Indisputable Evidence That Millennials Have It Worse Than Any Generation in 50 Years

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/indisputable-evidence-that-millennials-have-it-worse-than-any-generation-in-50-years/283752/

?n0ujop

Every generation likes to believe that it came of age at an especially trying moment in history. Millennials have the Great Recession to lament. Gen X had the dotcom bust. The Boomers had Vietnam. And the Silents had the early Cold War, complete with the not-so-silly threat of nuclear war.

But at least when it comes to the job market, I think we can all agree by now that today's young adults are deserving of at least a few extra pity points. And should there be any doubt, here's a wonderful, one-chart demonstration of why from a new Pew report. At every education level, the 25- to 32-year-olds of 2013 confronted a higher unemployment rate than past generations did when they were stepping into the workforce. And keep in mind, that's 2013—four years after the economy was supposed to have started mending.



I can hear your objections. The Silent Generation grew up in the Great Depression, and even after WWII great swaths of the country were still beset by agrarian poverty most of us can barely imagine today. Too true. The late 1970s clearly weren't a picnic, and to top it off you had to listen to Kansas on the radio. Truly unfortunate. Gen X would look a whole lot less fortunate if that chart showed the unemployment rate in 2002 instead of 1995. So right!

Being young has never been a financial cakewalk. Still, consider this chart something to clip and save for the next time someone writes a column about why so many kids today seem to live in their parents' basements.

[customerserviceguy]

1. Seems that the years for the non-millenials have been cherry-picked

By 1965, the recession of the early 60's was over with, and we were beginning a very active time for the economy, when inflation really took off, things were so good. 1979 was the best year of the Seventies, just before we lapsed into the recession that foisted Reagan on the country. In 1986, that recession was starting to recede, and we had a few more good years before the recession that brought Bill Clinton to the Presidency. By 1995, Clinton's economic policies had put the nation on the path back to prosperity, which lasted until the dot-com bust.

Each of the groups mentioned had at least a couple of recessions to deal with subsequent to those hand-picked good years, and it's tough to be in those older generations during the Great Recession if you lost your job. I'm not saying millennials have it easy, but it's not been a cakewalk for most Americans over the last fifty years.

[seveneyes]

2. Recently touted low unemployment numbers and reality

While a positive and optimistic take on the latest lowered unemployment numbers is shared by some, the dark of night toe stubbing reality of an Oliver Twist future fills the veins of the pragmatic.

[Javaman]

3. And anyone over 50 out of work. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. Apples to apples, they have it way worse than we did. n/t

[Javaman]

8. Oh they do, but in this day in age...

out of work is out of work and being over fifty and trying to find a job, is next to impossible.

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. I agree. At this point in life, I think we are worse off than our parents were.

We certainly have fewer options than they did.

[Eleanors38]

12. It took me nearly 10 yrs to discover I was retired.

[Armstead]

4. Don't underestimte the trauma of having to listen to Kansas...

...and don't forget that generation was also being hammered by Disco and Debbie Boone.

On a more serious note, yes each generation has it tough, but this time there does seem to be a more fundamentally scary backdrop for them.

[dickthegrouch]

16. After Rap and Hip Hop, I say

Come back ABBA, all is forgiven

[FSogol]

5. Are they being drafted into a war?

[Orrex]

10. Some of them have to pay for their own data plans, so yes.

[FSogol]

11. DUzy! n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. Carry on, my wayward son. K&R.

[TheMathieu]

13. It's the only generation that legislators should be focused on right now.

Society owes us more than any current living generation.

[FSogol]

14. What a ridiculous notion. Did you forget the sarcasm tag?

[Iggo]

15. lol.