As a millennial (Gen Y), I think millennials are just as big of a problem to themselves as the baby boomers are. Perspective is way off in general.
Living and seeing the mentality of people in the late 80s and 90s, there has been a huge evolution. One of the things that I find huge is that people actually think things are "nothing". Gone are the days of "A dollar saved is a dollar earned". Cheap coffees still adds up. $2 a coffee 5 days a week is $10 a week. Over 52 weeks, that's $520 a year. This isn't including the fact many times confectionery is added to the purchase. This confectionery can probably rival or exceed that $520 a year. But many millennials will laugh off these amounts as "nothing". That's a couple months of groceries for an individual or a luxury good per year.
Alcohol and other vices consumption is also far higher than it was before. Also, eating out has risen immensely. I blame Millennials for the rise in tipping rates. $20-40 per meal completely blows that number out of the water. People think $5-10K is "nothing" on a home price difference?
As a friend of mine once commented, "Why do people say things are dirt cheap? Dirt isn't cheap." He's right. Land values have skyrocketed and potting soil is pretty freaking expensive. I am actually in the process of coaching a few friends on money habits due to them near debilitating debt. The understanding of a "need" vs a "want" is so confused, that they can barely figure out the difference.
What I'm trying to teach them now is vice reorganization. By explaining that stopping that Timmies ritual and going with self made coffee (aeropress, not the pod cup gimmick which is just as expensive) would allow in 1 year the opportunity to purchase a (for instance) Tory Burch bag or Camera lens. I have to trick a friend into delaying gratification, then when they have money, they can either buy a luxury good, or be like, "Oh gosh, I have money to pay my bills!" And yet this friend's mentality isn't uncommon.
But mostly to rewind, I blame people in devaluing things that once were valuable. As afc wimbledon remarked, the lifestyle in the 50s/60s probably is being seen as being lower class in the modern age. Kids used to value worthless things in the same way as gold. We used to fix and reuse things. Now, everything is disposable. People owned things that could cross generations. Now a generation is perceived as 2-3 years. I mean, how many people have been ridiculed for using an electronic that's over 4 years old lately? If someone is thrifty, people fun of them unless they have nice things to show off. Fricking people have made some of the things we valued actually worth as much as gold (ie: Legos).
Sure the baby boomers don't help, but we as millennials aren't helping ourselves either.
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