The Unsexy Truth About Millennials: They're Poor & Stupid - Thanks To Barack Obama & Democrats.

[Bradley K. Sperman]

If you’re wondering why millennials don’t have much sex, and
don’t buy cars, forget social theorizing: the harsh truth lies
in their near-empty wallets.

Millennials are not some vast unsolvable mystery. According to a
report from the U.S. Census Bureau (PDF), they earn $2,000 less
than their parents did at a comparable age, they are more likely
to live in poverty, and they are more likely to live at home.

But Baby Boomers and Gen Xers still seem to find it hard to
believe that basic economic math can explain much of the younger
generation’s behavior.

After several news outlets, including The Daily Beast, reported
that rates of millennial sexual inactivity in early adulthood
are surprisingly high, armchair social theorists came out in
force to blame it on everything but the fact that nearly one-
third of young adults are still living at home.

One right-wing college news website found a way to attribute the
finding to millennials’ desire for “safe spaces.”

Conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat speculated on
Twitter that it was an example of the “porn paradox,” whatever
that means. Others attributed it, predictably, to the effects of
technology or increased anxiety. A Rutgers biological
anthropologist even suggested that millennials might be too
“motivated” and “ambitious” to even bother with sex.

The most likely explanation—which was mentioned in the study
itself—is that parents’ basements do not make great boom boom
rooms. But who needs Occam’s razor when you’re publicly opining
about the behavior of an entire generation? Lower wages sending
22-year-olds back home after college isn’t nearly as sexy as
complaining about porn or political correctness.

The truth is that lower wages and poverty can account for so
many of the things that older generations find so mystifying
about millennials.

For example, millennials drive less than their parent’s
generation—and until recently, at least—were relatively
uninterested in buying cars. As The Atlantic reported in 2012,
this crisis prompted automakers to appoint “youth emissaries”
and come up with new car colors like “techno pink” and “denim.”

But trying to make cars cooler doesn’t change the fact that, as
CityLab found, there’s a significant gap in vehicle miles
traveled between millenials who make over $30,000 a year and
those who make less. Simply put: Cars cost money and millennials
have less of it.

Millennials have also been shamed for how much they spend eating
out instead of say, saving for retirement. “Millennials Are
Spending an Embarrassing Amount on Brunch and Takeaway Pizza,”
Vice recently declared.

It’s easy to chalk that generational difference up to some sort
of narcissistic short-sightedness but the truth is probably a
lot closer to fatalism: When millennials can’t save for
retirement anyway, why not spring for some bottomless mimosas
instead of enrolling in a 401(k)?

A recent Wells Fargo survey found that 41 percent of millennials
have not yet started saving for retirement, 64 percent of whom
say “they are not making enough money” to do so. The situation
is even more dire for millennial women, almost half of whom
aren’t saving for retirement, partially as a result of the
gender wage gap.

As Suzanne McGee wrote for The Guardian, “[T]here are too many
other factors stopping millennials from making that decision to
save”—factors like a lack of benefits at work, staggering
student debt, and high rental costs.

With so many millennials giving up on their nest eggs, splurging
on eggs Benedict makes sense. Likewise with the luxury cosmetics
that have proved to be recession-proof for young women.

There are more millennial trends, too, with plenty of awful,
hare-brained explanations to go along with them them.

The Federalist tried to explain millennials’ fondness for
socialism—43 percent of people under 30 see it favorably,
according to a YouGov survey—by declaring that “Millennials
Don’t Know What Socialism Is.”

Realtor.com recently asked if “Fear of Committment [Was]
Delaying Millennial Homeownership?” but the truth, as Mother
Jones noted, is that “Millennials Aren’t Buying Houses Because
They Can’t Afford To.”

In June The Economist wondered aloud, “Why aren’t millennials
buying diamonds?” and speculated that it was “the taint of
conflict and exploitation” that was keeping them away. A more
parsimonious explanation? Diamonds are freakin’ expensive, as
The Daily Beast’s Kristopher Fraser noted, and as millennials on
Twitter were quick to remind the magazine.

So the next time you have a hunch about why millennials are the
way they are, ask yourself if economic insecurity might be a
better hypothesis. As James Carville famously told Bill
Clinton’s campaign right before Baby Boomers came into wealth
their children may never know: “It’s the economy, stupid!”

Yeah, Barack Obama's busted economy.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/05/the-unsexy-
truth-about-millennials-they-re-poor.html