Editor:
Re: Boomers got their Burnaby houses thanks to rock-bottom prices, not ‘sacrifices’, NOW Letters
After reading the letter from Connor Adams, this is a pinnacle example of why nobody takes Millennials or the temper tantrums seriously.
"I read the boomer’s letter about all their ‘sacrifices’ 40 years ago to buy a house in Burnaby and I don’t understand the point of you even printing it."
Well, that's because so many from your generation have this wicked sense of self-entitlement. That life now is somehow SOOOOO much harder than it ever has been that everyone else around you should be dealing with the problems you have in life. And so when somebody says something you don't implicitly agree, with another tantrum brews. And that's a hard thing to watch in a mirror - my kids stop their tantrums when they see how ridiculous they look but Millennials tend to double down on it.
"People who are about 40 years old and younger are struggling in a ridiculous housing market and this person decided to write the newspaper complaining that young people should be upset about this."
House prices have always been high. Yes, relatively, they're "higher." But they're still not unobtainable if you're looking within your means. If you're exercising options that make sense for your financial position rather than screaming nonsensically at the same problem hoping for a different result.
"Since this person decided to lecture us, I’m going to lecture back. First of all, you older folks, from boomers to Gen X, benefited from rock-bottom housing prices. Yes, your wages were lower, but study after study has proven that the disparity between wages and house prices has a big gap than any time in our history."
You aren't "lecturing" anybody, Connor. You're indignantly pouting and making yourself sound like a petulant child - and this is coming from somebody in your age bracket and generation.
When we couldn't afford to live somewhere, we would look for employment and living in places we could afford to live and thrive. This downward momentum, choosing location-based homelessness or personal financial ruin because you want to keep living in a certain city, is pinnacle lack of common sense. Everyone is free to make that choice if they want to, but it isn't everybody else's responsibility to then cater to that continued entitlement. The "boomers’" advantage here is that they were more adaptable as a generation. Millennials don't get what they want a vast majority of them just resign to defeat and keep screaming into the aether like you're doing here.
"Yes, your interest rates were much higher, but do the math, the gap is far worse than it was today."
Again. They adapted. Lived somewhere cheaper. Banked finances, avoided extra expenditures like cable, eating out, cars and the gas and insurance that devour income, auxiliary purchases for entertainment like video games, going out to events or for social proclivities. They saved up, bought where they couldn't afford previously. It isn't their fault that our generation is too egotistical to see that we need to make concessions to these idealized lifestyles to make forward momentum.
"This isn’t about ‘sacrifices’ because, believe me, young people today have to sacrifice a lot just to afford crappy rental housing. High rents for garbage homes while so many companies offer low wages with part-time hours."
Nothing you've added here is exclusive to our generation, and were just as big a problem for our parents when we were kids. I'm estranged from my parents but they fell into the same problems you're describing. They're the boomers living paycheck to paycheck while their Millennial kid has an owned home in an area that was unaffordable to us our entire lives. It isn't the generations so much as the populations of them, the choices made to either move forward... or move backward/stagnate.
"So many young people are still living at home while pushing 30 because housing costs are so high."
Again, why do you think this problem is somehow exclusive to our generation? Exactly what you described here has always been going on. And it isn't just the rent. If you're subscribing to services like Spotify, Netflix, Prime, Hulu, whatever else, if you're going to restaurants a couple times a month, if you're buying video games or other entertainment expenses, if you smoke cigarettes or weed, if you're a social drinker. Auxiliary expenses are what people avoid to try and move forward. It's boring, it's exhausting, it feels like sacrifice all the time. But it is sacrifice - with a goal in mind. You either do or you don't.
"And, on top of that, young people feel hopeless about the future because of the climate crisis that was caused by you older folks and your polluting ways."
Get real. There are just as many people in every generation that just don't care where they should. Stop pointing fingers for every problem in your life. Yes, life is unfair. But that isn't new. And it isn't an excuse.
"Just stop it."
I couldn't agree more. It's rather embarrassing to be a Millennial by birth date when most people my age sound like you do here.
John Dyck, Burnaby
