

Curse of class of '09 - maggie
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124181970915002009.html

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tritchey
This article would be a lot more amusing if they took the opposite angle:
"Times of economic growth obscure the fact that a large percentage of
Americans graduate with no practical skills, and still get decent paying
jobs."

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diego
Curse is a really strong and almost sensationalistic word to use. If making
less money because you happen to graduate during a recession in the US is a
curse, what's left to those born in the poorest parts of the world.

While there may be a lot not to like about the US, it's still one of the best
places to be if you want to make money.

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arjunnarayan
"For a typical worker, that would mean earning $100,000 less over the 18-year
period."

The biggest purchase the typical worker will make is a house purchase.
Assuming "typical" means median, and assuming (big assumption) that the median
worker buys a median house on a married two-income household, the median
household is losing around $200,000. The median house price in the United
States is $220,000.

The median college graduate family for the class of 2009, when they hit their
forties, will be behind their expectations by about a house. Ouch.

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diego
No, they won't. If _everyone_ is making less money, housing prices will adjust
accordingly. What the article doesn't mention is that the 80s were an
excellent time to buy a house.

<http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqrguz/housingbubble/>

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Dilpil
"For a typical worker, that would mean earning $100,000 less over the 18-year
period."

That is not at all a frightening statistic.

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kwamenum86
That is an average of 5500+ dollars per year, ~463 per month. Depending on who
you ask that is a big deal.

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whacked_new
I wonder about the change in marriage dynamics here.

Suppose you have a decade of fellows who, due to bad luck, are on a low-
earning streak compared to those in the preceding years. Would this add
incentive for the women of the right age, from the current decade, to marry
men from the preceding "block"?

Alternatively, suppose all earnings are down, which means that relatively
everybody is still about the same, within the current decade "block". Then
women won't have much incentive to marry the older men.

But I think the previous case is more likely. Then we will have some kind of a
gap in M/F distributions among the age groups. How would the current decade
block's males adapt? When the women of the subsequent decade block enter the
workforce, the males from the current block will have to compete with the
males in the next block as well, but won't have much advantage from greater
salary.

So it looks like a slow correction, a loss, to me, i.e. there will simply be
an increased number of bachelors in this block.

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grinich
In a downturn economy, everybody is either looking for a way to cut their
operating costs or increase revenue with no additional cost. Startups that
improve efficiency are riding this wave.

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Everest
Wow no one has said "thats why a recession is the best time to start a
business"

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TriinT
This article gives the impression that the class of '09 is actually entitled
to have wonderful, high-paying jobs. It's a job market, no one is entitled to
anything. It sucks, but the faster these gen-Y'ers face the harsh reality, the
better. There's nothing to gain in whining and denial.

~~~
silentOpen
It sucks, but the faster these baby boomers face the harsh reality (of the
mess they've created), the better. There's nothing to gain in whining and
denial.

Generationalism is just like every other -ism. Not that you are being
explicitly generationalist, you just give that impression.

~~~
TriinT
I was born in 1980. Which generation am I officially a part of? I honestly
don't know, and I truly don't care...

I didn't mean to be a _generationalist_ , but after having taught these kids
in grad school, I don't have the highest opinion of them, to be frank. And,
indeed, the baby-boomers f*cked up big time... and it sucks that everyone has
to pay for the mistakes of a few.

~~~
silentOpen
That seems to be how it always goes, though. Each "generation" thinks the
previous one is incapable, incompetent, or over-privileged. The young attack
the old who they feel don't understand. They rebel. Again and again.

I'm just saying that the argument is tired and over-general. "Generations" or
semi-birth-year-based orderings (class of '09) have only the slightest
commonalities.

