Comment by rjkennedy98 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rjkennedy98 | Hacker News Reader

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> Millennials face a very real risk of being a lost generation financially

I think it's already a done deal. Millennials aren't as young as they seem (over 30) and as the own a minuscule percentage of US household wealth. The numbers are incredible.

"Indeed, at a median age of 35, Gen Xers owned just 9% of the nation’s wealth in 2008 — less than half what boomers had at that age. And millennials will have to triple their net worth in the next four years to catch up to Generation X at 35, and increase their wealth sevenfold to catch up to boomers at that age." https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-depressing-chart-show...

The funny thing is that across that millennials seem to love politicians that HATE them.

Obama's big thing was Obamacare which was basically a tax on the young (force them to buy insurance to subsidize capped insurance rates on older people). Bernie's big thing is expanding Medicare and Social Security.

So, I don't see things changing any time soon.

Obamacare banned declining coverage for pre-existing conditions and allowed < 26-ers to stay on their parents' health plans. It also created exchanges with subsidies for those who don't have employer health plans - of whom a large proportion are under-employed youngsters.

Since they don't see things getting better for them as they get older, maybe it's not so irrational to support expansion of Medicare and Social Security.

It's not as illogical or against their self-interest as you think.

Except that you skip over the most important provisions.

Do you think that insurance for a 60 year old is 3x as expensive as a 30 year old for health care? The government MANDATES that to be the case. Who do you think pays for that?

Obamacare mandates that a 64 year old get charged no more that 3x a 27 year old.

> Who do you think pays for that?

Employers. Or the government - via subsidies. And the insureds themselves.

Have you considered that many millennials are OK with paying more if it means everyone is taken care of? People don't always vote for policies that benefit solely themselves.

> Have you considered that many millennials are OK with paying more if it means everyone is taken care of? People don't always vote for policies that benefit solely themselves.

So that's why they vote for policies that exclusively benefit Boomers. Gotcha!

Have you considered that maybe Millenials just don't understand how money and taxes work?

I was talking to my friend the other day that lives in California and didn't know what Prop 13 was. He was a state champion debater in California but didn't know how property taxes worked in the state. I was shocked. If that's the slightest indication - most millennials have absolutely no idea how money and taxes work.

I've talked to friends about zoning, depreciation laws, capital gains taxes, backdoor Roth laws ect. They don't even have a clue.

> So that's why they vote for policies that exclusively benefit Boomers

And I would disagree with the "exclusively" part of that sentence. I've already shown you how millennials benefit from Obamacare. Your note about young people subsidizing over-60s is a red herring. Over-65s are already on Medicare and it's pretty good. Why wouldn't millennials want that for themselves?

Most people don't understand taxes and money - this isn't specific to any particular age group. And frankly, as I've opined elsewhere on this site, retirement savings laws particularly are overly complicated for nearly everyone.

> I've already shown you how millennials benefit from Obamacare.

Actually you didn't. Pointing out a single feature that benefits them while ignoring all the others is not a cost benefit analysis.

> Your note about young people subsidizing over-60s is a red herring.

And this a straw man. Actually, no - its wrong.

I worked on Obamacare for 2 years. I think it's a decent law a vacuum. I can't possible pretend its good for young people. It's good for my 60 year old aunt who has diabetes who thinks she pays too much for insurance but actually is getting the deal of a century considering how much health care costs.

Obamacare did little to slow health care spending (another long story) but it did work to spread the costs around - mostly to young people.

Millennials all dream of becoming older one day.

My point wasn't to pooh-pooh on the Democrats (Republicans are worse obviously with their awful tax policies). My point was that they should care about millennial issues. Whether you like or not WE are the ones paying for increased social security, medicare, NOT the boomers. They are getting way more out of the system than they ever put in.

The Boomers basically took all the wealth in this country and regulated everyone out of it. There are so many issues that are good for the country and good for millenials that never seem to gain traction. Student loans reform for instance or Housing (especially zoning and property tax laws e.g. Prop 13).

Here is a good link to what I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh6hesHk6yE&t=1250s

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