I'm not living with my parents but I'm living with a parent.
That "article" is too funny. It's basically a laundry-list of analysts' reports from money managers, turned into a "news article": Morgan Stanley, Bain (and "Altagamma"? wazzat?), Property Management. The original article is at https://qz.com/nearly-half-of-americans-age-18-to-29-are-living-with-t-1849882457?utm_source=YPL and clicking-thru on the author, I see that she writes mostly articles about ..... well, about luxury consumption. Fashion, expensive cars, and on and on.
Our Fourth Estate, ladies and gents!
I think all of these Yahoo business type articles that quote Morgan Stanley, et. al, should be required to get at least one quote from a Marxist.
"Nearly half of all young adults in the US ages 18 to 29 live with their parents, and this living arrangement is boosting the coming proletarian revolution. "
It should be possible to compile this data from Census ACS microdata releases through 2021. Takes some time, though.
The ACS has a big incrementalist bias.
Depends if you're ballsy enough to use the one year releases.
But anyway, I'm seriously wondering if the Yahoo article was written by AI,
Is this what we've come to? We don't believe the human brain is capable of coming up with stupid ideas?
People worry about AIs taking jobs, but I'm fine with technology making the job "Hack journalist who just rewrites press releases" obsolete.
9: That's cold, Rob. Hacks got to eat too, you know.
I think one of the next big oppties for ChatGPT is writing GrOPers speeches and press releases. B/c they don't gotta make sense no more, amirite! Just gotta name-check all the required bogeymen, and that's gotta be a doddle for ChatGPT. Just load 'er up with TFG's speeches and let 'er rip!
Speaking of Trump, has everyone seen his "Major Announcement" today?
Is that why they fired Henry Cavill?
17: I can't wait to give one to my wife for xmas! But how do you wrap an NFT????
Speaking of Marxists, we need a new one to think things through with the recognition that things can be both trajectory and farce.
Is "both trajectory and farce" a Mobyism or an autofill disaster?
17: Here's my favorite! https://twitter.com/FiskFoulPole/status/1603429234248192002
Back to the OP, this seems related to the exciting news that the new richest man in the world is Bernard Arnault, founder of luxury brand LVMH. Obviously there are lots of unemployed incels living in their parents basements getting drunk on champagne and buying Tiffany rings for their imaginary girlfriends.
I believe the kids call that "simping."
unemployed incels living in their parents basements getting drunk on champagne and buying Tiffany rings for their imaginary girlfriends.
Drake did buy his mom a house, but I don't think he lives in the basement?
I've lavishly decorated my basement in Canada.
Interesting, saw him in the news but didn't realize what he owned. Ardbeg! Glenmorangie! The barrels that Glenmorangie gets aged in! (E.g. Château d'Yquem.)
It's worth noting that Arnault became richest man in the world not by doing anything himself, but because Tesla's share price has dropped so far that Musk's net worth dipped slightly below his.
And by "noting" you mean "laughing your ass off about before wondering in an idle kind of way how much of one's retirement fund is in Tesla".
Maybe I should drink some Ardbeg to celebrate Musk's loss of status.
Yes, exactly. I'm pretty sure my own retirement fund doesn't contain any Tesla, but even if it did I think the amusement value is worth it.
I still don't get why "this drink tastes like burning peet moss" is a selling point.
Because burning peat moss is delicious, obvs.
I'm pretty sure mine does, but only because Tesla is 2% of the entire S&P 500. (Vanguard owns over 6% total.)
I was once at a bed in breakfast in Shetland while RWM was on a work call, so I went down to the breakfast room to drink some of the whisky we'd bought a few days prior. And I was very confused because the whisky was supposed to be only lightly peated and had not smelled much like peat previously, but now it had a much stronger peat smell. I spent several minutes confused, before realizing there was a large bucket of dried peat sitting next to the fireplace.
I was once at a bed in breakfast in Shetland
Every leg of the bed two inches deep in puddeen.
His great grandson invented the radio, an early precursor to the podcast.
30: Gates and Buffet and Bezos dropped that much or is it just that they gave away so much bus charity and divorce?
It's all speeding up here towards the end. As we collectively circle the drain, it's certainly understandable that younger folx might want to get in on a little bit of luxury action, even when they can't really afford it, since they might not get a chance to experience luxury goods at the usual point in their lives. (On account of the fascism and climate change, you see.)
42: I think some of it is that but a lot of it is that Tesla is/was insanely overvalued because so many people thought Musk was a genius. Not sure why LVMH is valued so high but presumably it has something to do with the high profits of luxury goods companies mentioned in the OP.
Anyway, Musk now appears to be arbitrarily banning journalists who report on him.
It does show some uncharacteristic patience and humility. He's been like this forever. (At least one of the three authors on that piece from 2018[!] was banned today.)
His great grandson invented the radio, an early precursor to the podcast.
My colleague told me that it is the 75th anniversary of the transistor. Then he kindly explained to me why that was a big deal.
Anyway, my dad learned how to repair radios back before transformers.
"You'd teach your grandmother how to dial a rotary phone" would be a good phrase to popularize.
Trump's NFT sales model does seem legitimately innovative. He's selling at a fixed price instead of marketplace auction, which really should make things easier for the target market of rubes who would buy this stuff. He's also selling multiple copies of each NFT - up to 20 each but adding some with a bit more rarity. This is different from auto-generating a bunch of ugly ape pictures and have each one be unique. Basically, the angle is to sell non-fungible tokens that are a little bit fungible.
Presumably he will also open a marketplace for these trading cards for purposes of manipulating the prices on the secondary market and also probably money laundering.
I always wondered about the Bradford Exchange.
Actually I was wrong - many of these ugly ape pictures do appear to be auto-generated.
They must have a human screen the images just to make sure the ones where Trump is staring in awe at Hunter Biden's penis don't circulate.
55. Negatory. https://opensea.io/assets/matic/0x24a11e702cd90f034ea44faf1e180c0c654ac5d9/4490
The whole thing really is, possibly, the stupidest shit in the world.
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Apparently NMM to covid vaccine requirement for military duty because that was a condition for the defenses bill!!!??
Was this known?
Jesus Fucking Christ.
NMM to The Enlightenment.
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Also Musk apparently going full revengeful thin-skinned billionaire on Twitter this evening.
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That's $2,999,875 more than I made today.
If Trump politically survives this NFT stunt ... I just don;t fucking know.
Baked Alaska: I Can't Believe I'm Going to Jail for an NFT Salesman.
I haven't checked this because why would I, but aren't most of his novel businesses actually run by and for someone else who pays him a license fee, so he bears no risk? Maybe a lagniappe of royalties.
Yeah, this is probably Junior's play and the old man really has no idea whats going on. They told him to shoot a promo so he shot a promo.
There's going to be hell to pay when he figures out Junior made him look stupid.
62: it's so insane, what do you do when a bunch of the military can't enter South Korea or Okinawa? Just take some fraction of a unit?
69: If push came to shove, I rather suspect the treaties would make it hard to keep US soldiers out on that basis - or if not that, the US would make it hard.
The whole thing really is, possibly, the stupidest shit in the world.
"All I can say is that those of us who have lost friends, fought with relatives, resigned positions, been called traitor, left our party, all because we saw very clearly what a con-man, huckster and fraud this man is, have never felt more vindicated."
Where the money for all the dumb stuff people buy has always baffled me.
Though I am middle class now, I wasn't always. Yet, I still can't afford most of this dumb stuff though of course I buy cheaper dumb stuff.
I am not frugal. I have too much stuff but there is expensive stuff soaring to the rafters in America. I cannot afford it and I never will be able to afford it.
But I must be in the top quartile. Or maybe even higher! Because most Americans are pretty broke.
So who BUYS all this stuff? How do people even afford the furniture at West Elm? That's way down the line and people are buying all of this? How?
Where is everyone getting their money?
What don't I understand about the American economy?
On another note, what makes the Trump thing even funnier is realizing that some grifters talked him into this. It wasn't his idea, right? No, he is splitting the proceeds. He's been grifted. The greed activating ex president whose whole schtick is to promise wealth like an infomercial got grifted by people that also do this.
The ego flatterer got duped by a dumb idea purely intended to flatter his ego.
Whatever happens, I do want to see him damage DeSantis. So I don't completely yearn for his total implosion just yet.
Where the money for all the dumb stuff people buy has always baffled me.
Though I am middle class now, I wasn't always. Yet, I still can't afford most of this dumb stuff though of course I buy cheaper dumb stuff.
I am not frugal. I have too much stuff but there is expensive stuff soaring to the rafters in America. I cannot afford it and I never will be able to afford it.
But I must be in the top quartile. Or maybe even higher! Because most Americans are pretty broke.
So who BUYS all this stuff? How do people even afford the furniture at West Elm? That's way down the line and people are buying all of this? How?
Where is everyone getting their money?
What don't I understand about the American economy?
On another note, what makes the Trump thing even funnier is realizing that some grifters talked him into this. It wasn't his idea, right? No, he is splitting the proceeds. He's been grifted. The greed activating ex president whose whole schtick is to promise wealth like an infomercial got grifted by people that also do this.
The ego flatterer got duped by a dumb idea purely intended to flatter his ego.
Whatever happens, I do want to see him damage DeSantis. So I don't completely yearn for his total implosion just yet.
Where is everyone getting their money?
Selling NFTs to assholes.
Or, if you have no dignity, real estate.
I still haven't been into the new West Elm store near me.
69: I'm less concerned with the practical effects of this particular policy (it's stupid and misguided but limited) but it is a massive signal of the apparent need to cater to the batshitterati and bodes ill for things like the debt ceiling, routine governance, and species self-respect.
4. It will certainly boost the coming proletarian revolution if the parents in question are wage slaves.
"He who will not work, neither shall he eat."- Lenin
I imagine nearly all of the kids are in school or working or both.
80: for context, it was apparently 38% in the relatively golden year 2000 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/08/24/americans-more-likely-to-say-its-a-bad-thing-than-a-good-thing-that-more-young-adults-live-with-their-parents/
And this story
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/12/23/fact-check-47-american-young-adults-live-their-parents/8672598002/
notes that, to the Census Bureau, if you are a full-time university student living in on-campus housing, you are officially "living with your parents". Which I suppose makes sense.
So a big part of this trend is probably "more people are going to university now, and more people are staying longer at university now".
Another part is also parents living with their children - of that 47%, that represents 6%.
74: I suspect people are still getting themselves into trouble with debt of various kinds. I know things changed after 2008, but when I was working in the consumer lending department of a bank in 2003, you would see people with very long lists of credit cards (many store cards, two or three Visa, etc.) trying to consolidate/pay off the balances with a home equity loan. (Good post-college job: gave me a lifelong horror of debt.) I think if you do that and then run up the cards again, the next step is bankruptcy. Obviously, I have no idea what anyone had been buying, and there are loads of medical bankruptcies each year, but they don't usually involve paying for heart surgery with a department store credit card. Usually? Or do they?
Also, saving for retirement is very optional in many cases, when not impossible.
That's ridiculous. You pay for heart surgery using a rewards card so you get airline miles.
So who BUYS all this stuff?
This was my reaction on seeing an (admittedly very nice) glass fronted bookcase for sale in a shop and, on enquring, discovering that the asking price was £100,000.
I think the answer is: even if Oscar the Grouch is top-quartile and can't conceive of affording it, there are still millions of Americans far richer than him who could. The 75th percentile for household income in the US is $120,000 a year. 7.8 million households make at least double that every year. So whatever you think of as "expensive but affordable" - say, John Lewis - someone earning twice as much (with no taste) would think about West Elm furniture the same way.
My dad had an entire library full of those lawyer bookcases that you stack and that have glass doors. He ruined them all because opening the doors got to be a pain.
So he just used to punch through the glass and pull his bleeding hand back triumphantly clutching the book he was after.
He paid a guy to take off all the doors instead.
74. Most statistics concern income rather than wealth. Top decile of US household wealth is 1.8M, top 1% is 10M. That's a large number of multimillionaires.
Dividend/interest income from 2M is just under 100k/year -- that is, it's income in addition to earned income from a job or business, or from social security. Wealth begets wealth without any effort, if stupidity, greed, or addiction do not intervene. Agree with 84, basically-- the brilliantly depicted mother in Arrested Development (what could a banana cost, $10?) is a genuinely existing type, there are many of her. Also, as Moby says in 76, for people who don't have housing as an ongoing expense (say because they inherited a home or got substantial help), it's pretty easy to make any savings grow, gambling or addiction excepted. Demographically, smaller families mean that meaningful diminishment of fortunes across generations happens less frequently than even 50 years ago.
https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2022/12/moving-between-wealth-brackets-minimum-cutoffs-from-the-distributional-financial-accounts/
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/chicago-mans-11-million-estate-to-be-divided-among-119-distant-cousins-who-never-knew-him-11666648259
On topic because the Texas State government is giving us $391/kid that we didn't apply to, because we go to a feel lunch and breakfast school which didn't provide meals during some of covid. That was unexpected. Which luxury NFT should I buy?
You should buy frozen breakfast sandwiches.
Buckle up, honey! We're going to Sizzler!
89: The Trump ones have already sold out. Too bad!
But just because you are my personal friend, heebie, I'll sell you two of mine for the low low price of $199 each.
Trump gets a 10٪ fee every time one of those gets resold.
The more kids I have, and the more pandemics that Texas doesn't properly distribute federal relief funds, the more Trump playing cards I can buy. Definitely TOO easy!
Leaving aside the NFTs, you have to question how much of this crap people buy is actually luxurious. A sweatshop t-shirt from Indonesia with some gaudy logo on it is still crappy, even if you do enjoy the social approbation that accrues to wearers. And most of those so-called luxury leather goods just look like garbage compared to the small boutique producers
Yeah, I'm always just so confused when I drive through a rich neighborhood in say Indianapolis. How are there this many people who are this rich *in Indianapolis*? Are they all dentists?
95: This is why I only buy luxury whisky.
That is, the only luxury product I buy, is whisky. Not that I don't buy non-luxury whisky.
I was going to buy a Tesla. But obviously that's off.
Maybe you could by a link to a jpeg of a Tesla.
Probably just get a Pruis but I think I can make it another year on the old one.
Can Elon create a Tesla so luxurious even He can't funge it?
So, apparently one could buy up to 100 Trump NFTs at a time, which, at a cost of $9900, would fall just under the $10,000 limit for reporting transactions to financial authorities. How convenient!
88 is also true and implies the point, which is worth making explicit, that there is a huge difference between income, post tax income, and disposable income. $120k with a big mortgage, kids to bring up, university fees to save for will feel very different to $120k without that. In terms of disposable income, which is what counts here, the latter is probably five or six times richer.
Paying 2003 Pittsburgh prices for a house is kind of great.
I mean, it only works if you have a job in Pittsburgh.
89 happened to us (randomly acquired a SNAP card with a bunch of money due to COVID and free lunch stuff), and then three weeks later the school district sent out a message that they had been issued in error, please don't use them. I am not at all sure whose money is being spent if I use them, which makes it hard to figure out what to do.