I’m not too worried about China.
One of the reasons a volunteer military is successful is that the benefits are good.
I see no value in trying to make the cost of war cheap.
I’ll suggest unemployed millennials to work abroad. There is a tremendous niche for American native speakers. In so many countries. It is easy to get job visas with American passport.
I would never blame WW2 and prewar generations. They build America as a superpower. All we have - we owe to that generations.
rant…warning…
Well, I for one have had it with the whining. Get a job, any job and start paying back your loans. As a matter of fact get two jobs. Hey, and you don’t need a $600 I Phone and a $200 cable bill. And move in with some friends and split the rent and utilities. There are SO many programs for these kids to pay little to none of their student loans back. And with the affordable care act they even get medical insurance with subsidies and have more freedom to work varied jobs or start their own business.
More kids should attend college near home if possible and work while attending.
They don’t NEED the ultimate college experience…
Though I agree with sax about the whining, my kids are doing ok because “doing ok” was a value we instilled since they were little. It’s part hard work and part the ability to be satisfied with what you do have. They earn now, in their just out of college jobs, almost 4x what I earned in my first professional position, after grad school, (and I was in a growing industry.) They have college debt, yup, and they have the toys. They don’t like the debt, but are learning what their less expensive fun options are. No one is making it easy for them. One does live at home (for convenience) and pays a low, reasonable rent.
Who created millennials’ expectations? Probably their parents, lol.
It was the boomers who told their kids they needed to get into the best colleges they could, but by the time the kids were old enough, the best colleges were so expensive the only way to pay for it was through loans. So boomers did what boomers do: they co-signed the loans and saddled their kids with the debt.
We – millennials’ parents – are largely to blame for this situation, frankly. A little realism and discipline on the parents’ side – telling their kids “no” to the fancy private/expensive public – would have saved everyone a lot of angst.
That’s my version of the @sax rant.
Millenials do have those expensive phones but the ones I know sure aren’t paying for cable. Everything is streamed. NO cable necessary!
My thoughts are an amalgam of everyone else’s.
My parents are in good financial shape well into their 80s because my father is retired military, and Tricare is a life-saver for them. I feel fortunate that they have the benefits they do. I don’t begrudge career military their benefits (especially thinking back to my childhood seeing my dad go off to Vietnam and wondering whether he’d ever come back), but I do think some reform is in order, as well as raising the Social Security age and means testing.
Ds1 graduated a year ago with less than $5K in debt. He knew we wouldn’t co-sign on big loans and wouldn’t let him take out too many himself, so that was a major part of his college decision. He moved home and took an AmeriCorps job. He didn’t have to live at home, but our rent was a better deal than he could get anywhere else, so he did the smart thing and not the fun thing. He’s finished his year, used the education stipend to pay off his loans and just got a job thanks to the skills he learned on his AmeriCorps gig. His new job is a little too far for him to live at home and commute, saving more of his money, but he took to heart the advice of rent being less than 30% of gross and so has a wonderful place but not in his no.1-choice location. Oh well. And no cable. And he’s driving his brother’s car for the next year while ds2 is in school, but he knows that he’s going to have to buy himself something in a year. And he finally traded in the flip phone he’s had since junior year of HS for a smart phone because his job is paying for it.
So part of me thinks that, yeah, millenials have been spoiled by their parents and treat luxuries – smart phones, cable, new cars – as necessities. But I know a number of millenials who are making plenty of sacrifices to remain financially solvent. We shouldn’t paint the entire generation with such a broad brush, and us parents shoulder some of the responsibility for their situation.
It’s funny, because most of the millennials I know not only don’t have “new cars,” – they don’t have cars, period! They live in/near urban areas, ride public transportation/bikes, and when they need a car turn to Car2Go or Uber.
And we can take some credit for their ability to use good judgment.
I do know some kids who got plenty from their parents but still turned out to be hard working, grounded, budget savvy, and who don’t make excuses. Some have some of their post-college living costs underwritten by their parents. But they are mostly good kids, the sort who will keep the world running and one day raise responsible kids of their own.
^^^ Yeah, I live in a place with horrible public transportation. The choices are either to pay top-dollar to live in the central city where buses go by every 10 minutes or rent someplace cheaper and have a car to get into town. It’s kind of six of one. But I know lots of kids who live central city AND have a car, with the lifestyle subsidized by their parents.
For mine, Uber is a godsend, I call it the new designated driver.
Daughter uses Uber often; my son prefers Car2Go, because he enjoys the tiny Smart Cars. In fact, there was a story on our local news that an increasing number of parents aren’t buying their kids cars, but rather subscriptions to services like Cars2Go, ZipCar, etc. I think what we’re seeing is a huge shift in how people live in urban areas. A very positive shift, IMO.
What lookingforward said! : )