Regarding the boomer generation sitting on untold amounts of wealth, we have to keep things in perspective. If most of the wealth is tied up in real estate (ie. principle dwelling), the wealth can only be monetized at point of sale. (Not withstanding reverse mortgages or borrowing against the equity for other investments.)
But looking at the long game, can anyone tell me what it is going to take in equity to have a decent retirement in Canada? The hyper inflationary years of the 1980’s made paupers out of retirees that had no earning power other than savings, their home and pissy pension benefits. The stars are aligning for a repeat, especially for those who don’t have a pension plan from work.
The boomers are clogging up the housing market, but getting set to swamp the geriatric end of the health care system. And the outlook is grim, with a stodgy, slow to change health care system and a long term care plan that is dismal. Boomers are going to have to be warehoused somewhere, and the first option is to keep them in their homes as long as possible. Option 2 is to cash out the equity and move into assisted living at $4000 a month. 10 years of assisted living will burn through a pile of cash too.
Young people deserve to have good paying jobs and grow personal equity in a home to prepare for their own retirement someday. I hope that the available housing stock grows and prices level off to affordable prices for everyone.
Young people don't deserve anything; just like everyone else who came before them. Nothing is owed to them, or to us; working hard towards a goal won't give you what you want. Many folks from every generation prior to this one didn't ever have a chance to own their own home; it simply wasn't possible, nor did they expect to. Instead of worrying about the unknown, we just do the best we can and focus on our own priorities and if we don't like that then we have the choice, in a democratic society, to do something about it.
Boomers were lucky in the same way Jenn was lucky in her media career choice. A window of opportunity was open (in hind sight) and following a career that path brought you to today's career status.
Like boomers in regard to the housing market it would be impossible to change without suffering great loss.
I acknowledge that Millennials do not enjoy the same housing market opportunities. I argue that it is because of how it was managed from a national perspective. Lack of trades people, foreign ownership, banking rule changes, interest rates, job opportunity shifts.
This country has changed. We have become a work force of people dependent on foreign investment. Canadian manufacturing for the world is almost non-existent. We sell our raw materials and buy back the products made from it.
If you are thinking we Boomers are sensitive about our lucky place in history (at least those of us born after 1952, and got our polio shots in time to stay out of leg braces), remember that the generation you don't even remember gave it to us first: we grew up being told how insanely lucky we were to not be fated for Depression or War, like the three generations before us. [Applies more to Canadians than Americans who had Vietnam.] Certainly luckier than the generations before those, who lacked indoor plumbing, electricity, had half the literacy rate. We were SO spoiled and lucky. We had TV! Two channels!
I admit I never quite got the notion of the "rich Boomers". It feels to me like the world around me just kept getting richer my whole life. Houses over 1200sf were for rich folk when I was little, as were two cars. Vacations abroad were once-a-decade splurges, most vacations were by car, for camping. When I went to Disneyland at 9, I was surrounded by classmates asking me what it was like to fly in an airplane.
...those graphs let us think we could guilt-trip the next generation as rich and spoiled, the same as we were. Our educations WERE cheaper, but we couldn't afford them anyway: just 20% of us got college degrees, but 35% of the 25-34 age group have them today.
Remember the good part, kids: we're all going to die, but our leftover money will remain. Increasing income inequality, of course; you might want to think about some inheritance tax.
The podcast isn't too long. I enjoy the free flowing conversation. I subscribe you for your honesty; keep being yourselves. Talk long, talk short. It's all about your authenticity.
Ooh that is perhaps the snottiest reply to a contrary opinion I have encountered anywhere. In retrospect, your defense of Jen’s piece,admittedly read later than my snarky comment, is fair. I think your blog is most excellent and enjoyable. Best for none of us to get our shit in a liquorice twist, given that we are trying to defend something sensible and moderate. Nu?
I'm already 20 minutes into this "podcast" and you've spent almost all of this time defending a Substack submission. Why? I don't know. Both of you are bobbing, weaving and confessing about "privilege" when the fact of just being born in this place and in this time makes all your supine ackowledgements moot. Why are you spending so much time trying to justify the submission? Address the bones of contention - succinctly - and then move on. That shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. If you want to start a new media org then you can't spend the better part of an hour qualifying it. I subscribe because I want to hear what you have to say. Not what you didn't mean, on the off chance, to be misinterpreted to say.
Last week I stopped listening after 20 minutes of you two micro-analyzing your COVID symptoms. You know what? I didn't care. So I stopped listening. No one should pay to listen to that. You had symptoms. So does everyone who contracts it. Jonah Goldberg described his symptoms in about 30 seconds and then conducted an hour long podcast never mentioning them again.
Anyway, I gave you guys an extra 10 minutes this Saturday but your strange hypersensitivity wore me down.
Think about hiring a producer. And an editor.
Meanwhile, I'll be hanging around until Christmas 2022.
Nah we like doing it the way we did it. Totally cool if you aren’t into it. It’s your time! Don’t waste it on things you don’t enjoy. Life’s too short.
Sorry, generally we like the Line, but ye who got in a millenial huff and think we boomers had an easy ride ought to give your heads a good shake. A great many of us boomers bought first houses at 14% interest and endured a few boom bust cycles in the meantime. The principle never moved a scintilla. We bought houses and vehicles within our means when credit was tight and we did what was needed when things went sideways in the oilpatch to keep a roof over our head and dinner on the table. The Bank of Mom and Dad ? Give me some
oxygen. Twin Escalades, the bigger beaver barf mcmansion every two years and sixteen monthly payments for toys? Pshaw! The idea that a house was an investment was not thought of in most cases. We wanted a place to raise a family, and being mortgage and debt free was actually a goal. No Savings, not watching the spending, cheap credit and gullibility that booms last forever are part of your problem too. Any more of this blame the boomer and set them on an ice floe guff and you will have seen the last of a few of us on your subscribers list.
Great post. A couple things I take umbrage with though, hoping Jen and Matt might consider:
1. "White privilege" is merely a construct; it's not real. This terminology was created in the 70's by sociologist professors which had zero proof that it was even a thing. But it sold a lot of books and created entire departments to help their friends get long term jobs. With tenure and benefits. As credible journalists, it behooves either of you to use words which aren't truthful (cuz they matter, right?) . If there is any privilege in our society, it's the same one that has always existed, which refers to our class, rather than race. Stop using a term which has no meaning.
2. SES status does not determine if a kid goes to university or not, or pursue masters program. I know you know that, but given the conversation Jen was having as to why she chose to work over continuing on in Masters Studies, it sure didn't sound like it. We all know many, many folks who continued on in university even up to obtain their pHD that are former welfare mums, kids living on their own, and just regular working class kids who just worked 2 or 3 fulltime jobs in order to obtain a different station in their lives. Once you believe the construct exists you apply it to everything you see. So just a reminder, as you have already pointed out, "WORDS MATTER". Let's be sure we apply them accordingly.
Podcast is great folks!
Regarding the boomer generation sitting on untold amounts of wealth, we have to keep things in perspective. If most of the wealth is tied up in real estate (ie. principle dwelling), the wealth can only be monetized at point of sale. (Not withstanding reverse mortgages or borrowing against the equity for other investments.)
But looking at the long game, can anyone tell me what it is going to take in equity to have a decent retirement in Canada? The hyper inflationary years of the 1980’s made paupers out of retirees that had no earning power other than savings, their home and pissy pension benefits. The stars are aligning for a repeat, especially for those who don’t have a pension plan from work.
The boomers are clogging up the housing market, but getting set to swamp the geriatric end of the health care system. And the outlook is grim, with a stodgy, slow to change health care system and a long term care plan that is dismal. Boomers are going to have to be warehoused somewhere, and the first option is to keep them in their homes as long as possible. Option 2 is to cash out the equity and move into assisted living at $4000 a month. 10 years of assisted living will burn through a pile of cash too.
Young people deserve to have good paying jobs and grow personal equity in a home to prepare for their own retirement someday. I hope that the available housing stock grows and prices level off to affordable prices for everyone.
Young people don't deserve anything; just like everyone else who came before them. Nothing is owed to them, or to us; working hard towards a goal won't give you what you want. Many folks from every generation prior to this one didn't ever have a chance to own their own home; it simply wasn't possible, nor did they expect to. Instead of worrying about the unknown, we just do the best we can and focus on our own priorities and if we don't like that then we have the choice, in a democratic society, to do something about it.
I very much prefer the podcast to the video and talk as long as you want. If I get bored, I can stop listening.
Podcasts are too time consuming. I prefer the written word.
More please!!
Boomers were lucky in the same way Jenn was lucky in her media career choice. A window of opportunity was open (in hind sight) and following a career that path brought you to today's career status.
Like boomers in regard to the housing market it would be impossible to change without suffering great loss.
I acknowledge that Millennials do not enjoy the same housing market opportunities. I argue that it is because of how it was managed from a national perspective. Lack of trades people, foreign ownership, banking rule changes, interest rates, job opportunity shifts.
This country has changed. We have become a work force of people dependent on foreign investment. Canadian manufacturing for the world is almost non-existent. We sell our raw materials and buy back the products made from it.
Love the podcast, please continue
I prefer reading over listening. Do you plan to continue written commentary?
Yes.
If you are thinking we Boomers are sensitive about our lucky place in history (at least those of us born after 1952, and got our polio shots in time to stay out of leg braces), remember that the generation you don't even remember gave it to us first: we grew up being told how insanely lucky we were to not be fated for Depression or War, like the three generations before us. [Applies more to Canadians than Americans who had Vietnam.] Certainly luckier than the generations before those, who lacked indoor plumbing, electricity, had half the literacy rate. We were SO spoiled and lucky. We had TV! Two channels!
I admit I never quite got the notion of the "rich Boomers". It feels to me like the world around me just kept getting richer my whole life. Houses over 1200sf were for rich folk when I was little, as were two cars. Vacations abroad were once-a-decade splurges, most vacations were by car, for camping. When I went to Disneyland at 9, I was surrounded by classmates asking me what it was like to fly in an airplane.
https://www.darrinqualman.com/house-size/
https://chartingtransport.com/2011/08/07/trends-in-car-ownership/
...those graphs let us think we could guilt-trip the next generation as rich and spoiled, the same as we were. Our educations WERE cheaper, but we couldn't afford them anyway: just 20% of us got college degrees, but 35% of the 25-34 age group have them today.
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/edu-sco/Table.cfm?Lang=E&T=11&Geo=00&SP=1&view=2&age=3&sex=1
Remember the good part, kids: we're all going to die, but our leftover money will remain. Increasing income inequality, of course; you might want to think about some inheritance tax.
The podcast isn't too long. I enjoy the free flowing conversation. I subscribe you for your honesty; keep being yourselves. Talk long, talk short. It's all about your authenticity.
Ooh that is perhaps the snottiest reply to a contrary opinion I have encountered anywhere. In retrospect, your defense of Jen’s piece,admittedly read later than my snarky comment, is fair. I think your blog is most excellent and enjoyable. Best for none of us to get our shit in a liquorice twist, given that we are trying to defend something sensible and moderate. Nu?
I listen to a lot podcasts, you're doing fine. My app glitched a bit when you uploaded the update, but all's well. Understandable.
Happy Easter, etc.
I'm already 20 minutes into this "podcast" and you've spent almost all of this time defending a Substack submission. Why? I don't know. Both of you are bobbing, weaving and confessing about "privilege" when the fact of just being born in this place and in this time makes all your supine ackowledgements moot. Why are you spending so much time trying to justify the submission? Address the bones of contention - succinctly - and then move on. That shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. If you want to start a new media org then you can't spend the better part of an hour qualifying it. I subscribe because I want to hear what you have to say. Not what you didn't mean, on the off chance, to be misinterpreted to say.
Last week I stopped listening after 20 minutes of you two micro-analyzing your COVID symptoms. You know what? I didn't care. So I stopped listening. No one should pay to listen to that. You had symptoms. So does everyone who contracts it. Jonah Goldberg described his symptoms in about 30 seconds and then conducted an hour long podcast never mentioning them again.
Anyway, I gave you guys an extra 10 minutes this Saturday but your strange hypersensitivity wore me down.
Think about hiring a producer. And an editor.
Meanwhile, I'll be hanging around until Christmas 2022.
Nah we like doing it the way we did it. Totally cool if you aren’t into it. It’s your time! Don’t waste it on things you don’t enjoy. Life’s too short.
Sorry, generally we like the Line, but ye who got in a millenial huff and think we boomers had an easy ride ought to give your heads a good shake. A great many of us boomers bought first houses at 14% interest and endured a few boom bust cycles in the meantime. The principle never moved a scintilla. We bought houses and vehicles within our means when credit was tight and we did what was needed when things went sideways in the oilpatch to keep a roof over our head and dinner on the table. The Bank of Mom and Dad ? Give me some
oxygen. Twin Escalades, the bigger beaver barf mcmansion every two years and sixteen monthly payments for toys? Pshaw! The idea that a house was an investment was not thought of in most cases. We wanted a place to raise a family, and being mortgage and debt free was actually a goal. No Savings, not watching the spending, cheap credit and gullibility that booms last forever are part of your problem too. Any more of this blame the boomer and set them on an ice floe guff and you will have seen the last of a few of us on your subscribers list.
No one is here against their will. Anyone can unsubscribe at any time.
Great post. A couple things I take umbrage with though, hoping Jen and Matt might consider:
1. "White privilege" is merely a construct; it's not real. This terminology was created in the 70's by sociologist professors which had zero proof that it was even a thing. But it sold a lot of books and created entire departments to help their friends get long term jobs. With tenure and benefits. As credible journalists, it behooves either of you to use words which aren't truthful (cuz they matter, right?) . If there is any privilege in our society, it's the same one that has always existed, which refers to our class, rather than race. Stop using a term which has no meaning.
2. SES status does not determine if a kid goes to university or not, or pursue masters program. I know you know that, but given the conversation Jen was having as to why she chose to work over continuing on in Masters Studies, it sure didn't sound like it. We all know many, many folks who continued on in university even up to obtain their pHD that are former welfare mums, kids living on their own, and just regular working class kids who just worked 2 or 3 fulltime jobs in order to obtain a different station in their lives. Once you believe the construct exists you apply it to everything you see. So just a reminder, as you have already pointed out, "WORDS MATTER". Let's be sure we apply them accordingly.
Thanks again for a great podcast.
Thanks for the podcast version guys. Keep it as long as you want, I find it good listening (even when I don't agree with all of it!).