Where do you fit in?

[imoldernu]

An interesting article about Being 30, then and now.

https://axios.com/one-big-thing-being-30-then-and-now-1531229570-b03dd961-0c1e-4734-a577-78c28ae346d9.html

If true, some very interesting numbers. If not today, where will you fit in in 10 or fifteen more years.

Hmmm... seems like women have made out better than men.

 

[Montecfo]

An interesting article about Being 30, then and now.

https://axios.com/one-big-thing-bei...570-b03dd961-0c1e-4734-a577-78c28ae346d9.html

If true, some very interesting numbers. If not today, where will you fit in in 10 or fifteen more years.

Hmmm... seems like women have made out better than men.

Yes. I think there are many factors. High cost of education is one, for sure. The nation is wealthier, which has many consequences. It is harder to out-earn your more likely to be college-educated parents, arguably we are less a nation of "strivers" now. Helicopter parenting and other cultural influences mean kids mature more slowly than prior generations.

Having said that, there has never been greater opportunity to amass great wealth if you are a risk taker.

 

[rodi]

I will observe that there are a lot more women going into engineering than did back in the early 80's when I was in college. My senior year I was the only woman in all but one of my upper division classes. My last few years at work we had more female's in our department and female applicants for open positions was no longer a rarity... still a minority - but no longer rare.

I was confused by some of the charts. It shows median debt on the chart - but the article talks exclusively of school debt...

As for the never married.... I guess I would have fit in well with millenials... I waited till age 37 to get married and start a family. As I moved around the country pursuing my career I found that the age people got married varied more by geography than anything else... In SoCal and Philly being 30 and never married was normal, or at least not unusual. It was less normal in Washington state and Georgia where people tended to marry much younger.

You pose the question as "Where do you fit in".... Since I'm not a millenial - I don't fit into the article at all.

 

[RobbieB]

At 30 I was married 2 years, just bought (mortgage) a townhouse, was on my second job after being fired from my first, no debt except the mortgage and a net worth of maybe 30 grand.

 

[street]

That is some good stuff. The findings don't surprise me the boomers might have had it the easiest to success early in life.

 

[aja8888]

I got married at 33, then again at 53. I hope there is no next time....

DD got married at 38 this year (first time for her).

 

[Red Badger]

That is some good stuff. The findings don't surprise me the boomers might have had it the easiest to success early in life.

+1.
We boomers, as a generation, also squandered 20 trillion dollars of OPM. Barring an economic "catalyst," most of us will be long gone when the IOU is presented with demand for payment. We can try to blame the politicians, but we (again, as a generation) voted them in to elected office to act on our behalf.

We also managed to lose a handful of "undeclared" wars along the way. I can understand if history judges us rather harshly. President Reagan is a good example. He is largely remembered for two major things; collapsing the Soviet Union and running up the national debt.

Yeah, we did some good things along the way (ie, space program, computers, internet etc), but those will likely be just footnotes. The chapter titles in the history books will (as usual) be the wars and the economy.

 

[omni550]

Hmmm... seems like women have made out better than men.

Really?

In the U.S., women have been earning more than 50% of college bachelor degrees since the early-1980's. (source https://www.statista.com/statistics/185157/number-of-bachelor-degrees-by-gender-since-1950/)

How long has it taken women to start out-earning men? Hasn't yet happened.
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_pay_gap_in_the_United_States)


omni

 

[Bigdawg]

Really?

In the U.S., women have been earning more than 50% of college bachelor degrees since the early-1980's. (source https://www.statista.com/statistics/185157/number-of-bachelor-degrees-by-gender-since-1950/)

How long has it taken women to start out-earning men? Hasn't yet happened.
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_pay_gap_in_the_United_States)

https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-l...p-myth-ignores-womens-intentional-job-choices

Sorry Omni. I'm not buying.

 

[MichaelB]

https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-l...p-myth-ignores-womens-intentional-job-choices

Sorry Omni. I'm not buying.

How about a quick summary for us?

 

[Freedom56]

An interesting article about Being 30, then and now.

https://axios.com/one-big-thing-being-30-then-and-now-1531229570-b03dd961-0c1e-4734-a577-78c28ae346d9.html

If true, some very interesting numbers. If not today, where will you fit in in 10 or fifteen more years.

Hmmm... seems like women have made out better than men.

The article is ignoring the great number of millennial who are well educated and working in the technology, aerospace, robotics, biotechnology, healthcare, and financial sectors. Somebody is creating all the wonderful new technology. I can tell you that an educated 30 year old today is a lot smarter than ones from past generations. There are also many that moved away from home and are doing quite well. Yes there are fewer and fewer jobs for unskilled labor, but that's a consequence of technology and automation. Many millennial's are not spending on the excesses their parents did as many have seen the consequences of such action during the last financial crisis. Many, not all, are taking a wait and see attitude with respect to marriage which is also a consequence in many cases of their parent's broken relationships.

As for the comment, "seems like women have made out better than men", more women are going to university and studying engineering and health sciences, which is a good thing, so they deserve to do better than men who choose to do nothing.

 

[gcgang]

IMHO, main point is 30 year old white males are having their privilege eroded.

 

[imoldernu]

I can tell you that an educated 30 year old today is a lot smarter than ones from past generations.

I beg your pardon!

 

[rodi]

https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-l...p-myth-ignores-womens-intentional-job-choices

Sorry Omni. I'm not buying.

The OP article cites that more women than men earn bachelors these days. Yet the Heritage article you link suggests the paygap is because men are more educated. How does that work....? Women get more college degrees and men are more educated? Huh?

That article summarizes at the end with

Anecdotal evidence and the choices women and men make suggest that women value job choices more than men and that their preference for greater flexibility accounts for some—if not all—of the remaining pay gap between men and women.

In other words ANECDOTAL evidence rather than quantitative evidence is how they reached their conclusion.

As a woman who pursued a field that was traditionally male (engineering) I can tell you that:

a) I made MORE than some of my friends who went into more female dominated fields. (Engineer vs Social Worker ==== big pay gap.) So yes - career choice can make a difference... But most paygap studies look at paygaps within the same field.

b) I made LESS than my male counterparts for the same work. Despite excellent reviews etc. And this was true for the other female engineers at our megacorp site. Ironically my social worker friends (I have several) complained that their male coworkers were making more than them.... so paygaps exist in that field as well... where everyone has a masters degree - so equal education.