San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Catchy title for a thread..

If I was seeing a GenX that was behaving more responsibly I'd agree with you. But I'm not. If anything, I'm seeing a younger generation whose primary attribute so far has been the extension of their childhood at all costs; most of which are being paid by their parents.

Your time will come soon enough, and when it does I'm pretty sure the generation behind yours' will have similar criticisms.

I agree, we need to organize young citizens to vote and cut off the benefits to the greedy baby boomers.

Young people don't vote so they get screwed. Want to change the system then vote. Young folks don't vote because they are too busy listening to Britney Spears.

You certainly can't cover it with one statement but maybe irresponsible Gen-Xers are the result of irresponsible baby boomers?

I don't think GenX lifestyles are funded by parents as much as they are by debt. A trait taken from their parents who will end up being supported by their kids when they can't work anymore.

Maybe then GenX will be forced to learn to live responsibly.

Nice post Bugs, your right. It is my peers that set monetary policy in America. It is my peers that mail themselves credit card applications daily. It is my peers that charge an arm and a leg for rent. It is my peers that control the Fortune 500 companies and then decide to pay themselves a crappy wage. It is my peers that run mortgage brokerage houses. It is my peers that sell themselves used cars at absurd interest rates. It is my peers that sit in Congress. It is my peers that move their companies overseas to avoid paying taxes and fair wages. It is my peers that own Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Albertson's, Von's, Exxon, Microsoft, etc. etc.

What planet are you on?

It isn't about which generation is more or less responsible. Both older and younger generations have their share of irresponsible behavior.

It's really just about demographics. There is a big group of people in their prime earning years that want to buy their nice homes and have the means to do it now. That makes it harder for us gen xers to compete. I see this all the time in Mission Beach - people buying the nice condos there are older and don't care if prices go down - they just want to enjoy it before they die.

So what's the future for gen xers? Our time will come in a few years when the older generation is spending all their wealth on leisure, and businesses have a tough time finding high/mid level management. I already see it in my business - there is a serious shortage at the mid level, though plenty of seniors and entry-level types. That will mean higher wages and cheaper vacation style houses and so on in a few years.

Stop whining and get back to work!

Wow, greedy baby boomers are the cause of all your woes...

I guess that's why I see gen X'rs driving BMW's while working at starbucks, buying 65" big screen tv's when they are earning $30k/year, taking european summer vacations from college instead of getting a job cause they can 'only' make $12-15/hour. They are carrying the country on their backs LOL

Gen X, as a group, has one of the worst work ethics in the history of our country. Perhaps because they were given everything while being expected to do nothing by the very Baby boomers that were their parents.

LOL, thanks for the morning laugh.

CA,

I'll not disagree that Boomers are responsible for some of the problems our society faces, but to suggest that GenX is - as a group - acting more responsibility is completely unsupportable at this point.

It's true that the boomers are now running the country - poorly. But that is a function of their age and tenure in the workplace. Your generation simply hasn't been around long enough to attain those positions of power yet.

Boomers do send out the credit cards, but you guys are still using them. Boomers do set interest rates, but you guys are still buying with credit. I'm pretty sure that if you guys weren't following our lousy example we would be modifying our companies' marketing efforts to suit. You guys could be leading but so far you seem to be following.

It's simply a matter of numbers. Our generation has the impact that it does because of its sheer size. Your generation has less impact because it is so much smaller. In some ways an individual GenXer can be considered lucky because they'll have a lot less competition for some types of opportunities than did the boomers. Don't forget, much of the wealth attributable to the boomers was earned only in the last 10 years or so. Prior to that we were where you are now.

Once this economic spike unwinds you'll get your opportunities to make your money. Be smart and you guys could wind up a lot better off than we ever were. But if you continue to do what we've been doing you can look forward to the same future we face.

Meadandale, I can only assume that you are a member of Generation Greed (i.e. Baby Boomers).

How much was the average 4 year college when you were 18?

How much was the average starter home when you got out of college?

How many banks/credit institutions specifically marketed to you everyday while you were in High School and College?

How many Best Buys, Wal-Marts, Shopping Malls, etc. were located in your neighborhood growing up?

LOL.

"Meadandale, I can only assume that you are a member of Generation Greed (i.e. Baby Boomers)."

You assume incorrectly. I was born in 1967 which was several years beyond the recognized 'baby boom' period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers

"How much was the average 4 year college when you were 18?"

I went to a UC school and tuition PER QUARTER was about $500. Of course, the minimum wage was about $3.35 and I had a job earning a measly $6/hr.

"How much was the average starter home when you got out of college?"

I wouldn't know since I didn't buy one but you could have probably bought a home in 1990 for about $140k give or take.

"How many banks/credit institutions specifically marketed to you everyday while you were in High School and College?"

High School? None. But there were credit card tables ALL OVER school giving away crap for signing up. Also, damn near every text book I bought had credit card offers falling out of them and the cashiers made sure to stuff another handful in the bag on your way out the door.

"How many Best Buys, Wal-Marts, Shopping Malls, etc. were located in your neighborhood growing up?"

Malls? Plenty. Best Buy wasn't around then nor was Wallie World. I grew up in a somewhat rural area in central california so there weren't big stores anywhere near my house (there still aren't in the area where I lived). However, Price Club (now Costco) and Sam's Club (now Walmart) were all over the place in the cities.

What's your point? I too had debt when I graduated from college and I worked throughout school and got WIDELY available Cal Grants and other scholarships. I only made about $30k/year for a decade after college (throughout the Clinton years, I might add). I never owned a new car, I never bought thousands and thousands of dollars of crap I couldn't afford and I never blamed my situation on anybody but myself. When I turned 30, I went back to graduate school (which I paid for, BTW) cause I was sick of being poor.

The bottom line is that you are blaming your lot in life on everyone but yourself. My parents were part of the 'greatest generation' and taught me to work hard. Your parents are the very baby boomers that you are denouncing and taught you that how you feel is more important than what you do. The results are obvious.

If you were born in 1967 you are as Gen-X as they come. This has been discussed before on this board, but Generation X covers those born between 1961-1981. The core of Generation X (as defined by Douglas Coupland, who wrote the novel "Generation X" which popularized the term) were in their twenties between 1987 and 1991.

"If you were born in 1967 you are as Gen-X as they come."

Construction said I was a Baby Boomer. Clearly I'm not, even according to you.

We actually sound more alike than I thought Meadandale. I actually paid for college and grad school on my own. It took me four years to finish grad school because I worked full time during the day and aside from my first year took night classes. I am still paying for it.

My questions were targeted at boomers (which I thought you were), not you, therefore your answers are completely irrelevant to the point I was trying to make, i.e. the societal differences btwn the generations. The fact that you couldn't understand that is pretty hilarious. But, thanks anyway for your clever insights.

"Construction said I was a Baby Boomer. Clearly I'm not, even according to you."

Read the thread before you post retarded comments. You didn't even say you were born in 1967 until after the fact.

Clearly, your grad school education didn't pay off.

No thank you, I'm not quite ready to go. How about the octogenarians. Let them fo first. They are sitting on a lot of property.

"until the greedy baby boomers pass on"

You mean they are greedy because they have something you want but can't afford? Their greed is standing in the way of your own greed?

"It is not my peers that make the laws"

I'm a GenX'er as well and I think you're essentially right with this statement. Many GenX'er's are too engulfed in their constant search for new forms of personal entertainment to really have any concern for what is happening around them politically or socially. As long as they can get out on the water on their Kayak and engage in a superficial Zen experience then they're happy because, in their minds, that puts them at a higher level than all the rest of the less intellectual "working" class.

"Now, they hold the wealth disproportionately"

Ahh, yes, I hear it all the time from certain GenX'ers. Someone else is always holding them down and keeping them, and everyone around them, from realizing their true intellectual and creative superiority. They never consider the fact that the baby boomers may have worked for their wealth. And, there is this term that most GenX'ers haven't heard...it's called "Saving".

"they hire our generation at horrible wages without increasing their salary, they raise tuition at college to absurd levels, they make loans to the population at asenine interest rate levels"

For some reason the concept of "Market Forces" is something that some GenX'ers don't comprehend or believe is some fantasy of past, long forgotten, economists. I've always found it humorous that some people want to get out from under the "control" of some nebulous group by asserting control themselves over others. I don't mind the battle for control so much as I do the whining and crying from those who are afraid to jump into the fight.

"asenine interest rate levels"

Now THAT is funny! Have you ever heard of a guy named Jimmy Carter?? Perhaps you should investigate the late 1970's and find out what interest rates and inflation were then. The economy we have now would have been considered utopia compared to what we had then. It's hard to see any credibility in your arguments when you make a statement like that regarding interest rates. Rates over the last five years are the lowest they have been since the early fifties. You sound more like a crying infant that wants its milk and wants it now.

"they have basically made a joke out of their 1960's and '70's rhetoric"

??? I think you have things mixed up. Perhaps it is the Sixties Hippy generation that you truly dislike? GenX'ers were born mid to late sixties so really didn't start to form their belief systems until around 1980 and later. The rhetoric of the 60's and 70's you are referring to belonged to the, let's all just have fun and share everything, hippy generation.

I am sometimes embarrassed being a GenX'er. It started off cool because so many of us pushed the limits of many activities, doing things I never thought possible in the realm of sports and adventure. Many have become rich from this and are household names now. But, there is the other half of GenX'ers that picked up the hippy philosophy from their parents and seem to want to create some Orwellian society in which we move beyond equal opportunity and more toward complete equality in every aspect. They would achieve this by gaining control politically and redistributing opportunity, wealth, acclaim, and even achievement.

I normally only lurk here for the real estate related material but, having a fellow GenX'er make a general statement that so grossly mis-represents what I and many others in that group believe spurned me to comment, and, perhaps, to give others the notion that not all of us see ourselves as helpless, pathetic, miscreants under the thumbs of the conniving upper class, manipulated and cajoled like puppets until our last breath and dollar are gone. Believe it or not some of us actually work and aspire to greater things.

I believe the following two quotes are apropos...

The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false. --Paul Johnson

Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. -- T. S. Eliot

"Read the thread before you post retarded comments."

Oh, you mean like this part:

"Meadandale, I can only assume that you are a member of Generation Greed (i.e. Baby Boomers)."

"Clearly, your grad school education didn't pay off."

When all else fails and you can't support your argument with facts, make an ad hominem attack to divert attention. LOL

Not to mention, how many baby boomers in management are outsourcing all of the GenX'ers jobs overseas? Not to mention flat wages, loss of benefits and uncompensated overtime for those that are left.

That is a great comment yojimbo. I do respect it and believe I understand your points. It just shows you that two people can have strikingly different view points.

For me, my true awakening came when I was living in Antarctica. I spent nearly a year there and it was the greatest experience I have had in some ways. I did have internet access, but rarely used it for anything other than sending emails. I was completely free from marketing, advertisements, laws, tv, cell phones, highways, everything, etc. This is an experience that I don't think anyone on this board can relate to. It is not like living overseas in the traditional sense. This was like living on the moon.

I saw America with new eyes. I came back and honestly my initial reaction was disgust. Everything was so overdone, in your face, and extremely wasteful.

Therefore, before you scold me or try to school me, please understand where I come from. I believe that you can't really see America until you are stripped of everything that it offers. Then you piece it back together and figure out where it makes sense and where it doesn't.

I, like anyone else, can make sweeping generalizations and blanket statements. We all know where those get us on these type of threads.

Now, I honestly believe that real change in America will not take place until the Boomers die. They have too much at risk to promote change and they have spent their whole lives building individual wealth, so the last thing they want to do is share it, other than the small amounts they give to charities or whatever.

I also believe that the courts/legislature need to take away the status of corporations as legal beings, i.e. giving them the same rights as individuals.

"Your parents are the very baby boomers that you are denouncing and taught you that how you feel is more important than what you do. The results are obvious."

You drew first blood. Deal with it.

I'll wager that it wasn't people from your generation who financed your Antarctic adventure. Upon your return, your disgust of American excess wasn't strictly limited to the excesses of the boomers.

Like I said, your generation will have its day. Hopefully by then your peers will have made better choices than my peers have made. It doesn't look that way so far, but it's not over yet.

Bugs, you're right. I was disgusted at everything. Our generation will have its day. I am of the mind set that it won't happen until the Boomers are dead.

I started this thread with the hopes that someone could convince me that things will change prior to the Boomers dying or convince me that I am a douchebag.

No one has done either, so I am going to cheer up and just keep on living knowing that some things truely are out of my control and I just have to deal with it or not. Since I have my youth, I choose to deal for now.

See you tomorrow.

Sorry, but it doesn't appear as though most boomers have vision that extends beyond the end of their noses. They don't call us the "Me Generation" for nothing.

Construction said I was a Baby Boomer. Clearly I'm not, even according to you.

I was just agreeing with you and trying to help make your point; also letting you know your demographic in case you weren't sure.

CA-- Oh, have no doubt, you are a douchebag (hey, you brought it up!). I'm a supposed gen-Xer and bear no such ill will toward boomers or any other broad age-based demographic. Losers have no age bracket. I don't like whiners though and you certainly are that.

Sure, I'm not making specific points because I could praise or condemn anyone at any age bracket you'd like me to. So what? Waaaaaa.

Don't wait for anybody to die and change things for yourself, because if you can't do that, you certainly can't help your peer group.

People are born every day not in so many big 20 year chunks.I find all this Boomer,x,y&z stuff sort of funny. Using it to compartmentalize a society that is really in flux doesn't seem to have much going for it beyond entertainment value. I would tend to think that someone who really wants to make a big stink out of it needs to grow up.That said Yours truly was born in 1962 and was in a perfect niche to avoid the failings of my glutinous predecessors and my younger slacker brothers.I take no personal credit, just happened to be born in 1962.

Construction,
What did the boomers do to you? Why do you have such a radical view of the world?
So what do you propose? Go out and kill all those over age of 45? Why don't we start with your parents?

(PS. FWIW,I'm of the Gen X age)

I agree with "Construction At.." (What a weird name)

At home, to my wife, I am constantly complaining baby boomers getting all the hard assets and jacking up the asset price.

They bought their houses at cheaper prices and taking full advantage of the next generation. They consumed more than they actually produced.

Excuse me to say.. but once they passed on, it will ease our social security and health care burdens. It sounds mean, but that's the brutal truth.

It's ironic that many of the 1) businesses that you are employed by and/or provide your goods and services, 2) houses that you are coveting and 3) infrastructure that you enjoy (roads, bridges, parks) were actually built by the baby boomer's that you are vilifying.

It's as if you are saying "thanks for everything you did but if you'd just move along now that'd be great".