Mark Steyn on The Brokest Generation
Our kids are the ultimate credit market, and the rest of us are all pre-approved!
the future of all our children is that they’ll be paying off the past of all their grandparents.
--
This is the biggest generational transfer of wealth in the history of the world. If you’re an 18-year old middle-class hopeychanger, look at the way your parents and grandparents live: It’s not going to be like that for you. You’re going to have a smaller house, and a smaller car — if not a basement flat and a bus ticket. You didn’t get us into this catastrophe. But you’re going to be stuck with the tab, just like the Germans got stuck with paying reparations for the catastrophe of the First World War. True, the Germans were actually in the war, whereas in the current crisis you guys were just goofing around at school, dozing through Diversity Studies and hoping to ace Anger Management class. But tough. That’s the way it goes.
It's true, and Mark Steyn is always great :)
But, on the other hand, 18-year-olds with a life of earning potential, few deep-seated expectations, and no debts are going to be far ahead of the self-entitled bunch with high expectations for their future but who have massive debts on assets with plummeting values and not that long to recoup their losses. Worse, they may try to recoup their losses when they'd probably be better off trying to cut them.
I think people are resilient and can adapt to changing conditions on a psychological level quite easily if it's plainly clear that it's absolutely necessary (fairness seems to be the issue -- as long as everyone else is suffering, they can get along)... but their debts will keep them trapped in the past. Also, I'm not sure anyone has made it clear that it's absolutely necessary.