site banner
nfinf  7mo ago (nfinf.substack.com)   2014 thread views

How good the boomers had it

nfinf.substack.com

Inspired by some of the conversations we had here about the experiences of previous generations (especially with /u/the_nybbler, and yes, I know you're not a boomer), I wrote up a post that challenges a common narrative of how good the boomers had, and how screwed the millennials are. Main point is that the houses were not that much cheaper relative to now, and the interests rates were murderous. Enjoy!

(I'm a regular poster here, but I wanted to separate the identities for opsec purposes).

6
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I do talk about it a little, in the "Perceptions" section:

Metro concentration: we focused on medians here, but a lot of griping online comes from the extremely-online group which happens to live at high rates in a bunch of very attractive metro areas, like NYC, SFBA, or DC. In these metros, the housing prices did indeed skyrocket, and it is much less affordable than those same places were to boomers.

The benefit of focusing on medians is that it allows you to say that relatively few people actually live in those metros (compared to the entire country), so while this is huge problem for a very loud, but small group, it's not the experience of a typical millennial.

It seems... counterproductive for the most productive parts of the country to have the most unaffordable housing.

Fully agreed.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats