It sucks to be young

If my previous post about rising interest rates on student loans isn't bad enough, the WSJ also reports that "housing affordability" is at a 14 year low.

Why not at an all time low? Because affordability is affected by interest rates, so the low interest rates today make houses more affordable than they otherwise would be. But if interest rates rise and housing prices don't fall, houses will become even less affordable.

The same article reports that house ownership is at an all time high. Older people without student loan repayments own the homes, while young people with student loans are faced with unaffordable houses, as well as ever rising FICA taxes which represent yet another transfer of money from the young generation to the old generation.

Never in the history of the U.S. has the deck ever been so stacked against the young.

Comments

[KipEsquire]

"Never in the history of the U.S. has the deck ever been so stacked against the young."

Well there was that whole "military draft" thing a while back. That only applied to the young.

But speaking in strictly economic terms, yes I agree.

[Half Sigma]

Guess I was forgetting about the whole draft thing.

[Bradley Ross]

Are the young expecting too much? There are many luxuries which I don't feel like I can live without. High-speed internet for one. How many computers do I have around here? How do my dishes get washed? How long and at what temperature are my showers? I think young people in the future will have to give up certain luxuries in the short term to achieve goals like home ownership. And I don't see that as a totally bad thing.

[mikeca]

What about all those retired people paying taxes to support schools for young people? Is that money transfer from the older generation to the younger?

[Half Sigma]

Public education prevents civil disorder, which is what would happen if the children were running wild.

That would be like saying that prisons are are a transfer from law abiding citizens to criminals.

But I believe that taxation for public education would be more equitable if parents who sent their children to private schools got some of the money back.

[Half Sigma]

And to respond to Bradley above, life sucks without high speed internet service. Whenever I visit my parents, who only have dialup, it's like being in Hell or something.