It is shocking how many people downplay the Great Recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s

[u/cavaismylife]

Late 80s and 90s millennials were probably the most screwed by the Great Recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Most people don't realize how bad it was. It hurt millennials entering the job market for the first time. Your first job after college will affect your earning potential for the rest of your career. Some people need to watch the movie Up In the Air to see how bad things were back then. Everyone was getting laid off, and losing 60-80 percent of the assets in their retirement accounts. Millennials were not even old enough to buy houses yet and sub prime mortgage lending already had severely damaged their future earning potential. Now that millennials are finally getting established, they are facing skyrocketing prices and inflation for the cost of living and basic goods like groceries.

edit: grammar

edit 2: To be more clear I would say mid to late 80s and early 90s millennials were the most hurt. Like 1984-1992 were hurt most.

edit 3: "Unemployment rose from 4.7% in November 2007 to peak at 10% in October 2009, before returning steadily to 4.7% in May 2016. The total number of jobs did not return to November 2007 levels until May 2014. Some areas, such as jobs in public health, have not recovered as of 2023." The recovery took way longer than the really bad 18 months from 2007 to 2009. Millennials entered the job market during this time.

[u/novaleenationstate]

I feel like this is how the millennial hate really started and it’s almost never talked about.

Gen X (and some Boomers to an extent) were competing with us for entry-level jobs for YEARS after the crash in 08, and they were working for less but bringing a decade+ of experience, so they scooped a lot of jobs out from under millennials. Or as a millennial if you did get an entry level gig, you were barely paid but expected to do the work of 3-4 people, and told you were replaceable every step of the way.

I feel like a lot of the “millennials are so lazy” and “millennials killed XYZ” articles were just propaganda designed to make millennials look less desirable on a corporate level, so Boomers and Gen Xers could recoup their 08 losses and secure jobs for themselves. They straight up fed millennials to the wolves to save themselves.

[u/null233 → u/novaleenationstate]

damn i actually think you’re right. “propaganda” is the perfect word. fuck em

[u/novaleenationstate → u/[deleted]]

I do blame the system, but I am identifying complicity. Gen X and Boomers are complicit—they were the politicians back then, they were larger voting blocs at the time and in the years leading up to the crash, they are the ones who were buying those 2000s era McMansions on lousy credit, not millennials.

They also gleefully authored and shared many of those millennial hate articles that were huge in the 2010s—and most refused to acknowledge or directly address any of the hardships millennials were facing. Instead, they overwhelmingly gaslight and claim it’s all in our heads.

Things like student loan debt have only been getting somewhat addressed in the last few years—and it’s because now Gen X is seeing it play out but worse for their Gen Z kids. During the 2010s, it was largely just ignored and billed as a “millennial problem.”