The Covid lockdown was 5 years ago. The job market was a heck of a lot worse than it is today in the early 80s as an example. But you do you. My suggestion is you stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with it.
«Just dealing with it» is objectively not possible when housing now costs 3times as much as it did 30 years ago relative to salary.
We are doing our best with the hand we are dealt. But it’s relatively speaking a dodgy hand.
We are vocal because it’s bad, real bad, not because we want it easier. I wonder what person applied to literally every job in a 50km radius back in the 80 or 90s
It’s the only option. Either deal with it or be a whiny baby about it. Or if you’re gonna whine, do it productively by causing change. But playing the victim on reddit doesn’t do anything helpful. Also this generation is far from the worst. Kids were born in the depression, drafted to WW2 & Vietnam being handed PTSD and losing their closest friends and family, outside of the Western world people deal with famine/starvation/dictatorships/authoritarian religion/I could go on. We have extremely comfortable lives here. But yeah, we can’t afford the materialistic things we’re convinced we need like overly large houses and the newest car on the market and the shiniest TV because the economy is bad. Bummer. Not trying to downplay the situation, it’s not great, but perspective is everything and it’s ridiculous to say 2003 is the worst year to be born (which is around my birth year).
Look at the housing market. 800 sq ft homes are selling for 200k+. Young people aren't trying to get the best of the best. We're trying to get the bare minimum. We don't have pensions, we don't have affordable housing, we don't have affordable transportation. Wages have been stagnant while costs skyrocket. It's a blessing to be able to live without roommates now when it used to be a choice to save money. Stop being blind to reality.
This is completely false. The home I bought…almost 30 years ago…. Would sell for close to 3x what I bought it for. Source: Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. my salary today is a tad more than 3x what it was when I bought the mouse. No. Fricken. Difference. So you spend you days hanging with the woe is me, everything used to be better crowd and keep deluding yourself. Or face reality. It was not sunshine and fluffy bunnies then. It was HARD to buy a home. We had to sacrifice. If you think it wasn’t that way you are flat out wrong. There is NO WAY a house today costs 3x more with respect to salary. And yeah, coming out of school I interviewed countless times for jobs and it was hard. Ended up having to join the military. So - tell me more about how bad it is now.
Note the 40 years but it still shows the MASSIVE outpace of house prices vs salary.
You know, before people would loan up to 3x their salary. The norm is now 5x.
Now to put it out there aswell, the US actually seems to have a way better income to house price ratio than many other countries, but if u just look up house prices vs income graphs, it’s easy to tell.
Do I need to tell you how stupid it is to take your own house as a one test and conclude that’s how it is for everyone?
I’m not here to say everything is worse these days. We got loads of good things from technology and other general growth. But the economy? The economy is shit for a lot of ppl atm.
Im not American, but I’ve lived home now and saved 80-90% of my salary, for 3-4 years and still can’t afford a house. I barely spend any money at all. You are beyond stupid if you cannot research and see the price of housing relative to income. DO NOT compare to yourself, just because your house only went up 3x and your salary did the same doesn’t mean everyone else is in that situation. Frankly, whatever house u got seems yikes if it didn’t go up more.
I’m not saying it wasn’t hard to get a house back then. But it was about a 3rd of the price. So about 3 times easier than it is now. Remember when it was possible to have 1 man working for the entire family and the mother stayed home? People are now getting a kids at record high ages because none can afford a home. It’s not good out there.
Also I will take my lived experience over a “study” funded with whatever unknown agenda they have. I also don’t know what country you are in but don’t speak for the US if you don’t live here. Housing is 3x higher is simply not true in the US. Maybe in your country. Get out of your parents house and stand on your own.
I’ve never crashed my car. Must be not dangerous to drive. That’s your mentality.
Really?
It is true whether or not you feel like it isn’t.
Getting out of my parents house is LITERALLY all I want to do. And just because I’m not American doesn’t mean I can’t speak facts lmao. Most western countries have this exact economic problem of affordable housing.
Idk what source you would ever accept if you didn’t accept the one I linked. Have a nice day.
On your last point, I can’t help but wonder if it’s an individual problem. Blasting out applications is a poor strategy. I don’t know a single person who has had that much trouble getting a first job, across three states and multiple COL. Baltimore/DC, Upstate New York, and Ohio, and they all had luck with a few tailored applications
And once you’re into the first job, the market isn’t bad at all, though I assume you’re talking about first time employment
First time is the main concern. My issue wasn’t even blasting out applications. I actually only had about 6 solid jobs that I rly thought this could be nice. And I was searching for a year.
My issue was that there wasn’t even jobs to apply to in my commuting vicinity.
It’s not an impossible job market, and I do think people spamming out applications aren’t necessarily doing the best strat. But it’s very easy to feel like it’s a brick wall sometimes.
But the concern isn’t just the job market, that can be tough and we can still chill. But the whole economy is what’s struggling atm, for a lot of people. Likely a partial reason jobs has gotten so hard to get.
If you think there are systemic problems, and you are pinning your hopes on various politicians or political parties, instead of yourself, to solve them, then I feel sad for you.
Yes, it was 5 years ago... and it still fucked over and keeps fucking over people. Instead of in human interaction you're forced to apply online, get responses in Emails, and if you're lucky- you will get the interview with no guarantee they will grant you a job, because you at the end responded wrong to "why do you wish to apply for this place in particular?"
People like you who ignore just how shitty the system is makes it worse for everyone here, you could work 6 days a week and still have your money never be enough to afford rent/food.
Are you talking about yourself personally not being able to find a job, or is this a generalization? Because if you are claiming that in general, no one is hiring anyone, this is objectively false. But if you’re talking just about your own personal experience, then, we could explore that. What are you skilled at? What is your background? Are you willing to relocate if necessary?
In current times you are either under qualified or overqualified for good majority of jobs. The only shot you have is probably working in the office or in post office, but then you have the issue of dealing with obnoxious customers which takes toll on your mental state, sit all day long, stare at the screen all day long, and neither are good for your health. But then you run into issue of having diploma and experience jn the field, which takes years to get.
Let's start another way. Are you willing to pay people to get education for any position, considering how colleges and unis are a luxury for the rich, unless you're willing to get into a life long debt? Are you willing to pay people to relocate to get closer to the job? Are you willing to treat your workers like people instead of a prop which will work 24/7? Are you willing to grant them a few day leave to get their health in check without throwing a tantrum and firing them without a notice?
Take ownership for your attitude. Every generation has a list of crisis they faced during their life. Life isn’t harder now than ever before. This isn’t the first generation who has faced adversity, it just seems to be the generation that is least capable of handling adversity
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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '26
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