CNN Poll: Are you better off than your parents?

[Puzzledtraveller]

Yes60% 73398

No40% 49072

I see this and I see OWS. I know there are all ages and socio economic backgrounds that make up our 99% save for the 1% that are easily identifiable in terms of economis disparity. But, 60% think they are better off. Either that 60% parents were more economically depressed then than they are now, or there parents were well off then and they are even better off than their parents now.

So I wonder. Are we really 99% or we the bottom 1/3? (sorry math is not my strong point) because I am nowhere near where my parents were at my age and not from lack of trying and playing by the rules. Makes me think that there is some liberal elite that is as out of touch with the plight of the rest of us the 1%.

I don't know, just a little irritated. Perhaps I'm seeing this wrong. I fear, and greatly, that I will never have the life my parents worked hard to provide me.

[Brickbat]

1. Why does being better off than your parents mean that you're not part of the 99%?

"Better off" means different things to different people. If a couple lives very frugally and keeps their debt down but doesn't have a lot of consumer goods and a child grows up in that house, the child might grow up to believe that even though he has a big mortgage, two car loans, and job insecurity, he's better off because he has the consumer goods he wants. It's such a subjective thing I don't think you can try to parse it with the math.

ETA: What life did your parents work to provide for you?

[tularetom]

8. Exactly

I'm better off than my parents primarily because of the sacrifices my parents made to assure that I would be better off.

My parents were teenagers during the depression (the last one, not the current one). My dad was an orphan and lived in Oklahoma. They always lived well below their means because they were afraid of another depression.

Me and my siblings have benefited late in our lives because of the money our parents didn't spend. Our kids are arguably not better off than us but they probably will be at the same stage of their lives. Our grandkids and great grandkids? Way too early to tell.

[CJCRANE]

2. I assume the poll includes EVERYONE

so there'll be Boomers etc. who are better off than their parents.

The poll would probably be different if it only surveyed Millenials or Gen Xers.

[intheflow]

14. Very true!

I'm a Gen-Xer and no where near as well-off as my folks were at my age. This is mostly because of my crippling student loan debt; I returned to grad school in 2001, right when the student loan rates started to skyrocket, and graduated when the economy started to tank big time. I owe $90k+ and only have a 20 hour/week municipal job with no benefits. My folks owned a home, I rent a trailer. My folks had retirement plans and savings, I'm barely surviving week-to-week.

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. I am nowhere near as well off as my parents

at my age. I invested too much time and $$$ into formal education. Far more than they did. And I went to work for an employer. They took the risks and reaped the rewards of being self-employed. I think those two factors account for much of the difference. If you work for somebody else you earn wages - if you are self-employed you earn wages plus profits but both wages and profits are far more risky and uncertain.

[JDPriestly]

12. If you were self-employed today, you would have to compete with huge corporations.

Being self-employed 30-40 years ago was very different from being self-employed today.

I question whether people who are running franchised companies are really "self-employed" in the sense that people used to be self-employed.

I hear that some people do well on the internet if they can find a niche not filled by some huge corporation.

It's pretty tough to open a store nowadays. A green grocer opened one in our area a few years ago and seems to be doing well -- and there are several newly opened second-hand stores that manage to remain open. But beyond that, the only flourishing really small businesses seem to be bakeries or very small restaurants, maybe a coffee shop in a great location. I don't know that they make much money -- probably not enough for a family.

It isn't your choices. It's changed times.

[marybourg]

4. I'm a pre-boomer. When my father was my age

he was dead. When my mother was my age she had been a widow for 10 years. Taking their lives as examples, I retired early, moved to a warm, low-cost-of living community and live moderately, but comfortably. So yes, I'm better off than my parents were. Everyone's situation is different.

[Cigar11]

5. In some way yes and in some ways no

They have Pensions … I have Investments

In many ways, their retirement was more secure.

The book is still unwritten for me.

[frazzled]

6. In what sense, Charlie?

No, really, honestly. There are other ways to be better or worse of than one's parents besides economically. Perhaps your parents enjoyed a 60-year marriage of bliss, and you are divorced. Perhaps your parents lived a simple life but were happier about that than you are about your rat-race life. Etc.

To answer for me. Am I better off economically than my parents? I feel probably about the same, though it's hard to compare across time frames. Our income is higher than what my father ever earned, probably even with adjustments for era. But the cost of living is higher for everything: housing, food, things that didn't exist then that are deemed essential now (like computers). We have more debt for sure: when I went to college (a private institution) the tuition was $3,000 per year, which was expensive then (though I had an academic scholarship--something that simply doesn't exist today). You can imagine what we had to kick in to send our kids to similar good colleges. My parents were very frugal and saved; we are not so good at it.

We have had probably a more "interesting" life than my parents because of the world in which we work (the arts) and the things it has entailed (foreign travel, meeting interesting and sometimes famous people). But on the other hand, we've had a less rich extended family life--having been geographically separated from siblings and other family. We've had to move a lot; they've stayed in the same city their whole married life.

One thing I'll say my parents had better: they had better kids! Especially, me of course. I was an angel. Just kidding, I gave them plenty of worry; but my parents, now aged 95 and 86 think they have the best children and grandchildren on earth; that they are the luckiest people on earth to have lived to enjoy it; that they survived at all (my father flew 60 missions in the South Pacific in WWII), etc.

I try to emulate my parents' way of being happy with what they have--which has never been all that much but has provided a rich, full life for them (though my father complains sometimes that he never "accomplished" anything). I forget that almost every day. And every so often I slap myself and try to be as gracious as they are.

[SixthSense]

7. lots of wishful thinking

people like to believe they are better off - they've been brainwashed all their lives to believe the standard of living can only go up from generation to generation

you take national averages though, and they tell a vastly different story. Something like a third of young adults, post-education, are living with their parents out of economic necessity

or maybe the people who said "yes" were Boomer generation in which case the "yes" would be accurate (their parents went through the original GD)

if you're younger than 50 and you said "yes" to this poll you are either exceptional, delusional, or just plain lucky

[MissB]

16. Plain lucky, then. Not exceptional.

My dad didn't go to college, but he did steel detailing for most of his career. He never liked staying in one place, so the constant upheaval took a financial toll. A divorce took another chunk of money and stability out of our childhood. Mom worked as a waitress.

Both have remarried. Dad is retired and living with his also retired wife in Florida. Mom lives on a meager SS check and local food banks. She lives in a house owned by my brother.

I paid my way through college, earning an engineering degree and mid-sized student loans.

Dh's dad was a logger until a horrible logging accident crippled him. His mom worked as a bookkeeper. They are both retired, living mostly on his retirement.

Dh's parents paid for his college, where he too earned an engineering degree.

Our parents are able to live comfy and take an occaisonal vacation.

Dh is a bit more than 50; I'm a decade younger. We are better off financially but that's due to our choice of careers and plain luck. We will be more comfy in retirement than our parents.

[plcdude]

9. As a baby boomer

I am definitely more well off materialistically than my parents who sacrificed to make that happen for me. By scrimping and saving money so their children could go to college they provided the means for our successes. Could I love my children more than they loved me- no. Could I have spoiled my children more than they spoiled me- most definitely.

[rox63]

10. Yes I am better off. But that isn't saying much.

My parents spent most of their lives living on the financial edge of disaster, often getting utilities shut off for non-payment, with my father unable to hold down steady employment due to alcoholism. They ended up having to live with my father's mother, aunt and uncle during my childhood years. My father passed away in 1997, and my mother survives on social security and a small pension, as well as some help from me and my brother.

So yes, I have done better than that.

[TheKentuckian]

11. I make more money than my mother ever did but it buys little improvement in quality of life

I've moved up from poverty to working broke but it works out to the same, no home ownership, beater, old shit, robbing Peter to pay Paul, wondering how the hell I'm going to pay bills, and all the same crap I dealt with growing up in a little better neighborhood but with me busting my tail to tread water.

I think opportunity is diminishing though and more of the "middle class" is actually just working poor.

[RobinA]

13. Not Even Close

No, I am not better off than my parents materially. My parents were better off then their parents, who were better off than their parents. My sister is about the same off as my parents because she married someone doing well, as did my mother. I am a single female with an advanced degree working at a professional job and I'm not better off than most anybody middle-class. I graduated from undergrad in 1980 and have worked my entire life under a layoff cloud, something my father never had to do. I've been laid-off twice but bounced back each time, although I took a pay cut each time. I now finally make the same money I did in 2000. I'm not complaining, I'm just pissed.

In a lot of ways I'm better off then my mother and sister because my security doesn't depend solely on another person. I also know my way around my finances, which my mother does not.

But I don't think it can come down to personal situations, I think its aggregate. I personally believe that there is going to be a huge problem when the unpensionized start hitting retirement in signifant numbers. Which won't be for awhile, but I sure wouldn't invest in anything retirement-related for the long haul. That nice retirement center down the street operates on pension money!

[Odin2005]

15. Yes, but only because I qualify for SSI and Section 8 because of my Asperger's.

All my Mom gets is food stamps and she might lose her house.

[snooper2]

17. I guess the first question would be if they are still alive or not

If your parents have passed then I imagine anything would be better than that

[Romulox]

18. CNN polls aren't scientific. nt

[FreeJoe]

20. I'm much better off

My father and I were both in roughly the same socio-economic class at this stage of our lives - upper middle class. What makes me much better off is that so much has improved during the time between his late middle age years and mine.

1) He had 3 TV channels. I have hundreds, plus netflix, plus Hulu, plus YouTube, etc.
2) His cars polluted more, got lower gas mileage, had a crappy radio, and were much less safe. He was hardly younger than I am when we finally got AC in our car and we lived in Houston.
3) He read a few magazines and books from a brick & mortar store and library. I do the same, but I also have access to the Internet and e-books.
4) We always took driving vacations when I was a kid because airfare was too high. Now we fly when going anyplace far away.
5) He was getting his first calculator when he was my age. We have computers.
6) My house is larger and better built than his was. I have amentities like a gas log fireplace, granite countertops, a tankless water heater that never runs out of hot water, and a separate AC unit for each floor instead of one for the whole house. My house is also much more energy efficient with more insulation, low-E double paned windows, and a radiant barrier in the attic.
7) When he wanted to call someone, he used a wired phone and paid a fortune for long distance calls. Now we use cell phones and Skype and no longer have a concept of "long distance" calls.
8) We have a much better variety of food available. Restaurants deliver. The fruit and vegetable seasons are much longer.
9) There are lots of other little technical changes that make my life better. I have high tech garments for keeping my drier, blocking the sun, blocking the wind, etc. My batteries last long and are rechargeable.
10) I was able to do all of my Christmas shopping without leaving the house.

I'm sure I could go on listing things all day. My point is that for most people that are in the same general socio-economic bracket as their parents, they live much better than their parents did. There are certainly some changes for the worse (commutes tend to be longer, life is more complicated, etc), but I think that overall things are better for people today than they were 30-40 years ago.

[shanti]

21. no, and i am a boomer

my parents were lucky enough to be able to sell the house they bought in 1966 for $18,000 for $200,000, thirty years later. mom's just sitting on it with a cd now, her expenses are low. unless i inherit it, i don't expect to ever have that much saved.

we won't even discuss my four sons, who all continue to struggle and see very little hope in the future.

[saras]

22. It's kind of a silly, irrelevant question.

I'm HUGELY better off than my parents in terms of education and life satisfaction.

I'm HUGELY worse off than my parents if you look at my economic ability to participate in our society.

I'm HUGELY better off than my parents if you look at the medical care theoretically available to me.

I'm HUGELY worse off than my parents if you look at the medical care that I can legally access.

and so on...

[MilesColtrane]

23. I think a lot of those Yes respondents have based their decision on access to technology.

It's like having a smartphone outweighs the decline in individual rights, social mobility and economic opportunity, fairness of the political system, and the environment that Americans are facing.

[Autumn Colors]

24. Nope

I'm from the tail end of the baby boom era, one of four kids (2 older than me, 1 younger). None of us will be better off than our parents. I have a 55-year-old sister who has NEVER moved out (except for one semester in a dorm at college), a 54-year-old brother and his family live is a very old, drafty trailer, my house is on the verge of foreclosure, as is my younger sister's house. Brother has been laid off repeatedly for months at a time the last 4-5 years (electrician). Older sister has only been able to get seasonal work during tax season. Younger sister is out of work. My business has taken a big hit in the last two years. I no longer have health insurance.

What my parents HAD is all but gone. Our mom has taken out a reverse mortgage on their house, so when she passes, our family will probably lose that and my sister will have to find a place to live without steady employment.

I'm not sure how the four of us are going to manage to survive to the age where we can get Soc. Sec. and Medicare (if that will even be there for us then).

Depressing.