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1/Today's @bopinion post is about the Millennial generation, now approaching middle age.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
2/Every time I see a 35-year-old say "OK Boomer" on Twitter, I just have to laugh.

Because, that's us. We Millennials are the "Boomers" now. We're the ones the meme is making fun of, not our elderly parents.
3/Remember a few years ago when people were writing about Millennials as if we were this young, rebellious generation intent on remaking everything about American society?

nytimes.com/2013/05/28/boo…
4/Well, guess what. Either next year or the year after (depending on your definition), the first Millennials will become eligible for protection under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

5/But although Millennials are rapidly aging out of youth, many still live with their parents:

6/And fewer Millennials own their own homes, compared to earlier generations:

7/And fewer Millennials are married than older generations were at the same age.
8/And Millennials are having fewer kids.

cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr…

And those who do are having them later.

marketwatch.com/story/american…
9/Why are so many Millennials failing to launch?

Is it culture? Are young people simply rejecting the traditional symbols of maturity - house, marriage, kids - in favor of an extended youth? Are they just a bunch of Peter Pans?

Maybe, but I doubt it.
10/A more likely reason is economics plus education.

In the old days of unions, you could often make a decent salary right out of high school. Or at least right out of college.

Now you need to stay in school a lot longer.
11/By the time you get that postgraduate degree and get out into the workforce, you're almost at the age when earnings traditionally plateau!
12/More of your youth spent in the classroom = less time to save for a house and kids before you hit the age when your biological clock starts ticking.
13/Now on top of that, add the fact that many Millennials graduated into the Great Recession, which added a permanent economic scar to their careers.

nber.org/digest/nov06/w…
14/And the housing crash put an end to the steady wealth accumulation that middle-class and working-class Americans had known for decades prior:
15/And on top of that, add decades of rising inequality!!

epi.org/publication/de…
16/Are Millennials still living the roommates-and-Tinder lifestyle because they want to?

Seems unlikely. Seems more likely that they're living it because economically they have little other choice.

contexts.org/blog/sexual-at…
17/Millennials, as the saying goes, are getting old before they had a chance to get rich.
18/Little surprise, therefore, that so many Millennials are turning to socialism.

nymag.com/intelligencer/…
19/We need to start thinking of Millennials less as youthful rebels infused with idealism, and more as embittered adults heading toward middle age before their finances are in order -- Boomers who never got a chance to boom.

(end)

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
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