
Millennials Are Screwed - acjohnson55
http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/?ncid=newsltushpmgHighl__Highline__121417
======
ivraatiems
A lot of this is not new information to me, but it's a great succinct summary
and the design is cool (though, to be honest, I think some of the animations
are a little too 'showy' and take a little too long, distracting from the
content).

What I'd love to be able to do is find a way to break out of the traditional
debate about this topic: One person (usually a millennial) brings up the
issues the article raises, then another person (usually not, often a boomer)
counterpoints with the "participation trophy" or "what about motivation" or
"the Internet" responses.

But in many of these cases, both exist at once: Millennials feel entitled
because they were told to be by parents who _told_ them they were entitled,
either explicitly or through teaching, because those parents grew up in a
world that made those entitlements possible. As the article points out, the
system is complicated. It's so complicated that both sides are right, but
neither is fully comprehending the consequences.

I think the question therefore must be not "how did we get to this place and
who is to blame?" but rather "what societal changes are necessary to fix it?"
Presuming enough of each generation want to fix the problem, by asking the
latter question rather than the former, it may be possible to effect the kind
of change that will prevent the genuine collapse we seem to be racing towards.

~~~
adrr
Not sure if its fixable in the millennial's lifetime. Government can't do
anything as boomers ran up the national debt by slashing their taxes. There's
no money to go around. There's also a huge infrastructure bill thats also
coming due as it wasn't upgraded. Bridges, public utilities, dams, mass
transit all need to be fixed at they are past their lifespans. Lot of it was
built during "greatest generation" period and not touched afterwards. American
Society of Civil Engineers estimate at least $2 trillion to fix our
infrastructure over the next 10 years.

~~~
peatmoss
> at least $2 trillion to fix our infrastructure over the next 10 years.

I can only hope that some of this translates into some kind of New Deal work.
Being just older than the millennials, I have felt for some time that I
grabbed the last rung of a ladder being dangled from a helicopter as the
building under me was crumbling into flames.

------
yathern
> Mention “millennial” to anyone over 40 and the word “entitlement” will come
> back at you within seconds

And then a paragraph later...

> Generalizations... fall apart under scrutiny.

As a 24 year old millennial - this article painted with a very emotional and
us-vs-them brush which detracted from it's core. These sorts of articles love
to blame baby boomers for the problems of the world - and while that's not
necessarily incorrect, it's a convenient way to avoid blaming human nature -
something we all share. It makes me wonder if in 40 years, the "Cyborg
Generation" or whatever will be talking about how those crusty old millennial
ruined the world by not doing XYZ which we all know now we should've.

~~~
stcredzero
_It makes me wonder if in 40 years, the "Cyborg Generation" or whatever will
be talking about how those crusty old millennial ruined the world by not doing
XYZ which we all know now we should've._

Sure, if XYZ == "protecting freedom of speech." Not doing so might complete
the collapse of the US political process, which precipitates a series of
events causing the collapse of civilization.

[http://78.media.tumblr.com/a7020c8d003c0ccb2168abc4b8b5c8e6/...](http://78.media.tumblr.com/a7020c8d003c0ccb2168abc4b8b5c8e6/tumblr_onc9zfXaBJ1rti0t3o1_1280.jpg)

~~~
fellellor
Civilization will survive just fine without the burden of enabling idiots.
Civilization wasn't invented in 1970, it has existed for millennia.

~~~
beaconstudios
Free speech isn't about enabling idiots to have their soapbox as an end, it's
about them having their soapbox so someone in the audience can rationally
destroy their arguments publicly. Oppressing speech means that good ideas
might be missing review and bad ideas are certainly missing criticism.

------
apo
_Contrary to the cliché, the vast majority of millennials did not go to
college, do not work as baristas and cannot lean on their parents for help._

Maybe the vast majority don't graduate from college, but the majority enroll
according to BLS, and have for some time:

[https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/69-point-7-percent-
of-2016...](https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/69-point-7-percent-of-2016-high-
school-graduates-enrolled-in-college-in-october-2016.htm)

One of the hallmarks of a bubble is that the conventional wisdom support it
wholeheartedly. The early 2000s US housing market is a case in point.

I remember vividly discussions with prospective first-time home buyers at the
time. I told them they were taking a big risk borrowing money to pay for
something that could quickly decline in value. Let's just say the conversation
didn't go much further than that.

Today I have similar discussions with parents of high school children. Debt is
still the funding mechanism, but the asset is a 4-year college degree. As
before, this is a guaranteed conversation-killer.

There are many causes for the challenges faced by millenials, but worship at
the altar of 4-year degrees, and especially the appetite for debt financing,
is one of the biggest.

~~~
mixmastamyk
I agree in theory but am amazed at how many jobs are unavailable to me without
a BS degree. If I could go back and tell my twenty year old self, I’d say not
to take those high paying 90s jobs and stick it out two more years.

~~~
sizzle
Never too late

------
candiodari
One might wonder why huffington post is

a) ridiculing the people who complained that ever since the great recession
job statistics are made up [1]

b) publishes large and beautifully animated articles about how millenials face
"never ending job insecurity", facing years of unemployment between jobs they
lose for the slightest of mistakes (see post these comments are about)

I mean exactly one of these articles is not a complete lie. Unfortunately,
both are published by the same news organisation ... (perhaps because we
currently no longer have Obama's government ? [2])

Frankly, I got my first real job in July 2001. Yes, that 2001. As a tech
consultant. It almost sounds like a joke. I had colleagues who made 10 TIMES
my wage just because they were hired a year earlier, and I was far, far more
capable than some of them. And let's not mention the company cars. Let's just
not. Granted, they fired some of those, but still.

Tell me about unfairness.

[1] [http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/trump-unemployment-
jobs-n...](http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/trump-unemployment-jobs-numbers-
poll_us_58c6f7bde4b0428c7f12566f)

[2] [https://successstory.com/people/arianna-
huffington](https://successstory.com/people/arianna-huffington)

~~~
lucozade
> Tell me about unfairness

Well. My grandfather lost an eye in WWII so was a fitter for Czech pilots.
They'd been kicked out of their country by a genocidal megalomaniac. When the
war finished and they returned, a new megalomanic wouldn't let them leave
again. Occasionally by using tanks.

My father grew up in Egypt where the only source of income was sand crabs and
running errands for Italian PoWs. He got kicked out too eventually as he
wasn't of the appropriate religion. The only country that would take him was
the other side of the world.

Me? I've had it easy. The Cold War and the odd IRA bomb aside, I thought my
life has been a bed of roses compared to my forefathers.

I've never had a company car. I had no idea I was so hard done by until now.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
I slopped hogs, ran farm equipment way to dangerous for my age (starting at
8yo), and dealt with animals an order of magnitude larger than me. Lost
hearing, lost feeling, joint damage from work. Never had more than a dollar or
two to my name.

But I worked my way into some money. That's what the Millennials are missing I
think, the plausible way forward. Never mind where they are starting from; can
they make any progress at all? That's the issue.

------
default-kramer
> The median white household will have 86x more wealth than the median black
> household by 2020.

I had to look up median to make sure I wasn't confusing it with the mean. This
is almost unbelievable. I would have guessed 10x at most.

~~~
tanderson92
Foreclosed: Destruction of Black Wealth During the Obama Presidency

[http://peoplespolicyproject.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/12/F...](http://peoplespolicyproject.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/12/Foreclosed.pdf)

This white paper goes a long way to explain why this occurred.

------
SQL2219
...This worked well when rents were low enough to save and homes were cheap
enough to buy. In one of the most infuriating conversations I had for this
article, my father breezily informed me that he bought his first house at 29.
It was 1973, he had just moved to Seattle and his job as a university
professor paid him (adjusted for inflation) around $76,000 a year. The house
cost $124,000 — again, in today’s dollars. I am six years older now than my
dad was then. I earn less than he did and the median home price in Seattle is
around $730,000. My father’s first house cost him 20 months of his salary. My
first house will cost more than 10 years of mine.

~~~
3pt14159
I keep saying it, but I don't really ever think it changes anything, but it is
the interest rates. You can't keep interest rates at 3% for 30 years and
expect things to keep working like they used to.

~~~
mixmastamyk
And nimbys.

------
romdev
EPILEPSY WARNING: this page flashes rapidly with multiple colors.

This comment is unlikely to protect anyone, but hopefully raises awareness
that fast-blinking text has been known to induce seizures:
[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epilepsy-site-hacked-with-
seizu...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epilepsy-site-hacked-with-seizure-
images/) Please be responsible.

------
nixpulvis
I can only skim these kinds of articles. Mixture of truth and sensationalism
makes me upset and uneasy.

~~~
giggles_giggles
That combination should make you uneasy, because it's a red flag that you're
reading propaganda of one sort or another. Propaganda always contains some
truth, but usually not all of the truth, and an appeal to your emotions..

~~~
eplanit
You've described modern Journalism in America quite succinctly.

------
runako
As a proud member of Generation X, I hate how articles like these show a neat
handoff from the Boomers to the Millennials.

Many of these same problems bit Gen X, but at least the millennials are big
enough to have articles written about their plight!

~~~
larzang
Gen X gets rightfully ignored in these discussions because they're less
affected by it, having come of age before the big downturn, and less
responsible for it, having come of age after the damage was done.

I'm 34, I graduated high school just in time to watch the economic prosperity
I had viewed through the eyes of older friends and relatives immediately
explode out from under me. I can remember when everything wasn't totally
doomed forever, but I never got to experience it first hand.

Gen X did, and while it's not like they haven't suffered along with us since,
it's not quite the same. You don't get our sympathy, but you don't get our
anger either.

------
CodinM
Can someone enlighten me on the tech used to create such pages? I vaguely
remember someone posted about it but lost the bookmark.

~~~
vichu
The technique is known as "parallax scrolling". Not sure on the exact tech,
but here's an example library:
[https://github.com/Prinzhorn/skrollr](https://github.com/Prinzhorn/skrollr)

------
saas_co_de
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that an article about how millennials
are financially screwed is elaborately animated and credits order a dozen
people for its production?

------
RestlessMind
> And unless something changes, our calamity is going to become America’s.

Yes, there is one thing which Millennials can change. It is very easy and
should take less than 1 hr (on average) per year. Go and VOTE in the
elections.

The reason why policies favor Boomers is because Boomers go and vote.
Politicians are scared to touch social security and medicare for anyone over
55 because those folks turn out and vote. There is simply no excuse for
Millennials to have a huge turnout disparity when compared against Boomers[1].

[1] [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2016/05/16/millennials-...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2016/05/16/millennials-match-baby-boomers-as-largest-generation-in-u-s-
electorate-but-will-they-vote/ft_16-05-13_millennialvoters_turnout/)

------
jancsika
> Spiritual Guide - Becky

> Becky is an 8-bit creation living in Brooklyn. You can find her Kickstarter
> here.

This links to a sign-up for an email newsletter.

Is this an inside joke? Is Becky the name of the artist or not?

Why do I have to ask questions like this about the credits for a piece of
professional journalism?

~~~
synicalx
> piece of professional journalism?

Does the Huffington Post count as professional journalism though?

~~~
jancsika
I want to sharpen my teeth, so I'm going to ignore the fact that this response
is a joke.

Yes, it does count as journalism.

* It is written by a Michael Hobbes, a contributing editor of Highline which is a new online magazine apparently owned by Huffpost

* It credits an additional reporter-- Gregory Barber, who appears to have written previously for the Washington Post-- plus two additional research assistants. (Ignoring for the moment the enormous team of designers who I guess put together the novel scrolling system.)

* I'm seeing fairly standard/reputable references for some of the stats-- _The College Board_ for the stat about how much debt. students are taking on, some U.S. census references, Journal of Labor Economics out of the University of Chicago, etc.

* looks to be structured as a broad advocacy piece interspersed with "slice of life" stories about millenial's struggles to get jobs with decent wages and benefits to be able to support themselves

------
tatersolid
As a Gen X, I have to say: Grow up.

Guess what: despite a CS degree from a fairly prestigious school, I started
out my career sucking shit on the help desk and fixing bugs in legacy code.

You need to suck shit at the start of your career, learn, and advance. This
also means living in a shithole apartment and eating Ramen instead of blowing
your cash at da club or on a new car. It’s been that way since the industrial
revolution.

You are not special. You are not snowflakes. We cannot hold your hands. Work
it out for yourselves, just like we did, and the boomers did before us.

~~~
ivraatiems
This comment makes me think you didn't read the article. Do you understand how
difficult it is to even _get_ a job "sucking shit" right now? Do you
understand that if you get that job, it doesn't pay as much as you got paid
when you had it, because wages haven't risen with inflation? Do you understand
the years of experience and massive student debt you'd have to get into to get
the college degree to even get your foot in the door of this job with inferior
wages and benefits to the job you got just out of school?

> You need to suck shit at the start of your career, learn, and advance. It’s
> been that way since the industrial revolution.

For many - perhaps most - millennials, there simply _are no opportunities for
advancement._ There is no reward. People like me, who are software engineers
and do well for themselves, are the exception. The arguments in the article
are economic, and grounded in economic data and realities. Ignoring those
systemic problems because you're doing just fine is just willful ignorance.

> You are not special. You are not snowflakes. We cannot hold your hands. Work
> it out for yourselves, just like we did.

Nobody's saying anyone's "special." The whole _point_ of the article is that
no millennial is getting what previous generations got - _nobody_ is asking
for special treatment. The ask is for treatment equivalent to what their
parents got, _the same treatment that you received_. We can't "work it out for
ourselves" when we have no power, no money, massive debt, poor wages, no
benefits, no retirement plan, and no way out. We can't "work it out" when
_your_ generation - and those before you - are draining and then destroying
the social safety nets that you relied on to get where you are.

We don't deserve the privileges your generation had any more than you did. We
deserve it exactly the same amount. Why do you blame _us_ while you rescind
them?

~~~
tatersolid
The entire premise of the article is that millenials are “special”.

There is near-zero difference between what a millennial faces and what I faced
in the last “great depression” coming out of school in the early 1990s, post
the 1988 crash.

It took months or years to find a job, and you had to work your ass off when
you found one to keep it. I had lots of debt.

Boom and bust cycles are _normal_. Millenials are not special in being screwed
by the timing of their birth.

~~~
ivraatiems
> The entire premise of the articles is that millenials are “special”.

No, the premise is that millennials are normal people born into a society
whose risk/reward/choice incentives are completely out of wack, and who face
massive and untenable inequality created by the generations that came before
them. If we are special, it's only because the actions of previous generations
have made us so. Nobody is saying anywhere that we view ourselves as better or
superior to other generations - almost the opposite; we're the same, yet,
uniquely disadvantaged.

> Boom and bust cycles are normal. Millennials are not special in being
> screwed by the timing of their birth.

Except the most recent cycle (the 2007 recession) exacerbated these problems,
and ten years later, for working-class millennials there's been no recovery
whatsoever. The economy has recovered, the rich are getting richer, nobody at
the bottom is doing any better than they were. Why's that?

> There is zero difference between what a millennial faces and what I faced in
> the last “great depression” coming out of school in the early 1990s, post
> the 1988 crash.

Again - did you read the article? There's a clear difference and they explain
it quite well. It's not just about the ordinary economic cycle; it's about the
way incentives have been perverted and restructuring of our economy and all
its various parts have shifted all wealth to the wealthy and all burdens to
those who are not. If you think this is just about some people being upset
that 2007 happened, you're missing the bigger point: 2007 happened, but was
happening before, and is still happening, and the problems are bigger than
just "the markets aren't doing well this year."

What I'm trying to get across is that what you did was hard when you did it,
and is now almost impossible. Why should it get harder? What's good about
people suffering more, and longer, than you did? Why is the generation getting
hurt the one to blame for being in trouble when we didn't create any of the
problems or systems screwing us?

This is a data-driven, economic-realities based argument. Coming back with
"well, toughen up and deal with it" is unhelpful - the way we're dealing with
it is by pushing strongly for change.

~~~
tatersolid
I read the article and was completely unmoved.

Again, I don’t think you realize _this is the way the world works and has
always worked_.

The young always bitch about being screwed over by their predecessors, bitch
about income inequality, and wear T-shirts with the face of mass murderers
like Che Guevara thinking they’re sticking it to “the man”.

Then they finally realize they actually have to find their own way, which
might be very different from what their parents did. And life moves on.

~~~
ivraatiems
It's not whether you were moved or not, it's whether you even acknowledge that
what the article presented is fact. I keep citing evidence, from the piece and
elsewhere, that the challenges facing millennials are unique, bigger than in
previous generations, and potentially devastating for society (of all ages)
long-term, and you just keep coming back with "that's how the world has always
worked." You're starting with your conclusion, then going backwards, so to me
your logic seems to go:

1) Things are working how they always work.

2) If someone tells you that things are working differently, that can't be
true, because things are working the way they always work.

3) Therefore, evidence that this is _not_ in fact the same as how things
always work should be ignored.

Can you please respond to the evidence I and the article are giving - massive
and rising inequality, lack of wage growth, unprecedented encumbrance with
debt, and restructuring of corporate interest and benefit systems - and
explain how it's how things have always worked?

> Then they finally realize they actually have to find their own way, which
> might be very different from what their parents did. And life moves on.

Who is to say that "change the system so this doesn't keep happening" can't be
the way millennials are finding?

~~~
tatersolid
> it's whether you even acknowledge that what the article presented is fact

I do not accept the article as fact.

Read the (very few, mostly on pull quote) references. They are cherry-picked
stats, or from completely biased sources.

Almost everything else in the article is completely un-cited.

There are no dissenting viewpoints or statistics presented.

It has no merit as a journalistic or academic work.

------
RickJWag
Life gives us all different cards to play.

In some ways, I agree today's kids have it tougher. In other ways, there are
opportunities that did not exist in the past.

I have hopes for today's recent grads in that things remind me somewhat of the
mid 80s. (That's when I graduated college.) The economy was ready to boom for
a good long time. Some jobs were going away, some were opening up. I was lucky
enough to get a job in programming, the economy carried me forward to this
day. I wish the same good luck to future generations.

------
partycoder
Millennials joined a monopoly game in its late stage.

------
squozzer
Keep in mind the world is not frozen in its current disadvantaged-for-
millenials state.

A couple of forces might actually work to millenials' favor --

1) Boomers are retiring and dying off. Somebody will buy their homes.

Right now it seems investors are buying them all but as the demographic trend
continues, the supply might outpace investor demand, the second-derivative
will go negative, which will slow investor demand, and probably cause the
first-derivative to go negative.

This trend will also affect other forms of investments as boomers cash out
their portfolios.

2) Social movements such as #metoo will probably make certain types of people
hiring liabilities (too "old-school"), and younger people might benefit.

OTOH, other forces might work against millenials --

1) Human obsolescence, especially if current social assumptions hold and keep
programs such as basic income politically untenable.

------
foofoo55
What if equity purchases were forced to occur more slowly? Such as being
locked into that equity for a cooling off period before it could be sold? What
about other ways to allow, if not coax, investors and corporations to think
long term again? You know, force greed to chill out a bit.

From my perspective as a parent and employer of several millenials here in the
Vancouver BC area, those that go into a skilled trade seem to do far better
right now than those getting a desk or general labor job.

------
baybal2
>We will never retire

Pretty much it, work your own pension fund. That looks to be the only solution
after "havings lots of kids" who will look after you

------
jzawodn
Is there... like a text only version of that article? WTF with all the retro-
video-game animation and crap?

------
tzar
A recent review on the same topic, with a more serene presentation:
[https://nplusonemag.com/issue-30/reviews/not-every-kid-
bond-...](https://nplusonemag.com/issue-30/reviews/not-every-kid-bond-
matures-2/).

------
RmDen
>>My rent consumes nearly half my income

When I was younger... I had 4 roommates in Astoria.. This allowed me to save a
lot of money. Why do people insist on living alone and then bitching about
rent being high??

~~~
sizzle
Oregon coast? Beautiful place to visit I hear?

~~~
RmDen
nope..Queens, New York

------
throwaway2016a
Off topic: this page design is truly a work of art. Please don't let this be a
trend though.

------
artur_makly
there’s pure nuggets of wisdom here from Chamath Palihapitiya,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk&app=desktop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk&app=desktop)

------
lagadu
Is there a version in regular, normal text available to read? Shitting all
over your content with useless animations that do nothing but take my time,
force me to scroll excessively and annoy me is a fantastic way of having me
move on to some other, better presented content.

~~~
acjohnson55
If you use Firefox, try Reader View. I tried it after reading your comment,
and it appears to render a stripped down version really nicely. I'm guessing
something similar exists in other browsers, if you're not a Firefox user.

------
junkscience2017
...and yet they still line up to go to university to study humanities

instead, enroll in a community college program for anything construction
related...in Santa Rosa, home builders are naming their prices. the same will
soon happen in Ventura. in the Bay Area, construction tradespeople turn down
work due to demand. there is work to be done that will earn you a comfortable
living that does not require a university degree.

------
meddlepal
Millennials are learning as a generation that the real world isn't as happy,
meritous, equitable and safe as school and that the world is and will always
likely be pay to play. If Millennials want to change the world and succeed
they need to start doing it with money.

~~~
leggomylibro
...Which is why the large incumbents and aging boomers without sufficient
retirement savings are currently bleeding off as much money and future
earnings as they can in an audacious eleventh-hour raid.

Y'know, if it's _too_ audacious, the reprisals are gonna be financially brutal
once the pendulum swings back. Two can play at the game of literal and baldly-
stated wealth redistribution, if that becomes the norm. But by then most of
the current decision makers will be dead, so who cares?

~~~
cmurf
Indeed. I point to Half Life (ST:NG), the Resolution. That's the compulsory
suicide episode once you reach a certain age.

As an Xer over 40, I'm definitely more sympathetic to Millenials than the
Boomers.

My stereotyping: The Baby Boomers politically have bought off Democrats and
Republicans to get the lowest top bracket tax rates seen since income taxes
began, but they demand complete payout of Medicare and Social Security
benefits without any haircuts, while also exploding the national debt, and
supporting optional wars of aggression. This compared to the prior generation
who taxed themselves like crazy while still building massive private and
public infrastructure, balancing the budget, and having middle class wealth
that was the envy of the world.

At best, Baby Boomers are coasters. At worst, Baby Boomers are a useless
generation that has given us nothing terribly useful or innovative. Millenials
early on grew up with the idea they could coast like the boomers, and then the
2008 financial crisis happened, and they had a rude awakening.

Why do I give more crap to Baby Boomers? Because they've had their chance and
they pissed it away. They have left the country far worse off financially, and
massively wealth disproportionate, compared to the country they were handed.
Whereas the Millenials had been, up until about now, young and entitled to be
a little stupid and irresponsible - but they did not make this bed at all.

Anyway, it's going to be up to Millenials and Xers to deal with it.

~~~
leggomylibro
Empathy, buddy. The USA is a great experiment because it constantly tries to
improve. These issues of corruption and blatant self-interest are not new or
uncommon. _But we can do better._

------
austincheney
Yes, millennials are screwed. I do also largely agree with all the mentioned
stereotypes against millennials, which largely explains just why they are so
screwed. After having lived in third-world countries for some time I don't
feel sorry for them either. I know that sounds cold and callous, but I don't
care. They still have it better than most people in the world. Suck it up.

I see this in my own kids too. I warn them about wasting time on stupid crap,
but they largely blow it off. At some point they will be out the door, on
their own, and poor. Hopefully they make it on their own, because they aren't
moving back in. They have had sufficient warning and preparation which they
dutifully ignore.

If rent is half your pay check then either increase your income or move to a
different location with a lower cost of living. I have known numerous people
who have moved from California to Texas for exactly that reason and I have
also met some people who have completely left the US for this reason.

As a software developer I see where entitlement creeps in at various places.
Sometimes it is from young people who cry because they suddenly realize they
are drowning just need a little life raft, which because a crutch for their
next life raft. Sometimes it is from old people who are tired of keeping up
and just want to retain their position in life. At the end of the day it all
comes down to being competitive with your quality of output.

Here is a simple way to identify the behavior behind the problems many
millennials face. Ask a simple question: "Should I feel sorry for you?"
Clearly, the answer is yes, but that an affirmative answer challenges the
cognitive complexity that allows a person to exist in that state in the first
place. Again, don't care.

~~~
ameister14
I think it's a bit sad that your relationship with your children is one of
'well, you're 18 now, I've done my job. I will no longer help you.' Almost all
wealth (and almost all successful families) is created over generations by
parents and children assisting each-other.

~~~
murph-almighty
I have to agree with you because I'm in a similar boat.

I've worked out an arrangement with my dad to pay back about half my loans
interest free. The interest itself doesn't amount to much on the principal,
but it's a significant chunk of money. However, because we refinanced those
loans onto his home equity line, he can deduct that interest.

Currently I live at home and commute 1.5-2 hours into work. I don't expect to
be doing this forever, it's a 1-2 year gig to knock my debt down by overpaying
as much as possible.

It helps that I have a well paying job for my major/area, too.

All said and done, this is not ideal for me- I'd like to live on my own and
shorten my commute. But my debt is not ideal either, so I'll take what I can
to reduce that, even if it means living out of my childhood bedroom.

