The past few years, a multitude of headlines have been printed accusing millennials of destroying various financial markets. “Millennials kill the diamond market,” “millennials are killing the housing market,” and other headlines like these have been circulated by both large and small media outlets. These headlines, and the articles following them, all seem to insinuate that millennials are somehow single-handedly responsible for their fiscal state when this is clearly not the case. Millennials are less likely to go out and buy engagement rings or airbrush makeup ( read more on how Rihanna cashed in on this) because of a variety of reasons, but it isn’t that they’re spending money on frivolous things – it’s due to stagnant wages and massively increased expenses.
Source: CNBC
Despite the claims of millionaires that millennials are poorer than their counterparts due to them buying avocado toast and coffee, the fact is that millennials are instead working for less money. Besides a federally mandated minimum wage that hasn’t been increased in over a decade (the longest time span in United States history), when dollars are adjusted for inflation, they are worth less than ever. Wages in general in the US have failed to match rising inflation, meaning that people can’t afford skyrocketing rent, increased utilities, and even more expensive food.
Rent costs are increasing annually at a faster rate than wages, meaning that workers are working harder to provide even basic shelter for themselves, let alone their families. Healthy diets are also more difficult to maintain, costing hundreds of dollars more per year than the alternative of eating unhealthily, according to a Harvard study. More and more people each year are even skipping recommended doctoral visits due to fear of medical bills.
Eating unhealthily, skipping out on the hospital when you’re sick, and settling for a cramped apartment can all have detrimental effects in the long run. If you don’t eat well in conjunction with avoiding the doctor, you have a higher risk for coronary heart disease, cancer, and countless other medical conditions you might not ever find out about until the costs for treatment reach astronomical levels. Living in smaller spaces can reduce the likelihood of having a family, meaning that you can also miss out or delay the joys of parenthood. These increasing expenses are limiting the ability of lower and middle-class people to pursue what should be their rights to life, liberty, and happiness.
Source: PPR – Worldwide
When people blame millennials for their lot in life, they are choosing to ignore what are easily accessible facts. Obtaining financial security is objectively more difficult for young people, who are still competing in a saturated job market for positions that will offer them basic opportunities like feeling secure in their living situation and health. When young people do find cities than enable these feelings of satisfaction, they then face gentrification. All over the United States, millennials will move into an impoverished neighborhood, raise the property values with their presence, and soon be unable to live their due to richer and richer neighbors moving in and buying up property left and right. Until this circle of poverty is broken, older generations will continue to blame new ones, until the new one can’t afford to have children at all.
The following video provides more information on the preceding article:
