Liberal Forum

Skans » 12 Mar 2024, 8:01 am » wrote: ↑

12 Mar 2024, 8:01 am

For people between the ages of 18 - 40, yes.  Here's why:

• Starting salaries for people with a 4-year degree are only double what they were in 1990. 
• Houses are 400% - 500% what they were in 1990
• Food Costs are 400%-600% of what they were in 1990
• Cost of a 4-year degree is 15 times what it was in 1990, causing most young people to start adulthood saddled with huge debt.
• Cost of a professional degree is even higher than a 4-year degree.
• Competition for internships and beginning jobs is fierce, and many graduates are delayed getting meaningful work.
• Jobs for people without college degrees provide sustenance level wages at best. But, the worst thing is that the age-out cycle is about 5 years.  This is when the jobs change so fundamentally due to disruption, AI, robotics and other technological advances that Union-Trade workers become obsolete. 

So, that means there will be 3 categories of people who will be able to afford a decent life:
1.  The extremely bright and functional - IQ's over 130 without being on "the spectrum" - That's about two-thirds of 5%.  I say two-thirds, because there is a significant percentage of those with high IQ's who are not fully functional for various reasons.
2.   Those who have IQ's over 120, are methodical-structured, have an aptitude for finance and investing and have a steady, long-term plan for creating their own wealth.  I'd say that's another 5%
3.  Those who someday inherit wealth from their parents.  This number is quite small and getting smaller due to divorce, vices, age-related diseases, and organized gangs who prey upon older people to con them out of their wealth.

So, do you have children aged 18-40?  If so, at what age were they able to buy their first house?  Get out of debt completely (except what they financed on their house)?