What happens when a whole generation never grows up?

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The article says &quot;The conventional explanation for what’s freezing young adults in place is that they can’t afford to grow up, given rising inflation and ballooning housing costs. Yet this doesn’t quite explain what’s going on.&quot; It attempts to counter this explanation by saying that median wages increased 16% between 2000 and 2024 after adjusting for inflation, but leaves out that median housing prices increased ~45% during the same time period after adjusting for inflation (source: FRED &amp; BLS CPI inflation calculator). Of course this leads to fewer people moving out and having kids.

It&#x27;s gotten pretty bleak.<p>Even white collar wages are largely stagnant, yet the costs to get those white collar jobs are insane.<p>In 2006, an MBA from HBS had a total tuition of around $75,000 [0] and net you a $140,000 TC job [1].<p>In 2024, an MBA from HBS has a total tuition of $170,000 [2] and net you a $200,000 TC job [3].<p>If this is the situation at Harvard Business School, imagine at other programs or universities who don&#x27;t have as many doors open. Hell, I haven&#x27;t even factored housing in the tuition numbers above.<p>We&#x27;ve entered the same trap Germany and France was in during the 2010s and Japan in the 2000s. For a lot of young people, there&#x27;s no point even trying if you are still stuck.<p>Either you spend inordinate amounts of money to tread water and attempt to start a career, or you don&#x27;t and just remain a NEET. Either way you&#x27;re unable to hit traditional milestones until you late 30s if you&#x27;re able to somehow get back on track.<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbs.edu&#x2F;about&#x2F;annualreport&#x2F;Documents&#x2F;2006&#x2F;HBS-Annual-2006-Full-Report.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbs.edu&#x2F;about&#x2F;annualreport&#x2F;Documents&#x2F;2006&#x2F;HBS-An...</a><p>[1] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.alumni.hbs.edu&#x2F;stories&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;story-bulletin.aspx?num=420" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.alumni.hbs.edu&#x2F;stories&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;story-bulletin.aspx...</a><p>[2] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbs.edu&#x2F;mba&#x2F;financial-aid&#x2F;tuition-assistance&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;cost-of-attendance.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbs.edu&#x2F;mba&#x2F;financial-aid&#x2F;tuition-assistance&#x2F;Pag...</a><p>[3] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbs.edu&#x2F;recruiting&#x2F;employment-data&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;default.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbs.edu&#x2F;recruiting&#x2F;employment-data&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;default...</a>

Step 1: Create a world that pressures young adults away from traditional milestones<p>Step 2: Blame young adults for spontaneously avoiding those milestones for no reason except their own moral failings<p>There used to be intense social pressure for young adults to get married whether they wanted to or not -- whether they found a good partner or not -- unless they wanted to live at the margins of society.<p>At the same time, a house was 4x the median income, where now houses are 9x the median income.

Discussion (9 points, 1 day ago, 10 comments) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42564508">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42564508</a>

Alternately: what happens when a whole generation never gives up control and prevents most born after them from aquiring housing or currency by creating an regulatory environment and economy rigged to only benefit corporations they own? But sure, blame this on the youths again, as is tradition.

The boomers loved democracy because they became the majority right at age 18. The younger ones did not have such luck

That&#x27;s what happens when the neolibs design the economy and no one under 40 can afford to start a family.

Fuck sakes, millenials are nearing their 40s now. Will the paternalistic media treatment ever end for us? Hello, earth to WSJ and NY Times, it&#x27;s not the avocado toast that&#x27;s causing our woes!

Right wing think tank cited for subjective point-of-view validation, not enough facts about economic constraints included. This is an opinion piece.

This is only an anecdote so I won&#x27;t assume my situation applies to everyone.<p>As a person in their early 30&#x27;s who has never dated, I thought about this kind of thing recently and concluded I don&#x27;t really know what I want out of life. A lot of journaling and therapy led me to believe this <i>may</i> stem from a lack of interest in taking risks. And that <i>may</i> stem from my upbringing. Specifically trauma for at least a portion.<p>I agree that there are a lot of reasons to think pessimistically about the future. However in my case it simply <i>feels good</i> to seek out such pessimism because it already fits into my world view. Which was shaped by <i>mindset</i>&#x2F;<i>trauma</i> and disconnected logically from the fact that the Earth is melting etc. The people who raised me I was essentially given by chance. And they did not fulfill all my critical needs while excelling in other (material) needs.<p>And that causes pessimism in me to some extent. Not the economy, <i>really</i>. Not AI, <i>really</i>. Those are things I can be pessimistic about <i>by proxy</i>. Because generally my mind rewards pessimism stronger than others, so those topics become abstract punching bags. I can&#x27;t remember how many times I&#x27;ve opened HN and come across a sentiment of pessimism I largely agree with in the comments. But is that because I <i>seek</i> HN for that? What would it matter if I just stayed ignorant for a week? What difference would it make?<p>Ideally, I think if I were to focus on things important to me it wouldn&#x27;t be pessimism in general. I recently spoke to a woman in her mid-30s married with children and in talking about finding a partner she discussed how she believed all people are fundamentally good at heart, and the dating market is about finding those who will accept you <i>now</i> for who you are, without needing to change for them. This including an obligation to go to therapy or similar to change some of your beliefs that aren&#x27;t as productive while still letting your true self on the inside shine outwards.<p>This I believe is where the disconnect lies. Because I&#x27;ve already been in therapy since 3rd grade until today, a period of over 20 years, and the longer I&#x27;ve gone the more I&#x27;ve realized those &quot;true self&quot; components that are left without being reconfigured by therapy are <i>not</i> conducive with &quot;you are a good person at heart&quot; that the fiancee automatically believes. And it might have been that incorrect belief that enabled her to get married, because it enabled her to find a person that <i>wasn&#x27;t like me</i>. But I don&#x27;t parse it the same way.<p>For a long time I didn&#x27;t see an issue with myself. I just thought that&#x27;s what &quot;be yourself&quot; meant. To believe the world is fundamentally chaotic and absurd. Because there isn&#x27;t any other way to see it, having experienced first-hand what I did. And also I disagreed that there aren&#x27;t any &quot;fundamental&quot; qualities so to speak that every single person on Earth would reject you for. If they accepted me for those it would be like accepting that they know someone will take advantage of them and deciding it&#x27;s in their best interest to interact with them daily. I can only imagine the number of people diagnosable with narcissistic personality disorder that love &quot;being themselves&quot; and never want to change their fundamental nature for anyone.<p>This is better than where I was 5 years ago. I was so busy dissociating with work that there was no reason at all for me to think about marriage or dating. Even in the middle of therapy. And I would say I am not restricted by finances or lack of homeownership (it sounded like a weird American obligation to me not grounded in true desires). This is my personal explanation for &quot;people are better off but don&#x27;t seem to know it&quot; in the article. My mind reconfigured itself so that such any notion of &quot;success&quot; becomes unrecognizable. How effective is a human whose brain does not process rewards and punishment normally?

Yeah? Do you blame the kids?<p>Or do you blame the parents?

Dipshits write handwringing clickbait articles about it?