The Lost Generation – Millennials

In the Open Thread, I pointed to the The Millennial Disruption Index and Millennials as a cohort which will be bigger then Baby-Boomers and are also the cohort which has suffered the most since 2001 when jobs started to disappear and wages crashed. The families at 35 years of age are struggling the most with median incomes of ~$35,000. Yet neither political party is attempting to harvest the potential of this cohort and have a dislike for Wall Street and TBTF. The chart itself is worth a look as it sums up Millennial thinking.

538 Blog had this to say “Economic Inequality Continued To Rise In The U.S. After The Great Recession”:

Young people were hit especially hard. Thursday’s report provided yet more evidence that today’s young people risk becoming a “lost generation” economically. The median family headed by someone under 35 earned $35,300 in 2013, down 6 percent from 2010 and down nearly 20 percent from 2001. Those figures may understate the magnitude of the problem: Many young people are living with their parents because they can’t afford to strike out on their own; they aren’t included in the Fed’s figures because they don’t count as their own households. Young people have also become less likely to own their own homes (35.6 percent listed their primary residence as an asset in 2013, down from 40.6 percent in 2007) and much more likely to have student debt (41.7 percent in 2013, up from 33.8 percent in 2007). Whether by choice or by necessity, young people are also taking fewer financial risks, holding more of their assets in cash and less in stocks.

Add to this, the decline in home ownership going from “68.6 percent in 2007 to 65.2 percent in 2013” with those still owning homes experiencing a “decline in value to a median $170,000 from nearly $225,000 in 2007.” Americans owe less today than pre-recession due to foreclosures wiping out debt; however, they are experiencing more problems with debt. “4.2 percent of Americans reported taking out a payday loan in 2013,” a new high.

Hat Tip: David Atkins Washington Monthly