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Some Boomers Think That Netflix Subscriptions And Takeout Are The Main Reasons Why Millennials Can’t Afford Homes, Millennials React (31 Tweets)
When the generation of millennials grew up and became adults, they were almost right away accused of crashing the economy and boomers were very concerned that they were eating too many avocados. So many that if they didn’t buy so many of them, they could have bought a house already.
Now they've found new reasons why millennials can’t afford their own property and that is Netflix and takeaway food. The Times released an article about how baby boomers suggest young people should stop indulging in such life luxuries as Netflix and takeaway coffee and food. A study by researchers at King’s College London showed that half of the population of people born between 1946 and 1964 believe this.
Image source: thetimes
People online were disappointed by the study’s results, but not surprised, as the narrative about millennials being lazy and too wasteful of money is a long-standing one, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll stay silent about it. When The Times shared the article in a Twitter thread, they received quite heated responses, which Bored Panda collected in this list.
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The Times, the British daily national newspaper, recently shared a link on Twitter to an article on a survey demonstrating the attitudes of different generations on housing, and while the tweet didn’t blow up likes-wise, many people came to the comments to say their piece.
According to the research by the Policy Institute and Institute of Gerontology at King's College London, 52 percent of the baby boomer population agrees with the statement that the main reason young people can’t save up for a down payment to get a house is that they spend too much on things like “takeaway coffees and food, mobile phones, subscription services like Netflix and holidays abroad.”
Lol you made me laugh. I'm sorry it's so financially hard. If the billionaires would share the money...
It seems that this view went down a generation as even millennials themselves started to believe in this, and 48 percent of them agreed with baby boomers. The youngest adults, Gen Z, are not far behind, with 43 percent of them thinking that if they want to get a home, they should review their small spendings.
The survey also asked, “To what extent, if at all, do you agree or disagree with the following? The key reasons that young adults today cannot afford to buy their own home are things like the increase in house prices, stricter lending rules and low wage growth,” and surprisingly, 72 percent of boomers acknowledged that the skyrocketing prices are also a contributor to the problem.
How many Baby Boomers did the Times interview when they posted those headlines? Because they certainly weren't speaking for all of us! We're Baby Boomers (retired teacher and retired office worker), we often order out food, and yes, we have Netflix; so does our son — a Millennial who works hard at a demanding job — and so does his GF and most of their friends. Their generation, and Gen Z as well, are faced with stresses and demands that Boomers like us didn't have to deal with; it's much harder for them to find decent-paying jobs, and the 2008 recession plus the current pandemic haven't helped either. I will not criticize any hardworking young person for having Netflix, ordering takeout food, or (for that matter) buying avocados — small comforts that we all need to make our lives better in this crazy world. Mstrtheir
Exactly. Changes have increased a lot. About 20 years ago my aunts bought a big 3 bedroom appartment (in good condition) in the centrum of our city for what now would be like 140.000 euros. I just checked and there is a similar apartment (but old) in the same street for 800k. How is our fault that we cannot afford houses? I do not earn eight times what they earned.
The cost of living in Florida went up 37% in the last year. Big corporations are buying up houses at an alarming rate. They can afford to pay much more than the asking price, and there are enough tourists here who will pay exorbitant rental prices. It's disgusting.
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I've lived in Florida pretty much all my life. And in the past year I've moved three times because of rent increases. My partner is a hydraulic mechanic we live with his mother who's a full-time waitress and me started a hospital job. We're paying $2500 for a house only worth like 1600 a month no utilities included.
I an si glad that the state where I rent has rent stabaluzation. 2 bedroom house, 900 square feet, 950. The area where I live has studio apartments for over 1000 but I have been here for 12 years. Soooo lucky
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That is the fault of the boomers? Not the fault of Governments allowing this too happen and the divide in the populations earnings?
We so quickly forget that 3 years ago we had the lowest interest rate ever in fact economy was booming. What I find is (yes I am at the end of baby boomer) that we set our sites to be realistic. We bought what we could afford. Houses today are like hostels. Who needs 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms for a family of 4? Something we failed to teach our children, STAY within your income.
Could it be because of the fact that during the crazy economy busts, the politicians decided to bail out big companies and having to print money like there was no tomorrow to pay for it, continuously spending more than budget etc, causing inflation and artificially driving up prices, that, together with limitation on production of housing, coupled with a lot of red tape, prohibiting the making of simple cheap homes due to limits on where/how/what you can build, further raising costs. I am amazed actually that it is not higher now, than what it is, and this is nothing to do as such with the boomers or the fact they could do things in a simpler world. You are the victims of political control and greed, and that is the ones you should really blame - the political parties screwing you over, and how we got here...
My parents house: bought in 87 for just over 80 grand. It's a decently sized split level in a good neighborhood, close to a school and has a large backyard with privacy. My house: bought two years ago for over 200 grand and I've lived in apartments bigger than this, it needs massive work done, the road in front is actually just a dirt path. The only thing I cam say about it is that it's a quiet area. And somehow without any work done, in the two years since I bought it, it was appraised for 25 grand more. HOW DOES THAT WORK?! If anything it should have remained the same since my husband and I have not had time to do any yard work besides mow the grass! It looks worse!
And no, I'm not selling it, it was the only house in my price range that while in need of work, was still livable. Affordable seems to mean: be prepared to do a lot of work, which also costs money.
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It's well known that real estate and wages were both lower decades ago, but they inflated at different rates. I was able to purchase my first home 30 years ago for half of what it's worth now. My wages have since gone up only about 40% while my home value has almost tripled. Would I be able to buy this house now? No way. Probably never will.
Depends on where you choose to nest. I'm a boomer and we just bought a new construction home in FL last year. 3/2, 2-car garage, 1,756 sq ft on 0.22 acre for $258k. Timing is everything though. 16 months later and this same exact model is going for $340k. We moved out of a 900 sq ft, 1Bdrm apartment for $2,600 in CA because this same exact home we bought would have cost anywhere from $770k to 1.3 million in CA. Had we waited just one more year we would have had to pay $90k more and been stuck with an almost 6% interest rate instead of our current 2.6% rate. Home prices will remain high because no one with an under 4% or lower interest rate is going to want to give that up. The FED isn't done yet either! Don't be surprised if the 30-year rate hits at least 7% before the end of the year.
If you are a boomer you are not likely to be "nesting". Is possible of course but very rare for a boomer to have dependant kids living with them
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When we bought our house32 years ago it was worth $35,000 it’s now appraising at 140,000 with no major upgrades or changes. But that just means we still won’t be able to move into a newer home when our kids move out because anything more than what our house is worth now we won’t be able to afford.
It's gotten crazy. I live in Florida, and Florida used to have a pretty reasonable cost of living, but now, it's shot way up. Home prices are crazy, and you have real estate investor companies buying up as many of the affordable properties they can. You have people flocking here only to find that it's not as affordable to live here as it once was.
I wish someone would start building smaller. 2000 sq ft seems like a waste and unnecessary since households are now smaller then they ever were.
Buildwrs dont want to build starters homes. Less profit.
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Okay, i will bite. My parents bought a four bedroom house for 29,000 in 1972. Minimun wage was 1.70 ( i think ). That is 17058 hours , 8.2 years. That same house gouse for 390000 now. At 7.25 , thats 52793 hours , 25.86 years. When I started working in early eighties, go was . 99, minmum wage was 3.35, so you could get 3.3 gallons gas for hours work. Now has is 5 dollars ans minimun wage is 7.25, so you get 1.45 gallons for every hours. In every metric, wages have not kept pace with costs.
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Even though baby boomers acknowledged that not being able to afford houses is a complex problem consisting of factors that do and don’t depend on younger people, they still have the view that they are less motivated and hardworking than older coworkers. 54 percent of them have formed such an impression about their younger colleagues, although 34 percent didn’t see a difference in motivation and only 4 percent noticed them being more motivated.
It is really annoying for younger people to be blamed for not being able to afford a home because of occasionally spending money on things that bring them happiness and help to cope with stress.
But they should feel a little bit of consolation knowing that 81 percent of boomers, the biggest percentage of all generations questioned, admitted that young adults today have a harder time buying a home compared to their parents.
It's those damned streaming services that cost $10 a month, obviously if we can cancel that we can afford a $350,000 starter home
Not forget to mention the average cost of raising a child (0 to 17 y.o) is 233K in the US. My neighbors paid literally 100K for a preschool/kindergarten in 5 years! My other neighbors pay 2900 us dollars a month for Montessori academy (it is sort of preschool-learning kindergarten). So my question to baby boomers- how much did you spend on your kids?
It seems that the majority of older people do realize that the prices have gone up quicker than salaries and the job market is more demanding than ever. However, people online couldn’t get over how many boomers actually think that the amount of money young people spend on takeaway food and Netflix would really make a significant difference in their savings for a down payment.
Only in the last year, house prices in the UK increased by 9.8 percent, while the average salary growth was only half of that. Also, bank rates are going up, so now it’s harder to pay off a loan than ever before.
Young people online tend to see the problems that are out of their control as more contributing to the problem in comparison to their faulty spending habits, and that is why they get so frustrated when older people keep saying it’s their fault. What do you think? Did the survey results surprise you? Do you agree with the opinions in this list? Do you think young people could save more if they adjusted their spending habits? Let us know in the comments!
1970-ish. My dad (engineer) was earning maybe $10,000 a year - maybe a bit less. A modest 3 bedroom house on 1/8 acre was $18,000. Sure - Salaries may have increased 10x over the decades, but the price of a house has gone up 30x or more. It's insane! How is anyone supposed to keep up?
I don’t see a megayacht in the water. It’s because you’re still buying Starbucks, isn’t it? Learn to manage your money!!!
Jesus works in mysterious ways. As your run-of-the-mill god, he clearly not only invented Netflix but he ALSO made you broke in order to test something that you will never conclusively understand. Religion is amazing (but only if you’re watching it from the outside).
No you won't. By that time you'll need to save for 120 years for the same flat.
I bought my house in Jan 2020 and I desperately want to take the money and run, but no way am I getting stuck in this rental market forever.
Yeah, the Times has gone from respected journalism to click bait BS
That's easy. Draw a line, representing income over time at about 5 degrees from zero from say 1980 to now. Then draw a line, representing mortgage payments (housing costs overall) from that same zero point at just under an 87 degree angle from 1980 to now. That should give a low rough estimate.
Short on money? Got the gift of Gabe? Are you really good at lying? Fantastic! Start a religious cult and the money will flow in tax free! Yes, the flock will put you into expensive clothes, cars, planes and a 30,000 square foot mansion. All you have to do is convince ignorant people (and there are LOTS of them) to send you money or gawd won't like them. Very simple.. this is done every day. Never be poor again. You can do it! /s
Attributing characteristics or quotes to whole generations (boomers, millennials, gen z...) is kind of stupid ("boomers have some advice..."). I, for one, never heard my parents or their friends say anything close to that, they are quite aware of the much higher prices for everything.
I agree, this kind of thing is happening too much. There are enough right-wing news sources peddling the "us versus them" narrative, we don't need it here too.
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Boomers: "Cancel Netflix and you'll save tons of money!" Also Boomers: *pays $180+/month for cable service*
Us Boomers pay over $200 for cable. I try to get the spouse to cut things, but his entertainment is "worth it".
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Why do people think we shouldn't enjoy what little things we can afford? I guess people think we are supposed to kill ourselves working every minute of our lives. Get paid little money while doing it, only to come home and just sit there and do nothing, watch nothing, and be thankful for being forced to live an uncomfortable existence and only look forward to going back to work. As if people are not allowed to enjoy what little perks we can afford during our stay here on Earth. Seriously, WTF is wrong with people that think like this? It's like they want people miserable, homeless, starving, unhealthy, and God forbid we enjoy ourselves when we arent working.
Can these dumbasses stop using "millennials" to mean "youngins"? Millennials are 26-41. Millennials know what adulthood is. Millennials know what responsibilities are. It's just that, for a large portion of millennials, it doesn't involve home ownership or having children because that wouldn't be *responsible* because of current (and continuing) financial constraints.
In this case I think they're using it right. They believe all millennials should own a house by now and think it's obviously something *we're* doing wrong when we don't have one.
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The audacity of a group of people whining about another group struggling and not being able to meet the former's expectations because of the very systems the former has, continue to, put in place. How many boomers continue to vote conservative, directly adding to the struggles of every non-rich person? How many boomers vote down any measures to increase funding for education, better worker's rights, etc. because they don't have young children, are retired, etc so it's not their problem? The only thing that matters is they got theirs. And yes, I understand some of them are on fixed incomes. Its almost like the US has a tired tax liability system. It's almost like voting for a party that allows corporations to not pay their fair share of taxes, taxes that could be used to fund senior programs, goes against your best interests. Cant fix stupid and selfish, I guess.
If I save on Netflix for a year, I don't even think I could afford a Barbie dream house
Blockbuster movies cost about $3.50 to rent, plus tax, plus gas, plus late or rewind fees. If you watched 5 movies a month Netflix is a cheaper deal.
Housing is ridiculously expensive, and the inflation on rent and property is just so greedy that it's criminal. That said: when I was young, people subscribed to newspapers and magazines, but it was nothing compared to all the subscription options people have today. Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime ... the list goes on and on. I see tons of people "boosting" discord, or paying Patreon subs. I really don't know how people can afford it all. I have two subscriptions a year for software I need for work, and that's pretty much it.
I’m a teen now, and I’m scared for when I grow up. The future of the world seems hopeless and is probably only going to get worse. Is this the world that awaits my generation?
That's why I live in poverty? My $10 tofu pad thai and two screen Netflix bundle?
F**k you. Not all boomers are like that. Just you are not representative of all millennials or gen z, or whatever the f**k you are.
Load More Replies... Short on money? Got the gift of Gabe? Are you really good at lying? Fantastic! Start a religious cult and the money will flow in tax free! Yes, the flock will put you into expensive clothes, cars, planes and a 30,000 square foot mansion. All you have to do is convince ignorant people (and there are LOTS of them) to send you money or gawd won't like them. Very simple.. this is done every day. Never be poor again. You can do it! /s
Attributing characteristics or quotes to whole generations (boomers, millennials, gen z...) is kind of stupid ("boomers have some advice..."). I, for one, never heard my parents or their friends say anything close to that, they are quite aware of the much higher prices for everything.
I agree, this kind of thing is happening too much. There are enough right-wing news sources peddling the "us versus them" narrative, we don't need it here too.
Load More Replies... Boomers: "Cancel Netflix and you'll save tons of money!" Also Boomers: *pays $180+/month for cable service*
Us Boomers pay over $200 for cable. I try to get the spouse to cut things, but his entertainment is "worth it".
Load More Replies... Why do people think we shouldn't enjoy what little things we can afford? I guess people think we are supposed to kill ourselves working every minute of our lives. Get paid little money while doing it, only to come home and just sit there and do nothing, watch nothing, and be thankful for being forced to live an uncomfortable existence and only look forward to going back to work. As if people are not allowed to enjoy what little perks we can afford during our stay here on Earth. Seriously, WTF is wrong with people that think like this? It's like they want people miserable, homeless, starving, unhealthy, and God forbid we enjoy ourselves when we arent working.
Can these dumbasses stop using "millennials" to mean "youngins"? Millennials are 26-41. Millennials know what adulthood is. Millennials know what responsibilities are. It's just that, for a large portion of millennials, it doesn't involve home ownership or having children because that wouldn't be *responsible* because of current (and continuing) financial constraints.
In this case I think they're using it right. They believe all millennials should own a house by now and think it's obviously something *we're* doing wrong when we don't have one.
Load More Replies... The audacity of a group of people whining about another group struggling and not being able to meet the former's expectations because of the very systems the former has, continue to, put in place. How many boomers continue to vote conservative, directly adding to the struggles of every non-rich person? How many boomers vote down any measures to increase funding for education, better worker's rights, etc. because they don't have young children, are retired, etc so it's not their problem? The only thing that matters is they got theirs. And yes, I understand some of them are on fixed incomes. Its almost like the US has a tired tax liability system. It's almost like voting for a party that allows corporations to not pay their fair share of taxes, taxes that could be used to fund senior programs, goes against your best interests. Cant fix stupid and selfish, I guess.
If I save on Netflix for a year, I don't even think I could afford a Barbie dream house
Blockbuster movies cost about $3.50 to rent, plus tax, plus gas, plus late or rewind fees. If you watched 5 movies a month Netflix is a cheaper deal.
Housing is ridiculously expensive, and the inflation on rent and property is just so greedy that it's criminal. That said: when I was young, people subscribed to newspapers and magazines, but it was nothing compared to all the subscription options people have today. Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime ... the list goes on and on. I see tons of people "boosting" discord, or paying Patreon subs. I really don't know how people can afford it all. I have two subscriptions a year for software I need for work, and that's pretty much it.
I’m a teen now, and I’m scared for when I grow up. The future of the world seems hopeless and is probably only going to get worse. Is this the world that awaits my generation?
That's why I live in poverty? My $10 tofu pad thai and two screen Netflix bundle?
F**k you. Not all boomers are like that. Just you are not representative of all millennials or gen z, or whatever the f**k you are.
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