This assessment will prove false within a few years, of course but it fits the meme of the day of media’s obsession with negativity:

More than half of Americans believe it’s unlikely younger people today will have better lives than their parents, according to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Source: Majority of Americans now doubt attainability of generation-to-generation upward mobility

As I have written on my Social Panic blog, public opinion polls are a measure of prior media messaging and other propaganda. People mostly regurgitate to a poll what they have been told. The media has been telling you and us that everything is awful and it must be far worse than the past.

The poll finds 7 in 10 Americans think home ownership is harder to achieve than it was for their parents.

But is it?

We bought our first home in 1983, taking possession in 1984. Inflation rates in the prior years had been as high as 13.5%.

Mortgage rates at that time were about 13-14% – We had to put down a 20% down payment and assume the two existing mortgages, with a combined interest rate off 11.1%, and the 2nd requiring a balloon payment due in 5 years.

The home was 2 bedrooms, 950 square feet, and had been a rental for 8 years, owned by 8 out of area landlords as an investment. It had been abandoned the prior year as no one would buy it because it was a total dump. Think they had re-financed (with the high rate) to cash out and put the money into other investments.

While both working full-time jobs, we spent 3 years of evenings and weekends cleaning up the mess (inside and out), repainting both inside and outside, replacing the cat-peeed upon soiled carpets and curtains, rebuilding the one bathroom and the kitchen, and ripping out and replacing the front and back yards. Yes, houses cost more today – but back then, my annual income was also lower, with a just received pay hike to $26,000/year.

The above fake news report pretends this history never existed, that the past was wonderful, and as a result this fake news becomes propaganda furthering the message that everything is awful, getting worse, and we are going to die (well, basically).

In the real world, over time, and for hundreds of years, our lives have been getting steadily better. Yes there are down periods along the long curve – but they do not change the overall long term, steadily improving lives found almost everywhere in the world.

Unfortunately, the media is incapable of reporting anything without a negativity spin. The claims made in the above AP story – that the younger generation will have a harder time, are not supportable.

In fact, from the demographics, the younger generation stands to do quite well in the near future.

Coldstreams