If you Google the word “millennial,” one of the first autocomplete options you’ll see is “millennials are killing.” This is because millennials, a generation that loosely includes those born in the early 1980s up to the late 1990s (of which I am a member), are constantly blamed and berated by the media for allegedly murdering broad groups of businesses. This list includes things like napkins, cereal, bars of soap, homeownership, and football. Our generation consistently gets made fun of for living at home, having bad work ethics, and being self-involved. One millionaire went so far as to say the reason young people can’t buy homes is because we buy too many avocados instead of saving our money.
Many of these accusations are unfounded, and those who make them seem to conveniently forget that millennials’ preferences and lifestyles are the result of the world and economy we’ve been brought up in — something that’s been crafted by the older generation that has raised us. This world put us at a distinct disadvantage from the get-go. Because of the rampant generalizations seen frequently in the media, being called a millennial has started to feel like an insult rather than a generational label. “Millennial” is even one of my dad’s buzzwords.
My friends and I often talk about what is waiting for us upon graduation. Hint: It’s mostly debt and probably a small salary for long hours. The beginning of each semester sparks mini pity-parties as we compare textbook prices and take bets on how the bookstore will rip us off when we sell them back at the end of the term. When planning for post-grad life, my friends and I often joke that entry-level jobs require three years’ experience and a master’s degree — another example of how previous generations systematically screwed us for cheap labor, but that’s an issue for a later time.
College has become a necessity rather than a luxury. It’s frequently said that a bachelor’s degree is the new high school diploma equivalent, and jobs with good career growth require a degree as a prerequisite. But there have been multiple studies about rising tuition and stagnant wages. According to CNBC, tuition increased by 213 percent between 1987 and 2017, even after adjusting for inflation. According to an analysis by The New Republic, in 1979 the federal minimum wage was $2.90, and a student could pay off one year of college tuition by working 385.5 hours. For comparison, a student who works on average 40 hours a week over a summer would work 480 hours total. Therefore, one summer job used to equal the cost of one year of college.
Today, it takes 2,229 hours at the $7.25 federal minimum wage to pay the average tuition cost. The New Republic study points out that the average American is only awake for 6,278 hours per year. This means students are forced to take on debt if they want to better themselves academically, and it’s important to keep in mind that private universities like Northeastern, where I’m a student, are almost always more expensive than the “average” that this study uses. One summer job no longer comes close to paying for one year of college; now it covers only 20 percent. Millennials are financially screwed before real life even begins. Every one of my friends has a part-time job, if not multiple jobs, myself included.
This goes to show that our generation’s love of avocados may not be to blame for our financial woes. According to a New York Fed research paper, if tuition were frozen at 2001 levels adjusted for inflation (which is still significantly higher than the previous example year of 1979), the number of 28- to 30-year-old homeowners in 2015 would have been 360,000 higher. That’s a lot of people whose lives could be better. This number references older millennials, but younger millennials like myself know that we’re in trouble, too. After all, we are more educated than previous generations, so we’re smart enough to see the writing on the wall.
Once students make it through college, the professional world doesn’t paint a brighter picture for us, either. Entry-level wages haven’t budged significantly in decades. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute’s 2015 annual report noted that wages were 2.5 percent lower for college graduates than they were 2000. The national unemployment rate at this point was lower than it was during the 2008 recession, so our economy should have meant positive things for young workers. We also are the first generation that has not done better than our parents, earning less per household than Generation X. Instead of calling millennials lazy or financially illiterate or avocado-obsessed, maybe someone could pay us more. We’d gladly purchase homes.
These financial problems follow millennials into our personal lives as well. There have been studies on how millennial lifestyles differ in comparison to prior generations. According to Bloomberg, more than 80 percent of baby boomers in 1980 were living on their own. For millennials today, this number is under 60 percent. Living at home also seems to affect marriage potential. In 1980, almost 70 percent of baby boomers were married, while 20 percent had never married (the remaining 10 percent were separated or divorced). In 2015, only 40 percent of millennials were married, while almost 55 percent had never married. This is a stark difference, given that there were only 35 years between the two studies.
With independence and marriage being delayed, it only makes sense that homeownership and having children are being pushed back as well; the Bloomberg study backs this up. The idea of owning property and having a family feels so far away for people my age, it doesn’t even come up as a topic of discussion. While students at southern schools might be talking about getting the “ring by spring” (college seniors getting engaged before the end of their final semester), my friends are talking about if we’ll be “funemployed,” or trying to enjoy our summer while stressing out about not having a job. It might seem tempting to say that we’re moving at a slower pace than our parents and grandparents, or that we struggle with commitment issues in a time where dating apps are plentiful. But all of this oversimplifies the real issue, which is that the economy has taken away many of the options that older generations had at our age.
We’re told that in order to succeed and make money, we need to get a degree that will cripple most of us financially. This financial insecurity then forces itself into our daily lives, affecting how we behave socially. Each generation is different, and that’s okay. But young people are getting shamed for things that are beyond our control.
Next time you want to make a millennial joke, consider what that person is facing for the next 50 to 60 years. Your joke is not as funny as you think.
Maddie Ives is an undergraduate student in POV: The Art and Craft of Opinion Journalism, a class taught by WGBH News contributor Dan Kennedy at Northeastern University.
