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192 sats \ 8 replies \ @Scoresby 7 Oct \ parent \ on: The Doomers Are Wrong: Millennials are Better Off Than Boomers (Reason, Stossel) econ
While I am very sympathetic to the houses and cars are nicer and bigger than before and we made it illegal to build 'em shitty like we used to viewpoint...
I have torn apart a few old houses in my day and am currently living in a 2000s era house which I am tearing apart -- and there's no contest: the old houses were better built, with nicer materials, and many of their elements were 50 to 100 years old. The house I am currently in will be lucky to still stand at age 50 and I'm confident that none of the fixtures will survive that long.
I do believe we've regulated ourselves into expensive lifestyles. But real actual inflation pumping assets deserves a healthy dose of blame here.
The old vs last 30 years thing rings true for me as well. We have better technology today but fiat encouraged high time preference means we get things that are not built to last. The critique most heard regarding disposable products is that it is a side effect of capitalism. This is false. It's a side effect of central banks fiat money.
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Fast, cheap, good. You can't have all three. We pick fast and cheap these days. Even with fiat I think it's important to accept responsibility. I swear I HATE the passive blame the boomers mentality. It's weak. Grow up. Man up. You think you can do better? Do it. Feels like these types of critiques are coming from a generation of spoiled kids that were told they are winners. Lied to about the world. Guess what. We all were. Now what? We have bitcoin. We have our lives. Make the world better. Won't happen while we make excuses why it's so hard for us.
My dad was born dirt poor. Literally in a one room cabin. Never finished High School. He worked hard so I would have a better start. I'm trying to do the same for my sons. No one owes us anything. I have far more opportunities than my father had and my sons have more than I had. It's an amazing time to be alive. It's what we make of it.
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I've never seen anyone try to quantify this point, but I'd be very interested in it.
My dad also grew up in the kind of poverty that most westerners really can't imagine today. I got an immeasurably better start than he did and we're hoping to give our daughter a better starting place than we got.
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I haven't either. Like most ideas from the left... those that repeat them rarely have much logic or depth on the subject. I have thought for many years that most of these things like this are just convenient excuses to avoid looking at yourself in the mirror. I get it. I am not all that I can be or all that I want to be. But blaming others (even when valid) isn't a solution.
One of my favorite things Jordan Peterson says is that all of us have been wronged. Some more heavily than others. What matters is how we respond. If we just sit in our sorrow and focus on things outside of our control we will never grow. We have to fight against staying victims of our circumstances. Living as a victim is no way to live and it feels like we have at least one generation of people that internalized this and have quit before they even tried.
I know this is not everyone in the younger generations because I know plenty that reject this mentality. I think many are sick of living in sorrow and pity. Its no way to live. We actually live in an amazing time and I try to express that to my sons even though there is a lot to complain about and improve. Who is gonna do it? If not us, who?
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I totally agree with that. It's a very complex picture, isn't it?