| I actually don't think the data and graphs prove their point. Millenials are young and so the appropriate comparison has to be to to other generations when they were the same age. You can throw out half their graphs based in that point. The remaining ones are cherry-picked to be misleading. Growth in the overall economy, while good, does not indicate the absolute level of success. Would you have rather grown up in India where there's been much higher growth in the last few decades? In general, real wages have only grown over time. Today, we benefit from all the growth of previous generations. Median household income is not flat, but up steadily every decade. Yes, on the high end, it has grown even more (because a smart person can contribute more than in the past b/c less manual work, information tech). But what no one says is that wages are up for lower incomes as well. And, the safety net is bigger: government transfers for unemployment, food stamps, child tax credits, etc are WAY up compared to previous generations. Boomers barely got a dime. Before the pandemic, the economy was absolutely the best it's ever been by a long shot. Why didn't they show an actual comparison of employment rates? Millennials would be dominating. Millennials also dominate on education. Our lives are so much richer because we've more likely gone to college and can access so much information from our smart phones. In the same way that news is mostly all the bad things happening around the world (another shooting, another disaster), journalism and politics is often about all things gone wrong in our society. Consequently, nearly everything you read and hear about current times is exaggerated in a negative way. (Often for the good purpose of trying to improve it.) This article is a perfect example. Try to stay skeptical when everyone is saying our world is regressing to poverty and nastiness. Because the truth is we have a vibrant and beautiful society that's damn near the best it's ever been. And the future holds even more promise. -- A young millenial |