The Millennial Utopian Society

In order to understand the millennial phenomena that has influenced the beginning years of the 21st century, acknowledgement that the under thirty sect is quite different from their parents’ generation is crucial. Back some fifty plus years the popular saying coined by Jack Weinberg was  “Don’t trust anyone over 30”. The crowning irony is that this mindset was expressed during the “Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley which was a struggle by students over the right to engage in political speech on campus, which helped to catalyze broader political activism on campuses around the country over student rights, civil rights and the Vietnam War”.

Millennial neophytes or recent graduates view student rights as maintaining a safe space so that their social and political attitudes will not suffer the discomfort of being challenged. This repudiation of scholarly standards is often shared by the faculty and administrations of universities of higher learning. Debate and discourse have become outmoded interaction. The mere experience of personal social dealings and dialogue has become so out-of-date that the new norm of contact is texting through the internet of captured digital data.

This method for communal communication distinctly increases civic isolation. In the 1960’s what once was anti-establishment protest against injustices and imperialism has morphed into indisputable authoritarian demands for applying the agenda of progressive collectivism.

Global warming became climate change and is now an excuse to de-industrialize Western economies, while restricting third world aspirants from developing their own national wealth. The mantra of planetary peril does not allow the debunking from all the decades old and dire pronouncements that the coast lines would be underwater by now.

Utopia for this segment of the egalitarian god is government adorers, places their faith in technological applications to eradicate the stability that comes from a traditional family and a balanced society with respect for the cosmic order and limitation of the human species.

In the social realm, one of the favored patterns of victimhood that the progressive left seldom vary from is that America is based upon racism. To achieve Utopia from these guilt ridden apologists over our heritage, a repeated mantra of manufactured remorse sets out to degrade White European descendants and elevate the rainbow coalition of color as superior position within the political and social structure.

Achieving this false paradigm, the Democratic Socialism and the Poor becomes the replacement for the economic practices that built a viable middle class in our country.

Before sending your cat calls of denunciation, read Hugh Whelchel’s account.

“Swedish author Nima Sanandaji writes in his 2016 book Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism that the social success of Nordic countries pre-dates progressive welfare-state policies:

In fact, their economic and social success had already materialized during a period when these countries combined a small public sector with free-market policies. The welfare state was introduced afterward. That the Nordic countries are so successful is due to an exceptional culture that emphasizes social cohesion, hard work, and individual responsibility.”

The Millennial outlook does not embrace individual responsibility. In a Uber transportation grid, learning to drive a vehicle is not needed since living in your tiny loft where your groceries are delivered by Whole Foods does not require independent consumerism. Such a lifestyle leads to political dependency seen in Why Millennials Love Bernie Sanders.

“As The Atlantic reports, this young generation is liberal, leftist and even socialist in record numbers. Mother Jones reports that it is the largest generation in the country and equal in voting numbers to the Baby Boomers for the first time ever.

The Sanders campaign has resonated with millennials for the simple reason that he has been the only candidate to take the issues facing our nation’s young seriously. He was the first candidate to put the issue of student debt on the map and he was the only candidate brave enough to state outright that the greatest security threat to the planet is climate change—not ISIS.”

Student debt relief and forgiveness is the height of obscenity, when even the most foolish of government schooled enlistees borrowed small fortunes to attend a graveyard of group think. Repeat over again until it sinks in. Utopia for the Millennials dictates that government provides benefits and eventually universal income to everyone.

Do not depend on the tech sector to spread the wealth. The Digital Age May Not Be the Utopia Millennials Thought It Would Be takes the wind out of the app sails that occupy the wasted time spent, while sipping espresso.

“A report published by Al Jazeera and now Kentucky journalism professor David R. Wheeler is suggesting that the digital age has a clear message for the young people in its workforce.

“Drop dead.”

“But despite falling unemployment, college grads age 22 to 27 are stuck in low-paying jobs that don’t even require a college degree,” he adds. “The percentage of young people languishing in low-skill, low-paying jobs is 44 percent, a 20-year high.”

Where is all this going? Taking the broad view of the future, when the next generation is struggling to earn a living wage and the first time job seekers are part time employed, living in the basement of a shared abode; what is the need for all these unemployed or underemployed people? Add the continued influx of both legal and illegal immigrants and you have a formula of subsistence level existence.

Without a dramatic growth in the economy, the need for expanding the work force is marginal. Now the plot thickens with the emergence of robot automation. The substitution of the human component should not be dismissed lightly. When Millennials Are Not Worried About Robots Taking Over Human Jobs, they are in denial because their safe space is being violated. “Nearly 80 percent of young people who participated in the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Survey 2017 believe that technology is creating, rather than destroying, jobs for humans.”

Compounding this trend is the fact that the social interactive skills of the Millennial age bracket is so lacking and bias against the realities of practical life that rational consumers would not listen much less pay for their advice or services. Proof of this fact is demonstrated everyday with the dribble from the mod squad talking heads on the lamestream media.

The cultural cognitive dissonance among these underachievers has Half of millennials could be competing with robots for jobs. Here are the facts:

“About half of millennials looking for work are interested in jobs that carry a risk of automation, a new study suggests. The findings indicate the youngest and most educated generation in the American workforce isn’t necessarily more robot-proof than older workers, who tend to be portrayed as the primary victims of automation.”

The prospects of a Democratic Party blowout in the next election cycles is being hyped up to convince the marginal bottom feeders to accept that their only hope is to redistribute the wealth. The means presented to lower the expectations require classical fascism and a greater degree of a governance from a police state.

So it should not surprise when the British press reports that More than a quarter of millennials say they would replace a human lover with a DROID. Such an absurd and audacious outlook points to the demented state of affairs that the world in rushing towards.

“As robots become an ever increasing part of our daily lives, humans could soon find love with the machines, according to a new report.

The report suggests that over a quarter of 18-34 year-olds will feel it’s normal to form friendships and even romantic relationships with robots in the future instead of humans.”

The collectivism of the transhumanist society that is emerging has a dire acceptance from a large number of the Millennial age group. According to the National Review, these snowflake social-justice warriors have had encouragement on their path to the ludicrous.

“The upper-middle-class American style of parenting is creating a generation of children who are trained from birth to believe three things: first, that the central goals of life are success and emotional well-being; second, that the child’s definitions of success and emotional well-being are authoritative; and third, that parents and other authority figures exist to facilitate the child’s desires. If the child is the star of his own life’s story, then parents and teachers act as agents, lawyers, and life coaches. They are the child’s chief enablers.”

If this is Utopia, the converse of Jack Weinberg’s assertion is more operationally correct – Don’t trust anyone UNDER 30. Our own coming of age generation revered Free Speech. Millennials often act as uneducated idiots with zero tolerance for anyone dissenting from their zealot multiculturalism political correctness. The prospects for a civilized society based upon mutual respect cannot exist when the successful producers are demonized as unworthy of inclusion into the body politik. When the teaching of the difference between ideas and facts is lost on leftist scholars because of academics’ love of socialism, the breakdown of society accelerates.

The post The Millennial Utopian Society appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

"The World Is Criminally Corrupt & Broken" - A Surprising Dinner Conversation With The Younger Generation

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Dressed in red velvet, she trampled under her reckless feet the stray flowers fallen from other heads, and held out a salver to the two friends, with careless hands. The white arms stood out in bold relief against the velvet. Proud of her beauty; proud (who knows?) of her corruption, she stood like a queen of pleasure, like an incarnation of enjoyment; the enjoyment that comes of squandering the accumulations of three generations; that scoffs at its progenitors, and makes merry over a corpse; that will dissolve pearls and wreck thrones, turn old men into boys, and make young men prematurely old; enjoyment only possible to giants weary of their power, tormented by reflection, or for whom strife has become a plaything.

 

– Honore De Balzac, The Magic Skin

I don’t get out all that much these days, but last evening I had a really engaging and illuminating dinner conversation. In attendance was a 47-year old commercial real estate investor and fellow Boulder resident who I’ve become friends with, a 32-year old professional poker player looking to move here, and 28-year old tech startup founder. Although I hadn’t met the younger attendees before, it became immediately apparent that everyone in attendance was highly intelligent and very engaged with the world around them.

We discussed religion, philosophy, crypto assets, the importance of nature to humans, travel and more. That said, the reason I’m writing this post is due to some of the generational observations I came upon. It confirmed the overall thesis I discussed in detail within last month’s post, The Generational Wheels Are Turning.

Here are a couple of passages from that piece to refresh your memory:

The Baby Boomer generation, which has dominated so many aspects of our country for so many decades — including the overall narrative of everything — is finally heading off into the sunset.

 

It’s not so much that they’re physically expiring, but their influence is beginning to wane significantly. It’s not completely obvious just yet since our world continues to be defined by the institutions and ideals they championed, but in the hearts and minds of so many, particularly the younger generations, the world they left us is hopelessly corrupt, archaic and can’t be displaced quickly enough.

While at dinner last night, I tried to listen as closely as possible to how the younger guys saw the world and where it was headed.

I wouldn’t say their views of the future were wildly optimistic, but there wasn’t a sense of dread or pessimism either. There was a vibe of, yeah our generation was screwed, the government sucks and so do all these corrupt institutions, but we’re gonna get out there and do our best. I’ve noticed this worldview consistently over the years from people roughly tens years younger than me, i.e., the heart of millennial generation. Not only is my wife in that age group, but so are many of my close friends at this point, and this ethos has been pretty consistent from my experience.

They don’t trust government, corporations or anyone with power to do the right thing. This is why they didn’t enthusiastically buy the Hillary Clinton kool-aid, despite not liking Donald Trump either.

It seems being thrust into adulthood with terrible employment and wage prospects resulted in a very healthy dose of cynicism about how things work. There’s a very clear appreciation that the world as is functions today is criminally corrupt and broken.

When I go out and chat with people my age and older, I notice a completely different tone compared to when I engage with younger generations. One thing is crystal clear. Older friends of mine not only think the status quo will strike back against extremely disruptive forces like Bitcoin and crypto assets, they also think the status quo will win. They expect a return to the gold standard, or some IMF-globalist one world digital currency to provide a framework for the post-dollar reserve currency system. Generally speaking, the biggest difference between the two groups is that one expects the current power structure to cunningly survive this current period, while younger people think the world can, and will, be fundamentally changed for the better. You know which camp I’m in.

Generally speaking, older people tend to be strongly anchored to the world paradigm as it exists, while those who are younger are naturally more open to massive disruption and upheaval. I’d argue that the current younger generation is even more willing to flip the table over and build entirely new structures than most people realize. The popularity of crypto assets amongst this generation is just one manifestation of this desire. That’s not to say us optimists are naive and expect this to be a smooth transition without a fight, but it’s to say we believe paradigm level, positive change is not only possible, but likely. Which is precisely the attitude you must have if you want to win. If you go into a battle expecting to lose, the result is obvious.

Most interesting to me was how the youngest member at the table responded when the subject of gold came up. He said something like, “I get the investment thesis, I get the concept of it, but it’s just not something I’m interested in.” He went on to describe why.

He likened it to buying an asset, holding it tight, and then waiting for the world to burn around him to profit. This blew my mind because I’ve heard this exact same sentiment, virtually word for word, from other people his age previously. They get gold and they understand the investment thesis, but they simply aren’t interested in it for very specific and interesting reasons. Many older people think millennials are just acting stupid and naive with their interest in crypto assets. They think these kids don’t know anything about gold or monetary history, which is why they’re attracted to these new digital forms of value, but if you actually talk to them, you’ll see that’s not the case. I’ve had too many experiences like the one described above with intelligent and aware millennials to be increasingly confident of this conclusion.

It reminded me of what I wrote last month:

This is where many older people who understand how fraudulent and terminal the current system is seem to get sidetracked. To them, the next logical step as we enter a new financial system has to be to go through gold. Far more ridiculously, some people even push the spectacularly idiotic idea that an SDR will become the accepted global currency of the future. While I don’t profess to know exactly how things will play out, I try to keep an open mind as others arrogantly dismiss Bitcoin completely.

 

It’s no coincidence that many of those who are particularly condescending toward Bitcoin are from older generations. They’re doing what humans tend to do, which is take their own understanding of the world and life experiences and extrapolate them into the future. Someone who lived 30 years or more before the internet came to dominate everything will naturally possess a radically different perspective of the world and where it’s headed than someone who never knew life without it. This is precisely why a younger person will inherently understand the value and utility proposition of something like Bitcoin far more easily than someone much older.

The only person at the table who owned no crypto assets was the oldest one in attendance (although he’s totally supportive of the space). This pattern is repeated over and over again in my experience. When I go out with friends my age or older they’re almost never involved, but when I go out with younger generations they almost always are. Some people will write the whole thing off as a fad, but my observations point me in an entirely different direction. The evolution and success of Bitcoin and crypto assets is not just a function of revolutionary technology being introduced into the world. Its blistering adoption rate is a reflection of a global consciousness developing amongst younger generations. It’s reflection of a burning desire for a more dynamic, trustless and decentralized world, and it will be up to them to ensure that it happens.

None of us know exactly how the future will unfold, but I’m going to take my cues from younger generations. Their values and desires will be what shapes the world as older generations retire and die off. If you aren’t talking to them and studying the way they see things, you’re going to be completely blindsided by the next 10-20 years.

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Exodus Starts: Millennials Ditch City Life

The urban revival of America’s core inner cities has been a decades-long failed experiment, as deindustrialization coupled with failed liberal policies have created a growing problem of inequality and violent crime. Middle-class advancement was once localized in the core of America’s cities, but that is not so much the case today, as those areas are labeled a “barbell economy,” divided between highly-paid professionals and low-skill service workers.

Brookings Institution notes as early as the 1970s, middle-class income in the inner cities started to shrink more than anywhere else. Today, in most US inner cities, the cores are more unequal than their surrounding suburbs, noted geographer Daniel Herz.

As the failed American inner city experiment nears the latter stages before a collapsing point, a new report from Time could be the final nail in the coffin for some American inner cities, as the article suggests “cities have already reached ‘Peak Millennial’ as young people begin to leave.” 

According to the latest Census data, after years of growth, the population of millennials in Boston and Los Angeles have declined since 2015, as a mass exodus from city life starts to take shape. Other cities such as Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., are experiencing similar issues but not as severe while growth rates of millennials plateau.

Dowell Myers, professor of demography at the University of Southern California, called the peak of the millennial population in major U.S. cities back in 2015, with the largest birth group of the cohort turning 27 this year. To note, Myers could be a far better forecaster than Dennis Gartman, but we’ll leave that for another conversation.

Myers said at the critical age of 27 and above, that is the time when the millennial generation will participate in, what we call, ‘millennial flight’ to the suburbs. Such a trend could be the final nail in the coffin for some American inner cities, who were expecting the millennial generation to lead the charge in the revival process, as what we’ve learned from Myers– that may not be the case.

The Times explains how Myers coined the term— ‘peak millennial’. Interesting, the plateauing of millennial populations are occurring in East Coast cities, while the West Coast is still drawing in young people.

To see which cities have reached “peak millennial” — a term Myers coined —we analyzed a decade of Census data through 2016. We found that while tech hubs like San Francisco and Seattle are still drawing young people, large East Coast cities, like New York and D.C., are fast approaching peak millennial, with plateauing populations of those born between 1980 and 1996.

 

And then there are cities like Boston, which already appear to have reached their peak. Boston lost roughly 7,000 millennials in 2016, after a record high of 259,000 the previous year.

In the explanation of millennial flight from America’s inner cities, Jim Rooney, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce said, “they’re doing what every generation does — they get married, start a family and think about having a backyard and looking at school systems” in the suburbs.

While that is definitely true, and what we’ve mentioned above, millennials tend to live in core inner cities, where inequality and violent crime are sometimes out of control. Also, many millennials are becoming priced out of real estate in these areas, as wage stagnation is drowning many millennials into more and more debt, on top of their already ballooning balance sheet of liabilities. Think student loans….

In Boston, the millennial peak was confirmed in 2014 through 2015, as it appears it’s all downside from here. Rooney’s findings conclude millennials in the region are being priced out of homes with the median home in Boston around $561,000, according to Zillow.

In Chicago, the millennial plateau occurred in 2014 through 2015, hitting a high of 814,000 millennials in 2015 and falling by a few hundred in 2016. Jack Lavin, president of the area’s Chamber of Commerce said millennials are moving to the suburbs to start a family— ditching urban areas. Nevertheless, the article does not mention— the out of control homicides adding to the fear of city life.

In Los Angeles, the millennial peak was confirmed in 2015, which saw a decline of about 2,500 millennials in 2016. “It’s hard for millennials to achieve a middle-class lifestyle that they think they deserve”, said Myers. With that being said, millennials are moving out.

Bottomline: The ruling elite and their inner-city playground planners who were expecting the millennial generation to revive their decades-long failed experiment are about to come to harsh terms with the reality of a millennial exodus.

Goldman Sachs: 2017 In 100 Charts

Goldman Sachs" Sumana Manoghar, Hugo Scott-Gall, and Navreen Sandhu wax lyrical in their introduction to the 100 most interesting charts of 2017...

In this very special edition, straight from our hearts, We pro?le 100 of our best and most compelling charts. They tell the story of a changing world; and below it starts. But for now we’ll quickly run you through the major parts.

 

We begin with rising capex: Who is spending to defend? Is disruption overrated? Who else can Amazon upend? The potential in India? Can China’s overcapacity mend? Are people eating healthier? How do millennials spend?

 

We explore each of these themes and tell you how they link. We have some fun charts in here too. And surprises. Wink wink. We hope they join the thematic dots as you see them in sync, But most of all we hope that these charts make you think.

 

There are quotes, stats, and a crossword also in here, Plus a thematic poster to spread the holiday cheer. Let us know what you think and if anything is unclear, We’ll be back soon with more. Until then, Happy New Year.

The over-arching theme appears to be that of disruption... and survival.

The Empire Strikes Back: 2017 has been a year of incumbents defending against disruption

The Force Awakens: Seeking a revival in global capex

Disruptive new entrants…

…often trigger a response from incumbents

Innovation to disruption: Tracking tech cost curves

The Last Jedi: Japan remains a unique opportunity

Attack of the Clones: Automation and the future of jobs

Who is disrupted by automation? Labour

Can the pricing power of brands be restored?

The Phantom Menace: Obesity and deconstructing the notion of healthier eating

A New Hope: The deregulatory wave

Where does China stand out?

On a parting note, some charts that surprised us

 

Source: Goldman Sachs

 

 

This Map Shows Where Millennials Are Buying Houses (And For How Much)

Millennial homeownership rates are essential to understanding the housing market because they facilitate additional home sales for other people.

How does this work? As HowMuch.net explains, suppose you make an offer on a house. The current owner is also probably on the market, and he or she likely has a contingent offer on another house. This sets off a chain reaction throughout the economy. Millennial homeownership rates are therefore an easy way to judge the economic vitality of any given area.

That’s why HowMuch.net created this new map...

Source: HowMuch.net

Our viz takes millennial homeownership data from Abodo and maps it by metro area across the country. Abodo adopted the data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which regularly collects a variety of information about the population, including the age of homeowners, the estimated value of their homes, and how long it would take to accumulate a 20% down payment. Our numbers are from 2015. We then overlaid this information across metro areas with bubbles representing the portion of millennial homeowners in each market: the bigger the bubble, the more millennial homeowners there are. We also color-coded each bubble to represent the median value of their homes—dark red circles mean the homes are worth over $500k, and dark blue means under $200k. This gives you a quick snapshot of the overall economy and the housing market.

The first trend you can see on the map is a clustering of red circles on both the West Coast and along the Northeast.

The most expensive city in the country for millennials is San Jose, CA, where the average millennial buys a home worth $737,077. Seattle, WA in the Northwest is also relatively expensive at $342,769. These are population-dense areas with booming tech sectors. At the other end of the spectrum, you can see clusters of blue bubbles across the Midwest in old manufacturing cities like Detroit, MI ($148,404) and Cleveland, OH ($160,251). Memphis, TN is the cheapest place for millennials at $142,795. Southern states like Texas and Florida are also relatively affordable thanks in large part to their suburban sprawl, which Zillow predicts will expand next year.

It’s no surprise that homes are more expensive in California (think Silicon Valley) than the industrial heartland, but consider how homeownership rates change based on affordability. The red bubbles all tend to be smaller than the blue bubbles. This means that as homes get more expensive, millennials become increasingly unable to afford them. It’s not like there’s a surplus of ultra-rich millennials buying up all the houses in California and New York. Millennials are just as sensitive to high prices as everyone else.

Let’s break the map down into a top ten list of the urban areas with the highest rates of millennial homeownership, combined with the average price of their home. A full 42% of the millennials living in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN own their own home, the highest rate in the country.

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI: 42.4% and $222,528

2. St. Louis, MO-IL: 40.2% and $167,791

3. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI: 40.2% and $148,404

4. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN: 38.5% and $158,974

5. Pittsburgh, PA: 37.5% and $152,731

6. Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN: 37.4% and $161,856

7. Kansas City, MO-KS: 37.1% and $170,254

8. Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN: 37.0% and $213,090

9. Oklahoma City, OK: 36.7% and $172,485

10. Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD: 36.3% and $272,805

Buying a home is often the biggest financial decision anybody makes, and that’s especially true for young people. And there’s a lot to consider when buying your first home, but one thing other than affordability to keep in mind is how many other millennials are in the same situation. If you’re a millennial looking to buy a home, and you want to live next to other young people, you just might have to move to the Midwest.

Here"s How Much Retirees Are Spending To Support Their Adult Kids

At one point in time in America, living at home with mom and dad after crossing out of your teenage years and into your 20s was embarrassing and something that was generally avoided at all costs.  And while hard times come and go, 20-somethings who were forced back into their parents" care worked their tails off until they could save up enough money to once again regain their freedom.

But, these days millennials seem to be embracing the free room and board provided by their parents.  According to a new study from the Census Bureau, roughly one-third of all millennials live at home with their parents and one-fourth of them can"t be bothered with enrolling in school or finding a job.

Of course, while living at home can help millennials cut down on costs, according to a new study from Nerd Wallet, it can also have a devastating impact on the retirement savings potential of their overly accommodating parental units...to the tune of a quarter million dollars.  Here are some of the key takeaways from Nerd Wallet"s survey:

• Parents could miss out on almost a quarter-million dollars in retirement savings by paying their adult kids’ expenses: According to NerdWallet analysis, a parent’s retirement savings could be $227,000 higher if they chose to save the money that would otherwise go to their child’s living expenses and tuition.

 

• Parents paying college costs could be missing out on almost $80,000 in retirement savings: More than a quarter of parents of children 18 and older (28%) are paying or have paid for their adult children’s tuition or student loans. The average parent takes out $21,000 in loans for their child’s college education, but the hit to retirement savings is almost quadruple that amount.

 

• Most adult children are living with their parents for more than a year after they turn 18: Almost 3 in 5 parents with kids 18 and older (59%) have had adult children living with them for more than a year; over 1 in 5 (23%) have had adult children living with them for more than five years. On average, these parents say the longest period of time they have had their adult children living with them is 4.5 years.

 

• Parents expect their kids to help them financially during retirement: Almost a quarter of parents saving for retirement (23%) expect their children to provide financial support for them after they retire. Millennial parents are most likely to say this (44% vs. 25% of Generation X parents and 5% of baby boomer parents), despite saving more than parents from other generations.

So where is the money going..

Many parents of children 18 and older are paying or have paid for their adult children’s basic living costs, including groceries (56%), health insurance (40%) and rent or housing outside the family home (21%). Some parents are also covering or have covered their adult child’s cell phone bill (39%) and car insurance (34%). But it’s important for parents — especially those who are behind in saving for retirement — to note that those same dollars could significantly grow their nest eggs over time.

 

In addition to these living costs, some parents of children 18 and older are paying or have paid for other expenses, such as clothing (32%), entertainment (20%), an allowance (10%) or a car loan (10%).

So, how long can your adult children be expected to interrupt your golden years? According to Nerd Wallet, 1 in 5 households surveyed said their adult children lived with them for more than half a decade.

Frankly, we continue to be shocked that all of those kids out there with $250,000 Art and Anthropology degrees are finding it difficult to land their dream jobs...

Weekend Humor: A Millennial Job Interview

Presented with little comment...

"For stuff like that, I"ll just ask Siri... who gets up at 8?"

A Millennial job interview from @TheDanielBrea on Vimeo.

Labor Market Conundrum: Number Of Millennials Living At Home With Mom Continues To Surge

Nary a day goes by that President Trump and/or the talking heads on CNBC fail to mention the following unemployment chart as evidence that "everything is awesome" with the U.S. economy...

...which might be true unless you"re among the 95 million-ish Americans who have been looking for a job for so long that you no longer even count as a human being to the Bureau of Labor Statistics...

...or if you"re a millennial.

Despite being the most educated generation ever to walk the face of the

planet, at least according to their tuition bills paid by mom and dad, a

staggering number of millennials still can"t seem to land a steady job.  Moreover, despite the steadily improving labor market, as the USA Today points out, the outlook for millennials continues to inexplicably deteriorate with 20% of 26-34 year olds currently living at home with mom versus only 17% back in 2012.

The share of older Millennials living with relatives is still rising, underscoring the lingering obstacles faced by Americans who entered the workforce during and after the Great Recession.

 

About 20% of adults age 26 to 34 are living with parents or other family members, a figure that has climbed steadily the past decade and is up from 17% in 2012, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Trulia, a real estate research firm. The increase defies record job openings and a 4.1% unemployment rate, the lowest in 17 years.

 

Not surprisingly, a much larger portion of younger Millennials age 18 to 25 (59.8%) live with relatives, but that figure generally has fallen the past few years after peaking at 61.1% in 2012.

So why does the professional development of millennials continue to diverge from other generations?  While one can never be sure, perhaps the answer to that question lies in the personal experience of young Heidi Toth who decided to quit her job, after gaining just two years of experience, to join a church mission for nearly two years.  Then, after returning to work from her travels, Toth quit again in 2013 after a "series of layoffs modified her duties"...which we assume roughly translates to..."a bunch of people got fired which meant I had to work harder so I quit."

After graduating from Texas Tech University with a journalism major in 2005, Heidi Toth, now 35, got a job quickly at a Provo, Utah, newspaper. But in early 2007, she went on an 18-month church mission, landing her back in the job market in the depths of the recession in 2008. Unable to find work, she moved in with her mother in Roswell, New Mexico, for nine months while she hunted for work and took part-time, low-paying jobs.

 

She was rehired at the Provo paper in spring 2009 but left again in 2013 after a series of layoffs modified her duties. After months of fruitless job searching and traveling, she returned to her mother’s house for three months until she was hired at a Lubbock, Texas, paper.

 

Toth was grateful she could live rent-free during her periods of unemployment. But, she adds, “It wasn’t ideal, professionally or personally.”

 

Prospective employers in larger, distant cities didn’t think she would be readily available for interviews. And at home, “I felt like I was back in high school,” she says. “I felt like I had to ask permission to go out.”

Meanwhile, as the Pew Research Center recently noted, even the Millenials that manage to hold a job and establish their own residence aren"t much better off as they now head more households living below the poverty line than any other generation and, in aggregate, represent nearly one-third of all impoverished households in the United States. 

More Millennial households are in poverty than households headed by any other generation. In 2016, an estimated 5.3 million of the nearly 17 million U.S. households living in poverty were headed by a Millennial, compared with 4.2 million headed by a Gen Xer and 5.0 million headed by a Baby Boomer. The relatively high number of Millennial households in poverty partly reflects the fact that the poverty rate among households headed by a young adult has been rising over the past half century while dramatically declining among households headed by those 65 and older.

 

Of course, that"s all despite the fact that they only head just over 20% of all households...

Millennials are the largest living generation by population size (79.8 million in 2016), but they trail Baby Boomers and Generation Xers when it comes to the number of households they head. Many Millennials still live under their parents’ roof or are in a college dorm or some other shared living situation. As of 2016, Millennials (ages 18 to 35 in 2016) headed only 28 million households, many fewer than were headed by Generation X (ages 36 to 51 in 2016) or Baby Boomers (ages 52 to 70).

 

Of course, those aren"t the only stats that prove just how much those anthropology degrees are paying off...Millennials are also winning at the "cohabiting-couple" game...presumably because it takes a village of millennials to cover one monthly rent bill.

Conclusion: