of socialism and communism to them.
Stossel misses the point here in a big way. Ask any baby boomer: do you want to be a young person today or would you prefer to grow up when you did? I’ve yet to meet the baby boomer that envies young people today — and that’s the point. The only reason we spend less on food/housing is because most homeowners are households with multiple incomes. Housing is unaffordable on one income now. Sure, if your “household” income is twice as high because your wife is a career women, then you’ll spend a lower percentage of your income on that.
Today’s America sucks. Nearly every facet of our society has been poisoned. Young white men are demoralized because working harder doesn’t get you ahead. We don’t live in a merit based society anymore. Young white men cannot get decent jobs, despite Stossel suggesting there are “more jobs than ever.” Perhaps that’s true in terms of quantity, but the “good” jobs are reserved for women and minorities. Nearly every employer in America has young women who majored in DEI and minored in Marxism as the gatekeepers for white collar jobs. In other words, women who think a Muslim immigrant Communist make great leaders are in charge of making hiring decisions for corporate America.
Even if men get a job, they inevitably spend their days been hassled by AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Nicole Wallace, Ilhan Omar or many other psychotic Karen’s just like those women. Do you think stupid, nasty women like them are isolated to jobs in government or media? False, these women are everywhere and they’re your sons future supervisor for his career, or at the very least, he’ll have to impress to be considered for employment.
We have corrupt criminal actors all throughout our government and even when they’re caught, nothing happens. If we’re lucky, they might get fired with a $850,000 severance package for their crimes. Meanwhile, my buddy gets fired because some women overheard a joke he told to someone else and reported it to another DEI expert in H.R. and he’s financially destroyed with no recourse. Worse yet, nobody even cares or stands up for him or the other men like him.
I’m sure things are better in America for women and minorities, but they’re far worse in every way for young white men.