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Guest Post: Generation X: An Inconvenient Era
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
A data-based look at the financial context of the past 30 years from the perspective of Gen X.
I am honored to publish an insightful essay by longtime contributor Eric A. on the inconvenient financial era Generation X finds itself in. What sets this essay apart from most other generational analyses is its focus on data and charts.
(Eric's most recent essays here were A Brief History of Cycles and Time, Part 1 and Part 2.)
In The Brewing Generational Conflict (May 15, 2013), I mentioned the Cultural Monster Id (CMI) that arises whenever inter-generational emotions are freely expressed. Every generation-- the Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y/Millennials--is slammed for its supposed character flaws.
Personally, I don't find much value in these outpourings of Cultural Monster Id, for several reasons. One is that generations do not naturally divide into crisp cohorts; people are shaped by the events and shifting myths/worldviews of their culture. As a result there is an inescapable arbitrariness to bright lines between generations.
There's also a bit of intrinsic falsity in defining generational characteristics. Were the draftees of the Vietnam Era any less heroic than the draftees of World War II? Were the volunteers of World War II and Vietnam any more heroic than the volunteers of Desert Storm?
We can while away many a night around the campfire lambasting or lauding various supposedly generational traits, but I don't think that gets us anywhere useful. Ultimately, there is an element of luck in history, and it doesn't neatly favor generations evenly.
For example, the Silent Generation (born 1925-42) got stuck with a thankless war in Korea (1950-53), but was handed a golden opportunity to buy housing in the late 1960s before Boomer demand and geographical constraints sent it skyrocketing. Homes in high-demand areas purchased in the late 60s (before most Boomers could afford to buy a house) doubled in value in a few years and went on to rise 10 or even 15-fold in the ensuing 35 years.
Luck matters, timing matters, but so does context.
There are four Grand Narratives at work: demographics, resource extraction/pillaging, geopolitical conflict and the nature of the economy. The last two are heavily influenced by the first two; some studies suggest that large cohorts of unmarried, under-employed males are precursors to war, as political leaders channel that restless and potentially disruptive force against external enemies.
Economies based on endless resource extraction founder when the resources are found to be less than endless.
The Grand Narrative of the U.S. economy is a global empire that has substituted financialization for authentic, sustainable economic expansion. In shorthand, those people with capital and access to credit can take advantage of the many asset bubbles financialization inflates. They have a chance to do very well for themselves, if they have the presence of mind to exit the asset bubble before it deflates.
Those people who do not have capital or access to credit become poorer. That is the harsh reality of neofeudal, neocolonial financialization. Neofeudalism and the Neocolonial-Financialization Model (May 24, 2012)
Large cohorts generate their own self-referential feedback loops. A large cohort of home buyers drives up real estate as demand exceeds supply, and those who get in early are handsomely rewarded. Those seeking similar returns provide the fuel for further advances. This is the basic story of housing from 1970 to 2006 and the stock market from 1981-2013, as the Baby Boom cohort bought houses and saved for retirement via stock and bond mutual funds.
As the Boomer cohort sells its homes and stocks, supply will exceed demand and prices will decline, especially if household capital and access to credit are also declining. This selling cycle will also be self-reinforcing.
In my view, the reality Eric describes is part of the larger destructive narrative of financialization. Those people who are prepared for the inevitable collapse of the financialization era of debt, centralized manipulation and fantasy will do well for themselves and their families.
My position on the entitlements promised to the Baby Boomers has been clear since 2005 (Boomers, Prepare to Fall on Your Swords June 2005): demographics, the changing job market and the destructive consequence of financializing the U.S. economy render the entitlements promised (Social Security and Medicare) unpayable.
Here is Eric's essay:
Lately there has been some talk about Generation X and retirement.
“The typical Gen X couple, born between 1966 and 1975, only has enough savings to replace half of its pre-retirement earnings. Married Americans born during the first part of the baby boom, from 1946 to 1955, can expect to retire with about 82 percent of their income.” (Gen X Has New Reason to Resent Boomers as Retirement Looks Bleak).
The response from some circles has been that the net worth of GenX is half that of their parents because they’re slackers who blew the money. Really?
Setting aside how the Boomers have been the most spendthrift generation in American history, quadrupling personal household debt and doubling US Federal debt in a single lifetime, I’d like to focus on something much simpler: 6th grade math.
Financial people should easily recognize this chart:
This is your standard net worth chart, starting with an income of $20,000 at age 20 and increasing income by 3% a year to a pleasant $40,000/year at age 43. This person saved a standard 10% of their income, and invested at the standard 6%/year compounded.
Standard lifetime incomes have a tendency to rise from your 20s to your 50s and level off, so your real income-generating years are strongly back-loaded. This earnings chart from Canada is pretty standard:
As for 6% compounding markets, this is what portfolios from 1980-2000 looked like:
Wow, this investing stuff is easy! But we know what happened after that. The Dow has since gone sideways for a brutal 13 year Bear market:
Oh well, those are the breaks. Markets tend to have a periodicity that rise for >20 years, but then reverse or at least stall in a bear market for <20 p="" years.="">
So what does this have to do with GenX?
Everything. Investing is an exponential function. One of the interesting aspects of the exponential function is that interest compounds very slowly at first, then increasing the amount contributed by interest ever-faster as time goes on. This is why Brokers are adamant about people beginning to invest when they are young: no realistic level of interest can make up for the compounding effect of time. Here is the same assumption as above—3% income rise, 10% savings with 6% compounding -- taken from age 20 to 65, halting peak income at a reasonable $55,000/year:
Note it takes 21 years to reach the first $100k, but only 8 to reach the $200k and 4 to reach $300k. This compounding-made-real actually happened from 1980-2000.
Here is a matrix of the 4 Generations:
Note anything on this chart? The Boomer generation had a rough start in the bear market of the 70’s, but were only about 25 when it ended, so the Bull run coinciding with 20 of their core income years. Very nice.
Quick look to the right and you’ll see GenX. When did they come into their equivalent earning years? Year 2000, just as the market was cut in half:
Why should that matter? The Dow has now recovered and gone to new highs of 14,000.
Well, let’s run the charts and see. Again assuming $20k starting income, 3% income growth, 10% savings, and full investment in the Dow as a proxy, let’s compare GenX income theory to reality:
Wow! Right at the 10-year compounding point in 2000, the X-er’s market clock was re-set to zero. Then in 2008, the next 10-year compounding point, they were re-set to zero again!
Remember what we said about compounding being strongly back-loaded? The difference in 6% compounding vs the market stalling at the critical 10 year mark has cut GenX net worth in half! And if this chart was inflation-adjusted their net worth would be another 30-50% lower!
This is even assuming the massively optimistic assumption that GenX incomes are neatly rising from $20k to $55k. They’re not:
What did the Bloomberg article say again, that GenX has half the retirement savings of their parents? That reality is exactly what we predicted given the math. Anybody want to argue about how Boomers worked hard to succeed but GenX and Y are slacking wastrels? Or does math trump all?
But okay, maybe despite advertising to the contrary GenX should have known better than to trust a 19 year-old bull market. Maybe they should have gone short. If so, when? Going short in 2001, they would have to have reversed and gone long in ’03, then short in ‘08, then long in ’09, and possibly short again sometime soon? Is asking a whole generation to pick 5 exact tops and bottoms reasonable? Perhaps not. If not, where should they have put their money?
Bonds? Interest has averaged under 3% since 2000:
The chart of 3% vs 6% interest: a 25% difference over 10 years:
Maybe they should have invested in houses. Here’s your table of average buying ages:
Severely burned by stocks, GenX statistically became first-time homebuyers at the age of 32, not much older than when their parents did. However, they bought their first home in 2005, not 1985. How did that work out?
Whoops! Sorry, suckers, stole your money again: your peak home-buying years coincided with another bubble! Housing was no safe-haven. Not only that, but again, the catastrophe is not the up-front losses but the 10 years of lost compounding that can never be re-made. The math says that if GenX worked until they were 80, they will NEVER recover.
But there is only one national economy, all the same houses, same stocks, same companies: to some extent it’s not a matter of national wealth, but the DISTRIBUTION of wealth in the nation. So if GenX was systematically disenfranchised by engineered stock and housing bubbles plus low interest rates, who was their expected slice of GDP transferred to?
Again:
That’s right, the Boomers, in allegiance with the financial elite, engineered a transfer of all other generations’ income to themselves. This, plus being born in an expanding demographic, was the totality of their investing genius.
Why should anyone protest this observation? What do you think the decades-old phrase “the national debt has enslaved our children” means? It means that the Boomers, who were in power at that time, took all the wealth of the nation for themselves and left their children with the bill.
That’s not a surprise, it’s well-known fact that has been approved of by everyone in power for 20 years. I’ve been hearing it openly stated since before the National Commission on Social Security in 1983. When I was 13, my national parents said that I would pay their debts so they could get wealthy at my expense, and they have fully kept their promise. Now I am 43 and not only had the $80,000 of my net worth systematically stolen, but being unable to outvote them, have been saddled against my will with the $50,000/person of the national debt. An estimate of $130,000 per person has been transferred. From us, GenX and Y, to them. And with 10,000 Boomers a day retiring and a 1:1 worker to recipient ratio, they expect much, much more.
So think again before you so easily dismiss the 25% unemployment rate and 3rd-world incomes of Generations X and Y and start with a short lesson on the problems of exponential functions.
Yet this terrible math leaves the question of what's next? Can this unequal state of affairs remain a permanent feature of American life? Can the work of one group-- the very hours of their life--be morally claimed and transferred to another by dictate? That is to say, does one generation have the right to enslave another, whether physically with chains they never earned, or financially with debts they never accrued? And if this transfer was voted into power by a generation and enforced by government dictate, why can’t Generation X and Y vote to transfer all the Boomers’ wealth back to themselves?
We don’t know at this time, but with the Dow at all-time highs it would seem that, one way or another, incomes and prices can only revert to the mean. And brother, speaking from the bottom, it’s a long way down to here.
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"That’s right, the Boomers, in allegiance with the financial elite, engineered a transfer of all other generations’ income to themselves. This, plus being born in an expanding demographic, was the totality of their investing genius."
I like to gently advise people not to mistake a bull market for their investing brilliance.
<Except (of course) when I as their investment advisor demonstrate my bull market brilliance.> :)
Who is stuck short from open today now losing money? Raise your hand.
Nine out of ten of us said to BTFD. Very few people felt otherwise.
Actually they should be pissed off about their non-viable tissue mass non-breatheren - without Roe v. Wade the ratio of retirees to working age wouldn't look so bad.
If only we had more presidents like Ronald Reagan. See how well he did for the Boomers? I know it must be the solution because every campaign since his has been preaching what a great job he did. You know, kicking off the massive money printing for Star Wars and the philosophy "Debt Doesn't Matter".... Ugghhh!!!!
Picture yourself being a Gen-Xer...and living in a second or third world nation. Those generation charts above would all be labeled "Shithole Generation A..B..C" across every time period, just in different colors.
I´m a US born Gen-Xer, and I also got burned by the stock market in the past, but I sure as hell am NOT going to trust Wall Street and the banksters today with my fiscal future ever again. I sleep a lot better at night stacking phyzz, and I buy it every month regardless of the paper price.
Who are you kidding? Without abortion (which I don't support), the amount of people on Welfare would probably be doubled, or tripled. It's not like rich people have sex and say "I don't want this kid we can't afford." It's uneducated people who don't plan anything when it comes to his/her life. It would be more people on the public dole further bankrupting the system.
All this means that the gen X, Y, and beyond will not have the security that Boomers had/have.
My gen X "career?" is a string of jobs that average 3years in duration, each. It also includes a 2year period of formal joblessness and a 1 year stint as a manufacturing wage-slave.
When I looked up my gen X college buddies on Linkdin, it's generally the same. Strings of 3year jobs, and at least 1 gap in career employment.
If people are subject to high job turnover such as I have observed, it becomes an inherent risk to get "fully invested in the current paradigm. and this is in addition to the "periodic" resource confiscation that has occured multiple times in the last decade.
It's not like we are trying to catch a break, we are trying to avoid getting continually reamed by TPTB.
Dark_Horse
It aint as simple as CS portrayed. ..most cant save a dime till the two kids get out of daycare and the two divorces are finalized....then they can start losing money in housing and stocks...
The fed should be abolished for not stabilizing interesg rates and real inflation so the middle class can stand a chance of building a nest egg
It's even worse than the author suggests; he fails to mention the increasing tax burden that is arriving just as the Gen-X'rs are approaching their peak-earning years...
deleted
...
... and the "non-existing" inflation.
The correct answer is to emigrate. Take all your wealth and leave. Leave the 1% holding the bag, before they do it to you.
Done. The USSA does not have a future.
Er...what wealth?
What's truly sad is to see my dad blow all his extra cash on a shop that he'll never use along with old cars he'll never drive. He loaned money to my brother and they have not spoken since he was paid back because 'it wasn't done correctly'. True narcissist. He bought me a 50 dollar torque wrench though that I've used once. By the time the boomers die I bet their wealth will have been completely squandered. I would call them the most lost, selfish, and sick generation.
From an aging Boomer, I concur with you. You are correct tarsubil. In every way. I would add that one reason most Boomers are so expert at what they've done has mostly to do with their teachers. The 'Silents' [largely their parents] are a deadly effective lot. They laid the ground-work for a bed of Collective Corruption that the Boomers have milked for decades. Good luck with the rest of your life. You're going to need it.
No kidding, this isn't going to end well.
Funny story:
My mum once told me she even got a job as a secretary without knowing how to type. They just needed one and hired her.
Nowadays you need a bachelors degree and 2 years experience.
The whole job market has become a farce.
lol
An unemployed friend of Mrs. Cog's was telling her yesterday that all employment searches for medium size companies and up are now conducted via internet applications and testing. Many hurdles must be overcome before ever getting to interact with a fellow human being.
It seems the commoditization of the world is now complete, having finally extended to "We the People".
<Would you like one human widget or two with that government contract.>
The easiest way to get a job will always be through the people you know. If your dad/mom/brother/sister/friend is a valued employee at a business, a recommendation to their boss will always get you a leg up on the competition. And it doesn't even have to be a direct line from your dad/mom/brother/sister/friend to the boss; it could be through one of their acquaintances who you've never even met.
That's probably the most important job-related piece of knowledge I got from my dad along with "make yourself invaluable."
I have an insider in the McDonalds Empire.
<I made friends with Ronald ages ago.> :)
uhhhh, I don't think that clown was Ronald, it was Chuckles <john wayne gacy>
Meritocracy is a curious belief system indiginous to the unconnected.
A. Shovelhead
You've just explained why getting an Ivy League education is such a great investment.
A teacher in school told us to make as many friends as possible. Years down the road those same friends would turn into business connections and employment leads.
When I was hired fresh out of school employer was pretty happy and asked me if I could recommend anyone. I brought two of my former classmates on board. Later they placed recommendations for me at other firms they migrated to.
The teacher I mentioned also told a story about bullying some kid in high school and running into him 20 years later when applying for a job. He was the head manager... and she didn't get the job."You think people forget?" she said "People hold onto grudges their whole lives. So be careful of whom you offend. It'll come back to bite you."
"Years down the road those same friends would turn into business connections and employment leads."
Behold, one and all, the capitalist commoditization of human relationships.
(/sarc?)
People quite often attribute luck to their superior intelligence or talent. I think it is called hubris.
Luck is pretty rare insofar as factors of success are concerned... I would substitute luck for "machiavelian aptitude"... Luck is... not something that happens "quite often".
The modern office breaks down into two primary categories: (1) those who do the work (that work "hard"); and (2) those that network/play the political game (that work "smart"). In order to justify their existence, folks in category 2 routinely mistake their success as having derived from category 1... this might be hubris... but I think hubris is something above and beyond and people naturally attribute their success to their own undertakings... for example, Jamie Dimon's testimony to Congress... now that's hubris.
JJ:
In case you haven't gotten the memo, educational attainment is the new method of discriminating against certain cultures.
In short, how many Blacks have any college? That makes it obvious why companies now demand certain levels of education. They know cultural components that they don't want in the workforcce won't get the chance to even apply.
Forget racist - now it's educationalist.
-30-
My black cardiologist will be disappointed to hear that he set his hopes too high.
Nice to know Chris Matthews stops by once in a while.
Hows your leg doing, Chris?
screw. blacks get free college, free housing, free food, free cars, free phones.... all paid for by whitey. don't hand us that bs that education is racism. Racism is civil rights laws against whites.
Um ..... better read this
It isn't racism, Taint. He's the one that played the race card. He called education racism against blacks, I pointed out that Civil rights is racism, as is any entity's "guidelines" on how many minorities it should have. Mandates for minorities is mandates against whites. Thats racism. go to your office's bulletin board. it should have posters about not discriminating against anyone, that includes whites, the most discriminated against ethnicity in the country.
Careful, the thought police may give you a ticket.
Had a good laugh when I read this comment. So, education = racism now.
Damn Corporate America for not hiring the uneducated!
Financialization was the only way to compensate sacrificing production for consumption.
Offshoring of production and career employment, debt spending, and mortgaging the future were the only way to keep the military/industrial complex war machine churning while turning newer generations into consumptive robots.
p.s. - anyone notice Rick Santelli has gone missing at CNBC? He's either on vacation or was taken out to the wood shed.
Excellent but Gen X and Gen Y need to vote and start to take it back. I on the top end of Gen X have struggled in jobs and wealth buidling with all the boom and bust cycles. I have forgone family, a house to be able to save just to have stocks markets and interest rates further kill my ability to build wealth. Guess retirement in Mexico is my only solution since will not be able to afford anything else going forward.
Right. Just hold your nose and vote for the next Mittens O'Romney. That will fix everything.
Voting = a) 'Heads,' we lose or b) 'Tails,' they win
.
They own both sides, each and every single time.
How else do you control the outcome...how do you think we got to this point...right now...on May 23, 2013 -by the good people winning the election(s)? No, its from losing every single one of them.
The 'best of the best' of the past 5,000 years got us to this point in history?! = pathetic or the good people unbelievably unlucky or ...on purpose -a setup
.
Now what?
Voting is irrelevant.
Just cut boomers entitlements due to... economic hardship.
It will be both true, and their fault... kind of "bad karma".
Ironic thing is the Mexicans are moving up here to work and we're moving down there to retire.
But they'll have the half of the country with roads.
So, eventually, the younger generations will out number the boomers at the ballet box. When does that happen, and will that become a deflection point when we will see a great deal of real change?
"Excellent but Gen X and Gen Y need to vote and start to take it back"
Take WHAT back?
Control? "People" NEVER had control: only a handful, just as it is today.
Money? FIAT?
There's no more "pot of gold" around. The bulk of our wealth came from PHYSICAL RESOURCES, resources which have been considerably diminished.
Repo... there, over at the edge of the property is your object of desire, the 2008 GM product that is up on blocks and hopelessly non-repairable. And should you manage to get the thing going you'll find that the roads are pretty much gone and that fuel isn't affordable.
Go ahead, it's ALL yours! Really! Let's watch the iCrap hostages manage a REAL world, one that will have LESS to do with techno-shit and more with manual labor.
Welcome to the hoax of perpetual growth on a finite planet.
+1 Seer.
(I like the "iCrap hostage" thing. Going to use that one at home.)
"The bulk of our wealth came from PHYSICAL RESOURCES, resources which have been considerably diminished."
LOL. How do stolen oil and the generation of competitive advtangage gifted to the US by WW2 count as "our" wealth?
Somehow I suspect the ballot box is beyond reach... the bullet box is next...
Voting with riggable electronic voting machines that flip your selections is NO way to take the country back; it IS a way to make yourself into an even bigger sucker.
If you want to change things then start building decentralized local systems that cut the fed fucktards and inbred Wall Street financier cocksuckers OUT of the equation; patronizing a marketing farce known as 'democracy' only gives more power to the assholes who run things and manipulate the election results. Fuck them and fuck this piece of shit lying fucking system...
I have a better idea: repudiate the system, in every way you can. Sure, it isn't easy (like 'voting' is), and it takes a lifetime of work. But, unlike 'voting', it will get results. Fuck 'voting'.
And no, I haven't believed in a 'peaceful', 'secure', or 'insured' future since I was 7. But then, I'm one of those Generation X types. Been raised with a 'perpetual war' mentality, and I'm quite used to it now. But my war ain't against 'terror' or 'poverty' or 'drugs' or any other slogan.
I'll be helping to keep my parents alive, but their debt will remain their problem.
PS: Did you know that in Australia, 'voting' is compulsory? You have to come up with an excuse (parm me, 'a valid and sufficient reason') for not voting, like a medical note, or you get to pay a penalty. The 'Right to vote' is my ruby-red ass.
"their debt will remain their problem."
Uh, the beauty of taxation is, other people's debts become your problem.
I on the top end of gen X have seen every step forward I've taken brought back by a conveyor belt moving the other way, every raise I've received eaten by inflation and cost increases, every vote I've cast laughed at by the politicians who count the votes...and every contact I've made with my legislators met with a pre-canned response of "thanks for contacting us, now here's why we've already made up our minds in the other direction..."
Hah, retirement? What a pipe dream.
Well, this is off-topic, but it's worth sharing. I'm sure people here will find it interesting. Some news from the state of CT:
Courant: Bill Drafted In Secret Would Block Release Of Some Newtown Massacre Records
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-newtown-foi-0522-20130521,0,2...
"National Security"
I'm out of this shitty state. CT has devolved into a liberal nightmare.
You're in good company:
http://articles.courant.com/2013-04-10/business/hc-haar-ptr-exiting-ct-20130410_1_web-site-connecticut-dannel-p
pods
http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/2013/05/mar_pending_home_sa...
Everything coming up roses in Ma. Record home sales! Unemployment in my town
9.5%., down from 9.6. Time to celebrate!
That's why I cannot sell my house. People are moving away. Business is moving away. What's the answer to the law makers? Another fucking tax on gas.
you forgot about retroactive taxes declared by a fkn sham governor who did not win the '10 election but by bags of thousands of votes after susan bycewicz oversaw the ballot shortage in bridgeport!
Oh well, at least we're smart enough to know what real, and sound money is.
Even if you are lucky enough to make 6%/y, inflation(and interest on debt ie. mortgage etc.) will easily eat it up and than some
Unless you where born with a silver spoon in your mouth and had at least 1mil+ to start with don't expect to ever earn a net positive income (minus) life expenses, you'd be just lucky to leave your children with no debt.
Remember the System was designed and is run by people who absolutely do not tolerate competition(read upward mobility), the 1 in a million Bill Gates's excluded
This should come with a huge caveat... don't expect to ever earn a net positive income, DOING THE SAME THING EVERYONE ELSE DOES OR THAT YOUR PARENTS DID... While most of us young folks are eating shit sandwiches, there are plenty of us who are thriving. It just takes a lot more work and ingenuity than it used to... when success was handed out to anyone who asked (or, as the case may be, borrowed). So yes, I think it's fair to say that it's much more difficult than it has been in recent past, but it's not impossible... You will likely need: 2 wage earners; little or no student loan debt; a house that costs less than 2x gross yearly income; total expenses less than 1 of the wage earners (which likely means moving to areas with cheaper living costs for many people, growing part of your own food needs, and generally not attempting to keep up with the joneses); and some can-do attitude.
Locally, the top tier of lower end RRE is keeping up with/surpassing inflation... as are ammo and guns... there are ways to keep up with inflation, but none of them involve debt.
Dude that is exactly what I have been attempting ever since I started to earn a wage, and I am barely breaking even after 6 years of super-charged thrifting.
But every now and than come expenses that set me back to almost 0, I got wiped in the Stock Market(mostly buying gold/silver), I got wiped renting apartments(with my landlords always "confiscating" the deposit),
I barely break even on my Metal purchases (after the recent sell-offs), I lost a few 1,000s on property theft(motorbike), a few 1,000s on health care(despite living in a "socialist paradise" where HC is supposedly free), yes I did manage to save some, but not nearly enough to compensate for the lost life-style, and if I now decided I wanted to "catch-up" I would go completely bankrupt. Young people are now presented with a no-win scenario, if you want a "normal" life-style ie. car, home, girlfriend you might break even if you earn an above-average wage and are super-carefull in spending your money.
Are you employable? Do you have a job? Do you have a large debt overhang? Are you capable of a brief bout with humility, sufficient enough to seek the advice of a local financial professional (ask each about prices)? Can you move to any part of the country? Do you have a broad range of skills or very specific?
It sounds like to me you keep doing the same shit over and over and want to play in the external locus of control pool. The changes that are necessary to succeed in this environment may require you to literally start over in some foreign place... the risk averse are often incapable of making the changes, in this environment, necessary to have a chance to succeed.
For a few suggestions, I hear there are jobs in the dakotas...
I can say yes to all except(debt I have/had none), and yes I am highly skilled and highly mobile have already changed countries 2 times and jobs about 5x, I am doing everything "right" by all definitions, I have fully commited to building capital, have no fixed obligations(except what you need to survive)and still feel like I am just threading water
OK, what is "treading water"? What is your concept of "thriving"? What concepts of wealth do you desire?
Also, do you only try to get jobs in the area of your "high" skill? What about re-tooling?
I disagree with MachoMan because I see where you're coming from. I consider myself to have done almost everything right up until 2-3 years ago too. That almost is refusing to move every other week to satisfy country club bozos chasing slave labor all across the globe. Now about 2-3 years ago I tried to start a business and I'm barely keeping my head above water. When the day comes that I can't service the debt, I'll do what "businesspeople" do when faced with adversity: dump the responsibility on somebody else. In this case, fuck the banks that loaned me phony money. That's what the world is all about, privatizing profits and socializing losses. And to think, I learned that great lesson long after graduating from college...
I see where he's coming from... I believe what he's saying... I just dispute that he's SOL in the matter. I dispute that you are SOL in the matter... My suggestion is to get advice from a third party and see about getting your business on track... it might be that your business sucks and you're not cut out for it... I don't know, but there are probably an incredible amount of free resources that will allow you to diagnose many common and some not so common problems with your business. Do you have a local college? It probably has a business development division... they'll probably do a business plan and complete run-down of your business for free... you can probably get a lot of online marketing, SEO, social media, and general marketing advice/seminars... for free or deminimis amounts...
Some business ideas are just bad and should be avoided... some business ideas are good, but not fully utilized... there's only one way to find out.
You have a great deal of faith in advisors, MachoMan.
Just talking my book... Aside from the fact that these advisors are largely a riskless endeavor... Call around... ask around, you'll find your man. A phone call doesn't cost anything and an initial sit down ought to be a fixed price affair. Keep all hired guns on a tight leash like this and you'll make money from them as their client. Right now, this is a client's market... bigtime... you call the shots when the professionals are desperate.
Thanks, but I already know where I went wrong. I self-funded a retail venture in a down economy. The only reason I haven't drowned yet is because I went into this as a part-time deal with part-time expectations and part-time risk.
On business advisors, no offense but I haven't been impressed with them so far. I was ready to pay for help and they can't tell me what a business plan is supposed to look like. In fact, that's why I self-funded; I had no idea what to tell a loan officer (I expected it to be like interviewing for an IT job, where one can be an expert in a programming language but disqualified for lacking experience in one of hundreds of slightly-different frameworks built on that language). While I do live in a college town, the business students at my alma mater were such idiots that I didn't even consider asking the locals.
So my plan is to ride this out. I'll probably run some red ink this year but in the end I expect to more or less break even. Then I can go in search of funding for the project I went into business to fund.
And truth be told, I'd rather be writing software than playing in retail. Problem with that market is that there's no middle ground. It's either cheap junk (farting iPhone apps) or ludicrously-expensive junk ("enterprise" "solutions"). I've put together dozens of high-quality applications (had to meet my standards, afterall) over the years that I thought I could get maybe $25 bucks out of only to find there's no market for them. People will put up with some really downright awful free/subscription junk while corporate/government sales require a access to a special friends network. It's ridiculous.
First, it sounds like you have your shit together if you're going into a "low-risk" venture in this environment... It's the only way to fly. You might have to take a few shots to the face before you get to dish out any of your own. But staying flexible and without a gigantic debt load is absolutely necessary for small businesses.
Second, on the business adviser end... yep, totally agreed. I would suggest a CPA over a financial adviser, in general. In many regards, the financial adviser arena is much the same as the realtor arena... you've got a stampede into something that can pay the bills with few, if any, educational requirements. Now that the market is receding and good practitioners are getting sifted out, the rest are left to eat shit. If you find a CPA you like to do your other accounting tasks, you can probably beat a lot of free advice out of him anyway... hell, take him to lunch and just discuss all your business issues over lunch... you deduct the lunch and he should keep it off the clock. Win Win. If you go the financial adviser route, I'd make sure they're at least a certified financial planner... but, make no mistake, CPAs provide plenty of financial advice on a daily basis.
You'll probably need to call around quite a bit before you find your man... you may even need to find someone in the next town over... but, this type of legwork and butt sniffing is cheap/free. Remember though, as the client in this environment, you get to call the shots... you have the leverage. Although, if you find a practitioner too desperate for clients, you might want to run away. As a general matter, I would suggest finding an established, but younger practitioner. Old guard tends to get complacent, which doesn't matter if all you need is a political connection to get your business plan approved... However, if you need mental horsepower and real muscle, your young turk is probably the better choice. If you get someone that's young, and also established, then you can pick up most of the political benefits while keeping the hungry attitude.
Also, the state board of whichever practitioner you're looking at probably has a roster search... which often times includes any disciplinary actions, etc. Many sites like yelp, etc. are reviewing local practitioners and you can get some real world reviews of folks as well... although, half of them are probably relatives praising the practitioner. My $.02.
" if you want a "normal" life-style ie. car, home, girlfriend you might break even if you earn an above-average wage and are super-carefull in spending your money."
Normal? Stop and think about that. There's only one thing that you cannot get more of: time. What matters most is what you do with your (limited) time. If you value your time more then you're likely to have more value in your time...
"While most of us young folks are eating shit sandwiches, there are plenty of us who are thriving."
Thriving, really? And how is that so?
If you're not one of the wealthy that literally MAKES money (fiat printer) then you rely on selling to the wealthy. AND, the later "wealthy" are under pressure to become not-so-wealthy (because that's the reality of human history- there's never really been an over-abundance of "wealthy"), which reduces the market size (while more competition to sell to such folks increases).
You ARE correct, however, in that one ought not attempt to do what others are doing (that's just "buying high," jumping into an over-saturated market). Food, Shelter and Water. I am getting in to Food, doing shit that others would find too hard or too low-paying. In the long-run it ALL moves toward subsistence (sustainability). "Thriving" will only be brief and in pockets (and, mostly, the domain of the "ruling class").
Well, how do you define thriving? I'd say having a job, keeping a roof over your family, never wanting for anything that you NEED, and having enough left over every week to save... is getting closer... There's a huge divide between having all your needs met and the hookers/cocaine/champaign lifestyle... and thrive is somewhere in between. Where exactly, I'm not sure, but I think it's closer to the "having all my needs met" end of the spectrum. So yes, if you want to define thrive as something only a few people at any time get to partake, then fine... but I disagree.
The other issue is that capital won the debate between capital and labor (it really wasn't much of a war). EVERY job is ultimately a derivative of printing... it's how moral hazard permeates everything and tarnishes us all. The fact that the pie is shrinking doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the "mix" of wealth... We're always working for someone wealthier... that's not the issue. All you're saying is that it's more difficult for us to earn a living than our most immediate predecessors... and I agree. However, we've also never had the ability to develop self confidence nor the skills to succeed at hardly anything... most of these things are simply mental hangups and not actual, physical impediments.
If you're scavenging for money, it sounds like you're on the right track... it's part of our new reality... you can either accept the paradigm or let your claws and fangs waste away until the dump is closed (great outdoors bear reference). Is this the path of untold wealth? No fucking way... but is it the path of having everything you need and getting to live a fulfilling life? Maybe... it's for each to decide... but if you're wanting anything more than that, life will probably have other plans.
Just to play devils advocate... if you believe that there is a group of people out there that are gaining wealth mainly through fraud and theft, then why not find a way to take it from them?
I play by the rules in a rigged game and I may end up dumpster diving if this gets far enough down the road. At a certain point however I can see anger taking over and deciding that retribution is the way to go. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure that many people will make the same decision.
Many people will make that decision, for sure... but they're not incentivized to at present... the free shit army has not yet run out of other peoples' money. The day is coming, for sure, but we're not there yet... People will magically get "wise" to everything once they're incentivized to care. Be patient, it's coming...
MM,
You have an attitude similar to a buddy of mine who happened to leave school at 16 because an undiagnosed reading disability left him a functional illiterate.
He also happens to be a millionaire full owner of 2 businesses that he started from scratch, one in a full service body shop and the other in a trucking firm.
A really smart guy, I thought, and was shocked to learn he barely could read a sentence.
Presuming on our friendship, because I learned secondhand that he was very sensitive about hiding his inability to read, I asked him how the hell did he accomplish the things he did.
He said," I knew I wasn't going to read my way to money so I had to watch and learn the hard way. I can't read but I can count just fine."
His Dad was a truck driver/ bodyman who did the odd job in his garage, so he watched and learned. Took low paying jobs and learned more. He bought a small shop and lived in the back as he took profits and plowed them back into equiptment. Soon he was making some real money and bought a beat up crashed tractor trailer rig and restored it and hired a friend to drive it while he made calls at night for contracts.
Added another truck and driver, a bigger bodyshop, a few more employees, a few more trucks etc.
Finally found a small ranch that a customer wanted out of and was willing to part with at a big loss for cash now and moved in to the relief of his long time girlfriend who helped him with his paperwork.
His summary was this: "Most people don't know that money has a momentum of it's own. If you keep it moving and moving it will grow and grow. The hard part is getting some and getting it moving, the rest is easy."
(Easy if you're willing to work 24/7 and not waste a dime)
Like I said, He's a pretty sharp dummy.
Guess he didn't have any time for whining.
Yeah. I really torn philosophically about success... In the largest part, it's materially impacted by personality and emotional intelligence... and what those don't account for, basic need picks up the rest (e.g. a learning disability that ensures you have no choice in the matter). As a result, success isn't so much something to brag about to most people. However, the trick is that YOU can actually change the way that you think about the world... change the way that you're motivated and eliminate your own mental barriers to success. I realize this sounds like a fucking infomercial, but in the mental health biz, it's called "cognitive restructuring"... The key is beating the subconscious into submission, given it has a lot more effect on our conscious self than we care to know.
That said, some people are born with mental faculties that make it virtually impossible to succeed in today's environment. I think there is a real human cost to the way we value things because there are many people that could otherwise be productive, but for the complexity of the system we have designed/imposed. As a result, there is a very large component to "success" that is derived from outside anything we should value or otherwise take credit for...
The other thing about successful people that most people don't realize... they're often degenerate gamblers. Many are drawn to entrepreneurship due to a complete lack of anything else (like your friend), but many are drawn simply by the thrill of it all... those endorphins that positively reinforce risky behavior. Many times, successful people go broke numerous times before hitting a home run... essentially, we have set up an economic system that values this affliction... It really isn't a conscious thing for many of these people... it's more of a compulsion. Our economic system does not punish failure to the same extent that it rewards success... as a result, the system is skewed to benefit serial daredevils.
Of course, if you know the recipe for success and don't bake the cake, who do you have to blame? This is ultimately the conclusion that lead me to push my wife into entrepreneurship... and, soon enough, will lead me to the same (although, technically speaking, her success is mine as well). From there, it will be to "keep the money rolling" so to speak and finally develop a myriad of business ideas I've been dabbling in for far too long. Along the way, I hope to drag as many people with me up the ladder... although, they'll be kicking and screaming the whole way. Maybe I'll be a pauper tomorrow, but I'm not going to sit around and mope.
You don't hear about the 10 entrepreneurs that failed and gave up, you hear about the one that succeeded (more often than not, after failing 1,2,3,4 or 5 times). The cult of entrepreneurship presumes there is incremental value waiting to be created virtually everywhere. This is not usually the case, most people just don't acknowledge that fact before it's too late. The biggest entrepreneurial success stories are as much about hard work and value-creation as perfect timing and market manipulation (via advertising). It is impossible to honestly quantify success when failure hinges on, e.g., the color of one's product's packaging. What you identify as success is usually just a very temporary phenomenon premised upon the continued existence of greater fools. Working very hard )(only) to fail is the norm, obviously the essence of success lies elsewhere.
Yes, agreed... However, if you know (and everyone else knows) this is what the environment looks like and these are the constraints that determine success or are more likely to lead to success, then you can strategize to succeed...
Entrepreneurship exists, predominantly, because many people simply have no alternative. It's been a decade since I was in the mba program, but one of the huge areas of research was the entrepreneurial mind... As it turns out, many folks simply can't stand the concept of a boss... and, frankly, understandably so. However, they almost always have no idea how to balance a checkbook... let alone prepare and analyze financial statements. This is why ~95%+ fail within the first 3 years (although the numbers are a bit skewed to the failure side; of course, the lion's share of those that make it past 3 years end up failing in the following 2 years).
Calling success luck is akin to calling a knockout punch a "lucky" punch... is it really that lucky when you're swinging away with haymakers? When you intend to knock the other guy out? Not in my book.
Further, all advertising isn't market manipulation... some is, for sure, but having a myriad of informational pages is hardly manipulation. In the end, good products sell themselves...
In addition, you don't need to necessarily create marginal value to be successful... cannibalizing market share is a perfectly normal way to become successful... simply offering competition to a market is often times enough to get some folks through the door... you don't necessarily need to create more value than your competitors... you just need to get close.
You forgot the ending to the story..
One day, Barack Obama walks into the shop, and says, "You didn't build that." Then Eric Holder seizes his business and hands it to a transgendered Somali Muslim welfare colonist in the name of Social Justice. The shop closes within a year, all employees laid off, which is adjusted to be an employment gain due to warmer weather in the month of Thermidor..
I'm a Gen X entrepreneur, I just don't do it in the USSA.
Having wasted the time it took to read most of this article, I found your example to be most profound and gave you the second up arrow. If I could somehow bestow more "ups" I would, but the point is that the article bases the plight of an entire generation - X, in this case - on luck, timing and the evils of the "system."
The article, like most presented by CHS, is more socialist bullcrap and your comment proves him 100% wrong. Anyone with initiative and a little bit of smarts and some skills can become self-sufficient and perhapes even "wealthy" or prosperous, as is the ongoing discussion with MachoMan.
Here's how I define prosperous (for myself, and I think I'm the richest guy in the world): No debt, paid-in-full domicile, with enough land to grow enough food for 1/2 a year for family. Steady income stream, few, or no employees. Obviously, I run my own business.
There are many ways to make more money - and keep almost all of it out of the hands of the government leeches - than having a "job." A job or career is like a yoke around one's neck; one is forever tied to that particular skill set. When that skill set becomes antiquated or overtaken by technology, one immediately becomes lost. Those who do for themselves almost never reach this state; instead, they find new ways to do things, are constantly in search of better ways to escape the tyranny of the system. Stay in the system and your life gets ruled by it. You become a slave to debt, government or keeping up with your peers, any one of which will suck the life out of you.
Stop measuring success by money and you'll find a richness of life right in your own back yard. I strongly recommend reading anything by Gene Langsdon, but especially the Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening. Lots of insight on life, living and growing stuff you can EAT.
As an aside, I broke up with a gal eight months ago who was totally materialistic, to whom nothing mattered except how much one made, how new one's car was and how many cool gadgets you had. A complete waste. A simple cunt. My life is so much richer since I began reading Langsdon (last year) and left that bitch behind. (and, no, I'm not bitter. I am justified.)
Bottom line, ditch that fucking dead-end job and become your own boss. Take some responsibility for your own life and stop whining. You'll feel better and might just thrive on your own.
Good stuff here, FNE -- thanks!
In case anyone wants to follow up on your reading recommendations, be sure to search on Gene Logsdon (not Langsdon). He's a savvy, practical, and funny read. You can find his blog here... http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/.
If it's been eight months and you're still yapping about this woman, you're bitter. If you're referring to a fellow human (albeit a materialistic one) as a "simple cunt," you're bitter. And kind of creepy, actually.
It sounds like you have lots of initiative; time to use it to find a soul mate and grow up emotionally like you have economically.
If you look at marriage like the "most important investment of your life", then a lot of things tend to fall in place...
You don't think Bill Gates had a silver spoon in his mouth? Lol...
He had wealthy and influential parents for sure, but I am not saying he's not a self-made-man despite that
Robert Wyatt Story (BBC Four, 2001)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=CdNKPqG-0ss&NR=1
The stock market hasn't kept up with inflation (M2) for over a decade. Over the last century it has beat inflation by only 1.5% a year on average. That's a lot of risk for 1.5% over inflation (read: decade long bear markets).
Funny... the timeliness of this article. I was just "explaining" this to my father-in-law this last weekend.
That cartoon pisses me off. These kids are fucked.This country is fucked. We are fucked. I hope you all are ready.
So....kill your parents?
Guess what fellow GEN Xers: Your parents had to wait for theirs to die for their legacies to be fulfilled. This is way human property works. What is not given must be taken.
It is truly difficult ... and aberrant ... to advance your wealth over the previous generation, especially in families with more children than parents. Thus you must be very careful when dealing in the trappings of status and wealth.
A "Logan's Run" or "The Hunger Games" scenario would not be out of the question in the near future, one way or the other the Elites keep what they have the rest looses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrv2FuajJZ8
"And if this transfer was voted into power by a generation and enforced by government dictate, why can’t Generation X and Y vote to transfer all the Boomers’ wealth back to themselves?"
-My thought is that Gen Y has grown up with everything handed to them by Boomer/early Gen X parents. Ipads and gadgets are free. Food and rent is free when you can just live off your parents. Criticism aside, they have no wisdom to know who and what they should be voting for in elections. They do not and perhaps never will understand the scam that has been perpetrated on not only them, but Gen X as well. This will not end well. No young people have the critical thinking skills or the inclination/incentive to wake up.
I would disagree, in fact I would say that upcoming generations grasp despair as well as any. It didn't take a generation to bring this country to where it is and it won't take a generation to fix.
Grasping despair and knowing what to do about it are two different things. Greece, Italy, Spain and Cyprus all riot. That still doesn;t mean if they won a revoltion they know the things necessary to apply a proper remedy. Replacing lying politicians with more lying politicians is not a change from our current destination. I have said it before and will say it again, even ZH is guilty of plenty of people who know right from wrong but are more interested in one line zingers for the immediate gratification of an up arrow. Knowledge is one thing, wisdom another.
Aye, well said.
"Forward - Bitchez!"
+1 and I am with you in spirit, but the point I am making is , what more is Gen X "doing about it" versus Gen Y? I would say that Gen X is a beacon for Gen Y.
One example is that "Woodstock" revisit those years ago (I didn't attend, it was a marketing crime and Boomer midlife crisis-aversion ploy). It was a Gen X event. However they held a followup, targeted to a more transitional or Gen Y audience, and do you know what they did? They rioted based on the price gouging of bottles of water. Gen X is the Goes Galt generation that starves the beast, Gen Y will hold the dagger though. What comes after, who knows. I teach my children math and language, and food, and make sure they don't watch Hollywood.
I'm 30. I see through all their shit. My 'cohort'? Not so much, but they are all coming along.
"Greece, Italy, Spain and Cyprus all riot."
Entitled middle-class welfare recipients ("Europeans") of all ages standing around doing not-much is "rioting"? Open a serious European history book written during the 20th century. Turn to the section covering circa 1890 to 1940. You call this rioting?
Yep. It isn't that we're incapable of "figuring it all out", it's that we're not incentivized to do anything when living in mommy's basement isn't so bad (and girls don't find that... unappealing anymore since they're living in their parents' basements; obviously independence carries a premium, but mom's basement isn't quite the same dealbreaker it used to be)... For the vast majority of people, getting high and playing videogames all day is perfectly acceptable. In fact, there are plenty of days a week that I'm completely jealous... the real world actually bites back.
Yeah, no. The point this article makes in its own way, is that the much touted success of the Boomers ... is a phantom, a lie, a myth. An accounting scam. The incentives are pretty close to invariant. More importantly, they are irrelevant, if the desired state cannot feasibly be obtained.
Drawing a parallel between an age when one person (man) with 4 years of college could comfortably support a family of 4 in a suburban middle-class lifestyle and one where two people with 8 years of college between them cannot do the same ... is disingenuous at best.
What is acceptable is a function of what is common. Specifically, the Boomers are/were not supermen who by virtue of their intrinsic godliness created more value than any other group of people in history and thus deserve(d) a higher standard of living. They were members of the Lucky Sperm Club.
Gas for under a dollar per gallon may have had something to do with it.
I'll be the first to take a giant shit on boomers... I figure we're all going to have to sooner or later as their demands spiral out of control. However, that has nothing to do with whether or not YOU can still be successful today. As stated in numerous posts in this thread, I totally agree that it was easier for them than us, in general... no doubt... but, when the going gets tough...
If you want to lay down in the mud and mope, then I can tell you for certain how successful you'll be...
Sorry, but I have to disagree. Most Millennials have no understanding of despair, hard times or self-reliance. Judging by my sister's kids and her friend's kids (high school and/or in college), many are simpering, whiney, spoiled brats without a clue to what the real world has in store for them, pretty much like my generation (Boomers).
And, by the way, the misconception that Boomers are in great financial shape is hugely overblown by this article. Many of my friends have had their savings eaten away by their kids, taxes, crappy financial advisors and recent market downturns (though most are still "fully" invested -- they'll never learn).
"pretty much like my generation (Boomers)."
The apple does not fall far from the tree.
"Many of my friends have had their savings eaten away by their kids"
Perhaps they should not have systematically destroyed the possibility of their (grand)children ever enjoying comparable economic freedom/opportunity. Might have helped. Or maybe it's the (grand)kids' faults for being born ... with such monumentally stupid, narcissistic, conniving, greedy, self-obsessed, myopic (grand)parents.
they're not voting...period. there is a "disconnect" of cosmic proportions in that...and "it ain't with the force, Luke." hate to boil it all down to "if it's evil, kill it." but..."if it's evil...kill it." trust me your voice will be heard...it's what we do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwoEXlTph0 we're Americans.
They actually are voting - for Obama. He tapped into them with the "Hope and Change" message, but is giving them facism, which they seem to be accepting as a matter of course.
hehehe yeah, and in record numbers too! Wasn't it like 100%, 105% in some reporting jurisdictions, for Barky?
All joking aside, I 'seem to accept' fascism too, only b/c I'm not stupid enough to mouth off to the media propaganda mouthpieces, and I don't waste my time arguing with morons. I suppose a lot of them think I accept the status quo, and that's just fine for me.
Maybe Generation X isn't as stupid as some 'Boomers' (not directed at you BTW) think we are, since we aren't as noisy about it or as easily bought off. A lot of us are awake. The tactics of protest have certainly changed since the Boomer heyday though.
Agreed - awake and just an average Joe... until it's time to rumble. My children will not bear the burden of past fantasy in as much as I can make that happen, which fortunately seems to be more in my favor than not. Tactics matter far less than strategy as long as you are durable and adaptable.
Does GenX ever quit whining?
As a late era Gen Xer, I propose a change in name to Generation WASF cuz We Are So Fucked. The cynicism runs deep amoung us. Real deep.
nope.. GenX never cared about a handout.. if we really need to take, no one can scam better than us. (Perfect example of early GenX is Vince Offer) We tend to have an inate ability to boil things down to the end game. So as long as we stop trying to explain things to people to help them (our other trait) we can just profit from the clueless (GenY) and the pompous (Boomers)
Show me animals in nature in retirement. Show me a pack of Lion's clanging Evian bottles together as they drive down the pacific coast highway on their way to charter a boat.
The boomers got lucky and built a false lifestyle based on debt that the generations after them will default on one way or the other. It is what it is. They all think they will pass away before it all comes crashing down. They won't. You are useful until you are not. Then you hope you have good people around you to help you when you are not. Then you are gone.
I keep hearing how future generations will pay for the debt after the boomers are gone.
I think that most likely we are all going to pay. And sooner rather than later. It won't be with future labor. It will be with wealth that has already been accumulated and is being systematically wiped out now.
I for one will putting my old dear sweet mother to work at the loom. Here's your candle and your jug of water, now get to it!
how soon and often we are urged to forget that the debt is the wealth;
the distribution of which is the exercising of power
and fraudulent induction, ubiquitous and failed.
"the monkeys singing Neil diamond , what is more
meaningless than that?" r.w.
.
Robert Wyatt Story (BBC Four, 2001)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=CdNKPqG-0ss&NR=1
.
.
22 May 2013
Gold Supply and Short Positions on the Comex: Option Expiration Next Week
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2013/05/gold-supply-and-short-p...
."
"Let Ahab beware of Ahab."
Herman Melville, Moby Dick
As a reminder, next Tuesday the 28th is an option expiration on the Comex in the precious metals.
The set up in the market is interesting. I wonder who, net-net, is really holding the big physical short underpinning that inverted pyramid of paper?
Qui est le trompeur trompé? " jca
I keep hearing how future generations will pay for the debt after the boomers are gone.
Agreed. All of the paper wealth (i.e. Debt); Bonds, Stocks, Fiat currency, derivatives, all of it, will blow away like the leaves in the fall. Leaving boomers penniless and a bright future for the future generations.
A future so bright we gotta wear shades and burqas.
Future generations paying is the best possible outcome. Humanity-ending nuclear war could be more likely.
1) Humans are animals - Kingdom Animalia.
2) Humans are part of nature - any belief to the contrary is cosmic hubris generally premised upon a healthy supply of slave labor, or its modern variant, crude oil.
Now, show me a pack of lions which uses the emotions of guilt, duty, honor, and responsibility (as effectively) as human families do...
The human vacuums known as Boomers will not escape the deluge, but unless their heirs wake up really damn soon, neither will anyone else. It ain't gonna happen.
That "default, one way or another" is a crass euphemism for hyperinflation and extreme reduction (mean reversion) in standard of living.
The corporation: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA needs to be dissolved. It's only purpose is to pass the "national debt" from the dying to the newly-born.
bluskyes, When holding a corp. technically the state issuing said corp can revoke that charter for a multitude of reasons.To do this pressure would have to be put on the state of Delaware in this case. I don't see that happening.
As I have stated before. It was all about the socialist, marxist baby boomers.
From what I have found is that Gen X and GEN Y don´t think beyond a weeks time...retirement..they know nothing about it nor care about it...now the next video release of grand Theft auto...they can tell you...or some Rap stars album...but a retirement..never...they voted for this and they do own it...austerity..is not what they want..they want government to do more for them...subsidized life forever....that is how they live....
I am gen x. I want nothing from anyone.
I am GenX and I want everyone to be responsible for themselves, instead of stealing it from me. FU you selfish Fuckers.
Amen. I wish they'd stop lying all the time too.
Just because they want to raise the retirement age and tax you the same while having your standard of living drop (gee, what that affect life expectancy), doesn't mean they want something from you for free. /sarcasm.
I am a Gen Xer. I have seen two stock market crashes wipe out most of my investments, a housing crash wipe out the value of my home and now any future savings is rewarded with a negative real rate of interest. You can tell me I have made bad decisions and I can cry that I was unlucky. It is what it is. But that decade of experiences reinforces the idea that it is better to piss away your money and not worry about tomorrow than to try to do the right thing and get your ass handed to you time and time again.
That is the midset and while it is wrong and it is the easy way out. that's it in a nutshell.
9/11 was Generation X's passage into adulthood. First time "the problem" was HERE, not THERE. Pearl Harbor? Vietnam? CHILD'S PLAY.
$200/bbl oil. It happened before we take the reins.
Our collective twats probed with cigars by presidents. Monica is a sister. What do you think justice will look like with Gen X at the apex?
"What do you think justice will look like with Gen X at the apex?"
This is Sparta!!! :)
I would feed the Boomers to the Diversity, and then burn the nursing home down with all inside.
Born in '77, wife, kid. We're keeping above water. Live less than 2 miles from Lake Ontario in Upstate NY (the real upstate) just incase SHTF for real. Started stacking PMs right after the '08 incident when I found sites like ZH and we woke up.
I said it the other day, and I'll say it again: Rich for me is a beautiful mary jane plant that keeps giving her bounty season after season.
Can't take anything with you on the next phase of existence (that I'm aware of).
People spend so much time avoiding the realization that death will come knocking - I want to answer the door having enjoyed life with no regrets, not a bunch of zeros on the bank statement.
Replace the beautiful mary jane plant with a good mary jane woman and you'll have everything you need.
Actually, having both is most of a good life.
Speaking as a good 'mary jane' woman myself. :-)
Dont be so judgemental. Maybe we'll talk some other time about your thoughts on goodness.
Taint Boil = 1964
401K = 201K
2000 tech bubble – Boom, all gone
2008 crash – Boom, gone again.
Housing Crash – sorry sucker!
But I do have a house in Mexico (all paid for) and it is looking better by the minute.
This is just "divide and conquer" all over again. As if it were the boomers who sucked up the wealth of a whole world! ... You listening to me? I'll tell you something: It's just a measly few thousand evil men and women who are responsible for the mess we are in. And guess what - they aren't boomers! Boomers and all generations that followed should unite and stand side by side against these rip-off artists, and all would be comfortably wealthy. But if the abundance of a few thousand is more important than the wellbeing of billions - than it's quite beneficial to incite the generations to fight each other.
Look! Over there! A squirrel!
Time cover story of the May edition is titled “The ME ME ME Generation”, a Gen Y bashing article written for boomers, medias have become so Boomer-centric $$$.
Boomers are the only audience left for the MSM.
Only if they are dumb enough to be avid followers of Jim Cramer.
Face it, the only way Gen X and Y are going to end up with anything is if they are lucky enough to get an inheritance. Barring that, you’re screwed.
Maybe Gen x should embrace the new obamacare simply for those wonderful panels..
Gen X might ultimately decide to do death panels like we do everything else, DIY.
Not you. (See below)
Fuck you.
Baby boomers, (46-64) are the one who's getting an inheritance, Gen X and Y inheritance is +- 20 years from now
46 is not a baby boomer