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

[Oceander]

You're still stuck on thinking that the only solution he had was to pay for the airbag replacement.  There is also the alternative a buying another car within the budge of the payout he got from the insurance.  Nope, might not be as nice as the one he totaled, but like I said, shit happens.  Not that it doesn't suck, it does.

No, I’m pointing out that this would not have been an issue back in the golden oldies that everyone here is comparing the poor pitiful millenials to. 

Every car, new or used, comes with a potential $6,000 or more time bomb built into it that goes off if the car is in a minor fence bender, unless the car happens to be very old. 

That was not the case when most of us were growing up.  It is a relevant difference that puts truth into what @Dexter originally posted. 

I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to accept that maybe things aren’t quite as simple as they were when you grew up, and that this can knock people back nowadays who will hornet have been knocked back if they had grown up with you. 

[Dexter]

Hey Dex, are you not old enough to have figured out that people are different?  I know they stopped allowing you kids to believe that in public school, but it's true.  People are different, they have different strengths and talents.  Some people are smart, some people are creative, some people are beautiful, some people have amazing talent, some people are dumb.  There's nothing wrong with you using your strengths and talents in a way that benefits you.

A LOT of people lack the ability to make intelligent financial decisions, including your generation. Luckily for your generation there was a LOT more wiggle room, so a wider variety of people were able to become financially successful. Young people aren't struggling because they are lazy good for nothings. They're struggling because shit is a lot harder than it was when you were 18.

[Sanguine]

I had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to work.  10 miles each way.  No, wait....I did have to walk to work, sometimes there was snow, it was about a mile, but I made it every day and on time.  Ah, the good old days.  Car?  Who could afford a car?

[Dexter]

Trolling much?  FYI, that was trolling.

Okay, my bad. I'll take that one. What's the score now when it comes to trolling between the two of us? I'm pretty sure you're still way in the lead. You're very rude to me even though I've put effort into being cool to you despite your hostility.

[Oceander]

Okay, my bad. I'll take that one. What's the score now when it comes to trolling between the two of us? I'm pretty sure you're still way in the lead. You're very rude to me even though I've put effort into being cool to you despite your hostility.

I do have to admit that you are putting a lot of effort into being civil in the face of provocation.  Probably more effort than I can muster. 

Hat’s off.

[goodwithagun]

It’s not a question of not researching it or being surprised by it.  It is a question of a non-negotiable expense being built into cars that will always be sprung if the car is in an accident that is enough to deploy the airbags, which isn’t very hard to do.

Obviously carring is too hard. Don’t car.

[Oceander]

Obviously carring is too hard. Don’t car.

Troll.

[Cyber Liberty]

Okay, my bad. I'll take that one. What's the score now when it comes to trolling between the two of us? I'm pretty sure you're still way in the lead. You're very rude to me even though I've put effort into being cool to you despite your hostility.

I get rude with people who are snarky to me or my friends (the both of them), and only seem to know the leftist talking points.  I also don't care for SJWs.  I'm in the lead?   

[goodwithagun]

Troll.

I’ve offered multiple solutions to your millennial friend’s problem, and all you’ve done is told me I’m wrong without offering why or a solution of your own. I’m not the troll here.

[mirraflake]

It is harder to start out in life today.

My first job was a field rep for a Fortune 500 financial firm  in 1984.

$26k starting pay (lot of money in 1984) + commission what my brokers did.  Full 100% health  insurance, dental, life, disability, pension plan and guess what?  a brand new company car every 8-10  months and the co I worked for paid 100% of insurance, maintenace, gas, etc. on the car.

 I had to pay $25 a month out of my pay for personal use-it was my only car.

I had an expense account for clients I could never use entirely and my boss told me to take out my gf and use it up-use it or lose it.

I am  still in the same business and now I have field reps call on me. No company cars-they get a stipend for fuel for their personal car. Health insurance is crappy with deductibles and their starting pay is only in the low $30k level + comm on what brokers do is a quarter of what I was paid


What I get paid today by the companies I rep for is a quarter of what I was paid 30 years ago.


Our country is slowy going down the toilet in terms of prosperity.

We are becoming a Amazon economy  a few people at the top and gov't workers doing well. As I said 35% of people are doing well, rest are treading water.

No wonder the country is turning blue.

[Dexter]

I get rude with people who are snarky to me or my friends (the both of them), and only seem to know the leftist talking points.  I also don't care for SJWs.  I'm in the lead?   

I have made a conscious effort to be polite to you. I'm hardly a social justice warrior. I just value meaningful discourse. I'm not interested in us being nasty to each other. I even kind of like you when you're not being rude to me. You gain nothing by creating enemies.

[Oceander]

I’ve offered multiple solutions to your millennial friend’s problem, and all you’ve done is told me I’m wrong without offering why or a solution of your own. I’m not the troll here.

You didn’t offer solutions.  You offered irrelevancies.  Nothing you posted changes the simple fact that an accident that back in the day would not have totaled a car, and which could be repaired for less than $100, now costs several thousands of dollars and, if not paid, leaves one with an unusable car. 

There are no two ways around that fact.  You can buy as cheap a car as you want, even a $500 Craigslist special, and you can go with collision only insurance, but none of that changes the fact that if the airbags go off, you either have no car, or you have several thousands of dollars of additional expense.

All of which means that the myth of the $500 car is just that, a myth.  Because you will have to set aside at least that much again to replace the car if the airbags go off.  Or if any of the other required gadgets fails and requires replacement. 

In short, it is significantly more expensive - over and above inflation - to own a car today, and that is an expense that most of us cannot avoid if we want to get to work on time. 

So stop trolling. 

[Dexter]

Our country is slowy going down the toilet in terms of prosperity.

We are becoming a Amazon economy  a few people at the top and gov't workers doing well. As I said 35% of people are doing well, rest are treading water.

No wonder the country is turning blue.

 

[DB]

Millennial friend bought a used car, well within his budget.  So he didn’t choose unwisely there. 

Millennial friend knew the car he was buying, and it was mechanically sound.  So he didn’t choose unwisely there. 

Millennial friend got caught in a snowstorm on his way to work - he had, and has, a good job, so he chose wisely there, too - and had a weather-related accident.  Weather-related accidents have been around as long as cars have been around, so his choice was no more less wise than the choices made by earlier generations. 

Millennial friend’s otherwise mechanically sound car was treated as a total because the cost to replace the airbags, plus the costs to repair the other damage, exceeded 75% of the cars value, in line with how most insurance companies work. 

That meant that millennial friend could either take the payout, and turn in the car, ending up with no car, or he could have kept the car and either ended up with an undrivable car, or gone out of pocket $6,000 to replace the airbags. 

It is almost impossible to find an inexpensive, reliable used car that does not have airbags, and the cost to replace airbags does not decrease as the car ages.  Millennial friend’s choice was not unwise here because he had no choice. 

The sine qua non here is the almost universal presence of airbags in cars, and the high expense of replacing them if they go off. 

That was not an issue back in the day when most of the rest of us grew up.  My first car was a 1971 Plymouth Scamp, and when I got into my first weather-related accident, it cost me less than $100 and an afternoon at the junk yard swapping fenders to get it roadworthy again.  I didn’t have to also pay several thousand dollars to replace airbags. If airbags had been around at the time, I would have been SOL because I could not have paid to replace them, even if I did the work myself.

Does this millennial have a smart phone with an expensive data package? Video game box? Big screen TV? Eat out often? Music and video monthly subscriptions? Many millennial's have their priorities mixed up. Not saying the one you're talking about does, I simply don't know. But I see lots of "poor" kids with the latest iPhones and the services that go with it along with other toys. The insurance, utilities, car, rent and other items should come before them. And without those expenses their monthly budgets would look much better. Priorities.

[Dexter]

Does this millennial have a smart phone with an expensive data package? Video game box? Big screen TV? Eat out often? Music and video monthly subscriptions? Many millennial's have their priorities mixed up. Not saying the one you're talking about does, I simply don't know. But I see lots of "poor" kids with the latest iPhones and the services that go with it along with other toys. The insurance, utilities, car, rent and other items should come before them. And without those expenses their monthly budgets would look much better. Priorities.

Other generations were wasteful in their own way. There was a lot more wiggle room back then though. You didn't have to be so strategic just to stay above water comfortably.

[goodwithagun]

You didn’t offer solutions.  You offered irrelevancies.  Nothing you posted changes the simple fact that an accident that back in the day would not have totaled a car, and which could be repaired for less than $100, now costs several thousands of dollars and, if not paid, leaves one with an unusable car. 

There are no two ways around that fact.  You can buy as cheap a car as you want, even a $500 Craigslist special, and you can go with collision only insurance, but none of that changes the fact that if the airbags go off, you either have no car, or you have several thousands of dollars of additional expense.

All of which means that the myth of the $500 car is just that, a myth.  Because you will have to set aside at least that much again to replace the car if the airbags go off.  Or if any of the other required gadgets fails and requires replacement. 

In short, it is significantly more expensive - over and above inflation - to own a car today, and that is an expense that most of us cannot avoid if we want to get to work on time. 

So stop trolling.

Okay then. You be you.

[Oceander]

Does this millennial have a smart phone with an expensive data package? Video game box? Big screen TV? Eat out often? Music and video monthly subscriptions? Many millennial's have their priorities mixed up. Not saying the one you're talking about does, I simply don't know. But I see lots of "poor" kids with the latest iPhones and the services that go with it along with other toys. The insurance, utilities, car, rent and other items should come before them. And without those expenses their monthly budgets would look much better. Priorities.

He works for a NASA contractor and his toys are well within his budget.  I think he still has his phone on his family’s plan because it’s cheaper. 

None of that changes the fact that 30 years ago, the fender bender that cost him his car would have been a nothing burger, when most of the people  here were just starting out.  I had one myself, and it only cost me less than $100 to fix it. 

[Dexter]

Also it's only getting worse for young people. They are the future, and the future looks grim. We're not going to be the greatest country on Earth for much longer. Young people desperately need some kind of assistance if America is to continue leading the world.

[Oceander]

Okay then. You be you.

I am.  Your refusal to countenance some basic facts ill-serves you.  Nobody is asking you for solutions or pity, or charity, but simply recognition that times have changed.

[Oceander]

Also it's only getting worse for young people. They are the future, and the future looks grim. We're not going to be the greatest country on Earth for much longer. Young people desperately need some kind of assistance if America is to continue leading the world.

I wouldn’t go quite that far. 

[Dexter]

I wouldn’t go quite that far.

I hope I'm wrong. I want America to stay healthy and strong, but the ones who will lead the way into the future are struggling.

[DB]

It is harder to start out in life today.

My first job was a field rep for a Fortune 500 financial firm  in 1984.

$26k starting pay (lot of money in 1984) + commission what my brokers did.  Full 100% health  insurance, dental, life, disability, pension plan and guess what?  a brand new company car every 8-10  months and the co I worked for paid 100% of insurance, maintenace, gas, etc. on the car.

 I had to pay $25 a month out of my pay for personal use-it was my only car.

I had an expense account for clients I could never use entirely and my boss told me to take out my gf and use it up-use it or lose it.

I am  still in the same business and now I have field reps call on me. No company cars-they get a stipend for fuel for their personal car. Health insurance is crappy with deductibles and their starting pay is only in the low $30k level + comm on what brokers do is a quarter of what I was paid


What I get paid today by the companies I rep for is a quarter of what I was paid 30 years ago.


Our country is slowy going down the toilet in terms of prosperity.

We are becoming a Amazon economy  a few people at the top and gov't workers doing well. As I said 35% of people are doing well, rest are treading water.

No wonder the country is turning blue.

It is their and other peoples votes that are destroying things. They vote for more government spending. More debt. More "free" programs. Higher minimum wage increasing costs and reducing available jobs. More taxes on somebody else. Healthcare that someone else pays for. The money isn't free, whether borrowed, printed or taxed. It's a viscous circle that feeds on itself until everything is consumed. Either break the self feeding feedback loop swirling around or go down the drain.

I really can't feel sorry for those who vote for their own demise due to greed. It is those they take with them that I feel for.

[Sanguine]

I hope I'm wrong. I want America to stay healthy and strong, but the ones who will lead the way into the future are struggling.

Yeah, well, clean your room, stand up straight and get on with it.

[DB]

Other generations were wasteful in their own way. There was a lot more wiggle room back then though. You didn't have to be so strategic just to stay above water comfortably.

Not the poor. The poor really were poor. And they made due and didn't complain much about it. It was normal. About the only thing to splurge on was eating out. No cable TV. Only the basics. Power and landline phone. A party line on the phone saved money - which we had. No A/C and a fireplace for heat. Most people today in this country have no idea what "poor" is.

[goodwithagun]

Other generations were wasteful in their own way. There was a lot more wiggle room back then though. You didn't have to be so strategic just to stay above water comfortably.

My parents’ mortgage rate was nearly 10%. Mine is 2.74%. They had one income, I have two. They had two cars, I have two cars. We can argue about it all night long, but the bottom line is what people choose to earn, choose to spend, and choose to save. For example, on a few square feet I grow enough garlic, tomatoes, and onions that I no longer have to purchase them from the store. That includes canned tomatoes as well as fresh, and I’m in zone 6b. I grow these things on a space the equivalent of a balcony. I choose not to spend money on these things, and several other things that I grow. Now obviously this isn’t for everybody, but it is just one example of what can choose not to spend money on. Soda, Starbucks, data plans, Microsoft Gold, Netflix, etc. are all options not requirements.