More millennials are moving back home - and it's making everyone depressed:

[Oceander]

And wages have gone up.  And, Heaven forbid, people can buy used cars.  Craigslist right this moment has a ton of cars for well under $5k.

Wages haven’t tracked inflation, not at the level being discussed.

[goodwithagun]

In case you haven’t noticed, prices for most vehicles have gone up since you started out several decades ago. 

There is certainly truth to both sides of the argument here, but @Dexter is not just whistling Dixie here.

Prices have gone up on many things; that doesn’t mean that I keep buying them. A particular millennial my husband works with just bought the new $1K iPhone, after griping about how expensive it is to feed his kids (which are our kids’ age). He doesn’t understand how I cook a meal everyday and pack lunches. His wife (a stay at home mom who doesn’t cook, clean, do laundry, or do yard work) is just always so exhausted from momming. I work full time. He doesn’t understand why I just don’t take it easy and go through a drive-thru every night like his wife. With three kids, our Mickey D’s tab would easily be $30 nightly! Do you know how much organic food/ingredients I can buy for $30?!

Anyway, back to the iPhone. This millennial also laughed at me for waiting for the 7 to drop to $450 and then take advantage of a $300 mail in rebate from xfinity mobile. Laughed. At. Me.

I post this because this millennial is not the exception, he is the rule. There are millennials unlike him, but they are few and far between.

[goodwithagun]

Meh, took Mike 5 dang minutes to say what I said in 4 lines. 

Brevity is a gift 

[RoosGirl]

Brevity is a gift 

 

[RoosGirl]

Wages haven’t tracked inflation, not at the level being discussed.

Not sure cars can track with inflation since all the gov't regulations imposed on them to meet safety, environmental, efficiency, etc. standards.

[musiclady]

And wages have gone up.  And, Heaven forbid, people can buy used cars.  Craigslist right this moment has a ton of cars for well under $5k.

That goes back to the problem of young people wanting things above what they can afford, rather than going to a place like Craigslist and getting something they actually can afford.

Many of them want to start at the top because they've been told all their lives that they're "special" and they deserve whatever they want.

Obviously there are many millennials who are hard working and frugal, but they are the exceptions.

[musiclady]

I’m at the tail end of GenX so the millennials are right behind me. The best thing my parents ever let me do was fall on my ass and then let me pick myself up.

You had good parents.

[Oceander]

Not sure cars can track with inflation since all the gov't regulations imposed on them to meet safety, environmental, efficiency, etc. standards.

Which simply proves my point:  things have gotten a lot more expensive now, relative to where they were 20 or 30 years ago, particularly for someone just starting out.

For example, it used to be that a minor fender-bender would not take a car off the road.  Now, if the airbags go, that car will be a write-off, even if it wasn’t that old.  Happened to a millennial I know.  He was careful to save up his money, bought a car that was only a few years old, and then during a snow storm hit a patch of ice and ran off the road.  The airbags went off and the insurance company wrote it off and paid him 75% of fmv, which left him with no car and not enough money to get an adequate replacement. When that happened to me in my first car, which I bought for $800 when it was only about 14 years old, I didn’t even bother with the insurance company; I went to the junk yard, bought a new left front fender and grill for about $75, and spent an afternoon unbolting the old one and bolting on the new one.  My friend could not have done that with his car and still had a car that would pass safety inspection, or even have been drivable. 

[RoosGirl]

That goes back to the problem of young people wanting things above what they can afford, rather than going to a place like Craigslist and getting something they actually can afford.

Many of them want to start at the top because they've been told all their lives that they're "special" and they deserve whatever they want.

Obviously there are many millennials who are hard working and frugal, but they are the exceptions.

And I always think about my grandparents who *rented to own* a coffee maker because they couldn't afford to buy one.  A freaking coffee maker.

[goodwithagun]

You had good parents.

My parents were late in life kids of Depression parents. My maternal grandmother once commented that when the Depression hit, there was no change in their lives. They were so poor they had nothing to lose. Flour sack clothing and a pot of beans for dinner every night was going to happen with or without the stock market crash.

[RoosGirl]

Which simply proves my point:  things have gotten a lot more expensive now, relative to where they were 20 or 30 years ago, particularly for someone just starting out.

For example, it used to be that a minor fender-bender would not take a car off the road.  Now, if the airbags go, that car will be a write-off, even if it wasn’t that old.  Happened to a millennial I know.  He was careful to save up his money, bought a car that was only a few years old, and then during a snow storm hit a patch of ice and ran off the road.  The airbags went off and the insurance company wrote it off and paid him 75% of fmv, which left him with no car and not enough money to get an adequate replacement. When that happened to me in my first car, which I bought for $800 when it was only about 14 years old, I didn’t even bother with the insurance company; I went to the junk yard, bought a new left front fender and grill for about $75, and spent an afternoon unbolting the old one and bolting on the new one.  My friend could not have done that with his car and still had a car that would pass safety inspection, or even have been drivable.

No one forced him to buy that expensive of a car to begin with.  He could have paid half what he did for that car and when it was totaled been able to afford another car.  Perhaps he spent more than he should have to begin with.  Shit happens.

[dfwgator]

Which simply proves my point:  things have gotten a lot more expensive now, relative to where they were 20 or 30 years ago, particularly for someone just starting out.

For example, it used to be that a minor fender-bender would not take a car off the road.  Now, if the airbags go, that car will be a write-off, even if it wasn’t that old.  Happened to a millennial I know.  He was careful to save up his money, bought a car that was only a few years old, and then during a snow storm hit a patch of ice and ran off the road.  The airbags went off and the insurance company wrote it off and paid him 75% of fmv, which left him with no car and not enough money to get an adequate replacement. When that happened to me in my first car, which I bought for $800 when it was only about 14 years old, I didn’t even bother with the insurance company; I went to the junk yard, bought a new left front fender and grill for about $75, and spent an afternoon unbolting the old one and bolting on the new one.  My friend could not have done that with his car and still had a car that would pass safety inspection, or even have been drivable.

Obama's "Cash for Clunkers" took a lot of perfectly good used cars off of the market, and forced car prices up.

[musiclady]

And I always think about my grandparents who *rented to own* a coffee maker because they couldn't afford to buy one.  A freaking coffee maker.

Amazing.

That brings "living within one's means" to a whole new level. 

[goodwithagun]

Which simply proves my point:  things have gotten a lot more expensive now, relative to where they were 20 or 30 years ago, particularly for someone just starting out.

For example, it used to be that a minor fender-bender would not take a car off the road.  Now, if the airbags go, that car will be a write-off, even if it wasn’t that old.  Happened to a millennial I know.  He was careful to save up his money, bought a car that was only a few years old, and then during a snow storm hit a patch of ice and ran off the road.  The airbags went off and the insurance company wrote it off and paid him 75% of fmv, which left him with no car and not enough money to get an adequate replacement. When that happened to me in my first car, which I bought for $800 when it was only about 14 years old, I didn’t even bother with the insurance company; I went to the junk yard, bought a new left front fender and grill for about $75, and spent an afternoon unbolting the old one and bolting on the new one.  My friend could not have done that with his car and still had a car that would pass safety inspection, or even have been drivable.

I don’t know why I remember shopping for my freshman year of high school but I do. Probably because it was a big step? Anyway, my mom complained that the jeans at Walmart were more expensive than she thought they’d be at $14/pair. That was the summer 1993. I just ordered a couple of pairs of jeans from Kohl’s because they’re on sale for $20/pair. Some things cost more, some things don’t.

[Oceander]

No one forced him to buy that expensive of a car to begin with.  He could have paid half what he did for that car and when it was totaled been able to afford another car.  Perhaps he spent more than he should have to begin with.  Shit happens.

It wasn’t that expensive.  That’s the point.  But it is as expensive enough that he could not replace it after a simple fender-bender due to the fact that the effing generations that preceded his, including your generation, have made things so much more expensive by mandating so much more expensive add-ons to the basic car.

[RoosGirl]

Obama's "Cash for Clunkers" took a lot of perfectly good used cars off of the market, and forced car prices up.

That was over 9 years ago now.  I'm betting most people don't have those cars they bought back then and the used car market has plenty of re-supply.

[Oceander]

I don’t know why I remember shopping for my freshman year of high school but I do. Probably because it was a big step? Anyway, my mom complained that the jeans at Walmart were more expensive than she thought they’d be at $14/pair. That was the summer 1993. I just ordered a couple of pairs of jeans from Kohl’s because they’re on sale for $20/pair. Some things cost more, some things don’t.

Wonderful. I’ll tell my friend to go buy some Kohl’s jeans and then close his eyes and pretend really, really hard that they’re really the car he needs to drive to get to work. 

[RoosGirl]

It wasn’t that expensive.  That’s the point.  But it is as expensive enough that he could not replace it after a simple fender-bender due to the fact that the effing generations that preceded his, including your generation, have made things so much more expensive by mandating so much more expensive add-ons to the basic car.

Yes, it was the generations and not the old dusty bleep in Congress that mandated all the add-ons.   

[musiclady]

My parents were late in life kids of Depression parents. My maternal grandmother once commented that when the Depression hit, there was no change in their lives. They were so poor they had nothing to lose. Flour sack clothing and a pot of beans for dinner every night was going to happen with or without the stock market crash.

My parents grew up during the Depression and even though my Dad was a medical professional, we never wasted ANYTHING, nor spent money on things we didn't need.  We were the last people in the neighborhood with a TV (the Cleveland Browns and Indians broke my Dad, and he bought a nice Philco in 1955 so he could watch the games.  ).

Something about a heritage of people who didn't have much helps you appreciate things more than most.  The problem came when some of those Depression raised parents said, "My kids aren't going to want for anything," and so many Boomers were spoiled and spoiled their kids even worse.

I have always been thankful that my parents and my husband's parents bucked the trend and made us work and appreciate what we had.

[goodwithagun]

Wonderful. I’ll tell my friend to go buy some Kohl’s jeans and then close his eyes and pretend really, really hard that they’re really the car he needs to drive to get to work.

While your at it, tell him to get better car insurance. Sounds like the plan he chose is shitty.

[Oceander]

Yes, it was the generations and not the old dusty bleep in Congress that mandated all the add-ons.   

Who voted for those bleeps in Congress?  Who put them there?  Certainly your generation had more of a hand in putting in the Congress that first mandated airbags than did my 23 year old friend’s generation.

[RoosGirl]

Who voted for those bleeps in Congress?  Who put them there?  Certainly your generation had more of a hand in putting in the Congress that first mandated airbags than did my 23 year old friend’s generation.

And who taught my generation and after to become more and more liberal?

Why don't you give your friend of loan?  If things are so unfair for him then certain he deserves some charity.

[Oceander]

While your at it, tell him to get better car insurance. Sounds like the plan he chose is shitty.

Really.  A car is totaled in NY if the cost of repair exceeds 75% of the car’s value; he had standard insurance. 

Replacing deployed airbags isn’t cheap.  When the whole set deploys, the cost to replace them all can easily exceed 75% of the current value of the car. 

[musiclady]

While your at it, tell him to get better car insurance. Sounds like the plan he chose is shitty.

 

[Oceander]

And who taught my generation and after to become more and more liberal?

Why don't you give your friend of loan?  If things are so unfair for him then certain he deserves some charity.

Your generation bears more blame for things becoming more expensive than the millennials do. 

As for charity - I thought all it took was some hard work and budgeting to make everything right.  Isn’t that the manna from heaven being peddled here?