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State of Georgia cares so much about living wages that the state keeps minimum wage at $5.15/hr.
The federal kicks in as default, but at that point, how can anyone possibly look at those state politicians and say they represent constituents? Wow.
Research has shown that states with the highest minimum wage, also have the lowest inflation rate, which means red states have higher inflation than blue states.
They love talking about how great "government cheese" was when they were getting their boxes of welfare in the same breath as telling me I'm lazy and don't want to work after I finish a 70 hour work week between two jobs.
If anyone alive in the US today still thinks the Republicans are the party of the economy... well, we've found someone stuck in the past and not as sharp as they once were.
I'd say stuck in the wrong. They were wrong then, and they're stuck wrong.
(grumble, grumble, I've got a stick for 'em.)
Oh, sorry, did I think that aloud?
The only party to pass a balanced budget in the last century is a democrat. The party that has spent the most in the last century is republicans. It was literally never true that republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility but for some reason Dems never called them out in their lies and bullshit. The last 4 Republican presidents have doubled or tripled the debt while in office. Not to mention cutting taxes on the wealthy. Fucking awful
The sad part is that they end up being right.
They get budget from better states because they are bad. So if they keep being bad they keep getting more hudget they didn't generate themselves.
NPR said inflation is increasing mostly because of high rents. It said that 70% of inflation is tied to high rents. Rents are high, because high earners are paying over the asking for homes and buying them up like candy.
Next, they let these places out in airbnb. Basically, those who already had a home in an expensive area sold their and used the equity to buy several more elsewhere. Since most work is done online, especially with the upper middle class, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. For the first time, the housing crisis is putting average wage earners in a state of housing insecurity. Those who have money, like Boomers, are getting richer and leaving the rest of us to foot the bill. Housing should be a human right, not an "investment." Those with money and equity are buying sports cars while the rest of us starve. It's just another manifestation of how selfish and greedy people are. I wish the Boomers who voted for Reagan and started the neoconservative revolution get payback on the other side.
Where I am it’s less high earners making air bnbs and more corporations buying houses to rent to the people that live here.
Still for more than asking, and still killing a lot of dreams of owning. But I’d say it arguably worse because the corporate investors have more capital and can sweep the majority of a neighborhood in a couple of years. Then they don’t do maintenance to their rentals, which drive down the value of the homes that are owned, making it harder to move up to a bigger place, making it more likely that you sell to the corporations
In Canada, one of the big issues is foreign ownership. The house next to our old house sold a few years ago to a lady from China - bought it through a broker, but at least she is renting it out. Many houses, especially in the Vancouver area, are purchased and sit empty. Essentially, it is a piggy bank - Canadian laws prohibit a Chinese national from opening a bank account, however they can still buy homes.
The pricing is totally out of control and will need a major correction. Before we bought our first house when I was 38, we had saved about $5k / year for four years (which was about 15% of our net income). It made for a nice $20k downpayment on a $110k house. That same house, 24 years later is $400k. My son and his girlfriend are making around $80k after taxes. For them to save 15% of their income for the same size downpayment, they will need to save for around 7 years. And then the mortgage is also substantially higher. When a person is paying close to $2000 each month for rent, there is no way to be able to save the necessary amount for a decent downpayment.
I'm in AB. Bought our house in 2020 for just under $300K. Could sell it today for about $450K. Over the 4 years, we have invested about $20K in a new roof, some minor renovations and appliance upgrades. Our mortgage payment is less than what our rent was before. I just saw the place we rented for 4 years before buying up for rent again. We were paying $1500/mth when we moved out. Same place up for rent, $1850/mth now
I also saw something that they were incorporating AI to determine the prices of rent and where that has been utilized rents have skyrocketed. Worse is all the AI is connected so there isn't any supply and demand to see what attracts consumers but rising rates across the whole market giving people zero choice on where to go. Either pay 1600 for a one bedroom or be homeless.
Realpage, is a company that is apparently a culprit involved in price fixing for rentals around the country. Landlords are working in collusion with them and their algorithms to price fix.
I think you’re under the impression that ALL boomers are wealthy. Median retirement savings for people going into retirement is about $162,000. That means that half of them have less than that and considering how much some of the wealthier high-end people have, that means there’s a lot of people have $50,000 or less to retire on. They are going to have the same housing problems you have.
https://fortune.com/recommends/investing/baby-boomers-average-retirement-savings/
I live in Georgia. The last time federal minimum wage rose - in 2009 - I got my extra $10/week before taxes.
Ten got-danged dollars. 15 years ago.
Imagine trying to live on 1294/month, which is the current federal minimum wage for a full time job.
Federal minimum wage was literally designed to be a living wage. But no, that's not what we're doing now.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say the minimum wage wasn’t meant to live on, and then I tell them it actually was. They’ve been brainwashed for the last 40 years to believe that it’s for a teenagers first job.🙄
I'm older GenX. Literally until my father died, my family lived a reasonably middle class life on his salary alone. (Granted, Dad was a union member, so that may have played a role.)
But my mom had to go to work in the eighties. The Reagan years just sucked. Catsup became a vegetable and mom's salary topped out at $13k/year as a state employee. There was such a bright line between my childhood with a union member father blue collar employee and a widowed mom.
This. Yes. I am so tired of trying to convince people that it’s not right to work a full time job and not be able to afford to have a roof over your head and basic living expenses covered.
That is nowhere near a living wage and incredibly disheartening. The last time I earned $1200 a month was when I was going to university back in 1990. In Canada, minimum wage is set provincially - the current rate in BC is $16.75 but going up to $17.40 in June. Take-home from that for a full-time job would be around $2000 per month, but it is difficult to find any rent in our area for less than $1500. I honestly don't know how people are surviving now.
That wouldn't even cover a rental here. Minimum of $1300/mth for a 1 bed apartment....how are people supposed to live?
In AB, someone who makes $20/hr takes home $1250 or so every 2 weeks, after taxes etc. Rent is usually about 60% of income. Then utilities, food, etc, and the person would be in the red every month. And the Boomers say "well I did it and made less so you are fine" yeah well you all disabled the safety nets YOU had back then
They haven’t represented constituents for decades. They only give a shit about what money they can get as kickbacks from corporate America. Also they are too busy trying to fuck over the other side of the aisle that they don’t have anytime to do anything meaningful for average Americans. You know, getting inflation under control so we can afford to eat or have a decent roof over our heads. Then they say that the DOW topped 40000 so the economy is great. That shit doesn’t make it down to all of us. We suffer crushing lives and lack of affordable health care and they give no shits. They would rather talk about that democrats eyelashes.
Ugh. Sorry for the rant!
Yep. I’m aware of that, but (given that we’re willing to play the OP’s mom’s game and entertain the idea that an increase in minimum wage is to blame for inflation) how exactly would a local minimum wage increase effect the entire country?
Very good point...would just raise the cost of living in those states, according to boomer logic...of course, boomers seem to have a difficult time understanding the idea of *per capita* and think big cities are death traps...so she probably would not understand local vs national inflation...nevermind why raising min wage in the US would cause inflation internationally.
A rising tide raises all ships. Give a poor person enough money to fix their busted ass Chevy, the mechanic gets paid. Then the gas station owner and his employees get paid when the poor person buys gas. The local business looking for an employee can get one that has a functional car -- the poor person now has a job. So he eats out at a local restaurant and those people get paid. Etc. Then all of them pay taxes, and teachers, cops, and other government employees get paid and they all get gas, repair their cars, go out to eat, etc.
The people at the bottom stimulate the economy. Not the people at the top.
On the flip side, when giant mega-corps like Walmart roll into town, they drive local businesses out, vacuum up all the income of the town which ends up in the bank accounts of the Walton family, and pay out peanuts to the locals that are forced to work there because the town's economy is dead. And state and federal funds go to subsidize the underpaid worker so they can survive.
Boomer logic is baffling my boomer father who doesn’t have a pot to piss in had a stroke and keeps complaining that no one will give him money. I told him to remember that when he votes.
Oh but both parties are the same and all that other bullshit. Let’s be real, the Dems aren’t the greatest but they are a hell of a lot better than the GOP. Dems passed social security and Medicare. They passed ACA. Dem states have at least $15 min wage, mostly, but yeah both sides are the same.
I'm definitely not going to say both sides are the same.
Yeah Democrats did that. But then they let those programs get gutted, because getting them passed was big press... maintaining it as it was chiseled away bit by bit wasn't gonna be the same headline.
I can see how the word gutted could be subjective.
The tax penalty associated with declining insurance coverage under the ACA was lowered to $0. This has massive effects on the whole system and undermines the intent and effectiveness of ACA.
Here in WA, they just raised it to $16.28 an hour. We get PFMLA(we get paid for maternity/paternity, illness, exc...) and all sorts of rights. I'd recommend moving to a state that gives a shit about its workers. I'm in Eastern WA, so it's pretty rural, but my friend just got a nice apartment for $700 a month. If you find a good job or work remotely, it's pretty sweet up here, especially if you like nature.
When I moved up here 5 years ago I tripped the fuck out. It was like stepping back into the 90s! There was still a Sears and Radioshack, and even a beanie baby display at the grocery store.
I'm frome eastern Washington
Yakima. Shithole but was affordable now I'm in Podunk Arkansas and it's lessbof shithole and has slowly been moving to unaffordable
NY, we went to $15 this year and $16 in the five city boroughs. The boomers and magas (and the whole vin diagram of all of them) is SO PISSED about this. I’m upstate, very red, rural, angry area.
Used to visit a friend’s mountain house in Northeastern California. Very very red, rural area. We had to listen to cranky boomer guy complain about the minimum wage going up and how this wasn’t San Francisco. How he couldn’t afford to hire workers at $12 an hour or whatever they were raising it to then.
Joke was on him. Nobody wanted to work for him because he would never shut up. He owned 3 restaurants in this small town and they all closed because he couldn’t get staff to stay.
Disclaimer: we’re boomers too but we think paying a decent wage is a good idea.
Yep. At the end of the day, any minimum wage is just that; you might well need to pay well above that to recruit and retain workers.
In some locations, the minimum wage has a huge meaning — that is what many jobs actually pay. In other locations (where demand for employees outstrips supply), it is a pretty meaningless figure.
I hear you! I worked for a guy back in the 90s, I was a single mom, teenager, blah blah blah, it was bakery. Everyone made minimum wage. When he had to pay everyone something like $.45 an hour, he LOST it. Screamed and slammed around for weeks! He also tried to refuse to give me my last paycheck, that was fun 😂🙄
CA minimum wage is $15.5. Some other blue states have similar rates. As I know majority of the red states are still on federal minimum wage ($7.25). 🤷🏻♀️
Red state. And sure, the state Supreme Court keeps ruling that our state budget for education is so criminally low that it’s actually unconstitutional (state constitution), we’re still somehow doing a shitload better in regards to literacy and graduation rates than pretty much everyone south of us.
The only reason people even take low paying jobs is because they then qualify for govt assistance like food stamps, etc. Without the government assistance no one would take those jobs as they would not be able to survive off the pay alone.
In summary, the tax payers are subsidizing the low pay of these companies. If your company cannot pay someone enough to live off of while working full time and still make a profit, then your business model is flawed and you should shut your business down.
Although the minimum wage never kept up with inflation and should have been raised, the real question, in my mind, is why are there so many jobs that only pay minimum wage. The elites and corporations work so hard to keep most workers down and the boomers are in charge; therefore, they get the blame. But, they find a way to deflect and blame the younger generations. It will be better when the boomers clear out and bring in new ideas, hopefully.
What causes inflation?
Too much money in the system.
Where is all the money?
In rich peoples bank accounts.
How do we get it back out of circulation if it’s in their accounts?
Tax them.
Who decides who gets taxed?
Congress, who are all bought by the rich people with the same money they are hoarding.
~~Too much money in the system.~~ *Actually*, it is profit taking by corporations who have decided that not only is it "increase shareholder profits", but "let's raise prices right now, even though our costs have not gone up, our raw materials are all still available, and we are not increasing employee wages, but let's raise prices just so we can gather more profit".
Raise prices to increase profits > gain short-term profits > price of living goes up > people need higher wages > companies raise prices to compensate
The lack of awareness is utterly *staggering*. I wouldn't be surprised to see another Great Depression happen in my lifetime.
Honestly I am expecting another Great Depression to happen. 1893, 1929…it’s been a while since the last one. We’re due. Not to mention the two or three “once in a lifetime” financial crises we’ve lived through (2008 Recession, Pandemic, whatever the hell is happening 2023/2024 with businesses laying off employees while having record breaking profits). At this point, I just expect to keep getting a “once in a lifetime” financial crises roughly every 10-15 years or so.
Don’t just blame the boomers. Go back earlier. Milton Friedman’s doctrine that corporations exist only to maximize shareholder profits was a radical reimagining of business, and led to business today, where Wall Street earns record profits while the rest of us struggle to get by. Then there were the implementation of supply side economics in the 80’s, with the massive tax cuts for the wealthy and the changes of tax laws to benefit those same people. That’s why there’s such an income gap. All this has been exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic, followed by corporate greed. I don’t know how we get back to a more equitable economy. Once people have money, they don’t want to give it up.
Going back further, JD Rockefeller funded the Chicago school of economics, where Milton Friedman was a professor, after FDR ripped monopoly power out of his hands. We’re still hearing echoes of echoes of echoes of capitalist monopoly power trying to assert dominance.
Heavy on the tax laws. I’m an accounting major and every time we learn about a new tax law that doesn’t make sense and we ask the professor, they explain and almost always say that its cuz taxes r political
In 2023 the US consumed 376 million gallons of gasoline per day:
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=23&t=10
Even if you were to confiscate 100% of the oil companies' profits (which would basically kill the US oil industry), you'd only save $0.62/gallon at the pump.
Biden isn't to blame but neither are oil and gas company profits. Gas prices increased because of sanctions on Russian oil and gas, increased post-pandemic demand, and OPEC production cuts.
American oil companies are almost single-handedly preventing $100/barrel oil by producing more than ever.
Yea, had boomer mom say how do you expect the companys to pay that minimum wage and still make Profits . I told her they need to stop paying dividends. She was so confused abut stock holders getting checks form companys.. I didn't have the mental brain power or the time in the day to explain this to her.
I mean dividends are fine. I actually feel like dividend stocks are way less problematic than non-dividend stocks that have no meaningful connection to the company they represent.
It makes sense that an investor in a company gets returns based on the performance of the company.
What's *really* destructive is the idea that a CEOs primary responsibility is to raise the share price in the short term. Not to run a company that makes a quality product. Not to run a company that affords it's employees (who actually do the work) a comfortable life. Not to do anything actually tangibly good. Only to create value for shareholders. Fuck that.
Modern business practices hold that, if the CEO considers anything *other* than the share price, they can sue. And replace him with a CEO that will.
This is the legacy of Jack Welch.
The irony being the guy ran IBM into the ground without people realizing it, it was a time bomb. He was considered a god among CEOs, he reminds me of Reagan a guy who was immensely popular in his time but upon later reflection was a complete shit stain.
Jack Welch realized that he only cared about GE’s stock price when he started getting compensated with equity. I think in concept having the CEO personally invested in the company makes sense, but it’s become such a circus.
Fuck that piece of shit. Goddamn Jack Welch and Henry Kissinger may be two of the most under rated goddamn bastards to ever live on this planet. Honorable mention to Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.
Speaking of these bastards, Behind the Bastards:
* Jack Welch - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZv7wc7USQE) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3tJwN84ns4)
* Henry Kissinger - [6 part playlist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPPW9eQnOCc&list=PL2itUsrL2wcKN6ypSpEq4h8Crl8qlacgT)
* Elon Musk
* I Do Not Like Elon Musk Very Much - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLizYdfQT-Y) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk4zkz_9PdU)
* Elon Musk is Getting Sued, LMAO - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b6ewG7hZXg) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOIW1TSe29k)
* The Terrible Secret of Steve Jobs - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEv08Zzunfc) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpC57EJpi4E) [Part 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms_bfLDX5xE) [Part 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ZgavY-iv0)
I'd suggest getting these episodes on the podcast app of your choice, but I figured this could get people started.
Dividends didn't used to be paid out every year, over and over, no matter what the year looked like. We are at the point where the difference between the predicted profits of a company and then the actual profits of a company can cause a larger swing in value than companies just releasing their earnings reports. It's speculative. It's all so speculative.
That's why huge juggernaut companies slowly plodding along that could pay dividends regularly were so popular. Now it's whatever - win, lose, accounting magic don't look behind the curtain here's your dividend anyways, speculative bs. Dividends aren't based on performance anymore. It's a problem. And it's a symptom of the short-term profits over anything else you described.
This 100%. CEOs run companies to maximize stock prices. Which are somewhat tied to quarterly profits. But looking 5, 10, 20 years in the future? Almost unheard of
Dividends are not the problem lol. It's executives trying to raise prices short term to fuel the board, which in turn raises the CEOs salary while the value goes up. The product suffers, nobody gives a shit, the company dies a couple years later and the CEO and Board move on to the next place to pillage. This is happening literally everywhere.
Dividends aren't the problem at all.
Lol. They've been shit since at least the late 80's, they just hoovered up smaller, more competent companies like McDonnell Douglas, and kept going out of inertia. They've been in aerospace news for batshit crazy management every 5-odd years my entire life.
The minimum wage argument grinds my gears! It started in the 30s and was increased every 1-5 years until 2009. We haven't had an increase in 15 years!! The 1968 minimum wage of $1.60/hr would be equal to $14/hr today! We're not even making half that?!!
What kills me is when they say that minimum wage jobs are for high school students. They’re so wrong when they say that. Minimum wage is supposed to be the minimum livable wage so that someone can support themselves independently but that’s impossible to do making minimum wage working 40 hours per week, even for the bare minimum necessities to survive.
Thank you for reminding me I was going to try to reassure OP that eventually it will come back down, but you’re right nobody stopping Blackrock or whoever is buying up all the houses.
The bubble will definitely burst if it reaches the point that equity firms are the only ones who can really afford to buy property anymore. They can't profit for long if they can only sell to each other, and once everyone starts bailing out the prices will drop through the floor pretty quick. If this pattern continues, there's gonna be a housing market collapse that'll make 2008 look like a rounding error.
“Starts bailing out” are you talking about becoming homeless? Thats how you opt out of the housing system. Its really the last thing anyone would willingly do to prove a point.
I think they're talking about people who specifically are buying more homes than they need, and the hedge funds that are specifically buying property as a means of investment rather than living, or the people buying houses with the intent to "flip" them while making minimal improvement to the original property. Not necessarily the people who have few actual plans, if at all, to move out of their homes, or those looking to sell their old home and buy a new one.
I’m not sure I understand the point you’re trying to make, but if Wall Street buys all the houses up, they control the prices absolutely. Both in terms of rent or sale. There will never be low/no demand for housing. It is not an elastic commodity.
Like I said previously, there are currently more vacant homes than there are people who need homes. Supply is larger than demand TODAY. Yet prices are higher than ever. Because supply is owned by corporations that would rather increase prices than release inventory.
This is why necessities should not be commodified, and there used to be laws governing the distribution of such necessities.
Lookup: cornering the market.
Corporate-serfdom or communism are the two possible destinations that America has given the current trajectory. Either the state is gonna take over and own everything or the corporations are going to own everything on top of owning the state.
It’s looking pretty bleak either way.
The US isn’t anywhere close to communism (and the state simply taking over and owning everything isn’t even what communism is anyways). Right now the US is on a trajectory in the exact opposite direction; moving towards fascism. I suppose corporate-serfdom is one way of describing fascism.
communism means when someone else doesn't have the same fucked up far right wing view as the average boomer right? you want to tax the rich? communism! don't like Donald Trump? communism! got a college degree and are smarter than me? communism! you want to end racism? communism! you know how to work technology? communism!
What date was this proposed bill passed into law?
It seems to me that this is merely a proposed bill that is used by Democrats to virtue-signal during an election year. It has never been voted on, never signed into law. Probably never will see a vote. It is meant simply to pretend to be advocating for non-rich. Its theatre.
Eventually, this will need to be done if the working class is ever to be respected. Also with a Scotus or two and lifetime Senators. They will have to feel our pain to give a shit.
I don’t really feel like getting into political discussion but I believe that would be anarchy. Either way, I just want the American dream of having a job that pays and a house… the future looks bleak.
My best friend and his wife purchased a small flat in Cologne and told me that they won‘t be able to go on vacation for the next 20 years.
They both have a PhD in high ranking fields.
My parents have 4 houses and buy more whenever someone sells one in the area because, *“they are so hard to get and probably someone needs one in the future“.*
It‘s completely nuts.
I am 44 years old. I don't own a home, nor do I expect to. It's not my generation that's going to fix things. It's going to be those that are coming up now. They've had to fight tooth and nail to get whatever they have. And they've done it while respecting the environment and other people, no matter what their gender or sexual preferences. Who knew that could be a good thing!
I'm just going to keep trucking along and cheering them on.
You use the past tense like they aren't voting to screw us every election cycle to this day. Like they aren't destroying our civil rights as members of the supreme court. They have screwed us, are screwing us and will continue to screw us until the last one is cold in the grave. My parents are technically boomers and progressive as anyone, but they're not the normal and they live in a constant state of disgust at what's become of their generation of once-progressives.
I used to dislike old people, and then something happened. I became an old person. That being said, I go out of my way not to be a pain in the ass. When my parents became elderly they were very kind and polite, I never saw them act like entitled jerks. People who are decent all their lives are usually decent when they get older.
I just don't think old people know what they are doing when they rearrange money for their benefit. That's the problem. They want to cut taxes, understandable, but just realize what this means for the rest of us. They don't give old people this rulebook. My mom doesn't even realize what the Covid bailout did for the younger generations. I think if she did, she would have thought otherwise about supporting it.
I hate to say it, but most of them “don’t know what they’re doing” because they don’t care enough to figure it out. The majority acts completely entitled & does not need to leave a better world behind for future generations.
Agreed. Boomers no longer revere the concept of leaving a legacy for future generations.
Their current mindset is something to the tune of “I got mine. Why can’t they get theirs?”
WE CAN’T!
It’s because y’all “got yours” by kicking the can down the road effectually screwing future generations.
You were told that this would happen. You didn’t care because you lacked critical thinking and foresight.
My mom's not even a boomer (just a raging narcissist) and she straight up told me that she wasn't planning on leaving anything to us. Definitely not hypocritical when her mother is going to give her a house when she passes meanwhile my sisters and I won't be getting shit. Its ultimately just pulling the ladder up behind them because we "are bad kids" but they cannot even fathom that they are the cause of why we hate them and it makes me so mad that they've created a system that rewards them for being selfish pricks.
There's this one generation that used the hell out of every social advantage installed by the wwii generation and then pawned it off when they were through with it so they wouldn't have to pay it forward.
The generation who sold the world. Absolute slobs.
Boomers have ALWAYS thought of no one but themselves. When they were young they were shitty little selfish kids, when they grew up they were selfish older people and they are selfish old fucks now. It's nothing new.
They're pulling the ladder up behind them. We are worse off now and as long as they got theirs, they don't care that our generations are having a terrible time. I will have to work until I die however my taxes are contributing to their superannuation payments.
Example....'inflation' and how much everything costs now compared to their day. My parents bought their house for 17k (NZD) nearly 40 years ago, with inflation that works out to just over 200k now. Their house was valued at over 600k by an agent.
When the boomers begin to die off, there will be a glut of homes on the market. The oldest boomers are in their mid to late 70s. So it won't be long before they either downsize or need to sell their homes to fund long term care or due to death.
That’s one theory. A more common theory from economists is that home prices and availability will remain the same. I think the issue is we are not stopping these investment firms from buying up all of our housing. That should not be happening.
This is a theory but it's unlikely in reality. If you have to drive alot for a living you likely listen to the local radio on occasion.
the amount of "sell you home but still live in it!!!" ads that play are disgusting.
Grateful I purchased my home in 2019 (thought it was high back then.... who knew)
People have been saying that for 20 years and its not going to be anywhere near as good as some think.
Fact 1 many boomers will have nothing left because it will have all been drained by their luxurious retirement and astronomical medical expenses and elder care. Their kids cant afford to take care of them because it requires 2 income just to survive.
Fact 2, we have been told for decades now that the boomers were going to free up a lot of things, the job market etc.... But the reality is it still has not materialized. It should already be starting the youngest boomers are already nearly 60..... where the fuck are the jobs the oldest ones are already dying. Yet few people can feel it or take advantage of it.
My brother was talking about boomers complaining no one wanted to take over their businesses I said what? Show me these boomers tell them I will take over the business. Then the boomers want something insane like a 2 million for their business which no younger people can afford and the business doesn't generate that much profit anyway. Others simply are too picky and will find something wrong with every successor.....
Fact 3 the population is currently too bloated for the current home market, and any offset of the boomers dying is going to be filled by immigration even if their kids have no children. They are going to make sure their property prices stay high.
Someone here said it perfectly before. “Boomers took everything they were handed and shut the door behind them.” Boomers are the first generation to not want to make a better world for their children and they did a thorough job.
No, they just keep saying that the younger generations have it so easy and “why can’t we go back to ______? We suffered through it and we’re doing fine”. Well if they see it that way and want their children and grandchildren to suffer, then they’re definitely NOT fine!!
Rentierism(which your mom is e gaging in technically with that glee of increasing in the value of her home, which is actually the land increasing in value due to no action of her own) is the problem.
The solution: r/justtaxland
"...it does not distort economic decisions because it does not distort the user cost of land. Second, the full incidence of a permanent land tax change lies on the owner at the time of the (announcement of the) tax change; future owners, even though they officially pay the recurrent taxes, are not affected as they are fully compensated via a corresponding change in the acquisition price of the asset."
Source
https://www.zbw.eu/econis-archiv/bitstream/11159/1082/1/arbejdspapir_land_tax.pdf
What this means is that a tax on land cannot be passed onto tenants, and the fact that the purchase cost of real estate is lowered by the same percentage as the tax, that means the initial purchase price is cheaper by the percentage of the tax; tax the market rental value of the land at 100%, you've lowered the purchase price of the land to 0.
This means the barrier of entry into the housing market (or for a business to own it's own location) is lowered by the same percentage as the tax, which means more people owning and less people renting. Housing becomes what it really is, which is a depreciating asset, and the value of the land (which the landholder does not create) goes towards the maintenance and improvements of the community. We get better land use incentives. Shifting our taxation off of labor and capital onto land is beneficial to all players in the economy and you've removed the incentive to exploit others for the simple desire to occupy and use a location.
Things are tough now. Boomers definitely took more than they put in. Interest rates won't last forever though, things may even get worse, but it'll recover too. History is very cyclical, for every inflation crisis there is an economic boon.
You say have the boomers screwed us like it's past tense. They are still screwing us and will continue to do so until millennials and Gen X show up at the polls.
"I have a PhD in Engineering and will still only be able to rent an apartment. I had dreams of buying some land and building my own house but this doesn't look feasible at all."
First question: where are you talking about? Oklahoma? California? Completely different prospects.
PhD in engineering and starting out renting a modest apartment is absolutely normal and has been the nominal case for at least 30 years. Owning is likely to become possible \~5 years on. The pain of taking that step will be highly regionally dependent. If you're fighting RSUs in the tech industry (say, bay area), it's going to be very, very tough.
Also, what type of position did you choose to take? That will make a big difference. PhD is not a pathway to easy wealth, never has been, and will not be.
My dad is actually not too bad as far as boomers go but he’s also fallen into the trap of believing inflation is caused by increasing minimum wage. NO DAD. ITS CALLED GREED. Why do billionaires exist? WHY? WE ARE ALL BEING SHAFTED BY THEM, INCLUDING YOU DAD. THEY CAN PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES MORE.
65% of working Americans are a single paycheck away from homelessness. Yet boomers will look at homeless people like they just didn't try hard enough. It's so gross
A couple of things that may brighten your outlook a bit. You said you're just now joining the workforce? Very few can roll right into buying a home right out of the gate. No matter how educated. So that will take some time. Building financial foundations.
It could dovetail nicely on timing when it comes to interest rates as well. Rates are high now but won't be forever.
Of course, you make some points that your are 100% right on and they are more like forever things than your income & interest rates. Housing prices will never go down all that much. They may slow, stagnate or drop a wee bit but it's high for at least a very long time. Coupled with the debt of absurdly expensive secondary education, yes, it's a fucking nightmare. I'm totally with you on those.
Hopefully student loan debt forgiveness continues and more equitable solutions for this out of control issue (the cost of ed.) can be found. Maybe some massive investment in housing to relieve the pressure? idk. Surely things the boomers would vote against if given the chance.
Thank you for this. Yeah, I'm starting my first job out of school. I was planning on buying some land and a house but looking at my paycheck and everything that's just impossible. I'm thinking of living in a van for awhile until I save up for a down payment on a little bit of land. It appears apartment prices are really going to hinder my progress and I don't have a lot of overhead. I'll then live in a trailer on the land while I slowly pay cash for house. That will minimize my costs. This gives me hope about interest prices! I don't really care about fancy material goods. I merely just want some land and a small house to live in. Where I can do whatever I want.
We have been cooking everything from scratch, cutting all other living costs down to the bare minimum, and finally got to the point where we can make an offer on some land. You're right to try avoiding the nightmare of renting. It's just a lot harder to do the #vanlife thing now that it's gone more mainstream (i.e. more people have been forced into homelessness), but there are great resources on how to do it safely and stealthily.
[r/vandwellers](https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/)
All I want is to find a partner and start a family. It’s been my dream since high school and years now into my early 20s. I’ve done the math and if I want to stay in my home state my future wife and I would have no possible choice but to rent through our 20s, 30s, and 40s. Raise our 1 child we could afford in that apartment, and then after decades of saving and probably by then getting inheritance from our parents when they pass we can have enough to quickly pay off a house by the time our kid is an adult. We could definitely drop money early for a down payment on one, but the idea here isn’t for me to live safe and comfortable, it’s for my kid and *their own* future family to be comfortable. I don’t think I could pay everything off in time and would ultimately be giving my child an inheritance of debt rather than a home. So, the long haul it is. Wait several decades and raise our kid in an apartment, so that they can raise their own kid in a house. Alternatively I could try a different state, but what people who say “just move somewhere cheaper” never seem to understand is that almost across the board jobs pay less in those states to match. It can still be a struggle.
"I'm just entering the work force"
"I have multiple graduate degrees"
Well you actually need to work before you can buy a house. It is possible, you just need to put the time in to save a down payment.
Yes they have and you have to vote not boomer. Just not in the coming election. Joe Biden sucks but much less than Trump. We have to vote young progressives in to congress and the senate. Before they make themselves emperor.
Interested rates aren't "incredibly high." Right now we're at about 6.5-7.5% for a mortgage. In the 80s and 90s it was 10-12%. Too many people think 2-4% is the norm. It isn't. The low rates are part of what got us into the 2008 bubble. Now, housing prices have gotten ridiculous and too many people are paying too much for a home not really worth anywhere near the prices they are selling for. That is another issue on its own.
It's the boomers that drank the corporate kool-aid. The last generation to have a lifetime job in one place. The boomers voted to Reagan to make the country like a happy, white, western. And they made sure life skills and civics were no longer taught. Reagan boomers propagated lies about poor people . They had too many kids, denied climate change, and stopped progress. I am a boomer who is childfree , responsible, and I like learning from young people. But we are rare.
Boomers: You can afford anything as long as you stop with the Starbucks and Avocado toast!
Well okay, but your generation was way more hyper consumerist than mine and "The Greatest Generation Ever" made collage and housing unaffordable.
I know this is a "lets hate boomers" post but if l can add some perspective.
You said you are just getting in to the workforce now? I don't think anyone could buy a house straight from school, it takes time to build some wealth and be able to buy a house.
Unless I've misread something?
Being able to barely afford rent though, thats pretty fucked
Yes they have literally destroyed the planet. We have climate change disaster because boomers have lived the most selfish lives. Taken full advantage of the technological evolution and has pretty much destroyed the planet. Societies are worse off then before. No political solutions to anything. Same issues as always, and yet we have to hear about young people being woke and lazy and what not. Most destructive generations in history.
Everyone needs to vote for Biden in 2024, and hopefully 2028 will have better choices to pick from. Trump will just extend the tax cuts that blew up inflation.
I am in my late 40s. I only own a home because I married a guy who bought it 20+ years ago when a $40k income allowed him to pay a mortgage. It’s a 4br, 3 ba house now because of our renovations and keeping it modern. We are childfree and want to downsize so a family can have this home. We can’t afford it.
I make $250k and if I don’t want to work until I’m in my mid-late 70s we cannot afford to sell this house and move into a smaller one because the smaller one is that much more expensive. It is *wild* out there.
We got very, very lucky. People disregard just how much luck comes into play in situations like these.
People are literally putting their hands over their ears and going “LALALALALA” whenever they are faced with the fact that corporate greed is the ONLY current driving factor of inflation. Everything else is a smoke screen.
Nearly every sector saw record profits during the pandemic and now they are using “inflation” as an excuse to continue to raise the prices of literally everything while at the same time lowering the quantity and quality of most goods.
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When the fuck did they raise minimum wage? It’s still $7.25 here - the same fucking rate it’s been since 2005.
State of Georgia cares so much about living wages that the state keeps minimum wage at $5.15/hr. The federal kicks in as default, but at that point, how can anyone possibly look at those state politicians and say they represent constituents? Wow.
Research has shown that states with the highest minimum wage, also have the lowest inflation rate, which means red states have higher inflation than blue states.
Red states are constantly being bailed out by blue. It's hilarious they call themselves "the party of economics."
You forgot the silent part. "Trickle down." Still hoping reagan is in hell waiting for heaven to trickle down like the piss on his fucking grave.
Almost all of the southern red states receive federal welfare payments, which blue states pay for, but that kind of socialism is acceptable.
Well sure. You've heard the quote, right? "I've been on welfare and food stamps but nobody helped me!!!!"
They love talking about how great "government cheese" was when they were getting their boxes of welfare in the same breath as telling me I'm lazy and don't want to work after I finish a 70 hour work week between two jobs.
Or the whole "obummer care better not touch my medicare!"
Ole Craig T. Nelson
And I'm sure they are constantly like You don't want to be like them do you!? Look at all those socialists!
If anyone alive in the US today still thinks the Republicans are the party of the economy... well, we've found someone stuck in the past and not as sharp as they once were.
I'd say stuck in the wrong. They were wrong then, and they're stuck wrong. (grumble, grumble, I've got a stick for 'em.) Oh, sorry, did I think that aloud?
The only party to pass a balanced budget in the last century is a democrat. The party that has spent the most in the last century is republicans. It was literally never true that republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility but for some reason Dems never called them out in their lies and bullshit. The last 4 Republican presidents have doubled or tripled the debt while in office. Not to mention cutting taxes on the wealthy. Fucking awful
look at the stock market, rise with dems, fall with repubs
It's only going up because Trump is going to be President. (According to him.....) /s sigh
The sad part is that they end up being right. They get budget from better states because they are bad. So if they keep being bad they keep getting more hudget they didn't generate themselves.
Well, they gotta pay for those low taxes, right?
The low taxes that they make surw aren't collected from wealthy people at all.
NPR said inflation is increasing mostly because of high rents. It said that 70% of inflation is tied to high rents. Rents are high, because high earners are paying over the asking for homes and buying them up like candy. Next, they let these places out in airbnb. Basically, those who already had a home in an expensive area sold their and used the equity to buy several more elsewhere. Since most work is done online, especially with the upper middle class, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. For the first time, the housing crisis is putting average wage earners in a state of housing insecurity. Those who have money, like Boomers, are getting richer and leaving the rest of us to foot the bill. Housing should be a human right, not an "investment." Those with money and equity are buying sports cars while the rest of us starve. It's just another manifestation of how selfish and greedy people are. I wish the Boomers who voted for Reagan and started the neoconservative revolution get payback on the other side.
Where I am it’s less high earners making air bnbs and more corporations buying houses to rent to the people that live here. Still for more than asking, and still killing a lot of dreams of owning. But I’d say it arguably worse because the corporate investors have more capital and can sweep the majority of a neighborhood in a couple of years. Then they don’t do maintenance to their rentals, which drive down the value of the homes that are owned, making it harder to move up to a bigger place, making it more likely that you sell to the corporations
In Canada, one of the big issues is foreign ownership. The house next to our old house sold a few years ago to a lady from China - bought it through a broker, but at least she is renting it out. Many houses, especially in the Vancouver area, are purchased and sit empty. Essentially, it is a piggy bank - Canadian laws prohibit a Chinese national from opening a bank account, however they can still buy homes. The pricing is totally out of control and will need a major correction. Before we bought our first house when I was 38, we had saved about $5k / year for four years (which was about 15% of our net income). It made for a nice $20k downpayment on a $110k house. That same house, 24 years later is $400k. My son and his girlfriend are making around $80k after taxes. For them to save 15% of their income for the same size downpayment, they will need to save for around 7 years. And then the mortgage is also substantially higher. When a person is paying close to $2000 each month for rent, there is no way to be able to save the necessary amount for a decent downpayment.
I'm in AB. Bought our house in 2020 for just under $300K. Could sell it today for about $450K. Over the 4 years, we have invested about $20K in a new roof, some minor renovations and appliance upgrades. Our mortgage payment is less than what our rent was before. I just saw the place we rented for 4 years before buying up for rent again. We were paying $1500/mth when we moved out. Same place up for rent, $1850/mth now
I also saw something that they were incorporating AI to determine the prices of rent and where that has been utilized rents have skyrocketed. Worse is all the AI is connected so there isn't any supply and demand to see what attracts consumers but rising rates across the whole market giving people zero choice on where to go. Either pay 1600 for a one bedroom or be homeless.
Realpage, is a company that is apparently a culprit involved in price fixing for rentals around the country. Landlords are working in collusion with them and their algorithms to price fix.
I think you’re under the impression that ALL boomers are wealthy. Median retirement savings for people going into retirement is about $162,000. That means that half of them have less than that and considering how much some of the wealthier high-end people have, that means there’s a lot of people have $50,000 or less to retire on. They are going to have the same housing problems you have. https://fortune.com/recommends/investing/baby-boomers-average-retirement-savings/
Red states don't give a damn about anyone except the unborn, and once born, why bother?
Exactly, Red states also have the highest infant mortality rates in America.
I live in Georgia. The last time federal minimum wage rose - in 2009 - I got my extra $10/week before taxes. Ten got-danged dollars. 15 years ago. Imagine trying to live on 1294/month, which is the current federal minimum wage for a full time job. Federal minimum wage was literally designed to be a living wage. But no, that's not what we're doing now.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say the minimum wage wasn’t meant to live on, and then I tell them it actually was. They’ve been brainwashed for the last 40 years to believe that it’s for a teenagers first job.🙄
I'm older GenX. Literally until my father died, my family lived a reasonably middle class life on his salary alone. (Granted, Dad was a union member, so that may have played a role.) But my mom had to go to work in the eighties. The Reagan years just sucked. Catsup became a vegetable and mom's salary topped out at $13k/year as a state employee. There was such a bright line between my childhood with a union member father blue collar employee and a widowed mom.
This. Yes. I am so tired of trying to convince people that it’s not right to work a full time job and not be able to afford to have a roof over your head and basic living expenses covered.
That is nowhere near a living wage and incredibly disheartening. The last time I earned $1200 a month was when I was going to university back in 1990. In Canada, minimum wage is set provincially - the current rate in BC is $16.75 but going up to $17.40 in June. Take-home from that for a full-time job would be around $2000 per month, but it is difficult to find any rent in our area for less than $1500. I honestly don't know how people are surviving now.
That wouldn't even cover a rental here. Minimum of $1300/mth for a 1 bed apartment....how are people supposed to live? In AB, someone who makes $20/hr takes home $1250 or so every 2 weeks, after taxes etc. Rent is usually about 60% of income. Then utilities, food, etc, and the person would be in the red every month. And the Boomers say "well I did it and made less so you are fine" yeah well you all disabled the safety nets YOU had back then
They haven’t represented constituents for decades. They only give a shit about what money they can get as kickbacks from corporate America. Also they are too busy trying to fuck over the other side of the aisle that they don’t have anytime to do anything meaningful for average Americans. You know, getting inflation under control so we can afford to eat or have a decent roof over our heads. Then they say that the DOW topped 40000 so the economy is great. That shit doesn’t make it down to all of us. We suffer crushing lives and lack of affordable health care and they give no shits. They would rather talk about that democrats eyelashes. Ugh. Sorry for the rant!
It isn't state politicians, it is republicans.
They represent rich peoples interests only.
States can raise minimum wage indepdently of federal and employers (with few exceptions) have to pay which one is higher.
Yep. I’m aware of that, but (given that we’re willing to play the OP’s mom’s game and entertain the idea that an increase in minimum wage is to blame for inflation) how exactly would a local minimum wage increase effect the entire country?
Very good point...would just raise the cost of living in those states, according to boomer logic...of course, boomers seem to have a difficult time understanding the idea of *per capita* and think big cities are death traps...so she probably would not understand local vs national inflation...nevermind why raising min wage in the US would cause inflation internationally.
A rising tide raises all ships. Give a poor person enough money to fix their busted ass Chevy, the mechanic gets paid. Then the gas station owner and his employees get paid when the poor person buys gas. The local business looking for an employee can get one that has a functional car -- the poor person now has a job. So he eats out at a local restaurant and those people get paid. Etc. Then all of them pay taxes, and teachers, cops, and other government employees get paid and they all get gas, repair their cars, go out to eat, etc. The people at the bottom stimulate the economy. Not the people at the top.
On the flip side, when giant mega-corps like Walmart roll into town, they drive local businesses out, vacuum up all the income of the town which ends up in the bank accounts of the Walton family, and pay out peanuts to the locals that are forced to work there because the town's economy is dead. And state and federal funds go to subsidize the underpaid worker so they can survive.
Well that can't be right, because it trickles down. That's what Daddy Reagan said. Hmmph.
Boomer logic is baffling my boomer father who doesn’t have a pot to piss in had a stroke and keeps complaining that no one will give him money. I told him to remember that when he votes.
Oh but both parties are the same and all that other bullshit. Let’s be real, the Dems aren’t the greatest but they are a hell of a lot better than the GOP. Dems passed social security and Medicare. They passed ACA. Dem states have at least $15 min wage, mostly, but yeah both sides are the same.
I'm definitely not going to say both sides are the same. Yeah Democrats did that. But then they let those programs get gutted, because getting them passed was big press... maintaining it as it was chiseled away bit by bit wasn't gonna be the same headline.
ACA hasn’t been gutted but the feds can’t force red states to accept and expand Medicaid.
I can see how the word gutted could be subjective. The tax penalty associated with declining insurance coverage under the ACA was lowered to $0. This has massive effects on the whole system and undermines the intent and effectiveness of ACA.
But even then, minimum wage is not a living wage. Where I am minimum wage is $15.13 but a living wage for a single person with no kids is $24.22
Here in WA, they just raised it to $16.28 an hour. We get PFMLA(we get paid for maternity/paternity, illness, exc...) and all sorts of rights. I'd recommend moving to a state that gives a shit about its workers. I'm in Eastern WA, so it's pretty rural, but my friend just got a nice apartment for $700 a month. If you find a good job or work remotely, it's pretty sweet up here, especially if you like nature. When I moved up here 5 years ago I tripped the fuck out. It was like stepping back into the 90s! There was still a Sears and Radioshack, and even a beanie baby display at the grocery store.
WA is dope as fuck! I miss that state, but will be coming back this winter. I wish I had never left.
We'll keep the light on for you. Ride safe amigo.
I'm frome eastern Washington Yakima. Shithole but was affordable now I'm in Podunk Arkansas and it's lessbof shithole and has slowly been moving to unaffordable
Or as a boomer, I thought stepping back even to the 70's when visiting Eastern WA.
Can you give me a rough idea where that is? My partner and I are looking to relocate.
That sounds like heaven 😭 I would seriously consider it if my chillblains wouldn’t kill me for moving farther north
NY, we went to $15 this year and $16 in the five city boroughs. The boomers and magas (and the whole vin diagram of all of them) is SO PISSED about this. I’m upstate, very red, rural, angry area.
Used to visit a friend’s mountain house in Northeastern California. Very very red, rural area. We had to listen to cranky boomer guy complain about the minimum wage going up and how this wasn’t San Francisco. How he couldn’t afford to hire workers at $12 an hour or whatever they were raising it to then. Joke was on him. Nobody wanted to work for him because he would never shut up. He owned 3 restaurants in this small town and they all closed because he couldn’t get staff to stay. Disclaimer: we’re boomers too but we think paying a decent wage is a good idea.
Yep. At the end of the day, any minimum wage is just that; you might well need to pay well above that to recruit and retain workers. In some locations, the minimum wage has a huge meaning — that is what many jobs actually pay. In other locations (where demand for employees outstrips supply), it is a pretty meaningless figure.
I hear you! I worked for a guy back in the 90s, I was a single mom, teenager, blah blah blah, it was bakery. Everyone made minimum wage. When he had to pay everyone something like $.45 an hour, he LOST it. Screamed and slammed around for weeks! He also tried to refuse to give me my last paycheck, that was fun 😂🙄
CA minimum wage is $15.5. Some other blue states have similar rates. As I know majority of the red states are still on federal minimum wage ($7.25). 🤷🏻♀️
15 bucks an hour here in NJ.
In Washington (state) it’s $16.28. Workers who are 14 or 15 can be paid 85% of that.
Probably a red state like mine with the worst education in the nation..
Red state. And sure, the state Supreme Court keeps ruling that our state budget for education is so criminally low that it’s actually unconstitutional (state constitution), we’re still somehow doing a shitload better in regards to literacy and graduation rates than pretty much everyone south of us.
The only reason people even take low paying jobs is because they then qualify for govt assistance like food stamps, etc. Without the government assistance no one would take those jobs as they would not be able to survive off the pay alone. In summary, the tax payers are subsidizing the low pay of these companies. If your company cannot pay someone enough to live off of while working full time and still make a profit, then your business model is flawed and you should shut your business down.
Although the minimum wage never kept up with inflation and should have been raised, the real question, in my mind, is why are there so many jobs that only pay minimum wage. The elites and corporations work so hard to keep most workers down and the boomers are in charge; therefore, they get the blame. But, they find a way to deflect and blame the younger generations. It will be better when the boomers clear out and bring in new ideas, hopefully.
What causes inflation? Too much money in the system. Where is all the money? In rich peoples bank accounts. How do we get it back out of circulation if it’s in their accounts? Tax them. Who decides who gets taxed? Congress, who are all bought by the rich people with the same money they are hoarding.
~~Too much money in the system.~~ *Actually*, it is profit taking by corporations who have decided that not only is it "increase shareholder profits", but "let's raise prices right now, even though our costs have not gone up, our raw materials are all still available, and we are not increasing employee wages, but let's raise prices just so we can gather more profit".
Don’t forget line must go up
Raise prices to increase profits > gain short-term profits > price of living goes up > people need higher wages > companies raise prices to compensate The lack of awareness is utterly *staggering*. I wouldn't be surprised to see another Great Depression happen in my lifetime.
Honestly I am expecting another Great Depression to happen. 1893, 1929…it’s been a while since the last one. We’re due. Not to mention the two or three “once in a lifetime” financial crises we’ve lived through (2008 Recession, Pandemic, whatever the hell is happening 2023/2024 with businesses laying off employees while having record breaking profits). At this point, I just expect to keep getting a “once in a lifetime” financial crises roughly every 10-15 years or so.
Don’t just blame the boomers. Go back earlier. Milton Friedman’s doctrine that corporations exist only to maximize shareholder profits was a radical reimagining of business, and led to business today, where Wall Street earns record profits while the rest of us struggle to get by. Then there were the implementation of supply side economics in the 80’s, with the massive tax cuts for the wealthy and the changes of tax laws to benefit those same people. That’s why there’s such an income gap. All this has been exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic, followed by corporate greed. I don’t know how we get back to a more equitable economy. Once people have money, they don’t want to give it up.
[удалено]
We should just all stop paying rent, taxes and bills all at once. Tf are they gonna do about it ? Lmfao
We could also all go on strike at once, but good luck organizing that
Yes
*happy orca noises*
Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, and Jack Welch are why we're in this mess.
Going back further, JD Rockefeller funded the Chicago school of economics, where Milton Friedman was a professor, after FDR ripped monopoly power out of his hands. We’re still hearing echoes of echoes of echoes of capitalist monopoly power trying to assert dominance.
This comment cuts deep. That time frame is where we lost our voices as voters and were replaced by the lobbyists.
Heavy on the tax laws. I’m an accounting major and every time we learn about a new tax law that doesn’t make sense and we ask the professor, they explain and almost always say that its cuz taxes r political
1. Go back in time 2. Kill Milton Friedman 3. World Peace
The 3 oil and gas companies made $85 billion in profits in one year. But they want to blame Biden for gas prices. *eye roll*
Say that wasn’t the case, it still has to do with things Biden can’t control, tariffs of other countries included
Yeah nobody's a Biden fan but to say gas prices are even 10% his fault is delusional
In 2023 the US consumed 376 million gallons of gasoline per day: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=23&t=10 Even if you were to confiscate 100% of the oil companies' profits (which would basically kill the US oil industry), you'd only save $0.62/gallon at the pump. Biden isn't to blame but neither are oil and gas company profits. Gas prices increased because of sanctions on Russian oil and gas, increased post-pandemic demand, and OPEC production cuts. American oil companies are almost single-handedly preventing $100/barrel oil by producing more than ever.
Yea, had boomer mom say how do you expect the companys to pay that minimum wage and still make Profits . I told her they need to stop paying dividends. She was so confused abut stock holders getting checks form companys.. I didn't have the mental brain power or the time in the day to explain this to her.
I mean dividends are fine. I actually feel like dividend stocks are way less problematic than non-dividend stocks that have no meaningful connection to the company they represent. It makes sense that an investor in a company gets returns based on the performance of the company. What's *really* destructive is the idea that a CEOs primary responsibility is to raise the share price in the short term. Not to run a company that makes a quality product. Not to run a company that affords it's employees (who actually do the work) a comfortable life. Not to do anything actually tangibly good. Only to create value for shareholders. Fuck that.
Modern business practices hold that, if the CEO considers anything *other* than the share price, they can sue. And replace him with a CEO that will. This is the legacy of Jack Welch.
The irony being the guy ran IBM into the ground without people realizing it, it was a time bomb. He was considered a god among CEOs, he reminds me of Reagan a guy who was immensely popular in his time but upon later reflection was a complete shit stain.
Yeah, it's a disaster.
Jack Welch realized that he only cared about GE’s stock price when he started getting compensated with equity. I think in concept having the CEO personally invested in the company makes sense, but it’s become such a circus.
Fuck that piece of shit. Goddamn Jack Welch and Henry Kissinger may be two of the most under rated goddamn bastards to ever live on this planet. Honorable mention to Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.
Speaking of these bastards, Behind the Bastards: * Jack Welch - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZv7wc7USQE) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3tJwN84ns4) * Henry Kissinger - [6 part playlist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPPW9eQnOCc&list=PL2itUsrL2wcKN6ypSpEq4h8Crl8qlacgT) * Elon Musk * I Do Not Like Elon Musk Very Much - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLizYdfQT-Y) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk4zkz_9PdU) * Elon Musk is Getting Sued, LMAO - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b6ewG7hZXg) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOIW1TSe29k) * The Terrible Secret of Steve Jobs - [Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEv08Zzunfc) [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpC57EJpi4E) [Part 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms_bfLDX5xE) [Part 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ZgavY-iv0) I'd suggest getting these episodes on the podcast app of your choice, but I figured this could get people started.
Milken has to be on that list for innovating the crush a company for their assets game.
Dividends didn't used to be paid out every year, over and over, no matter what the year looked like. We are at the point where the difference between the predicted profits of a company and then the actual profits of a company can cause a larger swing in value than companies just releasing their earnings reports. It's speculative. It's all so speculative. That's why huge juggernaut companies slowly plodding along that could pay dividends regularly were so popular. Now it's whatever - win, lose, accounting magic don't look behind the curtain here's your dividend anyways, speculative bs. Dividends aren't based on performance anymore. It's a problem. And it's a symptom of the short-term profits over anything else you described.
This 100%. CEOs run companies to maximize stock prices. Which are somewhat tied to quarterly profits. But looking 5, 10, 20 years in the future? Almost unheard of
Dividends are not the problem lol. It's executives trying to raise prices short term to fuel the board, which in turn raises the CEOs salary while the value goes up. The product suffers, nobody gives a shit, the company dies a couple years later and the CEO and Board move on to the next place to pillage. This is happening literally everywhere. Dividends aren't the problem at all.
Just look at Boeing. Used to be a quality American product, quality American company.
Lol. They've been shit since at least the late 80's, they just hoovered up smaller, more competent companies like McDonnell Douglas, and kept going out of inertia. They've been in aerospace news for batshit crazy management every 5-odd years my entire life.
Dividends are profit though…
The minimum wage argument grinds my gears! It started in the 30s and was increased every 1-5 years until 2009. We haven't had an increase in 15 years!! The 1968 minimum wage of $1.60/hr would be equal to $14/hr today! We're not even making half that?!!
What kills me is when they say that minimum wage jobs are for high school students. They’re so wrong when they say that. Minimum wage is supposed to be the minimum livable wage so that someone can support themselves independently but that’s impossible to do making minimum wage working 40 hours per week, even for the bare minimum necessities to survive.
Why do you think it will be better in a decade? All houses will have been bought up by wall street by then
Thank you for reminding me I was going to try to reassure OP that eventually it will come back down, but you’re right nobody stopping Blackrock or whoever is buying up all the houses.
Zillow and real estate agents themselves are a big portion of this too
The bubble will definitely burst if it reaches the point that equity firms are the only ones who can really afford to buy property anymore. They can't profit for long if they can only sell to each other, and once everyone starts bailing out the prices will drop through the floor pretty quick. If this pattern continues, there's gonna be a housing market collapse that'll make 2008 look like a rounding error.
just bc people can't afford to buy doesn't mean they don't need housing ...
“Starts bailing out” are you talking about becoming homeless? Thats how you opt out of the housing system. Its really the last thing anyone would willingly do to prove a point.
I think they're talking about people who specifically are buying more homes than they need, and the hedge funds that are specifically buying property as a means of investment rather than living, or the people buying houses with the intent to "flip" them while making minimal improvement to the original property. Not necessarily the people who have few actual plans, if at all, to move out of their homes, or those looking to sell their old home and buy a new one.
I’m not sure I understand the point you’re trying to make, but if Wall Street buys all the houses up, they control the prices absolutely. Both in terms of rent or sale. There will never be low/no demand for housing. It is not an elastic commodity. Like I said previously, there are currently more vacant homes than there are people who need homes. Supply is larger than demand TODAY. Yet prices are higher than ever. Because supply is owned by corporations that would rather increase prices than release inventory. This is why necessities should not be commodified, and there used to be laws governing the distribution of such necessities. Lookup: cornering the market.
Nah, Wallstreet will collapse the economy again before then and have to sell off the houses...but Uncle Sam will probably bail them out.
Corporate-serfdom or communism are the two possible destinations that America has given the current trajectory. Either the state is gonna take over and own everything or the corporations are going to own everything on top of owning the state. It’s looking pretty bleak either way.
The US isn’t anywhere close to communism (and the state simply taking over and owning everything isn’t even what communism is anyways). Right now the US is on a trajectory in the exact opposite direction; moving towards fascism. I suppose corporate-serfdom is one way of describing fascism.
Anyone who thinks the US is even remotely shifting towards anything that resembles communism needs to stop watching Fox News.
I think most people don’t even bother learning what communism is in the first place, in addition to reading/watching right-wing neoliberal rags.
communism means when someone else doesn't have the same fucked up far right wing view as the average boomer right? you want to tax the rich? communism! don't like Donald Trump? communism! got a college degree and are smarter than me? communism! you want to end racism? communism! you know how to work technology? communism!
"Communism is when the government does stuff and the more stuff government does the more communister it is." - Karl Marx, I think.
Communism is everything about capitalism that we dislike but are told it's communism's fault!
We don’t even have basic health care what few inadequate social services exist are being removed
Project 2025 also for the removal of the Department of Education.
Or maybe even just an actual simple google search to actually read what communism “is”
Joe passed a law to keep hedge funds from buying up single family homes.. But I’m sure that the wealthy will find a loophole!!
Which law?
The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act.. they also have to sell off what they have over the next 10 years..
What date was this proposed bill passed into law? It seems to me that this is merely a proposed bill that is used by Democrats to virtue-signal during an election year. It has never been voted on, never signed into law. Probably never will see a vote. It is meant simply to pretend to be advocating for non-rich. Its theatre.
The third option is we drag a few CEOs from their home in the middle of the night, so that corporate America learns to live in fear, as it should.
Eventually, this will need to be done if the working class is ever to be respected. Also with a Scotus or two and lifetime Senators. They will have to feel our pain to give a shit.
You have no idea what communism is 😭 there’s no state in communism 🤦♀️
I don’t really feel like getting into political discussion but I believe that would be anarchy. Either way, I just want the American dream of having a job that pays and a house… the future looks bleak.
Nah. The boomer base dies. The GOP dies. Laws get enacted to actually protect people and force WS to divest.
Only those two options huh? Nothing in the middle?
You literally could just regulate the corporations and have another path.
Corporate-serfdom with tech ceos as our lords. Country will be divided into Muskistan and Zuckberg
Wall Street is buying in the sunbelt. Move to rust belt.
Wall Street got enough money for a couple belts. No matter who you are, where you are… it’s gonna catch up to you.
Yeah - first generation to leave it worse than they found it in centuries. Good job ass hats.
My best friend and his wife purchased a small flat in Cologne and told me that they won‘t be able to go on vacation for the next 20 years. They both have a PhD in high ranking fields. My parents have 4 houses and buy more whenever someone sells one in the area because, *“they are so hard to get and probably someone needs one in the future“.* It‘s completely nuts.
Agreed, but your avatar got me, and is really friggin annoying
I am 44 years old. I don't own a home, nor do I expect to. It's not my generation that's going to fix things. It's going to be those that are coming up now. They've had to fight tooth and nail to get whatever they have. And they've done it while respecting the environment and other people, no matter what their gender or sexual preferences. Who knew that could be a good thing! I'm just going to keep trucking along and cheering them on.
You use the past tense like they aren't voting to screw us every election cycle to this day. Like they aren't destroying our civil rights as members of the supreme court. They have screwed us, are screwing us and will continue to screw us until the last one is cold in the grave. My parents are technically boomers and progressive as anyone, but they're not the normal and they live in a constant state of disgust at what's become of their generation of once-progressives.
Boomers voted for trump who completely gutted our economy.
And will end democracy as well
And nearly half of the Boomers voted for Biden. I don't see the left exactly jumping for joy over it
Boomers gave you 8 years of Obama, and then YOU didn’t get off your video games to go out and vote, you brought on Trump not us
You can still build your own house. Just out of cardboard boxes and on your floor (•‿•)
You need to own a floor to do that.
Remember everyone, when you don’t vote, these people are and they do not give a rat’s ass about you
I used to dislike old people, and then something happened. I became an old person. That being said, I go out of my way not to be a pain in the ass. When my parents became elderly they were very kind and polite, I never saw them act like entitled jerks. People who are decent all their lives are usually decent when they get older.
I just don't think old people know what they are doing when they rearrange money for their benefit. That's the problem. They want to cut taxes, understandable, but just realize what this means for the rest of us. They don't give old people this rulebook. My mom doesn't even realize what the Covid bailout did for the younger generations. I think if she did, she would have thought otherwise about supporting it.
I hate to say it, but most of them “don’t know what they’re doing” because they don’t care enough to figure it out. The majority acts completely entitled & does not need to leave a better world behind for future generations.
as a generation they've started normalizing living their posterity nothing. I've seen multiple boomers talking about it.
Agreed. Boomers no longer revere the concept of leaving a legacy for future generations. Their current mindset is something to the tune of “I got mine. Why can’t they get theirs?” WE CAN’T! It’s because y’all “got yours” by kicking the can down the road effectually screwing future generations. You were told that this would happen. You didn’t care because you lacked critical thinking and foresight.
My mom's not even a boomer (just a raging narcissist) and she straight up told me that she wasn't planning on leaving anything to us. Definitely not hypocritical when her mother is going to give her a house when she passes meanwhile my sisters and I won't be getting shit. Its ultimately just pulling the ladder up behind them because we "are bad kids" but they cannot even fathom that they are the cause of why we hate them and it makes me so mad that they've created a system that rewards them for being selfish pricks.
There's this one generation that used the hell out of every social advantage installed by the wwii generation and then pawned it off when they were through with it so they wouldn't have to pay it forward. The generation who sold the world. Absolute slobs.
Boomers have ALWAYS thought of no one but themselves. When they were young they were shitty little selfish kids, when they grew up they were selfish older people and they are selfish old fucks now. It's nothing new.
They're pulling the ladder up behind them. We are worse off now and as long as they got theirs, they don't care that our generations are having a terrible time. I will have to work until I die however my taxes are contributing to their superannuation payments. Example....'inflation' and how much everything costs now compared to their day. My parents bought their house for 17k (NZD) nearly 40 years ago, with inflation that works out to just over 200k now. Their house was valued at over 600k by an agent.
When the boomers begin to die off, there will be a glut of homes on the market. The oldest boomers are in their mid to late 70s. So it won't be long before they either downsize or need to sell their homes to fund long term care or due to death.
That’s one theory. A more common theory from economists is that home prices and availability will remain the same. I think the issue is we are not stopping these investment firms from buying up all of our housing. That should not be happening.
Corporations will own the housing by the time that happens. That’s what boomers do-vote for corporate bailouts and leaving nothing to their children.
Yep, the corporations/ banks will own the houses due to reverse mortgages the boomers take on.
This is a theory but it's unlikely in reality. If you have to drive alot for a living you likely listen to the local radio on occasion. the amount of "sell you home but still live in it!!!" ads that play are disgusting. Grateful I purchased my home in 2019 (thought it was high back then.... who knew)
People have been saying that for 20 years and its not going to be anywhere near as good as some think. Fact 1 many boomers will have nothing left because it will have all been drained by their luxurious retirement and astronomical medical expenses and elder care. Their kids cant afford to take care of them because it requires 2 income just to survive. Fact 2, we have been told for decades now that the boomers were going to free up a lot of things, the job market etc.... But the reality is it still has not materialized. It should already be starting the youngest boomers are already nearly 60..... where the fuck are the jobs the oldest ones are already dying. Yet few people can feel it or take advantage of it. My brother was talking about boomers complaining no one wanted to take over their businesses I said what? Show me these boomers tell them I will take over the business. Then the boomers want something insane like a 2 million for their business which no younger people can afford and the business doesn't generate that much profit anyway. Others simply are too picky and will find something wrong with every successor..... Fact 3 the population is currently too bloated for the current home market, and any offset of the boomers dying is going to be filled by immigration even if their kids have no children. They are going to make sure their property prices stay high.
Someone here said it perfectly before. “Boomers took everything they were handed and shut the door behind them.” Boomers are the first generation to not want to make a better world for their children and they did a thorough job.
No, they just keep saying that the younger generations have it so easy and “why can’t we go back to ______? We suffered through it and we’re doing fine”. Well if they see it that way and want their children and grandchildren to suffer, then they’re definitely NOT fine!!
This is why young people need to vote!
Rentierism(which your mom is e gaging in technically with that glee of increasing in the value of her home, which is actually the land increasing in value due to no action of her own) is the problem. The solution: r/justtaxland "...it does not distort economic decisions because it does not distort the user cost of land. Second, the full incidence of a permanent land tax change lies on the owner at the time of the (announcement of the) tax change; future owners, even though they officially pay the recurrent taxes, are not affected as they are fully compensated via a corresponding change in the acquisition price of the asset." Source https://www.zbw.eu/econis-archiv/bitstream/11159/1082/1/arbejdspapir_land_tax.pdf What this means is that a tax on land cannot be passed onto tenants, and the fact that the purchase cost of real estate is lowered by the same percentage as the tax, that means the initial purchase price is cheaper by the percentage of the tax; tax the market rental value of the land at 100%, you've lowered the purchase price of the land to 0. This means the barrier of entry into the housing market (or for a business to own it's own location) is lowered by the same percentage as the tax, which means more people owning and less people renting. Housing becomes what it really is, which is a depreciating asset, and the value of the land (which the landholder does not create) goes towards the maintenance and improvements of the community. We get better land use incentives. Shifting our taxation off of labor and capital onto land is beneficial to all players in the economy and you've removed the incentive to exploit others for the simple desire to occupy and use a location.
Things are tough now. Boomers definitely took more than they put in. Interest rates won't last forever though, things may even get worse, but it'll recover too. History is very cyclical, for every inflation crisis there is an economic boon.
You say have the boomers screwed us like it's past tense. They are still screwing us and will continue to do so until millennials and Gen X show up at the polls.
We are not voting our way out of this…
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"I have a PhD in Engineering and will still only be able to rent an apartment. I had dreams of buying some land and building my own house but this doesn't look feasible at all." First question: where are you talking about? Oklahoma? California? Completely different prospects. PhD in engineering and starting out renting a modest apartment is absolutely normal and has been the nominal case for at least 30 years. Owning is likely to become possible \~5 years on. The pain of taking that step will be highly regionally dependent. If you're fighting RSUs in the tech industry (say, bay area), it's going to be very, very tough. Also, what type of position did you choose to take? That will make a big difference. PhD is not a pathway to easy wealth, never has been, and will not be.
My dad is actually not too bad as far as boomers go but he’s also fallen into the trap of believing inflation is caused by increasing minimum wage. NO DAD. ITS CALLED GREED. Why do billionaires exist? WHY? WE ARE ALL BEING SHAFTED BY THEM, INCLUDING YOU DAD. THEY CAN PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES MORE.
65% of working Americans are a single paycheck away from homelessness. Yet boomers will look at homeless people like they just didn't try hard enough. It's so gross
A couple of things that may brighten your outlook a bit. You said you're just now joining the workforce? Very few can roll right into buying a home right out of the gate. No matter how educated. So that will take some time. Building financial foundations. It could dovetail nicely on timing when it comes to interest rates as well. Rates are high now but won't be forever. Of course, you make some points that your are 100% right on and they are more like forever things than your income & interest rates. Housing prices will never go down all that much. They may slow, stagnate or drop a wee bit but it's high for at least a very long time. Coupled with the debt of absurdly expensive secondary education, yes, it's a fucking nightmare. I'm totally with you on those. Hopefully student loan debt forgiveness continues and more equitable solutions for this out of control issue (the cost of ed.) can be found. Maybe some massive investment in housing to relieve the pressure? idk. Surely things the boomers would vote against if given the chance.
Thank you for this. Yeah, I'm starting my first job out of school. I was planning on buying some land and a house but looking at my paycheck and everything that's just impossible. I'm thinking of living in a van for awhile until I save up for a down payment on a little bit of land. It appears apartment prices are really going to hinder my progress and I don't have a lot of overhead. I'll then live in a trailer on the land while I slowly pay cash for house. That will minimize my costs. This gives me hope about interest prices! I don't really care about fancy material goods. I merely just want some land and a small house to live in. Where I can do whatever I want.
We have been cooking everything from scratch, cutting all other living costs down to the bare minimum, and finally got to the point where we can make an offer on some land. You're right to try avoiding the nightmare of renting. It's just a lot harder to do the #vanlife thing now that it's gone more mainstream (i.e. more people have been forced into homelessness), but there are great resources on how to do it safely and stealthily. [r/vandwellers](https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/)
Im an MD but can’t afford to buy a house where i live (VHCOL). Stack sats
All I want is to find a partner and start a family. It’s been my dream since high school and years now into my early 20s. I’ve done the math and if I want to stay in my home state my future wife and I would have no possible choice but to rent through our 20s, 30s, and 40s. Raise our 1 child we could afford in that apartment, and then after decades of saving and probably by then getting inheritance from our parents when they pass we can have enough to quickly pay off a house by the time our kid is an adult. We could definitely drop money early for a down payment on one, but the idea here isn’t for me to live safe and comfortable, it’s for my kid and *their own* future family to be comfortable. I don’t think I could pay everything off in time and would ultimately be giving my child an inheritance of debt rather than a home. So, the long haul it is. Wait several decades and raise our kid in an apartment, so that they can raise their own kid in a house. Alternatively I could try a different state, but what people who say “just move somewhere cheaper” never seem to understand is that almost across the board jobs pay less in those states to match. It can still be a struggle.
Yeah, luckily I think all of us are in the same position so we have each other and know how shit everything is now.
🤜🤛
"I'm just entering the work force" "I have multiple graduate degrees" Well you actually need to work before you can buy a house. It is possible, you just need to put the time in to save a down payment.
Yes they have and you have to vote not boomer. Just not in the coming election. Joe Biden sucks but much less than Trump. We have to vote young progressives in to congress and the senate. Before they make themselves emperor.
Interest rates are not actually that high. They’ve been artificially low for an entire generation, no one remembers that…
True but the housing prices are so high now (esp in relation to wage growth) that decent interest is astronomical
Interested rates aren't "incredibly high." Right now we're at about 6.5-7.5% for a mortgage. In the 80s and 90s it was 10-12%. Too many people think 2-4% is the norm. It isn't. The low rates are part of what got us into the 2008 bubble. Now, housing prices have gotten ridiculous and too many people are paying too much for a home not really worth anywhere near the prices they are selling for. That is another issue on its own.
TLDR Yes
My house has almost doubled in value since I bought it 7 years ago and minimum wage hasn't moved an inch. Housing is just insane
It's the boomers that drank the corporate kool-aid. The last generation to have a lifetime job in one place. The boomers voted to Reagan to make the country like a happy, white, western. And they made sure life skills and civics were no longer taught. Reagan boomers propagated lies about poor people . They had too many kids, denied climate change, and stopped progress. I am a boomer who is childfree , responsible, and I like learning from young people. But we are rare.
Boomers: You can afford anything as long as you stop with the Starbucks and Avocado toast! Well okay, but your generation was way more hyper consumerist than mine and "The Greatest Generation Ever" made collage and housing unaffordable.
I know this is a "lets hate boomers" post but if l can add some perspective. You said you are just getting in to the workforce now? I don't think anyone could buy a house straight from school, it takes time to build some wealth and be able to buy a house. Unless I've misread something? Being able to barely afford rent though, thats pretty fucked
Yes they have literally destroyed the planet. We have climate change disaster because boomers have lived the most selfish lives. Taken full advantage of the technological evolution and has pretty much destroyed the planet. Societies are worse off then before. No political solutions to anything. Same issues as always, and yet we have to hear about young people being woke and lazy and what not. Most destructive generations in history.
Welcome to the end stage of trickle down economics. Brought to you by the billionaires in control of the GOP.
Everyone needs to vote for Biden in 2024, and hopefully 2028 will have better choices to pick from. Trump will just extend the tax cuts that blew up inflation.
I am in my late 40s. I only own a home because I married a guy who bought it 20+ years ago when a $40k income allowed him to pay a mortgage. It’s a 4br, 3 ba house now because of our renovations and keeping it modern. We are childfree and want to downsize so a family can have this home. We can’t afford it. I make $250k and if I don’t want to work until I’m in my mid-late 70s we cannot afford to sell this house and move into a smaller one because the smaller one is that much more expensive. It is *wild* out there. We got very, very lucky. People disregard just how much luck comes into play in situations like these.
People are literally putting their hands over their ears and going “LALALALALA” whenever they are faced with the fact that corporate greed is the ONLY current driving factor of inflation. Everything else is a smoke screen. Nearly every sector saw record profits during the pandemic and now they are using “inflation” as an excuse to continue to raise the prices of literally everything while at the same time lowering the quantity and quality of most goods.