Parents all over the world want good lives for their children. That’s not a controversial statement, nothing to write home about. But what does it mean to have a “good life”? Is it only about economic prosperity? And is prosperity only measured across generations? Washington Post economics columnist Robert J. Samuelson observes what may be a new trend in this August 2018 column.
Samuelson, "The rise of downward mobility”
- Samuelson is writing about economic anxiety in the US, something that many people have been experiencing for a long time. Why is Samuelson worrying now? Summarize his argument.
- Although Samuelson is writing about the US economy in general, he explicitly positions himself as “an upper-middle-class parent.” Why might he have made that disclosure? Does the disclosure strengthen his argument? Why or why not? Explain your reasoning.
- Samuelson’s They Say includes research reports by several teams of economists as well as popular wisdom. How well does he distinguish his own ideas from theirs? Why do you think so? Use Chapter 5 of your text to help you identify the moves that Samuelson makes.
- Do you think that the economic health of a nation should be measured by whether each generation enjoys more prosperity than the previous generation? Do you think your own economic success should be measured in comparison with that of your parents? Write an essay in which you address those questions and discuss how your responses—about the nation in general and yourself specifically—relate to one another.
They Say I Blog 
When reading the essay “How to be a woman programmer” by Ellen Ullman, the author was trying to address the problem of the woman not being in more technical fields. They say “Yet I could see that, at the deeper reaches, it was as if some plague had specialized in the killing of females. I looked around and wondered, “Where are all the other women?” We, women, found ourselves nearly alone, outsiders in a culture that was sometimes boyishly puerile, sometimes rigorously hierarchical, occasionally friendly and welcoming.”. In summary, the author is trying to convey that there is a vast amount of women underrepresented in the engineering field and feels that men are suppressing women from coming up. In my opinion, I think that is not the case and that women do not choose to go into that field because of their own free choice. For example, in the medical area, there are more women than men but, I don’t feel women are suppressing men from going into that field. In conclusion, I believe men and women are different, and so are their interests
LikeLike
When reading the essay, ” What about gender roles in same-sex relationships?” by Stephen Mays, the author is writing about how society is imposing gender roles in same-sex couples. From reading this, it seems that the author has taken a personal attachment to this topic For example it states “I recently overheard someone comment to her friend about a gay male couple walking ahead of them on the sidewalk. The girl said, “Who do you think is the girl in the relationship?” I couldn’t help but frown at the girl and shake my head. As clear as you would think it is to see, I’ll spell it out for you: neither of them are the girl. They’re both boys.” This shows how invested the author is into this topic he later says why “gender roles dont matter”. In my opinion I agree with the author, Imposing gender roles into people is wrong. Imposing feminine roles into one of the couples in a same-sex relationship should not be right.
LikeLike
Samuelson is writing about economic anxiety in the US, something that many people have been experiencing for a long time. Why is Samuelson worrying now? Summarize his argument
We have been noticing that most young adults are struggling, they are waiting to get married, have children and buy homes in effort to save money. There are many young adults who still live at home to save money, they are not making enough in this booming economy to buy homes. Young adults are not making as much as their parents are which is growing and will continue onto our children. We need to make changes now to ensure our children have a chance at the best life possible. That they don’t need to struggle buying homes in a horrible housing market as we are now. President Trump says he is making changes but we don’t know exactly where to start to make these things possible. Are the choices we make now going to help our children when they are adults? Samuelson is worrying now because it won’t be an overnight change, we need to act now so our future is bright for our children.
LikeLike
My view, however, contrary to what Robert Samuelson is saying about economic mobility has argued, is that he is right. It is hard for when kids get older to make more than what their parents make. As a working middle class parent they will worry about how their children will turn out. Things has changed a lot and are different. In the 1990s or earlier lower class went to work and got married and started a family. Today in time kids stay with their parents longer to get a better education. Today kids are worrying more about their future and education then back in the early 1990s or 1980s. I believe in every generation will always have a lower class, middle class, and a upper class not everyone can be rich and in Robert Samuelson blog he states that “the poor worries about staying poor, the middle class worries about staying the middle class, and the upper class worries about staying the upper class”.
LikeLike
it is often said that America is the land of opportunity and freedom. In Samuelson’s blog, he wrote about how the future generations to come will struggle financially if something is not done now. Samuelson states that as time has passed, the amount of people who surpass their parents financially has decreased. We can see this trend growing with more people marrying later and living at home longer. Samuelson is concerned about this issue because it will affect his kids lives when they reach adulthood. The cause of young adults making less money then their parents is due to “poor education systems” and things like “weak housing construction”. Economic anxiety is a growing problem that makes the already poor, more poor, the lower middle class struggle to make ends meet, and now the upper middle class worrying about their children not being able to support themselves when they reach adulthood.
LikeLike
Life for everyone is different it is mainly the way you were raised no doubt. Everyone clams that they have it hard when their parents are just trying to look out for them. some parents are not any where to be fount in their life and it’s sad. Teenagers are in a hurry to get out of the house and go get married but they do it at a young age which is scary and never seems to work out for them in the end.
LikeLike
Living things are highly organized, meaning they contain specialized, coordinated parts. All living organisms are made up of one or more cells, which are considered the fundamental units of life.
LikeLike
I agree that we should stray away from conventional wisdom, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people still believe that it is so easy for people to switch their economic status.
LikeLike
Lauren Potter summarizes that today’s young adults are struggling to live in the current economic environment. As a young adult, I’ve experienced how expensive it is to purchase your own car. If it weren’t for living in my parents home I could never afford to pay off my first car.
LikeLike
Cesar A Delgadillo Jr.
CSSEM 300- Professional Practices Seminar
Professor Yeager
September 29, 2018
Robert Samuelson on economic mobility
Samuelson is writing about economic anxiety and the worry parents have to see their children strive for a better economic status than their own. This has been true for every generation, as far back as we can go into history. The reason for writing is the fact that it doesn’t seem to get better every passing generation. It looks like it seems to be getting worse. Facts from many sources of studies have proven his claim for everyone’s worry.
Samuelson points out that it is tougher to the middle upper class than the poor. The reason he states this it’s because, as middle class, they worry to lose what they already worked hard for their children. The anxiety of losing it all loads on them. For the poor, as he states, “The incomes of the poor can’t drop much lower; indeed, with small gains, they can pass their parents.” He claims that the poor can’t have a change in the anxiety they already feel because they don’t have much to lose. Parents with some sort of wealth to leave to their children feel anxiety because the children have to take the responsibility of carrying on their hard work forward.
It’s true when he states that the poor can’t possible loose much compared to the middle class. It’s just not a statement that can be validated as a fact. Anxiety can be load bearing on the poor too. The middle class have better advantages through medicine, job offers, and even luxuries the poor can’t afford. The poor will see everything, but can’t offer those same advantages to their children. The social pressure for the poor is giving their children what they want and need. This is the same pressure the middle class feel. Both parents feel anxiety, in different reasonings, so they are equally the same pressure.
It’s great that Samuelson noted his experience as the upper-middle class. It gives ground to what he claims and how the studies affect people in his status quo. His experience gives a reason for his class group. I can’t say it’s a disadvantage, but it doesn’t state a claim for the poor or the rich. His they say claims of the studies and what He says are distinguishable. It can’t be claimed as the main reason for the reported results by experts, but it may be at least one reason that supports the studies.
One generation shouldn’t be compared to the next one because there are many differences between each one. People are constantly migrating, so one generation will experience different life cycling than the previous one. Technology is innovating in time, so you can’t compare the same luxuries of technology to the last era of people. The economy is always fluctuating, so what would seem like poor financial status would be referred to luxury in previous times. Laws are added and removed, society changes culture constantly. Wisdom and methods are even rediscovered. Some practices would be discontinued, but then reconsidered as a good method for the time of era. We can say for sure that time is changing and making everything more efficient. We can’t compare financial prosperity between eras. There are times of struggle and times of smooth sailing in the economy. So not everyone will experience the same thing.
LikeLike
In an opinion piece for the The Washington Post, Robert J. Samuelson worries about the inevitable impact of income inequality in the United States effecting people of all economic strata, especially the upper-middle class. Samuelson is reacting to the social construct that many of us grew up believing which is that every American generation will be more upwardly mobile then the previous one. The author believes this reality will cease to exist for the upper-middle class. I agree with Samuelson’s view that that the upper middle-class is facing the same downward trend that generations in other classes have found troubling for a while. However, I think he misses the mark quite a bit.
First, the situation for the upper-middle class might not be as dire as Samuelson presented. In a recent report for the Pew Research Center, author Rajesh Kochhar found the size of the American middle-class to be stable; although, they are losing ground to their richer counterparts in the one-percent. Kochhar also notes that since 2011 the number of people counted as middle-class has settled in at around 51 percent, reversing the trend first seen in the 1970s.
Samuelson neatly sticks to the economic woes of the wealthy, making the case that the upper and middle class have more to lose than the lower classes and the poor. While this sounds correct from a dollar perspective, it seems like a cruel and short-sighted view for what is at stake for the less financially fortunate.
Having grown up in a lower-class family and being fortunate enough to marry into the middle-class, I have a very different viewpoint from that of Samuelson. As a child, my father started several small businesses that failed before he would eventually become successful. After each failure, he would return to driving a New York City taxi to make ends meet. Being a cab driver was hard and at times, a dangerous way to put food on the table. My father worked 12-hour shifts, leaving all the parenting of my brother and I to our mother, who also worked nights. His downward shift economically had real costs to him and his family that were no less painful, in fact probably much more, than the suffering that Samuelson describes for the upper and middle class experiencing economic difficulties today.
In my perspective, the income inequality between the top one-percent and all other groups in America has been and still is one of the most significant failings of modern capitalism in American and throughout the globe. While Samuelson rightly points to a trend for those who felt economically safe in the past, this isn’t really a new phenomenon; it is only more acute and reaching more individuals. Many in the 99 economic percentile and obviously more towards those below the poverty line have been grapping for years with diminished bank accounts and standards of living; it has left many of us waiting for enlightened political solutions to address unaffordable healthcare, unlivable wages, astronomic education costs and more.
Samuelson is correct by noting that the living standards of the middle and upper middle class moving downward should be seen as a canary in a coal mine for all Americans. However, I disagree with his take on what is at stake for those that have the most financial resources of any Americans. The recent rise of extremes in the American presidential election process, devout socialist Bernie Sanders and real estate billionaire Donald Trump becoming political sensations in 2016, speaks volumes to the mounting financial despair that all but the one-percenters of America face. Samuelson was looking at the right subject, but missed the most important points.
LikeLike
In reading Robert Samuelson I can agree in a statement he did, ” Parents want good lives for their children”. I can connect with this since my dad works to buy me what I want and give me a better life than he did.
LikeLike
After reading the article by Samuelson, I learned that it has been noticed for a while now that young adults have been struggling. They are waiting to get married, have kids, and buy a house. There are many young adults staying home to save money. Young adults are not making as much as their parents. Which affects the young adults mentally and they end up believing that they won’t make enough as them ever. Changes need to be made to make sure young adults can plan for a good future and economic success. The President said he is trying to make changes, although it is tough to achieve these plans to make sure everyone can be economically comfortable is nearly impossible. Samuelson is worried now because this movement to improve our economy and the decisions is starting and one bad decision can mess it up for all of us.
LikeLike
Looking back into history, Samuelson said, economic anxiety as always been present. The question is, to what degree? Along with the question, why is it worse now than previously? In Samuelson’s article, he addresses how as time goes on, everything changes, technology, education, and so on. One would think that in today’s day and age, that with the assistance from technology and all the new inventions, life would be easier, and you would not have to worry as much. Contrary to this notion, increasing financial struggles have become more than presumably true.
Our generation today is falling short of accomplishing what parents thought they would, and in theory, is paving way to a new, understood, less successful society. Today’s generation seems to be failing to utilize advantages that they possess at their fingertips,good schools, job market connections, college, and other beneficial programs that may help them succeed. Previous generations made the best of what they had, and pulled through to become successful. The same mindset needs to be enacted on our generation today. If our generation and future generations are not taught how to use programs that are given to us (College career centers), this is going to lead to many problems down the road. Samuelson touched on the topic of coming up with better ways to supplement the inadequate salaries and wages. Nobody is going to be able to purchase property, move away from their parents, or provide their future family with everything they need if something is not done.
Wages are changing and inflation seems to be an evident problem. People today are working, but not necessarily making enough money to fulfill their needs, never mind surpass their parents income. Therefore, this is leading to the growing trend of people living with their parents for a longer duration, getting married later, and making big financial investments such as a house or a car later on.
With these conditions, it is becoming harder to keep one’s head above the water as opposed to doing better financially then their parents. Previous ideas and standards are evolving into a bigger issue. Although there may be other factors contributing to these seemingly apparent changes, for the most part these principles seem to be the culprit of what is a growing problem.
LikeLike
After reading the article by Robert Samuelson, I learned that for a while now that young adults have been struggling more so then ever before due to the lack of social mobility. They are waiting to get married, have kids, and buy a house. But these young adults are not making as much money as they have before. There are many young adults staying home to save money. Which affects the young adults mentally and they end up believing that they won’t make enough as them ever. Changes need to be made to make sure young adults can plan for a good future and economic success. The President said he is trying to make changes, although it is tough to achieve these plans to make sure everyone can be economically comfortable is nearly impossible. Samuelson is worried now because this movement to improve our economy and the decisions are starting and one bad decision can mess it up for all of us.
LikeLike
Looking back into history, Samuelson said, economic anxiety as always been present. The question is, to what degree? Along with the question, why is it worse now than previously? In Samuelson’s article, he addresses how as time goes on, everything changes, technology, education, and so on. One would think that in today’s day and age, that with the assistance from technology and all the new inventions, life would be easier, and you would not have to worry as much. Contrary to this notion, increasing financial struggles have become more than presumably true.
Our generation today is falling short of accomplishing what parents thought they would, and in theory, is paving way to a new, understood, less successful society. Today’s generation seems to be failing to utilize advantages that they possess at their fingertips,good schools, job market connections, college, and other beneficial programs that may help them succeed. Previous generations made the best of what they had, and pulled through to become successful. The same mindset needs to be enacted on our generation today. If our generation and future generations are not taught how to use programs that are given to us (College career centers), this is going to lead to many problems down the road. I agree on the topic of coming up with better ways to supplement the inadequate salaries and wages. Nobody is going to be able to purchase property, move away from their parents, or provide their future family with everything they need if something is not done.
Wages are changing and inflation seems to be an evident problem. People today are working, but not necessarily making enough money to fulfill their needs, never mind surpass their parents income. Therefore, this is leading to the growing trend of people living with their parents for a longer duration, getting married later, and making big financial investments such as a house or a car later on.
With these conditions, it is becoming harder to keep one’s head above the water as opposed to doing better financially then their parents. Previous ideas and standards are evolving into a bigger issue. Although there may be other factors contributing to these seemingly apparent changes, for the most part these principles seem to be the culprit of what is a growing problem.
LikeLike
After reading the article by Robert Samuelson, I learned that for a while now that young adults have been struggling more so then ever before due to the lack of social mobility. They are waiting to get married, have kids, and buy a house. But these young adults are not making as much money as they have before. There are many young adults staying home to save money. Which affects the young adults mentally and they end up believing that they won’t make enough as them ever. Changes need to be made to make sure young adults can plan for a good future and economic success. The President said he is trying to make changes, although it is tough to achieve these plans to make sure everyone can be economically comfortable is nearly impossible. We should all be worried now because this movement to improve our economy and the decisions are starting and one bad decision can mess it up for all of us
LikeLike
After reading and analyzing the article by Robert Samuelson, that life is totally different now, than what it was back then. Nowadays, young adults struggle to create a better life for themseleves, and for the children they could have. As he himself puts it, “Among many young Americans, there is downward mobility. The children aren’t achieving what they (and their parents) expected. Even when they have (and many have), the gains could be eroded in the future. The trajectory is not inevitably up. Parents worry about their children’s fate.” For people born in the 1940’s, it was easier for that generation to make more money than their parents. Mainly because those prior had to go through the Great Depression in 1930s. But now, as time goes on. Young Adults cannot progress as much as their parents when it comes to having a successfull life, with having a significant other, a home, and kids. Now is time to worry for the minorites who could have the happy and successfull lives they and their parents wanted for them.
LikeLike
After reading the article by Robert J. Samuelson, I would have to agree with his baseline argument, downward mobility is truly happening, no doubt about it. But I have to disagree with Samuelson that this is significant. Samuelson states that children are living with their parents longer, getting married later in life, and having children later on too. But these aren’t necessarily bad things, if you take a look at social media and what young adults are doing you will see that many are staying in school longer, traveling the world, working for non-profits, and pursuing their hopes and dreams. These negative traits that Samuelson describes are actually good things in my opinion. Young adults are more active, more in touch, and more creative than ever. We are in a social renaissance, there is so much creativity, inspiration, problems, and room for us to do what we like. Facing problems like deforestation, global warming, social injustice, dictatorship, has pushed many young adults to want to see change. Income is no longer the driving factor in our society, being the richest person is no longer a goal for many, it’s become simple, the pursuit of healthy relationships, true friends, deep connections, acceptance, expression and social change. Though this may not look good from an economic standpoint it is what we need as a society. The problems that were created that we once ignored and set aside are now receiving the attention and support they need. Like pollution, oil use, and deforestation. Many have come to accept the fact that their purpose is to help fix the problems in the world and this is their drive to help make a change that will last and experience life in no way imaginable, not in an office going home to a boring suburban house with your boring suburban family but living life the way you want to and living it to your heart’s content, living on the edge and taking risks. Downward mobility may be a legitimate concern for our economy but times are changing and making more money than your parents is not a problem may young adults are concerned with at the moment.
LikeLike
I believe that the next generation’s life will better than our life. the new technology will change future people life. also, the new technology will solve many world problems. The new technology improves production efficiency, so society can afford more people get an education. Many people will easily get a high education. the new technology and high education will be boring people in a new world. First, modern technology promotes people easily get a better life. The new technology is changing people life, and it helps people to find a comfortable life. scientists keep inventing the new technology. People can look forward future life will better current life. The technology always leads to human’s improvement. The new technology will bring the human into a new world. in the world, everyone will be influenced. For example, the internet is changing the world, and influence everyone. People should believe the future human’s life will better current life because of technology’s improvement. Second, the modern educational system will help people to get more knowledge. The educational system is a knowledge source. The educational system is keeping progress and more people get an education. When a new technology improves social production efficiency, more people will go to school. People should believe that in the future, high educators will become a common phenomenon. Therefore, the next generation’s life will better than our life. Moreover, a class or a minority group’s future life cannot represent human’s future life. In the future, a class, or a minority group may get a worse life than the last generation, but these not prove human will get worse life. a class or a minority group is a part of the human. Human’s future life based on technology and education. therefore, a class or a minority group’s future life cannot represent human’s future life.
LikeLike
As the times are changing, the economy and people are as well. After reading this article by Samuelson we can infer that economy anxiety is becoming more of a problem for future generations. Samuelson positions himself as an upper-middle class father, however he expresses his concern for his children despite being in a somewhat good position. Samuelson talks about how in years past children would have a higher income compared to their parents, however as years past that percentage of having a better income than your parents have lowered and he fears that it will continue to do so as the years pass on. Despite this generation having more resources by newer technology I believe that the economic anxiety for future generations is real. While the economy is going at an okay rate at the moment there may be a time where kids are struggling to get jobs and a reliable income. This can be caused by many things, such as having a good education history for a job, or having experience such as years of volunteering or internship before you could ever be considered for a job. While the economy is not at a suffering point at the moment, we can slowly see the future generation struggling to make a decent income.
LikeLike
Despite the common adage in America that each generation lives better than the previous, Robert J. Samuelson writes in his Washington Post Column entitled The Rise of Downward Mobility, The opposite has been true for decades. Citing a study by Raj Chetty and fellow economists, He explains that fewer and fewer people are surpassing their own parent’s income levels. He also brings up trends such as putting off getting married, buying homes, and having children that seem to be direct consequences of downward mobility.
While some may blame these consequences on more women entering the workforce, I believe that too is a consequence. While many women may be career minded, it is becoming more and more true that a couple, let alone a family, cannot subsist on just the father’s income anymore. Downward mobility is delaying, and in some cases, crushing young people’s dreams to get married, buy homes, and have children.
LikeLike
After reading this article by Robert Samuelson I can agree with some comments that Samuelson considers himself as an upper-middle class parent who wants to have a bright future for his children and believes that ecomonic prosperity will give them necessary start. But, we cannot aggry that simular live style, or simular start in life can have the same effect on everyone. Some people became more successful after marriage, some need to stay “strong on their feet” before they will be involeved in family problems, so support of their parents is necessary. Not everyone is ready to start the college or university at the same age, some students had hard time in school, sinse in our today’s society both parents have to work to meet needs of the family and if they are in college – they don’t have a time for their kids, can’t help them with homework or other stuff. So, trying to do the best for kids, we are not always in a Win-Win situation. Improving quality of life for kids today we may not prepare them for their future.
LikeLike
You will find a large range of assistive bathroom equipment available to help a person access and use bathroom and toilet facilities safely for their daily hygiene needs. Our bath aids department contains a huge range of bathroom aids and bath aids ideal for the elderly and disabled. Our aids make their life safe and comfortable.
LikeLike
The perching stools help you be on-the-move and stay active during your day. With the perching stools you can rock, tilt,swivel, or be stationary all while comfortably seated. The proprietary seat cushion design reduces pressure points improving comfort over other perching stools.
LikeLike
Politician, governments, teachers usually sell the slogan similar “made the future today for tomorrow”. In very few words, this simplified slogan is incomplete, so the future of “who” and “what”. The “who” would included you, you in yours last days of your life, your kids, or your grand-kids; the “what” the most probably the prosperity. If you answer is “Economic”; yes, I would agree with you. According to Samuelson in his paper “The rise of downward mobility” he tried to explain why “Economic anxiety is increasingly an equal-opportunity affliction. No one can escape it”(2018). Samuelson try to use tools for his explanations no limited to some statistics analysis based on prolonged data, in which social class you were born, or the time you were born. Personally, I think the last one explains the macroeconomic effects better than others; and, for the micro economic effects, I would like to cite one of the bloggers Alexis, who said, “Life for everyone is different it is mainly the way you were raised no doubt”(2018).
The macroeconomic scenery that Samuelson provided to explain his thesis has a very clear paragraph which positioning well to view a general picture to see different sceneries through time:
“About 90 percent of children born in 1940 ultimately exceeded their parents’ incomes. That is, almost everybody. This makes sense; the babies born in 1940 were affected by both the 1930s’ Great Depression (which reduced incomes) and the post-World War II economic boom (which raised incomes). However, for children born in 1970, only 61 percent earned more than their parents, and for those born in 1980, only 50 percent did.”
Between too many possible causes to fundament those lines, I would like to express basically two. First, the offer and demand for resources in general, especially the land price. For the resources in general, more probably tomorrow than today, we need to work harder and to travel farther distances to get the quantity of supplies that we need at a cost that is needed because they are not anymore available to close us. For the land, we are still more people everyday, so the price of the land for the same surface is more expensive today than yesterday. For example, what happened right after WWII?, oversupplies that was not needed because of the war ended and less people on the planet (too many deaths). The second one is the speed of information. For example, just to have the knowledge that your life, my life, can be changed overnight for something unexpected in the other side of the globe, or coming closer seeing more people on the downward than upward (Samuelson), by sure, at least for me, the (my) anxiety increases. To clarify, the mass people’s reaction to unexpected news were slower in the 40’ because only radios or primitives telephones systems were available; today, with the internet, the yesterday ‘s new is old. However, not everything are macroeconomic factors.
Repeating to Alexis, “Life for everyone is different it is mainly the way you were raised no doubt”. No doubt than an average parents would like to provide the best for their kids. Even though they choose for their kids the best education and formation available not limited to school, extracurricular formation, family, friends, plus the lucky of the place, time, dna received, those variables are not more than different micro factors that not warranty the future for no one to better or not than your parents.
Finally, the increased economic anxiety incorporates, as we saw, the consequences of economic factors, macro and micro. Thus, this negative consequences could be reduced with better laws of distributions. The result of those laws is already measured for an existence coefficient called “Gini”. The perfect distribution and stability are a utopia. Even thought that, we need to incorporate comprehensives rules in someway to give a better life to the life because to have a life without a life does not make sense. The reflection is there.
LikeLike
In the article, “The rise of downward mobility,” Robert J. Samuelson states that with the new innovations of the modern world it seems that new generations are supposed to live better. The expectation of every modern generation is to live better or earn more than their parents. Samuelson immediately dismisses the idea that today’s younger generations have all the advantages of ones before them or more so than their parents before them. However, oppositely, middle class or upper-class families are facing a downward trend of income, opportunity, and success. Samuelson argues that since 1970s the percentage of children who are making better income than their parents diminished more and more every decade. The author does admit that people start to have mature lives later than it was before. People of all classes worry about the future even economy is a good enough. Samuelson states that there are many reasons for people being anxious about losing what they have.
I share Robert J. Samuelson’s about the current downward economic trend of younger American generations. In passing, he provides several realistic theories as to why this is happening. However, I disagree that the reason of the problem is taxation or something else. I believe that the issue in our generation and generations before is laziness and illusion. America gives people a lot of opportunities to live well. People can go to school and study hard and think better what they can do to make good income. I noticed a lot of people do not want to study. Many people from my generation think if their parents have good income, then they do not have to worry about their own income. They always know that their parents can help. Or they have an illusion that if their parents could make it to good lives, they are able too without trying too hard. I don’t believe this to be the case. I hope one day people will understand it and try very hard to do better than their parents and achieve their full potential.
LikeLike
After reading “The rise of downward mobility” by Robert J. Samuelson I realized that much of the older generation that thinks as he does believes that the future is in danger in the hands of millennials. Samuelson makes the argument that “parents [now] worry about their children’s fate” and “despite today’s strong economy, they’re [millennials are] falling behind.” While it is true that as generations pass children aren’t making as much as their parents, what Samuelson fails to take into account is the better quality of life the children have. The parents are making more money, yes, but they worked their lives away in doing so, while their children, and more so children in todays society, focus on the better things in life that create happy memories. For example, instead of working more hours in some kind of office in order to obtain as much wealth as possible to spend on a lot of materialistic items, children/young adults today may start their own business making trendy earrings to sell to the public through social media in order to make money to go on road trips or do other fun activities with the people who make them happy. Children and young adults today believe in up-cycling, supporting local businesses, and cleaning up the planet compared to adults who only cared about living a better life consisting building up the economy and of buying the newest appliances which support big factories that produce pollution. As you should be able to see by now, the children and young adults of today are living high quality lives. They may not be working all the time and boosting the economy, but they certainly are enjoying life and living a lot happier than their predecessors.
LikeLike
As a whole, I agree with Samuelson millennials are being forced to rearrange their lives due to squeezed incomes; however, he never mentions the cause of these squeezed incomes like he did previously in the article. Before, he explains how people born in the 1940s were able to surpass their parents’ income, but doesn’t mention why millennials are struggling to pass their parents’ income. While I agree that it has become less likely that children with parents with higher incomes to match them, I would like to know what contributes to that today.
LikeLike
Throughout the article, it is said many times that the next generation will live better than the next due to constant improvements for ways of life. Economic stability is a constant worry for some people in the United States. The United States consists of different classes such as the lower class, middle class, and the upper class. The upper class really does not need to worry about money issues. The middle class makes a steady income where they can live comfortably. The lower class are people who live paycheck to paycheck and have a constant worry about not having enough money. This article was written in 2018 and it is now 2020. People are worrying now more than ever about their economic issues due to the pandemic we are in. Some people are not getting a steady income and are afraid they are not going to be living comfortably. The pandemic has made upper-class people worry a little because a lot of non-essential businesses are closed. Economic stability is a constant worry of many Americans.
LikeLike
1.Economic anxiety is becoming a big worry in America because of how the income rate is decreasing through each generation. According to Samuelson “children aren’t achieving what they or their parents expect”. More young Americans are starting to earn less than their parents did. This is becoming a big issue because, what does that say about our youth? Are they doing enough? Samuelson points and mentions a lot of facts that show the reader why this is true, such as the fact as time goes on it is becoming more and more common that young adults go back to living with their parents to save money, not have children, and not buy a house, all of which before was a common thing at a young age after college to get married, have children, buy a house, and live on their own.
2.Samuelson mentions the fact that he is part of the middle-upper class, and this strengthens his argument in the way that throughout the whole article, the subject mainly pertains to the children and people of the upper-middle class. Stating this in the beginning of the article directly gives a boost in credibility due to the fact that he is mainly writing about an economic class that he is part of. He feels that children of the people in his economic class, and maybe his children as well, won’t be able to make as much as they do economically in the future when they are independent. This becomes an issue that affects him on a personal level and more people who can relate instantly have some sort of connection with the Samuelsson, They don’t want their children falling behind economically because everyone wants the best for their children and in this world its mainly has to do with getting them in the best economic position to live a good life.
3.Distinguishing what others say in comparison to what you are saying as the writer is something that Samuelson did a good job in the article. In the article Samuelson is able to clearly introduce the information that he gets from outside as what others are saying. For example, he either clearly states the person or group he got the information from or uses “they” to signify that this information is not his. When introducing his own ideas, he uses a form of language that clearly shows he is writing from his own thoughts and ideas. One thing I noticed is he uses what other people say and then contradicts it by writing against what people say, Cleary using negative language to contradict the idea or fact he just mentioned.
4.Economic prosperity in comparison to our parents should be measured to determine how successful our generation in a modified way. That is to say that we closely match or surpass our parent income. This I think is a good representation of how our generation does economically. If the majority of the generation does worse economically than their parents, that says something bad about our generation. Yes, there will be people who are super rich but the more wealth you have around you the more opportunities to create wealth you have thus allowing you to somewhat match or even surpass the income of your parents. Economic stability is something that determines the way you live and if that goes down generation by generation that is a bad thing for ourselves. Economic prosperity should be measured
LikeLike
Throughout time a parent’s success later on in life is oftentimes determined by their children’s success. Whether the child is a successful doctor or has generated a great income relies on how many opportunities were brought and given to them when they were younger. Samuelson argues that many younger Americans are doing worse, they are falling behind in the economic world. I agree this is because it’s hard for children to make as much as their parents make these days. Some reasons young adults have a hard time making money is due to expensive tuition fees, harder to get well-paying jobs. Now young adults are eager to move out and start their own life but most of the time it isn’t possible due to expensive housing and a job that isn’t sufficient enough to provide them a comfortable lifestyle early on. As Samuelson mentions in the blog “Economic anxiety is increasingly an equal-opportunity affliction. No one can escape it. The poor worry about staying poor. The lower-middle class worries about paying bills or losing jobs. Now upper-middle-class parents have joined the crowd because their own well-being is often judged by how well their children are doing”. This change in economic anxiety will not happen in a short time. There needs to be a constant fight towards a better and healthier system for our future generations.
LikeLike
I agree with the author Samuelson’s view concerning his belief in young adults. I believe that most young adults are struggling in the society we live in today, young adults don’t make as much money as their parents. The new generation has so many tasks that we have to worry about: getting married, having kids, or buying a house. To have most of those things you must have a steady income. Now being successful doesn’t always involve college yet some fields require schooling with little to no help financially. In the article, Samuelson states ”The poor worry about staying poor. The lower-middle class worries about paying bills or losing jobs. Now the upper-middle class parents have joined the crowd because their own well-being is often judged by how well their children are doing.” This is true the poor have nothing to lose, the lower-middle class is worrying about bills and the upper class has a high standard to be successful from parents. I believe the poor struggle the most since the poor don’t have much to lose and don’t receive much help from society.
LikeLike
1.) He is worrying now because the idea was suppose to be that the younger generation were to being doing better than the previous generation but the statistics show that it is not happening. He went on to talk about how there is less of everything now and proceeds to explain how that is leading the new generation down the wrong road.
2.) I believe that he might’ve made this disclosure to show he believed what everyone else believed, the “They Say”but that he realized that things aren’t necessarily playing out as they should be and by him making this disclosure, it in a way adds credibility to his story. A way to support his thought.
Comment: I personally share the same concern as in the article because I see it in today’s society. Nowadays everyone is having kids later and later, if at all. They are not buying homes or building generational wealth. Everything is more self-centered if any anything.
LikeLike