Now Playing Tracks

The rich and connected benefit from the escalation of college costs because it prices middle-class kids out of the market. For the 1%, a bill of $20,000 or $60,000 isn’t much different. But suddenly Junior’s chances of getting in to Prestige U. are a lot better, since many will decide they can’t afford to apply. College is a luxury good again, like $3,000 Italian shoes. Great news for those who can afford it.
Dear Class of ’13: You’ve been scammed
…under a 2 percent 401(k) fee structure, almost two-thirds of your working life will go toward paying obscene compensation to Wall Street; a little over one-third will benefit your family – and that’s before paying taxes on withdrawals to Uncle Sam.

To put it another way – you work for Wall Street. You are their slave, their lackey and as long as their toadies dominate in Congress, nothing is going to change on the legislative front to stop the looting.
PBS Drops Another Bombshell: Wall Street Is Gobbling Up Two-Thirds of Your 401(k)

“In 2012, the world’s 100 richest people became $241 billion richer.

kateoplis:

They are now worth $1.9 trillion: just a little less than the entire output of the United Kingdom.

This is not the result of chance. The rise in the fortunes of the super-rich is the direct result of policies. Here are a few: the reduction of tax rates and tax enforcement; governments’ refusal to recoup a decent share of revenues from minerals and land; the privatisation of public assets and the creation of a toll-booth economy; wage liberalisation and the destruction of collective bargaining.

The policies that made the global monarchs so rich are the policies squeezing everyone else. This is not what the theory predicted. Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and their disciples – in a thousand business schools, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD and just about every modern government – have argued that the less governments tax the rich, defend workers and redistribute wealth, the more prosperous everyone will be. Any attempt to reduce inequality would damage the efficiency of the market, impeding the rising tide that lifts all boats. The apostles have conducted a 30-year global experiment, and the results are now in. Total failure.”

If you think we’re done with neoliberalism, think again | Guardian

It’s not just in the US that “trickle-down” economics has proven to do the opposite.

therealkatiewest: ultralaser: searchingforknowledge: vinabean: awesome-everyday: shorterexcerpts: thecallus: theatlantic: The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses? What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery. Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod] It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why? IT’S BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO DISPOSABLE INCOME YOU THUNDERING IDIOTS. Fucking preference has nothing to do with it. 50% of college graduates have no job! They all have the most student loan debt ever! What are you asking this question for?! Also: housing is a good bit more expensive now. My parents got a 15-year mortgage on a new house in the mid-70s. The house was $32,000. Average home price in that area now? $190,000. So, home prices went up. Food prices went up. Health care prices went WAY UP. Rent prices went up. Higher education went up so damn high that some of us forgo that all together. Energy prices went up. Car prices went up. Prices of prices went up. We also pay cell phone bills, internet bills, data plans, text plans, online subscriptions, cable/satellite tv, netflix, DVR subscriptions — bills that didn’t even exist 30-40 years ago. We also use computers and smartphones and microwaves and other consumer electronics that didn’t exist 20-50 years ago. We need medications and doctors and contact lenses and tampons and maxi pads and other things that cost money just to be alive and keep us healthy. Most of us can’t afford to: Get married and have a “Traditional” big wedding Buy a house Buy a new car PLAN to have children Take two, consecutive weeks of vacation. Jobs that paid 50k in the late 1990s now pay between 30-35. Interest rates that favor consumers have gone down. So I say, no. We are not choosing not to buy homes. We’re not choosing to take the bus in cities where there’s no good public transit. WE ARE NOT CHOOSING TO LIVE WHAT SOCIETY DEEMS AS AN UNDESIRABLE LIFESTYLE. Don’t even get me started on the fact that these two people in the picture are young white hipsters. Young lack and brown folks have been forgoing homeownership and buying new cars for decades, this shit isn’t new, pal. You’re just acting like this shit is new because it’s hitting white folks. anyway, my point is: We are fucking broke. All these blasted upper middle class white jackasses running their mouths. Are they so fucking BLIND?!?!?! /li I want a house so bad. So bad. And my student debt seems suffocating. And I can’t imagine how to own a house AND a car. But I can’t own a house in a city where I wouldn’t need a car, so that means I’ll need both. Houses in my current neighbourhood are between 600k and 1.8 MILLION DOLLARS. So obviously I can’t live around here. I’d have to go about 2 hours out of the city to get a house under 200k, which is probably what I could afford. Maybe. Does student debt affect my credit score? I don’t know. Should I pay off my loans or save for a down payment on a house? So much of my time is spent budgeting and saving and trying to make money appear out of nothing. And I have a decent job but there’s no way I can buy a house OR a car with my paycheque and all my bills. It makes me really sad because I just want a house with a yard and a barn I can use to rescue cats. All the cats. SIGH. And I know I’m one of the lucky ones, with a job, and a partner with a job, and cheap rent because my landlords are my relatives.
Zoom

therealkatiewest:

ultralaser:

searchingforknowledge:

vinabean:

awesome-everyday:

shorterexcerpts:

thecallus:

theatlantic:

The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses?

What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery.

Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod]

It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why?

IT’S BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO DISPOSABLE INCOME YOU THUNDERING IDIOTS. Fucking preference has nothing to do with it. 50% of college graduates have no job! They all have the most student loan debt ever! What are you asking this question for?!

Also: housing is a good bit more expensive now.

My parents got a 15-year mortgage on a new house in the mid-70s. The house was $32,000. Average home price in that area now? $190,000.

So, home prices went up. Food prices went up. Health care prices went WAY UP. Rent prices went up. Higher education went up so damn high that some of us forgo that all together. Energy prices went up. Car prices went up.

Prices of prices went up.

We also pay cell phone bills, internet bills, data plans, text plans, online subscriptions, cable/satellite tv, netflix, DVR subscriptions — bills that didn’t even exist 30-40 years ago. We also use computers and smartphones and microwaves and other consumer electronics that didn’t exist 20-50 years ago.

We need medications and doctors and contact lenses and tampons and maxi pads and other things that cost money just to be alive and keep us healthy.

Most of us can’t afford to:

  1. Get married and have a “Traditional” big wedding
  2. Buy a house
  3. Buy a new car
  4. PLAN to have children
  5. Take two, consecutive weeks of vacation.

Jobs that paid 50k in the late 1990s now pay between 30-35. Interest rates that favor consumers have gone down.

So I say, no. We are not choosing not to buy homes. We’re not choosing to take the bus in cities where there’s no good public transit. WE ARE NOT CHOOSING TO LIVE WHAT SOCIETY DEEMS AS AN UNDESIRABLE LIFESTYLE.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that these two people in the picture are young white hipsters. Young lack and brown folks have been forgoing homeownership and buying new cars for decades, this shit isn’t new, pal. You’re just acting like this shit is new because it’s hitting white folks.

anyway, my point is: We are fucking broke.

All these blasted upper middle class white jackasses running their mouths. Are they so fucking BLIND?!?!?!

/li

I want a house so bad. So bad. And my student debt seems suffocating. And I can’t imagine how to own a house AND a car. But I can’t own a house in a city where I wouldn’t need a car, so that means I’ll need both. Houses in my current neighbourhood are between 600k and 1.8 MILLION DOLLARS. So obviously I can’t live around here. I’d have to go about 2 hours out of the city to get a house under 200k, which is probably what I could afford. Maybe. Does student debt affect my credit score? I don’t know. Should I pay off my loans or save for a down payment on a house? So much of my time is spent budgeting and saving and trying to make money appear out of nothing. And I have a decent job but there’s no way I can buy a house OR a car with my paycheque and all my bills. It makes me really sad because I just want a house with a yard and a barn I can use to rescue cats. All the cats. SIGH.

And I know I’m one of the lucky ones, with a job, and a partner with a job, and cheap rent because my landlords are my relatives.

harharhar: theatlantic: The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses? What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery. Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod] It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why? Wait, you’re saying that environmental factors (stagnant wages, high-and-rising home and gas prices) combined with a generational shift in attitude (or collective generational response to those factors, probably both) could spell trouble for our consumption-dependent economy? You’re saying that when home/car/gas prices soar in an era of rising income inequality, demand decreases? Tell me something I don’t know. I have a solution and it’s frighteningly easy: pay young workers more. Pay your interns, for example. We love buying shit and throwing money around, but that only works if we have money in the first place. Adjusted for inflation, male college graduates are earning 12% less than their 1969 counterparts. Only a high school diploma? 47% less. Those numbers are probably much worse if limited to 20-somethings. Unsurprisingly, it’s a not a bunch of “Generation Y” people determining our salaries and hourly wages. I’d love to lead this economy out of the recession, but I have to make rent first.
Zoom

harharhar:

theatlantic:

The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses?

What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery.

Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod]

It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why?

Wait, you’re saying that environmental factors (stagnant wages, high-and-rising home and gas prices) combined with a generational shift in attitude (or collective generational response to those factors, probably both) could spell trouble for our consumption-dependent economy? You’re saying that when home/car/gas prices soar in an era of rising income inequality, demand decreases? Tell me something I don’t know.

I have a solution and it’s frighteningly easy: pay young workers more. Pay your interns, for example. We love buying shit and throwing money around, but that only works if we have money in the first place. Adjusted for inflation, male college graduates are earning 12% less than their 1969 counterparts. Only a high school diploma? 47% less. Those numbers are probably much worse if limited to 20-somethings.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a not a bunch of “Generation Y” people determining our salaries and hourly wages. I’d love to lead this economy out of the recession, but I have to make rent first.

To Tumblr, Love Pixel Union