You are totally right housing prices have skyrocketed relative to wages, but you cant just tell kids they are doomed. There have always been good times and hard times and there are always people who succeed or fail regardless.
That is a weird statement. What does it mean when times are good or bad then?
If times are bad, and it feels like they are, then less people are going to succeed. I'm not sure pretending that problems don't exist improves your odds of being in the succeed category.
But, fortunately, it's been useless for almost forty years now, hasn't it? So I've been wrong about it being useless making bridges and I'm glad those other people had the sense to go ahead.”
― Richard Feynman
But you can expose them to broader view points;
Why is owning a house a goal, or dilemma that would lead to depression? This is perhaps the "American" part; how many countries is home and automobile ownership a top coming of age marker?
Environmental disasters are going to happen (especially in top article of Florida) how can a kid take part through volunteering or voting for non disaster policies?
Economic disaster ^^ see above ^^ but yes, America has not grasped with demographic shift with baby boomer retirements; and a future lack of workers; this is where parents can teach children self sufficiency.
People don’t want to be exploited and see home ownership as a way to get out of that cycle of exploitation and building enough wealth to someday retire.
> building enough wealth
Our current environment looks like that if you are older. Thinking of your house as savings is weird: personally I think you need a house and retirement savings - and safe retirement savings is an oxymoron because it depends on the demographics and economy.
I'm not sure that younger people can rely on the idea that their house will be worth enough because it depends on population demographics - housing is a Ponzi scheme where the older population sells there home to younger people until at some point the youngest person risks being left with something worthless: Japan and Italy have houses for ¥0 or €1 due to aging population.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/patrica-italy-town-one-euro-h...
Lying to them when they can see the evidence to the contrary is better?
It isn't a lie, I don't know what the future will be but I know there will be people who thrive and people who wither.
It would have to be either
a) a complete fabrication or
b) a little play on words where “working smart and hard” is the load-bearing bit of phrasing that implies that any negative impacts from economic downturn would strictly reflect on a person’s work ethic and/or intelligence.
“Don’t worry about the future, your net worth will reflect your personal worth regardless of external economic conditions!” sounds way more depressing than “the economic hardships you were born during and have seen in your short lifetime are not likely to evaporate by the time you enter the workforce”
I'm not sure it's a choice between telling them they're doomed and should quit, and misleading them (if not lying), is it?
I don't think the truth can be contained once it's out. Truth, of course, wins out in the end.