Have Millenials have it the worst of living generations?

[Thunderbird is the word]

Seriously, nearly everyone in their 20s, unless they got lucky and got a full ride through college with scholarship money or came from a wealthy family seems to be completely crushed by debt and broke as a result. I know that earlier generations didn't always have it better and if you graduated college say in the midst of the early 80s recession you might have been broke and unable to find a job as well but the combination of student debt on top of that and the cities being more expensive then ever just seems to me to make it worse.

[dead0man]

No.  You're not getting drafted by LBJ's killing machine.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

No.  You're not getting drafted by LBJ's killing machine.

^^^

[ingemann]

No

[RFayette]

The ones who graduated college in 2008-2010?  Pretty bad.  The ones graduating today?  Not so much.  The least lucky are those who graduated into a recession, especially somebody looking at the tech sector in 2001-2003 (after the dot-com bust) or any graduates during the deeper recessions of 1979-1983 (technically 2 recessions, but still), 1991-1992, etc.

Of course, this is also relevant:

No.  You're not getting drafted by LBJ's killing machine.

[Green Line]

No.. No one is being crushed by debt.  It's so overblown.  There are so many cheap colleges one can go to across the United States.  Even if you have a lot of (voluntary) debt (I do), it's not an impossible thing to pay it off slowly over time.  Get a job out of college (I guess for the gender studies majors that's gonna be a problem) and work.  It's not that bad.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I mean, it sucks for us but it not the Great Depression.

[Mr. Smith]

Sans Late Bloomers susceptible to the 'Nam draft, absolutely.

[RaphaelDLG]

A significant majority (75%) of U.S. troops in Vietnam were enlistees, not draftees.  I guess you can't really put a price on the horrors (up to and including death) that many in that remaining 25% unwillingly experienced because of Johnson's decisions. 

From an economic opportunity standpoint, the millennial generation is unquestionably in the worst shape since before the Silent Generation (i.e., the Greatest Generation having to deal with the Great Depression AND WWII).  Upper-middle class folks, the extremely hard working/talented or very fortunate are in good shape, everyone else is (relative to the past three American generations) screwed.

[Associate Justice PiT]

No.. No one is being crushed by debt.  It's so overblown.  There are so many cheap colleges one can go to across the United States.  Even if you have a lot of (voluntary) debt (I do), it's not an impossible thing to pay it off slowly over time.  Get a job out of college (I guess for the gender studies majors that's gonna be a problem) and work.  It's not that bad.

     It is very possible to avoid being crushed by debt, but until recently the importance of keeping student debt down has not been emphasized enough. If you graduate with $50,000+ in debt then ouch.

No.  You're not getting drafted by LBJ's killing machine.

     Not having a draft is a major boon. Still, those Boomers who were not killed, injured, or psychologically damaged in 'Nam found very good careers making very good money. I think this illustrates that the proper answer to the question is, as with many questions: it depends on who you are.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

No.. No one is being crushed by debt.  It's so overblown.  There are so many cheap colleges one can go to across the United States.  Even if you have a lot of (voluntary) debt (I do), it's not an impossible thing to pay it off slowly over time.  Get a job out of college (I guess for the gender studies majors that's gonna be a problem) and work.  It's not that bad.

^^^

The only thing I want to add to this is that a lot of student debt figures are wildly misinterpreted. You have to look at what the data are actually saying.

Any study would show that the payoff is worth the cost.

Does that mean college isn't wildly overpriced? Of course not. The states used to contribute a heck of a lot more. But the figures can still be very misleading about the current situation. A good amount is just people being scammed too.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Depends on how you define millennials. Some go so far as to say they were born in the 1970's.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

It is whiny threads like these that make me sympathize with grumpy old men who think youths are spoiled and lazy. 

[evergreenarbor]

I mean, it sucks for us but it not the Great Depression.

[Mr. Jew]

God no.  There are people alive today who remember a time before widespread electricity for God sake.  Don't even get me started on the lack of infrastructure or economic opportunities people north of the age of 80 would have had, especially if they were non-white.

[The Last Northerner]

I'm not white so no.

[Xing]

Of all generations? Of course not. There are definitely specific ways in which we have it worse than Baby Boomers, though.

[beaver2.0]

No.  You're not getting drafted by LBJ's killing machine.

Yeah, but maybe Trump or Cotton's.

[dead0man]

Of all generations? Of course not. There are definitely specific ways in which we have it worse than Baby Boomers, though.

And there are a ton of ways you're a whole bunch better off.  Especially if you're not an upper class white.  I understand that runs counter to the narrative, but it's clearly true.

[White Trash]

Uhh, the guys that fought WW2 and grew up during the Depression are still alive you know right?

[buritobr]

There are millenial haters both in the left and in the right.
The right thinks that the millenials are too lazy to make wealth. The left thinks that the millenials are too lazy to make revolutions.

[DC Al Fine]

Of all generations? Of course not. There are definitely specific ways in which we have it worse than Baby Boomers, though.

And there are a ton of ways you're a whole bunch better off.  Especially if you're not an upper class white.  I understand that runs counter to the narrative, but it's clearly true.

Precisely. How many millennials have had to drop out of school in eighth grade because their father died in an industrial accident?

[dead0man]

hmmm.....seven?

[dead0man]

oh and at least those kids had jobs!  The millennials would totally work in a factory if one was available.  And those kids didn't have tens of thousands of dollars of student debt that they were forced to get like millennials.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Uhh, the guys that fought WW2 and grew up during the Depression are still alive you know right?

I am a Millenial and endorse this statement.

That said I'm an incredibly privileged one, and Millenials are likely to have it tougher than (white) Boomers or Gen Xers.