By brother in Satan, high inflation makes you spend money now. It’s either that or going to hell.
Im saying that this bs is out of some relative comparison of how much generations are saving/investing. Everyone tried saving. But with low relative wages ofc ppl wont save as much as eg boomers - they didn’t give up vacations or buying whatevers, but still saved money. Younger gens are just left with no money after that.
And also falling relative wages (inflation) makes you buy things asap to actually save money.
If you would have bought a basement full of canned food somewhere shortly before corona or shortly before the russians went full loco in ukraine, it would have been a top tier investment. And if it wouldn’t have been, they don’t go bad fast and you can still eat them :') In high inflation environment, buying stuff instead of stacking money can make sense indeed.
Why grind when production is way higher than needed.
Just eat the rich.
Historically it always led to an era of prosperity.
It’s literally cheaper to buy things I know we’ll need at some point (assuming we have the space to store the thing) using a rewards credit card that’ll give us 1-3% back than it is to save and buy those things later when they’re even more expensive. (Paying off the CC before it accrues interest, of course.)
The only move that is ‘smarter’ is to be risky with our money and invest in some way. Which then either makes me a part of the corporate enrichment cycle or a member of the rentier class.
Investing isn’t that cheap, especially if you want to be moral about it (no shadow pools, company screening, etc). Coz you know, you are just fueling the same problem you are solving.
The only move that is ‘smarter’ is to be risky with our money and invest in some way. Which then either makes me a part of the corporate enrichment cycle or a member of the rentier class.
Online savings accounts also exist.
A solid suggestion.
I often discount those because I think of them in terms of cable TV pricing, that you have to hop around on to get the maximum benefit. It seems that there’s no trustworthy info to find online these days, so I don’t really know how they stack up, or even if my assumption about them is correct.Something to add to the vast hopper in my brain labeled “things to research if I ever find enough time.”
Ymmv but I’ve found Ally Bank to be good and the rates fluctuate with the baseline rates. I think you get over 4% interest right now. I’ve seen them go up and down just as the fed makes movements, unlike my ing direct account (which became capital one or something) where the rates only ever went down.
Oh. Oh shit it hurts that reading this made me self-aware of this behavior. It’s one thing to be in this mindset and not be aware of it and it’s another to have it written out in front of you. 🤢
Ya know, I’ve been saving better than most my age. 401k, savings account, emergency fund, investments, crypto, etc. and I keep being reminded that no matter how much I save, I’ll still never achieve the American dream without help.
I’m in a similar boat, minus crypto. If anything it’s made me realize how big that chasm has become.
My retirement plan is a heroine overdose. I’ll try to do better than that, but I’m not expecting much.
This is true, I asked a new-ish employee about getting/saving for a house and she was like, “why bother? They cost to much.”
the price of homes goes up faster than anyone can save. that’s the problem.
housing prices used to rise at or below inflation. now they rise at like 3x inflation.
Even you are thinking too far ahead. I’m spending rent money every month that obviously could be saved to someday buy a house… But on top of that my rent has increased faster than my income. Every place I’ve lived. By renting, you’re guaranteeing you’re going to be priced out of affording to shelter. And most young people have to rent, to start out. The rich have us fucked at every turn…
Yes, that’s me.
Economists: “WONTFIX: Working as designed.”
it actually kinda pisses me off. we have been dropping the ball as consumers for a long time. if people would just stop buying all this bullshit, the market might reconsider.
Lots of news articles this week using a lot of words to say “Americans don’t have savings”
“Prices are going up but wages aren’t. What have millennials done to cause this?”
Millennial here.
We exist.
Generation X here.
We sound coolest, and nobody blames us for shit.
And whose fault is that??? HMMMMM points at you
Thanks, Skeletor!
Millennial here.
I wish I didn’t.
thoughts (no self harm talk, just sadness!)
My society clearly hates me and doesn’t want me to exist, my parents bought the modern austerity riddled American dream hook line and sinker and so they believed they shouldn’t help me too much after I became an adult and basically they severed that deep link between parent and child for… some shitty neoliberal ideologies that are empty as fuck?
I am a millenial and I exist, I don’t want to, even though I was given a lot of privilege when I was younger I am ADHD as fuck and life is honestly genuinely miserable. The world wasn’t designed for my brain, it was designed to shunt someone with my brain into jail or a death spiral of some kind of addiction (you ever looked up the percentage of prisoners in US prisons that likely have ADHD? It is shocking).
It would be one thing if things were getting better for ADHD people, but they are quickly accelerating towards being worse in every aspect, random ADHD med shortages because the FDA wants us to die, more and more executive function required for basic tasks (more paperwork, more scheduling, more consequences for not following rigid schedules perfectly), less and less energy and free time available left over after work, less and less tolerance for simple mistakes at work, more complex and brittle steps to get healthcare help that involve a million carefully designed give-up points custom designed to coax an ADHD person into never utilizing their healthcare because they can never get through the hoops to do it. The job application process of sending out resumes to online job after online job alone is catastrophic for my ADHD.
I am not going to hurt myself, or by extension others around me, after all that is precisely what is making me sad in the first place. I have lost that flame inside me because I know I won’t be able to live a fulfilling life where I am genuinely happy in a way that I don’t always go to sleep at night wishing I could disappear painlessly and be forgotten by all…. unless I win the lottery either literally or get the rare job that doesn’t treat me like shit. (Then I am happy and am surrounded by a bunch of dying people like me that I have to try to ignore…?).
It is hard because therapists are usually older adults and they just can’t understand this depression as a rational response from an entire chunk of a generation rather than an individual pathology. Focus on the positives! they say….and I think… I will eventually die of old age or health problems (hey can’t afford the doctor or dentist so that will speed it up :P ) and wont have to force myself to survive in a society with rules designed to put me in a constant state of suffering while constantly coding my desperate struggle to keep basic aspects of my life together as laziness, naiveness, lack of work ethic, lack of personal responsibility etc…
<INTERNET HUGS>
I relate to this immensley.
🫂
hey, I’m sorry you’ve been feeling down. I can’t offer a solution, but I just wanted you to know you’re seen. and if you want to talk about it more, absolutely feel free to shoot a message.
fwiw, I absolutely sympathize. I’m a young adult with adhd, and struggling with depression, though the latter is getting better I think. I went pretty quickly from being a “gifted kid” to being what most would consider an underachiever. I don’t, to be clear; I’m proud of where I am, regardless of how it seems to compare to some of my friends. it’s still a mad reality check, though.
on a related note, I left christianity a year ago, and holy fuck has that been an adjustment. most of my optimism was always rooted in religion, and without that worldview, it’s suddenly on me to find new reasons to be even a little hopeful, even to want to be alive. I’m not suicidal, but for a while there I couldn’t say that I wasn’t. I do feel like I’m happy to be alive now, and that’s great, but holy crap this is not as easy as it was when I believed in an all-powerful benevolent god. ah well.
I hope you have a lovely day, but if you don’t, that’s valid too. life isn’t always lovely, and there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that. there’s nothing wrong with feeling down about it. all we can do is try to support ourselves and one another, y’know?
i’m sorry for the dreams that’ve been taken from you and the injustices you’ve experienced. you deserved better, and so did I, and so did most of us. thank you for being honest about it. 🫂
Thank you so much, I deeply appreciate these kinds of posts that don’t attempt to fix me but just engage in solidarity :)
on a related note, I left christianity a year ago, and holy fuck has that been an adjustment. most of my optimism was always rooted in religion, and without that worldview, it’s suddenly on me to find new reasons to be even a little hopeful, even to want to be alive. I’m not suicidal, but for a while there I couldn’t say that I wasn’t. I do feel like I’m happy to be alive now, and that’s great, but holy crap this is not as easy as it was when I believed in an all-powerful benevolent god. ah well.
I think the least interesting question about religion is whether god exists or not. There are many things you can take away from yourself about christianity that don’t have anything to do with a bearded man in the sky existing or not. It is enough to appreciate the beauty of how a spiritual perspective on life and the beings around you can lead you into a happier, better life even if you that spiritual perspective is fundamentally not reflective of science or reality as we know it.
It is like how I don’t necessarily believe we have souls (I mean whatever, but there is zero scientific evidence of souls or even suggestions that they exist), but the concept of a soul and how it can be affected by the world and other people is an incredibly useful way of looking at the human condition. It is a concept and word that does not derive its power from the fact that it exists, and you can appreciate that outside of believing there is something like a soul literally imbued into ourselves in some magic/spiritual way.
i’m sorry for the dreams that’ve been taken from you and the injustices you’ve experienced. you deserved better, and so did I, and so did most of us. thank you for being honest about it. 🫂
thank you for being honest and listening!
There are dozens of us. Dozens!
Now there’s a baker’s dozen!
We didn’t do chit… the problem is and always has been, always will be, government.
Yay GDP!
Between this and stock indexes you have the most asinine metrics to determine if an economy is healthy.
I’m not saying I know what the solution is, but basing good times on how well Microsoft and/or Warren Buffett are doing is just stupid.
I’m not saying I know what the solution is
it’s bombs
Oh fuck off. I don’t get why so many people here have a literal hard-on for violence. Get out of your parents basement.
i’m 50. i’ve been watching the political cycle for for more years than you’ve probably been on this planet. nothing changes. young ideological kids have their moment of clarity and proclaim “this is all wrong!”, and then do nothing about it.
and if you’re about to say something about protests, just stop. protests are useless. make them scared or hit their finances. those are the only things that matter.
They not only “do nothing about it”, most of them join in the wrong as they get older. I think it basically comes down to greed and jealousy. Not sure anyone can fix that.
our best bet (and likely our only hope) is to be well kept pets to a super AI. the path to that utopia is messy. AMA
Why You’ll Never Achieve The American Dream https://youtu.be/vu7IJ-HDIos
We have been very lucky and fortunate to acquire the American dream. My wife and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of her family though. Every time I look at the housing market it’s only gotten crazier.
The median home prices in California where I’m at.
I’ll see ya’ll in the Far North I guess. I’ll bring my own meth.
No need, there’s plenty up there for you!
I’m in the SF bay area. FML
Living there for two years… I realized I needed to gtfo of California. Thankfully I did two years ago.
having family help isn’t the american dream.
Organize a mass, simultaneous bankruptcy filing nationwide. Overwhelm the system with claims, and all debt collection ceases the moment you file for bankruptcy while the claims are being processed.
I was thinking similar. Would be interesting to see what happens. I just wonder if it’d be possible to do on a mass scale before they catch on and start disallowing bankruptcy filings.
Might devolve into everyone just ceasing payments on CCs, loans, mortgages period.
Problem is things will have to get worse for a lot more people for that to really happen en masse, I support the idea but I wouldn’t probably stop because none of my debts are debilitating. I have a good savings and my only payment is my mortgage and whatever I put on my credit card that month. I’m not going to just stop paying my mortgage for a political movement, and a lot of other people won’t either, supporting or not, people don’t like risking their homes when they don’t technically have to.
All the banks have to do is make examples of a few good people and all the others will likely fall back in line. Finances and debt is something that is very personal to a lot of peopl so people are hesitant to let that flag fly and unite publicly as well.
Yeah, mass bankruptcy would be a dream for the finance industry. They will immediately own all our homes and rent them back and ridiculous rates, as well as absorbing cars. We would have to buy our cars back at higher interest rates.
There are a lot of effective ways to protest, but everyone surrendering all their assets via bankruptcy isn’t going to be effective.
Well, you gotta be asleep to believe the American Dream, so maybe this means a lot of people are waking up.
It’d really be great if journalists even attempted “educating” readers or providing meaningful context. But then again, would it get this kind of traction?
The interesting story here is that interest rates are raised to SLOW spending and encourage saving. The interest rates spiked to CURB inflation. It has worked, despite most journalists seeming keenness for it not to, for the most part. If consumers and businesses reduce their spending due to higher costs of borrowing, this will bring down prices over time, aligning with the Fed’s inflation targets.
No one explains this to the average person, ever. Ironically, the story here should be consumers are spending money even when saving it should be incentivized because they can’t afford not to… because of profiteering by large companies, grocery chains, etc as well as stagnate wages for the past few decades. This means that inflation will creep up faster than it should because of demand-driven inflation. This makes the problem worse for low-income earners.
It seems to me that THAT type of inflation might require less of an “interest rate adjustment fix”, and more of a wage adjustment fix. Even potentially a regulatory fix to go after price gougers.
Every time I read the phrase ‘the American Dream’ I think of the part of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when, after spending the whole novel trying to find the American Dream, they’re given directions, only to find the remains of a burnt-down nightclub, “a huge slab of cracked, scorched concrete in a vacant lot full of tall weeds.”
Fear and Loathing should be required reading in schools. A lot of the meaning gets lost in all of the drugs, but in the midst of that haze one can find a lot true things about America.
Never read it because I assumed it was just a funny story about guys on drugs with his characteristic cool writing style, but if it had actual things to say about America, maybe I’ll read it sometime. Or watch the movie lol.
The movie actually takes all of that out unfortunately and makes it much more of a funny story about guys on drugs. I still like the movie, but the book is so much deeper and more meaningful.
I liked the book and I was surprised how close to it was the movie, the part tgat got there. And yes, they left out many things, but it’s understandable, because the movie was planned as a “funny movie”, not a “socio-economical movie”. So the book was like “drugs-capitalism-drugs-Vietnam-drugs”, tgey cut out all the “boring” parts, leaving only drugs.
The movie is cool though, but It’s just me always trying to appreciate what is shown to me, and not trying to compare with another media.It’s definitely not a bad movie or even a terrible adaptation of a book. Like you said, it just had a different goal with the same story. That’s fine.
Thompson rightly concludes that the American dream is already dead by the 70s.
If you look west you can almost see the place where the wave broke and rolled back…
Thompson rightly concludes that the American dream is already dead by the 70s.
Important context for that is that the novel is a famous, and relatively early meditation on the failures of the 1960s counterculture movement and the intense, if ultimately unfocused vision for a better future for the nation that was central to it.
I think of the Carlin bit… It’s the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it.
This is what happens when history is forgotten. Obviously we’ve had inflation B4. Don’t read all the negative sh*t out there. And don’t let other people with their agenda run your life.
We’ve had inflation before and, on a historic timescale, we’ve had revolutions to correct that inflation. France existed for almost a thousand years before they had the big one.
truth, I feel pressure to buy the things I want because I have no faith I will be able to afford them later. I figure, get it now while I can so that when I can’t, I’ll have it.
I don’t want anything anymore. Everything on the shelves is just crap
That’s why one of the things I bought is a 3D printer.
Someone much smarter than me explained how you don’t own stuff, it ends up owning you. This is outside of necessities.
You buy some decorations? Now you have to dust them, keep a place for them in your home. There are all kinds of examples, and collecting trinkets and oddities will never make you happy or fulfilled.
Oh, I know, I’m being somewhat facetious. I do have 3D printers but that’s because I’m a nerd; not like, preparing for anything…
Well damn, I wanted to talk about the neat things made during Covid when the hardware stores were closed.
It was fun modeling household items.
pretty much.
i purchased a new car in 2018. it was 20K. that same car today is close to 30K. in another 5 years it will be closer to 40 probably.
Right, my fully loaded vehicle was like 43k all in when I bought it in 2016. Today, the same car with the same trim level (granted a newer model) costs over 20k more.
