Lolz. Lou Holtz and the greedy arse boomers of this country are the reason we’re 31T in debt. A huge chunk of young people in this country can’t even afford on a house to live in but it’s somehow their fault.

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Posted by Cheese Grits

Wherever I lay my hat is my home

Member since Apr 2012

55225 posts

Posted on 1/20/23 at 8:30 am to ChiGator

quote:
we’re 31T in debt

As one who lived through it I can tell you this is wrong. 2 things cause most of the modern financial bubble you speak of

The oil shocks in the early and late 70's. No matter what Nixon, Ford, or Carter did, they could not "fix" this problem in their terms and it caused turmoil in the American psyche

"Greed is Good". Politics aside Reagan was a sunshine pumper as he had no solution either but he did load up on debt and went on a spending spree and was viewed as a great guy. At least Nixon, Ford, and Cater tried to fix it. Ronnie and Wall Street just levered up and pushed if forward.

If you want to understand the 31T in debt, you need to start here and blame us for taking the easy way out to get rich quick, instead of feeling the pain and working through the 80's with less debt but a stronger future.

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Posted by deltaland

Member since Mar 2011

91194 posts

Posted on 1/20/23 at 9:23 am to ChiGator

quote:
A huge chunk of young people in this country can’t even afford on a house to live in but it’s somehow their fault.

No they just can’t afford the house that they want. They all want a nice suburban home like their parents have. But they don’t realize most of their parents started out renting apartments or small homes and saved money before buying that larger house, just like they do.

When I moved out of my parents house I got an assistant manager job at a catfish farm, instead of renting a home I lived in an old crop duster hangar that had a bedroom, kitchen, and living room. Farm owned it so it was free, not ideal but I saved money. Year later got a better job, lived in an old trailer on the farm for 2 years then rented a small 2 bedroom house when I got a raise. Then I got a big raise and more bonus incentives, got engaged and we bought a nice 3,000 sq ft house and it’s completely paid for. No mortgage.

Point being, it can be done. I didn’t make 6 figures until the point I got engaged so not like I was raking it in. If you want nice things you have to live below your means and work hard to get to the income level required to maintain nice things once you do have them.

Too many young adults jump into the real world expecting to get their parents life immediately. It took me a decade of frugality out of college, and making smart choices like not getting married or having kids until I was financially ready. My parents are still better off than me right now, but I’m far far ahead of where they were at 32 years old.

Problem isn’t today that it can’t be done, it’s that young generation has a “I want it now” attitude and doesn’t make the hard choices and responsible actions combined with patience to get there. So they run up debt early on to have nice things, and they’ll never get ahead of it. I don’t solely blame the Boomers for the 31T in debt, our debt didn’t blossom until GWB was in office and has gotten only worse since. Yea a lot of those politicians are/were boomers but they only do what voters allow, and they were heavily voted for by Xers, Millenials, and Boomers alike. That problem falls on all of us

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Posted by namvet6566