As a Gen X-er this seems odd to me b/c when I graduated college in '92 the country was in a recession and I couldn't find a job in my chosen field. And most of the friends in our age bracket are struggling financially. People our age who are financially secure seem to be few and far between.
1. I remember the recession of 1992. I entered the workforce in 1993, as did Becky, and we both had a hard time of it at first.
What changed was the period of 1995-00, aka the tech bubble. That created a large number of new opportunities which caused a brief uptick in the overall trend.
Keep in mind it was a relatively modest uptick in an overall negative trend.
2. More importantly, the study did not measure economic well being or savings. It simply measured salary as compared to the salary of the generation likely to be your parents, as adjusted for inflation. So you could be earning more money in absolute terms, but still be struggling financially because certain critical expenses got to be SIGNIFICANTLY higher in ways that don't show up in the inflation index. For example, college education became hugely more expensive. It creates a perpetual deadweight debt, sucking away at an increase in salary. Housing, medical and child care are all also much higher, further sucking away any increase in earning power
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1. I remember the recession of 1992. I entered the workforce in 1993, as did Becky, and we both had a hard time of it at first.
What changed was the period of 1995-00, aka the tech bubble. That created a large number of new opportunities which caused a brief uptick in the overall trend.
Keep in mind it was a relatively modest uptick in an overall negative trend.
2. More importantly, the study did not measure economic well being or savings. It simply measured salary as compared to the salary of the generation likely to be your parents, as adjusted for inflation. So you could be earning more money in absolute terms, but still be struggling financially because certain critical expenses got to be SIGNIFICANTLY higher in ways that don't show up in the inflation index. For example, college education became hugely more expensive. It creates a perpetual deadweight debt, sucking away at an increase in salary. Housing, medical and child care are all also much higher, further sucking away any increase in earning power ( ... )
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