daily devotionals online logo Friday, March 29, 2024 1:55 AM GMT+1
       Reset Password        Click here to sign up.
 
daily devotionals online
Home
       our daily bread
Our Daily Bread
       the good seed
The Good Seed
       the LORD is near
The LORD is near
       andrew wommack
Andrew Wommack
       billy graham
Billy Graham
 
christian topics
Christian
       general topics
General
       interesting topics
Interesting
 

Why Millennials Think They're Broke
Posted by Temmy
Thu, May 11, 2023 4:14pm




Millennials are responsible, we are told, for the avocado shortage and the death of cable TV, paper napkins, and the 9 to 5 workday. This generation, whose oldest members have now reached their 40s, are blamed for many things, in fact. However, a persistent myth often spread by millennials themselves is that they are broke.

In a recent article at The Atlantic, prominent sociologist Jean Twenge took a closer look at this widely held assumption. Twenge acknowledges that many millennials got off to a rough start having graduated around the time of the 2008 financial crisis. In 2012, median household income among 25- to 34-year-olds was down 13% compared to the high point of 2000. Not helping was the fact that many graduated from college with an increased load of student debt. Also prompting the conclusion that this was a generation without savings was a 2018 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which showed that the median wealth of those born in the ‘80s was 34 percent lower than that of previous generations.

These factors shaped how millennials saw themselves. One survey found that 45 percent of millennials agreed with the statement, "Because of my money situation, I will never have the things I want in life," compared to 35 percent of the general population. Over half of millennials feared that "the money I have or will save won't last."

However, after surveying financial data over the last 10 years, Twenge now believes that the reality no longer justifies their fears.

Millennials, as a group, are not broke—they are, in fact, thriving economically. That wasn't true a decade ago, and prosperity within the generation today is not evenly shared. But since the mid-2010s, [m]illennials on the whole have made a breathtaking financial comeback.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2019, writes Twenge, millennial household income, even adjusted for inflation, was about $9,000 higher than that of Gen Xers at the same age and $10,000 more than baby boomers at the same age. Fewer millennials fell into poverty in their 20s and 30s than their boomer and Gen X forebears. And, while 50 percent of boomers owned a home at ages 25-39, 48 percent of millennials did, too. Millennials are also rapidly overcoming the savings gap that was reported by the Reserve Bank of St. Louis, spurred on by higher wages from college degrees.

The discrepancy between perception and reality is partly due to the millennial tendency to delay the key milestones of marriage, home-buying, and saving. And they do, Twenge concludes, face challenges like every generation of Americans before them have. Still, the right question to ask, she thinks, is not "if the American dream is still alive," but what if "no one believes it to be?"

This underscores just how powerfully ideas shape our lives. Economic trends matter, but so do the stories we tell about them. Those stories are shaped by what we believe about life and the world, right and wrong, reality, and human identity. Beneath this generation's historically poor mental health, uptick in alcoholism, and subsequent swing toward sobriety is a crisis of meaning now so acutely felt in a world untethered from absolutes or givens. This was the generation told that they could define reality while rejecting the wisdom and structures of the past. The weight of the world was placed on their shoulders, and it was heavy indeed.

To those struggling, Scripture gives both voice and comfort. For all of us, it gives the only solid foundation for meaning and purpose. To be clear, Scripture never equates financial success with happiness or meaning, something that social science research continues to affirm. Instead, money is a means (among many) by which we might pursue the true end of life, to know and love God.

The true crisis for millennials (and any generation, for that matter) is not a financial one. It's a crisis of meaning, purpose, and of knowing what we are ultimately for.





 

More From Christian Chat Room Archives


Christian wedding photographer sues New York over LGBT anti-discrimination law
Christian wedding photographer sues New York over LGBT anti-discrimination law
Posted on Thu, April 08, 2021 11:11am


A Christian wedding photographer has filed a complaint against New York over a state law that requires her to service same-sex wedding ceremonies despite her religious objections.

Emilee Carpenter of Emilee Carpenter Photography sued multiple state officials, with the lawsuit being filed Tuesday...More
Don't define the finish line - Jimmy Page
Don't define the finish line - Jimmy Page
Posted on Tue, April 13, 2021 11:45am


"This is my command be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you goWe will do whatever you command us, and we will go wherever you send us." Joshua 1:9,16

In many ways, moving to Colorado has been twenty years in the making. My...More
Catholic Bishops Won't Bar Pro-Choice Politicians from Communion following Document Vote
Catholic Bishops Won't Bar Pro-Choice Politicians from Communion following Document Vote
Posted on Wed, June 30, 2021 1:46pm


After much speculation that pro-choice politicians would be denied Communion, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has clarified that no such ban will occur.

Several weeks ago, the USCCB approved a draft document on the Eucharist during its General Assembly from June 16-18.

At the...More



 



For enquiries, notifications and ad placement send mail to [email protected]
Copyright 2012 - 2024 All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy || Terms & Conditions