United States | News & Politics

The generational wealth gap isn't about work ethic—it's about economic warfare disguised as meritocracy. Boomers built equity on minimum wage jobs while zoning laws now prevent duplexes. Their Cadillacs cost less than today's used Corollas.

Social media didn't create narcissism—it monetized it. The real hustle culture scam? Convincing kids to trade sleep for side gigs so landlords can buy third vacation homes.

The system's not broken. It's functioning exactly as designed: extracting youth labor until retirement becomes mythological. But keep arguing about avocado toast—the banks love watching tenants fight over crumbs.

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Nothing will piss me off faster than people attacking the work ethic of young people in the US. These poor fucking kids are working 60-100 hours a week for the "privilege" of living in a roach-infested studio, likely with roommates, where our parents could afford a house, education, and family on 40 hours a week.

In-fucking-furiating.

Not a GenZ, but i feel this. Forget affording a house. If I lost my car I'd be so fucked financially that I'd be in debt for the next 10 years or worse. And I know this because it actually happened to me 6 years back. Couldn't get to work so I couldn't make money. Within the span of a few months I was in almost $15,000 of credit card debt on top of a car loan. That's almost half of what I make in a year I built that up in just a few months just to survive. I'm still in debt from back then and I still haven't paid off the car and now I'm a little over 30 years old. All while I get to live in a shitty apartment building where half my neighbors are meth-heads while the other half make the meth (nothing against them personally. Except for the dude that bangs on my door at 4 AM) And one might think "this guy probably has a shitty job that doesn't pay very well" and no, I don't. I actually have a pretty decent job. I'm a CAD tech for a land surveying company and I'm making the most money I ever have in my entire life. Yet I'm still 2 paychecks away from being homeless.

Sorry, I just needed to rant cuz I'm 30 and tired of being poor.

What’s truly fucked is that it costs more to be poor than rich and it takes substantial money to accumulate wealth.

When a rich person buys a product, like a pair of winter boots, they will purchase a pair of high quality that will last many seasons. A poor person buying cheap boots will have them wear out faster and they’ll need to be replaced much sooner, so they’ll have to keep buying boots periodically. By spending more at the outset, the rich person spends less in the long run. You can see this with William Sonoma cookware. Each item is the last "that thing" that you'll ever need. Only things like plates that can be dropped and broken will even need to be repurchased.

As for building wealth, you have to have enough money to invest to build wealth. This can be by buying a house that appreciates in value or by investing in the market. You can’t throw a thousand dollars into the market and have it appreciate in a meaningful way. You have to have real money to make anything unless you’re risking it all looking for a unicorn. This is why hedge funds make so much. They can afford to throw money at everything that has an opportunity to be a unicorn. The handful of successful unicorns offset the rest that go bust. A regular person can’t do this; even most wealth people can’t do this. For the rest, investing in "safe" funds will generate a smaller return over a longer period of time. But how can you access this avenue if you're living paycheck to paycheck or an emergency car repair could wipe out your savings?

It’s a perverse and lousy system. And the cracks have been showing for quite some time. I believe now we’re at the end of the ride. The illusion of capitalism as a good system is continually eroding and it’s all going to be downhill from here. We’re going to get squeezed, companies are going to screw us harder and jack up prices, and everything is going to get worse, worse, worse until the mask is fully off and the evil of the system is obvious to anyone clear-eyed enough to understand why living is hell. But some people will still think the reason for their misery is drag queens and immigrants, rather than the wealthy people they admire. And keeping that fight going is how they distract us from what would really solve our problems: a drastic reduction of wealth for the very top.

I hope more people become aware of the existing class-war, because it's been active this whole time; it's just that the ones currently winning didn't declare war openly, but in whispers among themselves.

In my day you had to put in the footwork, walking around until you found an unoccupied house and then that one was yours.

dont fall for efforts to divide generations

Anyone got a link to the TikTok video? It's removed from TikTok from what I could find.