How will living through a near depression influence the long term behavior of Generations X and Y?

I’m already frugal as all hell. I don’t think that’s going to go away, even if/when things improve. However, I don’t obsess over saving everything, like my grandparents did.

It can’t help but influence it. I’m not sure what you mean by “unfair to group behavioral patterns by birth cohort” though. Perhaps you could elaborate?

We’re a one income household so we’ve learned how to pinch pennies anyway.

As a Gen X “er” I had to get my first jobs in the recession of the 80s so I’m no stranger to struggling.

@CaptainHarley I just expect some people to tell me I shouldn’t make broad statements about people of different generations. :)

As long as I can remember, I’ve heard people talk about their frugal parents, with the aside, “You know, they grew up in the Depression”. Like the guy who owns a successful business and lives in the same small house for decades. Or those who never buy a new car.

That’s how people will talk about us in the future.

SIGH! When will we get over this damned childishness of being concerned about other people’s feelings, or fretting about our own widdew feewings being hurted? To those who agonize over feelings, all I can say is “get over it!” Grown a thicker skin and spend the time you might spend fretting by looking for some career you can excel in. NEWS FLASH: the Constitution does not protect your widdew feewings! BTW… this was not directed at anyone in particular. It just needed saying. : )

You were not born with a certificate that said, “This little person entitled to fair treatment.” You want “fair?” Go make “fair” for yourself and get over all the damned whinning!

[ Gets down off soap box ]

Unfair? I don’t get it. Who said life is fair? Throughout history, when was life ever fair? There are and always will be a priviledged few for whom life is more than “fair”. Many/most others barely scrape by. Now that’s not fair either!

Hopefully it will serve as a reminder to save more, consume less, and consider a bit more carefully how and when to spend.

Unlike the great depression, this ‘near’ depression will be entirely different. In the 30’s depression.. before, everyone was as poor as church mice.. Rent and housing was more affordable in relation to their income than it is today..Today we fell from a height INTO a depression but unlike the after affects of the 30’s where life improved, today, once the depression abates, we will feel the relief but will be paying more for our recovery.. Of course we will be paid much more than back then but if you compare either improvement you will find that it will take much more revenue to feel as safe in your future than it did back then.. Much more expensive financially. Tomorrows child for instance will have a problem seeing the greed of merchants who will be selling their wares for two to ten times our prices today, not because of demand as there will be millions more of us but because of greed. It will enrage us as the past generation but will hardly effect our heirs. Glad I was born in an age where true freedom was widely exercised.

It will be fleeting if recovery takes place. Fairly few learn from our mistakes or troubles thus the world continues to be in turmoil for as long as I have been here. The secret is to enjoy every day thinking of what you have or can experience rather that what you can’t have. The latter is what creates the worst form of unhappiness.

Hopefully more people in our generation will make purchases with cash on hand instead of using credit. Who knows if this will happen, but having to deal with bankruptcy myself at the moment, I know we won’t rely on credit like we used to.

Though we all see frugality and saving as virtues, they also equal economic contraction.

We may be in a downwards spiral where 2011 was “the good old days”.

@CaptainHarley, not that I want to get into an argument about it, but I certainly do believe that babies are born with those certificates. It’s just our own stupidity, cynicism and greed that have led us away from building a society that provides what it promises. So the only solution is, as you say, to “go make fair”...but not just for ourselves, for everybody. Important distinction. I really hope than Gen Y, at least, will retain strong memories of the feeling of getting screwed, and make damn sure to change things for the better when they get in.

The fact that we demonstrably don’t live in a meritocracy at this stage in our evolution is disgusting to me.

@Yanaba

I didn’t make the world the way it is, nor have I ever truly liked it. I wish you all the luck in the world at changing things. My generation thought it was going to change things too, but we just got sidetracked making a living and raising a family. Perhaps you will do better.

@CaptainHarley

Doubtful. Unless this recession drags on for many more years than this, anyway, preventing people from having children or owning property.

I only chose Gen Y there because Gen X has reached the family-making time of their lives and the Millenials after Gen Y are still too young to indicate what they will do. Gen Y is also getting pulled into the same maturity vortex because women have a biological imperative to reproduce or lose the ability to do so. That’s actually a major brake on progress I think, because once you have a family, stability becomes highly important and you become irrevocably invested in a lot of archaic or unwise societal structures like mass car ownership. It’s by necessity people who are not invested in those structures who are most likely to make change.

One can always hope though…

Families are nature’s way of slowing things down and making it less likely that young’uns will do something stupid. : ))