The Child Support Generation

Millennials are the generation after Gen X. We were born between 1978 and 2000 by most of the definitions I have seen. This generation is whipped, prodded, observed, and criticized in a way that past generations have not been. Born into the age of the internet, television, and information everywhere, we are both products of rapidly available, mass information, and we are the subjects of it.

Studied in every dimension, including our sexual habits, arrested development, and our place among other generations. Born in 1983, I am a Millennial. And I can tell you a think or two about my generation.

My generation is in a very weird place. Some of us were growing up in some of the best economic times, and some of us were born into the worst recession since The Great Depression. The divide in my generation is loud, large, and has created two generations, where most only recognize one.

The Millennial Generation is not one generation. It is two. And the Millennials aren’t just a generation; they are an economic and social class. There’s a contradiction there, but it is for a very good reason.

The way we define generations is kind of stupid, which is okay – most of the things we think are stupid, yet useful in some ways. The way we think about Millennials and generations is a remnant of prior thought processes, which allows for the grouping of people by some common thread. In this case, the date range in which we are born.

The problem with Millennials is more complicated than most people think. The generation is not as homogenous as our idiot academics have framed the discourse about Millennials. I am one of those idiot academics, and perhaps guilty, just by talking about these kids in this way.

But back to the point: The Millennial Generation is a single generation that has two sub-generations within it and the generation actually has its own social and class structure, in part like every other generation, with some unique characteristics.

As I get to know more and more people from my generation, I have come to realize that the oddities and extremes are those who are trying to achieve or are achieving “independence.” Independence used to be a thing; a goal; and a way to identify whether one was successful. It was also not really an option – graduate from high school, get a job or go to college, and wean yourself off the parental cash teat suddenly and by the age of 21.

Back in the day, before the day of the Millennial, this thing called independence was achievable. It wasn’t something that could only happen by 35 or 40, and college was something reserved for only the top students with the most richest parents. And of course there’s myth involved here. Prior generations weren’t perfect, either. So many screw ups have built us up to this point.

Millennials are the generation of parental support. Members of my generation live the lives of the rich and famous on wages that are too small to pay living costs today; drive nicer cars than my parents do; and eat better food at nicer restaurants than I experienced until I was making over $50,000 per year in a professional job.

My generation is the generation of child support – and I don’t just mean the money that daddy pays to mommy after the divorce… I mean the money that mommy and daddy pay little Joey to pay his or her bills and have food on their plate.

And I hate ripping on my generation. But my generation has a class problem that has nothing to do with disparities in education and personal income. My generation has a class problem that stems from the parents of the Millennial Generation.

The class problem in the Millennial Generation is that there are kids who are supported by their parents, indefinitely, and there are kids who are trying to achieve independence, either by force or by choice. Though, let’s be real; Rarely by choice. Who would ever try for independence by choice? It’s miserable.

The kids around me are largely parentally funded. Almost every day, I learn of someone new who is making $16 per hour, living in a haughty place, like Denver or San Diego, and is still living the rock ‘n roll lifestyle.

The problem isn’t that Millennials are living well – it’s that they’re living in their parents’ tax bracket, not their own. $16 per hour isn’t enough to afford a $1,100/month apartment, a newer car, insurance, cell phone, and the party life. Just the list above leaves the 40 hour per week bloke with negatives in their account register.

So, what the fuck is going on? Why is the Millennial Generation such a bunch of screw ups? Why are some of us living in RV’s and looking at living in their truck, while others are living in downtown Denver and eating sushi on half the wage?

The reason is that the prior generations have propped my generation with such rickety scaffolding that all we are is a façade of success and economic health. My generation will see more bubbles in short order, and it will come as these perma-child-support kids start to have to achieve independence.

As their rent bills start to become their own responsibility and there is no longer a parental care check that buys the sushi and martini’s, my generation will cause yet another economic collapse. My Millennial Generation is an intensely poor class, as far as wages go, yet an extremely rich class as far as quality of life goes.

Quality of life costs money – a lot of money. And my generation isn’t making it. Many of my engineer friends are doing well – they have good pay that most often pays more than the average household income for the USA. Yet, even some of them struggle with money. Considering that many of them are making over $25/hour, the new minimum wage for independent living appears to rest around $20 per hour for just about anywhere in my area.

The problem with The Millennial Generation isn’t what many of the professional academics appear to think is wrong. The problem is the parents of the Millennial Generation. The parents have created a class divide within the generation that will be very difficult to reconcile as time goes on. New cars, sushi dinners, college tuition bills that total up to the sixth figure, and an indefinite pool of backup cash has shaped my generation.

For those of us who are trying to achieve independence, and particularly those who are doing it; The vision isn’t pretty. Even $25 or $30 an hour is no longer enough to live the rock star lifestyle. After taxes, rent, food, gas, insurance, utilities, and such, even $30 per hour quickly goes away. And it goes away because of the relative value of that amount on the market.

Relative value is what this economic problem is all about. Those who have money provided have bumped up the value of everything else. These supported individuals can buy without having the individual economic value to buy on their own. In other words, one Millennial has the buying power of potentially two professionally successful parents, without any of that success on their own.

Whether this is a problem or not is up to the beholder. Is it a problem when a 28 year old is making $16 per hour and cannot actually afford to live anywhere but the most squalid places, yet is living like that of someone making $30+/hour? If not, cool – seems like a utopia for such individuals. For me, that looks like a $14/hour deficit. Is it you or your parents in this income tax bracket, as Cake says.

I think the Millennial Generation is misunderstood. I think we’re better in some ways than we get credit for and far worse in others. I look at my generation and realize that I’m looking at an awful lot of people who are actually bordering on homelessness, but are propped up by their parents. It must be nice to have the whole world melting down around you, yet be insulated from the bare economic forces. It would just be nice to see more humble attitudes get sold along with those molten-lava-resistant kicks mommy and daddy bought you.

I’m going to continue being independent, but I’m going to continue to do it off grid and off market. Mark my hashtag.

Minimum Wage is Different for College Grads

I figure that you should never go more into student debt than you will make in at your first job, in your first year out of school. In other words, never go more into student debt than your first annual salary will be. Even then, the debt burden is large. And college grads have to make more to account for their debt payments.

The process of paying for school looks very different for those who are burdened with the debt themselves. Student loan payments end up being a 10-25 year commitment that will continually garnish some of our wages. Yes, "garnish."

Thinking of student debt as wage garnishment is a little different. I refer to it this way because it is a mandatory cost to get the wages and jobs that will help us pay these debts. Every month, a bill comes that takes away a percentage of a paycheck, which was a cost to get that paycheck.

If a student graduates with an average starting salary of around $30,000 per year, their likely base living expenses before food, gas, fun, and car, are likely to be around 60-70% of that amount. Just rent, utilities, taxes, and insurance (of all kinds) will consume $18,000-$21,000 of their gross income. That leaves roughly $9,000 per year for food, fun, car, and student loan payments.

For the student who is paying their student loans on their own, they're not left with much. Sure, you could feed a family in Africa for like a decade on the $9,000 per year leftover, but you sure aren't going to be eating much in America on that little money. Especially with car repairs, food, dates, and student loans coming out of the same pot.

The point is that there is a new minimum wage that most don't recognize -- it's the minimum wage for a college graduate. College graduates bearing a student debt burden have to make more out of the gate to compensate for the debt payments.

The college grad minimum wage is the amount it costs to live a healthy life in addition to student loan payments. The thing is, we're all supposed to be saving to buy a houses, too. And our cars are wearing out. And we need new clothes to be professional, too.

Incomes after school have to be higher to compensate for the cost of schooling. And let's be honest -- a college grad shouldn't be eating ramen for years after school while paying off debts. For those who are, college has failed them and left them worse off than if they had skipped it all together.

The creation of this new breed of low-paid, post-graduate that can barely afford to live well with their debt burdens is nasty. We're creating drones to pay student loans -- Student Loan Drones. And it's not good. Someone with a college degree needs extra pay right out of the gate to pay off their loans. I also think we all went to college so we could live better, faster, and for longer -- yet we're burdened with these toxic debts that completely garnish our wages for decades after school. The system is broken.

I Am Counterculture

Culture? Everybody uses this word, but so few have any clue what it means or how it works. Counterculture is a new word born from hipsters and technologists that means an intentional counter-movement to balance the mainstream thought process. It's all a bunch of horseshit. That is, until somebody loses their fucking mind and decides to live in a vehicle.

Listen, something is really wrong with the job market and living expenses. "The Rent Is Too Damn High" is a political party. It's headed by a crazy person, but the sentiment is damn straight. You know what else is too damn high? The price of rent. The price of food. The price of gas. The amount the lower-incomes pay in taxes. The cost of health insurance. The cost of car insurance. And the price of homes.

The list goes on, but one thing is for sure -- we're all fucking screwed.

Not all of us, of course. Those who are insulated from nature and the markets are doing great -- they have no clue that the world is melting down around them. For those who are trying this thing called "independence" and "starting out," the world looks very, very different.

Here's the thing. I just overdrew my bank accounts to buy food and gas. Yes, food and gas. I'm a working professional, living in an RV, making over $30/hour, and I just overdrew my accounts on food, gas, and living expenses. Why?

The reason is that I'm paying too goddamned much in rent, utilities, and living expenses. I can barely even afford to fix my cars. And that's a problem.

I talked to a friend recently who chided me for having student debt -- I told her that I still have undergrad debt and my graduate student debt came directly from buying myself out of my old life and spending 11 months looking for a new job.

So, while I'm sitting here feeling like a retard for racking up $32 in bank over-draw fees, I'm realizing that there's something even more massively wrong with our system than I initially realized.

I am working at a job that pays a great wage, with great benefits, and with great potential for growth. But with student debt, as a college graduate, my wages are garnished so much, there is an absolute minimum that I can afford to make before I am actually doing worse than someone without a degree at all...

Here's the thing: Getting an education is great, but it doesn't pay anymore. The amounts that we think of good wages are no longer good wages. And if a worker has student debt, they have to consider their student debt in their calculation of their success.

Right now, I'm working a half time job that pays more than my first full-time post-bachelor job. That means I am worth fully 100% more today than the day I graduated from my undergrad. And it's not enough. It's not that I'm doing something wrong or different.

The problem is not my income, my wages, or my choices -- the problem is the amounts that are deducted from my paychecks. In prior posts, I explored how much I lose to taxes and such, but it's worse than I ever thought.

I lose 25% of my paychecks to taxes, medicare, medicaid, and all those other mandatory paycheck deductions. I lose another 6% to medical insurance costs. That means that I start my month with 69% of my gross paycheck.

Of that 69%, I spend 35% on other mandatory expenditures, including rent, cell phone, utilities, and heating (spring, winter, and fall only). That means that I am left with 34% of my paycheck after taxes (yielding net income), and living expenses (yielding what I am calling "real income"). Of that 34%, student loans have to come out of it, vehicle repairs, food, gas, fun, and all other expenses that make life go-round.

What I've found is that I now have a fundamental choice: Pay student loans, or pay rent. Did you notice how the choice is "OR," not "AND"? I can pay rent OR student loans.

Congratulations to me -- my education has bankrupted me. Bankrupted. Bankrupted is when your expenses are greater than your income. Mine, though minimal, are now officially greater than my income.

And here's what I'm going to do about it: Fuck society. I'm going to fuck society. I'm going to leave the markets, leave the grid, and hit the road. I'm going to keep working to pay off this awful debt, but I will be doing it as a street-dweller.

Yep. The education bubble is upon us. And I am the new counterculture. It's normal to have student debt, you say? Well, it's also normal to go to prison once or twice in a lifetime, but I'm not going to do that.

Counterculture is a negative, distruptive reaction to the mainstream thought process. I will not live with this debt. I will pay it off and I will do it with grace. I am leaving the system. I am going off market and off grid. The counterculture to student debt and the academic institution have begun.