Here’s another random chart. It was motivated by a column I happened to read in a free copy of the New Statesman that I picked up today. The numbers are ordinary income figures from the Census Bureau:
So in case you’ve been wondering, millennials really do have it hard. Their income has grown the slowest of any age group since 1974. Pick another starting point and you get pretty much the same thing. If you’re careful with your starting point, you might produce a chart where they’re only second worst. If you’re really careful with your starting point, you might even produce a chart where they’re only third worst.
Basically, though, they’re worse off than pretty much every other generation. And this doesn’t even count the higher cost of both housing and education¹ since 1974, which obviously affects young adults more than other age groups.
Anyway, they’re pretty screwed no matter how you look at things. Those of us who are older and did better, didn’t do better because we’re smarter or harder working. We were just born in a luckier year.
¹Higher than inflation, that is.