It's only psychology surveys so take that for what it's worth but the authors of a new questionnaire with a suspect confidence interval claim millennials are so whiny they say they can't even have a midlife crisis like previous generations.
They can't afford it.
Millennials have learned a lesson Boomers and Gen X know, and Gen Z will soon - there is no free lunch. Every new regulation and government handout and new tax and bond issuance costs money. When you are young, it is easy to say that of course we should mandate and subsidize solar panels, it's for Gaia, it's when you see your utility bills skyrocket that you wonder why you are paying to subsidize millionaires in Malibu who brag they are saving the planet 'selling electricity back' to utilities.
That a midlife crisis is yet another entitlement any group feels denied is actually pretty funny. When I was young, we joked about such things. If an old guy bought a cool car it was 'a midlife crisis', except we all knew that is when most people could buy cool cars. They had a house by then, they had higher income, the kids had graduated. Younger people now say the World War II generation had it easy and modern youth can never afford to have a home - from their phones in a Starbucks at 2pm drinking $6 lattes. It's certainly true that 44% of older people absolutely vote for more regulations and taxes and wealth redistribution in the belief that it will mean a better world, but making nearly everyone equally miserable isn't better.
Will the economic malaise created by centralized government adding more government employees and claiming unemployment is down due to that change any votes? Psychology shows it will not.
Millennials feel like they can't even afford to become alcoholics or decide to take up guitar as a midlife crisis - well, don't buy an expensive guitar, you can probably one free on Facebook. I didn't feel like I should splurge on a great guitar, a Taylor, until my 17th year playing. Booze is more expensive but that is because so many young people want to buy small-batch artisanal products at far higher cost for prestige among their peers. They need craft beer.
If people overspend on trifles because work-life balance is a mantra, it is going to place a lot of things out of reach.
Baby Boomers aren't much better off. Because government needs to take wealth to fund the entitlements nearly half of Americans insist are essential to democracy, Washington, D.C. has not changed the capital gains penalty on selling a house in nearly 30 years. They are truly hoping people die so they get half the money. A couple or widowed person who wants to sell faces a giant Wealth Transfer - to government.
We can blame Baby Boomers but the good news for Millennials os that Millennials decide elections at this point. Gen X is too small to matter and Gen Z is about to overtake Boomer numbers in the workplace and voting, but for now Millennials are deciding Congress and the White House. The White House picks the heads of regulatory agencies and use those to act around Congress if Congress doesn't do what they want. Until the Supreme Court overturns 1984's Chevron Deference precedent, the President is first among equals when it comes to controlling or increasing costs using regulations made by agencies he controls. Forgiving student loans for history majors has a cost. Obamacare has a cost. Handing out $5 trillion to government union employees during COVID-19 has a cost.
Millennials are starting to see that, but government is telling them that time will inflate their debt away. If you believe that, a new car salesman is waiting to sell you a truck at $35,000 over MSRP because you are not allowed to buy cars direct, you have to use a new car dealer, all thanks to government regulations that car dealers say is essential government protection against automobile companies.
