I’m sure this whole article comes as a shock to nobody, but it’s nice to see it recognised like this.
caught in an economic perfect storm
It’s nobody’s fault, just economic weather. Just bad luck. Nothing to do with corporate capture of the political process whatsoever.
The phrase “perfect storm” doesn’t necessarily relate to luck, it just means many bad things have happened or are happening at the same time. Which pretty accurately describes the era millennials are living in.
The bad things did not just happen, they were conscious choices or the inevitable consequences of those choices. I’m criticising the framing of this situation by the use of the passive voice in this subhead.
The bad things did not just happen, they were conscious choices or the inevitable consequences of those choices.
Which the authors then go on to explain in further detail, following the introduction. It’s right there in the sentence you cherrypicked that phrase out from:
An analysis of five factors — housing, healthcare, debt, tax, and income — reveals the age group is caught in a perfect economic storm.
Here’s my improved version:
An analysis of policy, formed by corporate interests and pushed upon the public in the 1980s, shows how it deprived the current crop of young adults of social housing, under-invested in public healthcare, enabled predatory lending practices, distorted the tax system so that a disproportionate amount fell upon the lowest three deciles of tax payers and hobbled unions while outsourcing manufacturing to the developing world causing earnings to plummet.
Aaaaaaaaand breathe!
Yeah, I know, wrong meeting.
Yep. Lays it out pretty clearly.
Fuck this was depressing to read. Validating though.
30 years ago was 1994, I was 25, 2 years into moving to a new city with a job but no place to live. I was making $8.60 an hour and paid $300 a month in rent. had a room-mate in a 2 bedroom apartment.
Given that I was making more than that as a teenager earlier than this, I assume you are not in Australia. I was still living with my parents 30 years ago. When I moved out in 1996, I was making $405 per week and my rent for a basic fully-furnished two bedroom apartment was $105/week.
There’s an apartment in the same building for rent right now (not furnished) at $550/week.
It’s enough to make you begin to wonder if accelerationism is a viable strategy - things don’t seem set to meaningfully improve any time soon…
