"The first generation to be poorer than the one that preceded it"

[Voyager]

@monstro

I think the whole “first we’ll buy this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch, then upgrade to this 5 bedroom+bonus room, 4 bathroom McMansion a few years later” is going to become obsolete. Instead of the “starter” house being the expectation, people will rent longer and then, if they want, buy a house they can grow into and stay for a long time. The “let’s buy a starter home” step makes sense when you don’t have to put down much money and you can flip it easily. Neither of those things are a given anymore (if they ever were).

The house I live in is part of a development, all from the mid-1950s. My house got added on to (not by me) but the average house here is about 1500 sq ft. The house I grew up in was built in 1951, and was also about that size. And my father never paid more than he had to for anything.
So, if there was an explosion in house size it predates most of you.
It is true that as the stock of land shrinks, around here at least, new homes today tend to be pretty large so the builders can increase their markup.

I think this is a positive sign. Just a few years ago, though, before the Recession was in full-swing, this wasn’t the case. I heard lots of Baby Boomers ragging on how if “kids these days!” hadn’t studied basketweaving in school, maybe they wouldn’t be wiping tables for a living. I heard a LOT of that. How could kids NOT internalize that as a sign of failure?

I think one of the reasons McJobs are soul deadening is because people don’t value them. People who work in retail are shat on by their bosses AND by their customers, because they are seen as worthless. But there’s nothing inherent about these jobs that requires them to be soul-deadening.

None of my daughter’s friends took basketweaving. Many of them did business oriented majors.
Retail is not necessarily a McJob. It is if you are given 30 hours, no benefits, and treated as disposable. Some of the older women in the Macy’s Mens Department seem to have been there for years and are not just order takers but are good at sales. When I was a kid a lot of people working in stores were like this.

But the poor job market after college was never limited to basket weaving majors, so it was never a valid criticism.

[Voyager]

@SlackerInc

Yeah, universities are kind of running a racket to some degree (this could easily be its own thread). They compete with each other to lure students with the most posh accommodations and accoutrements, and people wonder why costs are skyrocketing. I would love to see someone try setting up a Costco/Aldi style educational model, with no decked out lounges or leafy quad, but just leased, bare-bones office space and high quality instruction.

The increase in tuition at state universities is directly tied to a reduction in state funding, not posh dorms. (Not that I saw any such in Maryland.) Hell, when I was a freshman in 1969 we had maid service in our dorm, which was an architectural landmark also. I visited a Harvard dorm which could have been a rich guy’s club.
I think the real problem is that universities, unlike the rest of the world, are no more productive now than they were 40 years ago, and also that they can get the money.
Leafy quads are cheap, and long predate the increase in tuition. And college is more than just classes.

I am glad to see Obama beginning to demand accountability since so much of it is paid for by public subsidies (even at private colleges). I would also like to see the end of bachelor’s degrees in esoteric subjects unless they are paid for by the student or his/her family–no financial aid. I don’t want to banish American studies or semiotics from the university, but they should be part of sampler offerings to broaden students’ horizons, not as majors unless someone is going to get a doctorate and go on to teach the subject themselves (and relatedly, universities need to stop giving out way more Ph.D.s than there are job openings that require them).

Lots of people don’t declare majors until they are in school. How the hell is a high school kid going to know? Also, how do you know the job market in five years when you start a PhD? You wind up shooting areas you don’t like. I’m fine with people finding their own way. If your are a mediocre English PhD and can’t find a job, it is your fault, no on elses. Don’t keep the brilliant one from being in a program.
BTW my daughter just got a joint PhD in Psychology and Marketing, and even she feels she has to hustle and get some good publications in order to get a good job in academics. This is not a problem limited to English Lit majors.

It’s an interesting point about changing jobs. My wife is one of the very few Millennials in a job with a pension (she is a public school teacher). We were wondering about that, though: we don’t necessarily want to stay in Missouri forever, but aren’t sure if her pension (or more precisely, the years toward earning it) would be transferable if we moved to another state.

Back before 401Ks people in IEEE-USA were always writing about portable pensions, since back then pensions did not vest for a while - often near the time people in defense worked. It was seen as a big problem.

[compositejoe]

@Hampshire

It’s true. Remember in the late 80s when everybody could afford a $200 smart phone and the monthly data plan to go with it?
Nowdays nobody can seem to afford that.

I probably could…