Actually, both of the parents had master's degrees, too. But yeah, they were much better off.

My mother pays about $10 a month for her health insurance through her retirement program. She is the only person I have ever met who can get a crown with no co-pay or deductible. Her insurance pays for everything you can imagine. Except of course, for putting her in a nursing home because she has Alzheimer's. That lovely little expense is not covered by BCBS or Medicare.

Apparently, it's more worthy to be unable to care for oneself due to *physical* disability.

Boomers have been whining lots in the media about how haaaaaaaaaaaard it is to care for their Alzheimery parents when they want to retire. farkers. I'm in my 30's; I'd like to farking *LIVE*, but I'm saddled with my mother.

/Happy mother's day to me. Off to keep her from breaking my goddamn dishes.

Is it just me or did the people in TFA just make poor decisions in their education? How much were they looking to make with degrees in history, literature and photography? The aerospace engineering degree is worth something IF you can get into the highly competitive field.

I still think business and IT degrees are the best bets out there.

I make more than my dad ever did but it's still not enough to buy a house and have 2 cars like my parents did. They didn't have an a degree but lived a decent life until the economy of 80's bottomed out. The only reason my husband and I have 2 new cars is because my husband is Air Force and we have a housing allowance. I see all my co-workers buy houses and living day to day. I have the income to buy what I want, but won't be able to do that when he gets out of the military.

That "high standard of living" (aka: He who dies with the most toys, wins) is overrated. That's the lesson the "babylosers" have learned from their parents.

We each learn our own lessons.

Financial wealth is only one component of personal wealth.

*shrug*

I'm ahead of the game when compared against my parents at the same age.

/house, not apt.
//paid off car
///has savings

Suck it, overqualified, underpaid, hippie-spawn

He-eeey, I resemble that remark.


/the best things in life aren't things

I'm a boomer, and ahead of my parents, but that's because I have a wad more education than they did. The 90s gave young people a false sense of economic security. Now they have it worse than we did: boomers competed for jobs against a big group of people our own age. Now young people are competing for jobs with others all around the world. And they have massive debt before they even leave school, which we didn't. And you need that expensive education to be in the middle class. It must be like being a hamster in a wheel--running damn hard to stay in the same spot.

Kyosuke: That "high standard of living" (aka: He who dies with the most toys, wins) is overrated. That's the lesson the "babylosers" have learned from their parents.

He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

Babylosers. LOL. I love that.

Good thing old people still have lawns for me to mow.

Then I can sue for chemical poisoning.

Kyosuke: That "high standard of living" (aka: He who dies with the most toys, wins) is overrated. That's the lesson the "babylosers" have learned from their parents.

Yeah, but it's nice to be able to pay all of your bills and still be able to save for emergencies.

/poor as all get-out
//but I work for the French government, so no worries

I remember what it was like during the Carter administration. PhDs were driving taxicabs in New York City. The old is new again.

And yeah, WTF does a guy with a degree in history and photography expect out of life? The only photographer I ever dated lived in a garage behind his ex-wife's house.

The real problems are that there are too damned many people, so real estate costs and that those too damned many people want cheap stuff, so all of the manufacturing jobs went to China. Want a better standard of life? Slow down on the breeding and stop buying cheap crap that breaks after a few uses.

A masters is the new bachelors.

" The old is new again."

Same situation for graduates in the early Eighties recession. Less than a third of my engineering class had jobs lined up on graduation, I spent two years unemployed before taking a job 1/2 the going rate. If I make more than babylosers today it's a result of busting my a$$ for 25 years. The biggest difference back then was we didn't blame our parents.

Aw, cmon. This deserves an OBVIOUS tag, right?

As a member of so called Gen X, it's seems like many of my friends dwell so much on higher education for a decade or so, only to become a college professor. Education is important, but a college degree or higher is just a tool. No ambition, no money. I believe you can sleepwalk to a Master's Degree with a minmal amount of effort, but it's probably foolish to expect the cash to roll in.

If you want to make money these days, you have to innovate and create, and own that property. If a Master's helps you get there, then god bless you.

Not to mention, it's a little irritating to read about how "tough" it is for the spawn of baby-boomers.

As far as Spain, Italy and France go, how can you expect to be BECOME wealthy in countries like these? You would probably have to bust your ass harder than anyone before you.

goethe_helen_hunt: And yeah, WTF does a guy with a degree in history and photography expect out of life? The only photographer I ever dated lived in a garage behind his ex-wife's house.

Actually, photography can be a really great gig, especially if you do weddings. People will pay thousands of dollars for a weekend's work. Still, you gotta deal with bridezillas so you earn every penny.

One big problem I see is that college kids have no motivation to do anything beside party and socialize. They just want to get their degree and hope a job finds them. They have no ambition to pursue their real interests and make their own way in life. Too much emphasis is placed on a college "education" and not on actually making a living and finding your niche to make money.

neenerist: Less than a third of my engineering class had jobs lined up on graduation, I spent two years unemployed before taking a job 1/2 the going rate.

Due to significantly higher education costs and proportionally higher student loan debt (yes, adjusted for inflation), a recent graduate would not be able to spend 2 years unemployed or take a job at 1/2 the going rate.

Um, part of getting a degree is that your resume is put into a different tier of consideration when applying for jobs. The major itself could be unimportant, considering the job requirements.

That aside, it appears mathematical ability is the intellectual equivalent of having good looks. Good at math? Recruiters will suck your dick, or lick your clit (if Asian or dot Indian, ofc,...no other chicks are good at math).

daveydave: Too much emphasis is placed on a college "education" and not on actually making a living and finding your niche to make money.

Too much emphasis is placed on college education because it's sold by everyone in a position of authority as the only way you can earn a middle class living.

Suck it, overqualified, underpaid, hippie-spawn

shut up underqualified overpaid cracker

submitter: Suck it, overqualified, underpaid, hippie-spawn

Does having Master's degrees in queer theory and women's studies really make a lady applying for a pizza delivery job overqualified? To most people doing the hiring it just makes the applicant look like a dumbass. A bitter, hate filled, freeze ice cubes on her ass kind of dumbass who wasted ten years of her life and tens of thousands in student loans and is angry with everyone except herself. Kind of like Michelle Obama.

daveydave: One big problem I see is that college kids have no motivation to do anything beside party and socialize. They just want to get their degree and hope a job finds them. They have no ambition to pursue their real interests and make their own way in life. Too much emphasis is placed on a college "education" and not on actually making a living and finding your niche to make money.

Duh. College is all about the booze and sex, didn't you know?

/I'm here b/c I need a degree for my field
//working my a$$ off for scholarships and such to graduate in 3 with minimal debt.
///probably still going to be poor until my kids are ready to suck all my money into college.

bigforearms: Too much emphasis is placed on college education because it's sold by everyone in a position of authority as the only way you can earn a middle class living.

Yup. And the universities don't want to change that perception, school is a freaking gold mine.

We watched our parents go from hippies and radicals to miserable assholes who worked jobs they hated to get shiat they didn't need, and then blame their lifestyle change upon their responsibilities. Find a job you don't hate making a salary you're somewhat comfortable with, live within your means, and spend more time enjoying your life than working to acquire things. What could possibly be wrong with that?

He_Hate_MeActually, photography can be a really great gig, especially if you do weddings. People will pay thousands of dollars for a weekend's work. Still, you gotta deal with bridezillas so you earn every penny.


Yeah, well this guy thought he was Ansel Adams.

goethe_helen_hunt: The real problems are that there are too damned many people, so real estate costs and that those too damned many people want cheap stuff, so all of the manufacturing jobs went to China.

That's part of the problem. Another part is that colleges and universities are churning out far too many people with degrees in certain areas, and there's a glut in the market. I think law is a good example of this. The number of newly-minted lawyers every year in ridiculous, and many of them are leaving their programs with over 100k in debt. A lot of them are thinking "Oh, I'll just start in a big law firm at $160k a year, and it'll all work out" not realizing that most lawyers don't make nearly that amount.

The "safer" bet for many people may actually be to take a more "traditional" and less prestigious job that has job security. Teaching (if you can deal with the bullcrap), law enforcement, bus/subway/train operators, things like that. Solid unions, decent pay (sometimes great pay) especially when factored against the lower educational debt load.

I had been my dream since high school to get a Ph.D. in psych and hopefully become a professor or researcher one day. The only reason I'm going to be able to do that is because my wife is going into biglaw, and we're not having kids. 18 years from now, a college education will probably run 200,000 tuition for four years, and god knows how much anything more than that will be.

Quantum Apostrophe: Yup. And the universities don't want to change that perception, school is a freaking gold mine.

It's partly a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are jobs available out there (electrician, etc.) that would allow a comfortable living even now. But a larger factor is that there are a number of jobs (retail management, entry-level office, etc.) that do not really need to be filled by people with college degrees but for which employers use a degree as a weed-out tool. Where everyone is getting a degree, you can't get menial biatchwork without one.

ck1938: Does having Master's degrees in queer theory and women's studies really make a lady applying for a pizza delivery job overqualified?

I work with engineering students and researchers; if your Master's isn't directly related to the job you're applying for, then it's pretty much useless to the employer.

One grad student applied to several engineering construction firms last year, and was shocked to learn that his work in flow turbulences wasn't of interest - nor would they automatically pay him more because he had a Master's. They were willing to pay a premium for experience, however. He still thinks that that's unfair - and he's one of the smarter ones.

My husband and I (we are 24 and 26, respectively) have the same income coming in that my parents are just now getting.

Don't worry everyone can get a job in Iraq or the rest of the middle east if McCain gets elected.

Can we please stop referring to them as "boomers" and use the rightful term of "the 'ME' generation" hmm?

Too much damn competition, and not enough people going into the trades.

Case in point: librarianship. I got my MLIS and I graduated with about 250-300 others in Canada at the same time. At any given time, there are probably about 200 library jobs available in North America. So, 250-300 people graduating from Canada only, let alone the United States into a field that is rapidly shrinking due to outsourcing and technology...hmm, I sure I picked a winner.

Couple that with globalization (i.e. new competition with the umpteen billion graduates coming from India and China), an insistence on having a university education for every single mind-numbing administrative job out there, and salaries that don't match inflation, and of course that's the predictable outcome.

RodneyToady

The "safer" bet for many people may actually be to take a more "traditional" and less prestigious job that has job security. Teaching

In Ontario, teaching is a very difficult gig to get into. Good pay for relatively little education means graduating WAY more teachers than there are positions. I know that it means that the most competitive will get the jobs, but that screws a lot of young teachers saddled with tons of debt who were under the impression that there is a limitless supply of history/English teaching positions.

There's also a shiat-ton of bureaucratic red tape to get through to even get accepted to a position. For me to get a job, all I have to do is submit my resume, interview, have a reference check and I'm in. For teachers, there's so much administrative bullshiat that it's insane, and many of the boards don't bother to tell you if you've missed handing in a piece of paper or criminal abstract or whatever; they just flat-out toss your application into the trash. I don't envy new teachers in the slightest.

I heard that one of the most lucrative fields to go into in New York City was plumbing. Plumbing. I'll say that again- plumbing.

/Have a Master's. Am going to do another one and then a PhD.
//Probably will never make as much as a plumber in NYC.
///That's ok. I have parents like the ones in the article.

ciocia: I'm a boomer, and ahead of my parents, but that's because I have a wad more education than they did. The 90s gave young people a false sense of economic security. Now they have it worse than we did: boomers competed for jobs against a big group of people our own age. Now young people are competing for jobs with others all around the world. And they have massive debt before they even leave school, which we didn't. And you need that expensive education to be in the middle class. It must be like being a hamster in a wheel--running damn hard to stay in the same spot.

Kyosuke: That "high standard of living" (aka: He who dies with the most toys, wins) is overrated. That's the lesson the "babylosers" have learned from their parents.

THIS. AND THAT.

I'm a member of the "babyloser" generation and I am well aware that my life is not going to be full of rainbows and fairy dust that I grew up to expect during the roaring '90s. That's why I'm saving my money while I can and putting off all the grand vacations and toys for a decent 401(k) and Roth IRA before I go nuts like my parents.

I wonder sometimes if I am in the minority in my generation for thinking this way...

um
this is a report about boomer kids in europe
I am pretty sure that boomer kids in the US are NOT more educated than there parents
first time in history of the US where the chidren are less educated than the parents

go figure

techmom

They were willing to pay a premium for experience, however.

Here's another thing - experience is getting very difficult to obtain. There are fewer and fewer internships or co-ops available in many programs that there are a ton of fresh graduates who know their stuff inside and out but don't have any experience on the resume, and thus don't get a job (the old rub: you need experience to get the job, but how do you get experience if nobody will hire you?).

There are some bandaid solutions to the problem like volunteering during your studies, but that isn't feasible for a lot of people for a lot of reasons. People are terrified of hiring those without the experience on paper, despite the fact that 999/1000 entry level jobs require nothing more than the knowledge obtained during the requisite studies themselves!

well, that's comforting.
glad I got that Masters degree!

CaptainStooby: ciocia: I'm a boomer, and ahead of my parents, but that's because I have a wad more education than they did. The 90s gave young people a false sense of economic security. Now they have it worse than we did: boomers competed for jobs against a big group of people our own age. Now young people are competing for jobs with others all around the world. And they have massive debt before they even leave school, which we didn't. And you need that expensive education to be in the middle class. It must be like being a hamster in a wheel--running damn hard to stay in the same spot.

Kyosuke: That "high standard of living" (aka: He who dies with the most toys, wins) is overrated. That's the lesson the "babylosers" have learned from their parents.

THIS. AND THAT.

I'm a member of the "babyloser" generation and I am well aware that my life is not going to be full of rainbows and fairy dust that I grew up to expect during the roaring '90s. That's why I'm saving my money while I can and putting off all the grand vacations and toys for a decent 401(k) and Roth IRA before I go nuts like my parents.

I wonder sometimes if I am in the minority in my generation for thinking this way...

I do that too, I have coworkers going on crazy vacations, draining their savings for parties and cars. I would rather be comfortable and happy with something for the future than waste it all now.

I betcha the boomers weren't paying for $5 coffees every day, or overpackaged crap for themselves and the kids. People actually cooked with groceries back then (things that had real ingredients, things that had one ingredient).

Point is spending is choice, and what we think we "need" is very different than years ago.

However job security and benefits are now an assfark. Hard to know if poor work ethic got us in this place, or we realized companies are now out to assfark us so we may as well have a poor work ethic. What motivation is there to value yourself or your professional relationships when they don't value you? Good jobs are so few that people that people are choosing between peanuts and peanuts.

Between those two issues, yeah, we're worse off.

daveydave: One big problem I see is that college kids have no motivation to do anything beside party and socialize. They just want to get their degree and hope a job finds them. They have no ambition to pursue their real interests and make their own way in life. Too much emphasis is placed on a college "education" and not on actually making a living and finding your niche to make money.

Wholeheartedly agree. I've seen lots of people go through the paces (sometimes barely) and then stay there in the same spot waiting for things to happen.

GavinTheAlmighty: Too much damn competition, and not enough people going into the trades.

Case in point: librarianship. I got my MLIS and I graduated with about 250-300 others in Canada at the same time. At any given time, there are probably about 200 library jobs available in North America. So, 250-300 people graduating from Canada only, let alone the United States into a field that is rapidly shrinking due to outsourcing and technology...hmm, I sure I picked a winner.

Couple that with globalization (i.e. new competition with the umpteen billion graduates coming from India and China), an insistence on having a university education for every single mind-numbing administrative job out there, and salaries that don't match inflation, and of course that's the predictable outcome.


Now the sad part is young people get exciter over starting new "careers" at prestigious employers such as Wal-Mart, McDonald's, or Home Depot. I actually saw at a window at Future Shop pitching young people to jump start their career there.

THIS is what outsourcing gave us.

Abe Vigoda's Ghost: "I saw one friend get his degree and then only earn €500 a month at an Italian space firm"

Italy has a space program?

They participate in the ESA.

Required reading = "13th Gen"

GavinTheAlmighty: In Ontario, teaching is a very difficult gig to get into.

The US isn't so bad in that regard, but for most public school teaching jobs, you need a Masters degree within 3 years of teachig to get certified. And specializing in subjects like math and the sciences make you far more competitive than other subjects, like English. We're actually at such a dire point with teaching in some big cities, that they'll temporarily waive the Masters requirement if you've had a career first. Burnout /turnover is insane over here.

And if you want to teach in a private/parochial school, all you technically need is a Bachelors (though competition usually means you need a Masters, sometimes a PhD depending on what you're teaching).

Guess we're lucky; my husband and I make a substantially more than my parents make even now, or at any point in the past.namatad: this is a report about boomer kids in europe
I am pretty sure that boomer kids in the US are NOT more educated than there parents
first time in history of the US where the chidren are less educated than the parents

I'm pretty sure the current 20- and 30-somethings in the US have more degrees per capita than their boomer parents. Now, the quality of education backing those credentials, that's a different story. There are plenty of opportunities for a student to get a good, solid, education these days, at pretty much any university -- and a sizable minority of students do so, but it's also perfectly possible to graduate without availing yourself of said opportunities, so the mere fact that someone has a bachelor's degree no longer provides a clear signal that they're intelligent and hard-working and all those other traits employers value so highly.

namatad: um
this is a report about boomer kids in europe
I am pretty sure that boomer kids in the US are NOT more educated than there parents
first time in history of the US where the chidren are less educated than the parents

go figure

They forgot to mention the unemployment rates here in Europe. Last report I read stated that the unemployment rates for 18-25 year olds here in France were hovering around 25%. Double that for kids of minority/immigrant backgrounds. Overall rate was close to 10%. If it were like that in the States, there'd be rioting. I'm a little surprised that it doesn't happen more often around here, to tell you the truth. I work as a teacher in one of the poorer suburbs of Paris, and while the kids are indeed quite politically active and involved, there's a lot of anger and desperation going around. I can't say I blame them - they're being asked to run a race, then having their knees broken before they get to the starting line.

And it's hard all around for young people here. Compared to the States, everything is more expensive to begin with - EVERYTHING. Even with a university education, getting a job, any job (even bussing tables or sweeping floors) is not easy. As the article mentioned, you've often got to do years' worth of unpaid internships to get enough experience to be hired at a rate where you can even think about buying a place of your own or having a family or doing any of the typically "adult" things that one would think about. It's not the same as it was for the generation before us that lived through the boom years after the war.

it's a tough world out there. But if you are willing to have fun and work a little on occasion, you can make something of it.

or you can not go to college and work hard. nothing like not having tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

coco ebert: /Have a Master's. Am going to do another one and then a PhD.

I did that-- two MAs and Ph.D. Happy today as a tenured department chair at a liberal arts college. Still not catching up with my war-baby parents though, both of whom retired in their 50s and earn more from their retirement benefits than my professional wife and I do at our jobs. I don't begrudge them a bit though; they worked hard to pay their way through college, spent 25+ years working and saving so they could retire early.

Several people noted that there are lots of opportunities in the trades. That's true. Some of the happiest people I know are union tradesmen (IBEW, etc.) that *also* went to college. As a result they have money and enjoy intellectual pursuits beyond NASCAR and generic beer. I'd not hesitate to support my kids going into a trade as long as they earned a BA first. The money doesn't really matter; even Disney movies will tell you that $$$ does not equate to happiness. It's much more important to learn who you are and what will make you happy in life. College is a good place to do that for many; grad school much less so.