<story><title>Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life</title><url>http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/01/13/millennials-falling-behind-boomer-parents/96530338/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>anguswithgusto</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m surprised at how much flack this article is getting here on HN. Is it because we&amp;#x27;re all making those sweet 1% salaries in tech?&lt;p&gt;All my non-tech&amp;#x2F;finance friends are paying obscenely high rent, crippled with student debt, can&amp;#x27;t afford houses, can&amp;#x27;t afford cars, and three times as educated as their parents, but paid less than their parents were. In the case of unpaid internships (unavoidable for lots of industries, especially in the arts and media), many aren&amp;#x27;t being paid at all.&lt;p&gt;I think there are some possible cultural reasons (our generation being, on a whole I think, a bit less materialistic and not as motivated to work hard, boring, financially-rewarding jobs [like accounting] and more likely to want those sexy art, media, and non-profit jobs.) But overall I think the Boomers have dealt a real bum hand to their children.</text></comment>
<story><title>Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life</title><url>http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/01/13/millennials-falling-behind-boomer-parents/96530338/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>speeder</author><text>Note that even in countries where the absolute amount of money is better, the stuff on this article still applies.&lt;p&gt;I am from Brazil, and many boomers told me when I was young how awesome I was to be young, because I was living in a golden age where I didn&amp;#x27;t had to walk uphill both ways to school, could have computer, and whatnot.&lt;p&gt;But it is me that envy them now, I am 29, have zero income, lots of debt, and own no assets (not even a bicycle).&lt;p&gt;The same applies to almost all my friends and aquaintances, and even so, the &amp;quot;almost&amp;quot; is because one of them is an absolute exception (he was already rich, and made a hit game, his game is probably on top20 most sold on Steam right now...), and some of the humble and smart ones decided to ignore the &amp;quot;adults&amp;quot; advice, don&amp;#x27;t go to college and deliberately choose professions seen in bad light in the social sense (construction, plumbing, car mechanic, CNC operator, security guard...)&lt;p&gt;The few friends I have that have families, did it by accident (ie: accidental pregnancy), and all of them are unemployed, and their spouses (when they actually have one, some are single parents) are unemployed too, the &amp;quot;least worse&amp;quot; couple are the ones that have moderately rich parents, and they have both sides of the family giving their child the stuff the child needs.&lt;p&gt;And the thing is, although this is mostly about my country (Brazil), I have lots of friends outside Brazil too, that are also in this situation, one guy I know is an absolute crazy coding genius (And his game is rumored to have inspired No Man&amp;#x27;s Sky) and he is 40, and also childless, and own only a very old (20+ years I think) car, I have some Canadian friends also with problems like that, I know people that worked in AAA game studios around the planet and still failed to make enough money to pay student debts and start a family.&lt;p&gt;To be honest, the situation just feel hopeless, sometimes I get myself with the intruding unwanted thought of wishing someone would start WWIII just to see if at least life would be less boring. And from what I am seeing in the &amp;quot;mood&amp;quot; in social media and elections worldwide, I am not alone in this...</text></comment>