I know a lot of professional people in my generation, and I know of only a few that have anything like what you describe.
One managed to land a six-figure job in Kentucky, one of the lowest cost of living places that was largely passed over by the housing bubble. The major reason he's well-off is that his house was affordable and he went to a lower priced university and didn't need much in the way of student loans. He lives in a ~2000 sq. ft. house that cost about $175k when he bought it. Where I live that house would be $400k, and it's not even a major city. Median incomes where I live are no higher.
Another had a liquidity event. Another owns a hugely successful online company.
The vast majority -- vast majority -- of the peers I know do not live anything like what you describe. These are not slackers either. These are hard working, highly educated professionals. Many of them routinely pull 60 hour work weeks doing things like computer programming, business, marketing, and high-end interior design for wealthy clients.
I honestly have no idea how people making the median family income can live, unless they live in horrible neighborhoods or in the middle of nowhere.
I didn't say "Earth to Planet Trust Fund" just to be snarky. There is a culture of people who grew up with wealthy parents, had mostly paid for rides to places like MIT, and earn six figures, and really do have kind of a "why do they not eat cake?" view on this stuff. In my experience they're not bad people. They're just insulated and ignorant. They have absolutely no idea what they're talking about if they think their situation is anywhere near normal.
Again, public enemy #1 here is the housing bubble, which from an income/value ratio point of view is still in effect. #2 is the cost of college. The former has increased somewhat in quality since the previous generation, though not enough to justify a quadrupling (or more) in cost. The latter hasn't increased much in quality at all, but the cost has skyrocketed.
In the UK, our parents' generation paid zero. They got given grants...
That includes the elite, politician-farming universities.
The current government just tripled the fees, after one coalition partner promised to abolish them in the campaign. That's why students ended up trashing (actually the other partner's) HQ in 2010.
Agreed, tatsuke95's comment is ridiculously out of proportion. My friends are all middle class, with two exceptions who are upper middle class -- myself & my husband, and another married couple who run a software business like we do. They have an expensive house and a very nice car, but they live well within their means and save a lot of money (and they worked their asses off to earn that money). They certainly don't have a vacation home. My husband and I just bought a house which cost just less than our biz's gross receipts last year, but we got a 30-year mortgage and we don't even own a car. We do travel fairly often and for longer periods (up to a month) but it's almost always a tax write-off, organized around conferences.
And, that other couple aside, we're by far the most extravagant people in our friend group (designers, developers, creative class all). Only a couple of our middle class friends own anything, much less expect to own two houses and cars.
The specter of wide swathes of middle class people who "expect" two houses and cars and European vacations is simply a strawman argument, conjured up to "prove" that these people "deserve what they get."
>"The specter of wide swathes of middle class people who "expect" two houses"
In 2006, 40 percent of home sales were for "second homes", with the typical buyer having a household income of $80,000.
>"tatsuke95's comment is ridiculously out of proportion"
I'm glad you think it's out of proportion, based on your personal anecdotes about your friends (except for two, but you've defined them as upper middle class, so they don't count!).
But the "wide swathes" of indebtedness, bankruptcies, defaults and deleveraging in the US says otherwise. Where have you been for the past five years? Those are facts. It occurs when people "live beyond their means", which is nearly synonymous with having too high expectations: you want more than you earn. Do you think it's the rich people living beyond their means? Is it the poor people buying cars and houses they can't afford? No, it's the middle class.
One managed to land a six-figure job in Kentucky, one of the lowest cost of living places that was largely passed over by the housing bubble. The major reason he's well-off is that his house was affordable and he went to a lower priced university and didn't need much in the way of student loans. He lives in a ~2000 sq. ft. house that cost about $175k when he bought it. Where I live that house would be $400k, and it's not even a major city. Median incomes where I live are no higher.
Another had a liquidity event. Another owns a hugely successful online company.
The vast majority -- vast majority -- of the peers I know do not live anything like what you describe. These are not slackers either. These are hard working, highly educated professionals. Many of them routinely pull 60 hour work weeks doing things like computer programming, business, marketing, and high-end interior design for wealthy clients.
I honestly have no idea how people making the median family income can live, unless they live in horrible neighborhoods or in the middle of nowhere.
I didn't say "Earth to Planet Trust Fund" just to be snarky. There is a culture of people who grew up with wealthy parents, had mostly paid for rides to places like MIT, and earn six figures, and really do have kind of a "why do they not eat cake?" view on this stuff. In my experience they're not bad people. They're just insulated and ignorant. They have absolutely no idea what they're talking about if they think their situation is anywhere near normal.
Again, public enemy #1 here is the housing bubble, which from an income/value ratio point of view is still in effect. #2 is the cost of college. The former has increased somewhat in quality since the previous generation, though not enough to justify a quadrupling (or more) in cost. The latter hasn't increased much in quality at all, but the cost has skyrocketed.