I agree with the idea that it would represent a huge shift. I think what I’m driving at here is not so much the effect of having another downswing that costs people money, but the possibility that sooner or later an entire generation is going to come to the conclusion that bigger is not necessarily better. And one of the causes of that will probably be an RE market meltdown that hurts a lot of people.
In the last 60 years each generation has been raised to believe that they could do better than their parents. In our own generation some people have done just that, but many have not. I’m wondering if the kids today are being raised in the belief that they can also do better. Sooner or later a generation is going to start out so far behind that they’ll have no real hope of getting to where there parents are. when that happens, how will they reconcile their desire with their reality? And when a generation decides not to compete with their parents, will they change their priorities?
Social Security is in danger of collapsing before the end of the boomer generation. The kids today will have no real expectation of that entitlement. Career stability is not even in their vocabulary. Marriage today means a 66% divorce rate right from the get. There are a lot more blended families now than ever before and that pace is just picking up.
How will they reconcile their desires with their reality? Will they turn away from the consumerism and all the work and stress that go with that – which only results in frustration anyway – or will they choose a more balanced life that measures wealth by how much they spend rather than how much they make?
How big does a house have to be in order to be big enough? At what point will people no longer desire anything bigger than what their parents had? How high can the tree grow before it’s not doing anything for anyone except sucking up resources?
