Jul

18

Here's the brewing problem that I think about every day: "The Real Class Warfare is Baby Boomers vs. Younger Americans".

I'd claim it drives me to drink, but do I really need excuses?

While my parents worry about my future… I worry about the solvency of the programs that their generation built… and how 14 percent of my freelance revenues might as well be lit on fire because (let's be honest) my social security and medicare taxes are not coming back with the same purchasing power or benefits guarantees (The healthcare system in 2053 will be tremendous, I'm sure).

These programs obviously need some means testing, as Pelosi's generation and anyone with 20-30 years of business experience will likely be much better off in the U.S. at their age then my generation will at 50 through 70, given resources, expanded competition from abroad and so on.

I personally feel sorry for anyone under the age of 27.

I graduated in 2004 (in a bad job market) and was still just able to sneak out and get 4-5 years of solid experience before the bottom fell out in 2009. Then I was able to go onto grad schools…I think I barely escaped. But it appears that fewer and fewer in 2008-2011 undergraduate classes are able to get the practical experience before they hit 30.

I spend a lot of time researching the impact of the recession on MBA education, and I'm seeing the ages go up, and applicants 22-27 being shown the door before they even get a chance to say hello. How we're going to sustain and educate our next crop will be a new gap. I am interested to see if there will be a significant pay gap between individuals 30-40 today, and individuals 30-40 in ten years.

Every day, Australia looks better and better to me for a 2014-2015 move. Too bad the IRS will meet me at the docks once I get off that slow boat.

Ralph Vince writes: 

Garrett,

Thanks for your posting. Your post deserves comments from the more geezerly here. Permit me to be the voice of those despised boomers.

I agree with you on inter-generational warfare notion. I hear it incessantly from the younger (<35) crowd, and not that it is without merit, I find it's rather one-sided. I am left wondering, despite the miserable economy and resultant job market of recent years, why the animosity? I, for one, twice your age, having been paying into the Ponzi schemes at over 18% per year for over 4 decades of my working life. Most in my circle seek to dismantle these Ponzi social programs, and agree the place to begin is clearly through means testing. I too don't expect to see a dime from these systems (not that I would qualify under means testing, but I would prefer we stop the Ponzi nonsense and consolidate it all under Welfare. Actually, I would prefer they do away with it entirely for that matter!)

Don't forget, roughly half of us boomers have been relentlessly voting against any of this nonsense our entire lives, and have sought to have it dismantled, but we have been outnumbered by the handout crowd — I believe your generation fear the boomers now becoming the handout crowd, an understandable concern given the demographic imbalances. Here is what they evidently don't teach in grad school (and I don't say this with condescension, rather because I find a conformity in perspective among the < 35 crowd). Straight-line forecasts into the future never work. The image presented to those your age — the straight line, cause and effect, demographically created scenario — that demographic doomsday isn't going to happen. Things always, invariably, descend from outside the system, rendering the straight-line forecast of the masses substantially wrong.

I don't know precisely WHAT those outside influences will be, but I'm pretty certain they will be severely pro- economic growth. This will have profound and far-reaching economic effects on the generation of workers now < 35. I'm not talking in the distant future either, but rather this decade. Don't be surprised to see home values surge, 200 to 300 percent over an 18 month stretch — when people least expect it. Don't be surprised if we need to bring in a few million qualified tradesman, or real competition among medical services in the US, wrought from outside the US. Don;t be surprised with plentiful, inexpensive oil and electricity. There are a myriad of factors now conspiring to create an enormous economic boom. Don't buy the "We are going the route of Japan" scenario. We are not Japan. Don't be surprised by double-digit GDP growth at some point this decade. The ground is shaking right now, and the < 35 crowd is unwittingly standing atop a mountain of opportunity for those who can shed the yoke of perspective that has been sold to them.

Lastly, Australia? Forget about it. Throughout my entire adult life, I have been of the mind that the US is really NOT the place to be if one wants opportunity and economic growth. I believe that is now flipped, and the states very likely presents the prospect for great growth and opportunity in the coming decade. This is a time to sit tight, take chances, and if things soften more, risk more, buy into it.

That's my two cent take, I wish I was young enough to capitalize on it the way a young man could, but I'll stake my future entitlements on it.


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