I'm a millennial, and our standard of living is better than any generation before us. Everyone has a smartphone, people eat out constantly, and most take multiple vacations a year. Sure, it’s not as easy as my cousins in Saskatoon who can afford every toy known to man—but they don’t have BC-level expenses either.

My wife and I crack up when coworkers complain they can’t afford a house… after coming back from their third Taylor Swift concert this year. They eat out for lunch every day, never pack a meal, go out with friends several nights a week, wear new designer clothes, always have the latest iPhone, take girls’ trips to Vegas, and still do an annual Mexico vacation.

Want to know how we bought a house?

We did none of that.

The last series of posts certainly sound familiar. When I was young houses seemed expensive by the standards of the time. I was quite sure I would never own one. After good economic times from about the mid 50s and through the 60s the western world entered a period of "stagflation", a decade of low growth and high inflation which ended in the recession of the early 80s. That all but killed the lumber industry in BC. Many mills closed and men who for decades had secure work, but little varied experience, lost their jobs. It's been a similar story since then as our economy now runs on a model of creative destruction.

Every boomer I know, including my wife and I "worked hard". We claim it was the key to our success. So do millenials and it will be the key to whatever success they achieve. I have 2 adult children in their 30s. They both started out one career path and it didn't quite meet their hopes, re-educated and started anew. One is in the media business & works on live events, everything from hockey games, corporate conferences and news events. It's gig work and they work for 3 or 4 different companies. It's also seasonal; very busy in the fall, late winter and spring but not so busy in summer and at holiday time. "They have to make hay when the sun shines" so they will often work several consecutive days, they are about to start a 16 day consecutive stint at a variety of venues. Often they will work 18+ hours on back to back shifts to get the hours! No 'official' employer, no benefits, no vacation pay and no EI.

I think millenials really do face challenges most boomers never had to worry about. I don't think I would gotten what I had today if I hadn't had a partner/wife who wanted to work and have a career. Ditto for the fact we have stayed together for close to 50 years now. It was similar for my parents. They both worked and my father went through extended periods of unemployment. He had to retire early as the job he had for 25+ years fizzled out as he entered his 60s. Creative destruction. The closed out a Union shop and replaced it with guess what.

Something else that I find irksome is how businesses hire. Someone leaves for a better job or maybe gets let go. Do they fill it asap with a suitable candidate? No! They are looking for a unicorn, a person who is a perfect fit in every respect. My wife's career was in HR and saw a lot of this. You hear much about the unemployment rate. What about the rate of vacant positions?

We have built a screwy world IMO. One built for billionaires, professionals in high demand and the tech savvy.

Once again Ralph. You are ignoring the basic math.

In the early 70s a man with a grade 10 education could go to work in trades and buy a single family home with a nice yard. Keep in mind that BC boxes back then were mostly under 10 years of age. Considered to be very new homes. The wife didn't have to work. They could have multiple kids. Money left over after payday. Homes were paid off in 15 years easy.

Fast forward to 2025:
Both husband and wife need to be working and earning a professional wage at least in order to purchase a single family home with a yard. If just starting out, this usually includes renting out the basement suite in order for the mortgage to be paid. These same BC box homes are now over 50 years old. They are not new anymore.
Forget the wife staying home and raising kids. The husband would have to be a doctor or lawyer for that to happen. Both professions require a person to be almost 28 years of age before school is even finished.

Again Ralph....it's just math. You're an accountant. You should be able to recognize trends and differences. But you don't. Like so many other boomers, you are hardened in your own little boomer bubble.
1970 compared to 2025 financially is like being in a completely different dimension. How do you not see that?

You can get property cheap in Japan one of my coworkers just left to live there and another just bought there.

Australia has also reduced their immigration  abd its reducing housing prices.

Lots of countries tho with positive birth rates so not going to effect their as much.

Japan has much lower real income than many western countries. It's position is #25 below countries like the UK, Slovenia, New Zealand, Spain and italy They also experienced a protracted real estate bust when the economic growth bubble burst back in the 90s and the economy contracted after a generation of crazy growth. It's only now seeing some recovery.

The last series of posts certainly sound familiar. When I was young houses seemed expensive by the standards of the time. I was quite sure I would never own one. After good economic times from about the mid 50s and through the 60s the western world entered a period of "stagflation", a decade of low growth and high inflation which ended in the recession of the early 80s. That all but killed the lumber industry in BC. Many mills closed and men who for decades had secure work, but little varied experience, lost their jobs. It's been a similar story since then as our economy now runs on a model of creative destruction.

Every boomer I know, including my wife and I "worked hard". We claim it was the key to our success. So do millenials and it will be the key to whatever success they achieve. I have 2 adult children in their 30s. They both started out one career path and it didn't quite meet their hopes, re-educated and started anew. One is in the media business & works on live events, everything from hockey games, corporate conferences and news events. It's gig work and they work for 3 or 4 different companies. It's also seasonal; very busy in the fall, late winter and spring but not so busy in summer and at holiday time. "They have to make hay when the sun shines" so they will often work several consecutive days, they are about to start a 16 day consecutive stint at a variety of venues. Often they will work 18+ hours on back to back shifts to get the hours! No 'official' employer, no benefits, no vacation pay and no EI.

I think millenials really do face challenges most boomers never had to worry about. I don't think I would gotten what I had today if I hadn't had a partner/wife who wanted to work and have a career. Ditto for the fact we have stayed together for close to 50 years now. It was similar for my parents. They both worked and my father went through extended periods of unemployment. He had to retire early as the job he had for 25+ years fizzled out as he entered his 60s. Creative destruction. The closed out a Union shop and replaced it with guess what.

Something else that I find irksome is how businesses hire. Someone leaves for a better job or maybe gets let go. Do they fill it asap with a suitable candidate? No! They are looking for a unicorn, a person who is a perfect fit in every respect. My wife's career was in HR and saw a lot of this. You hear much about the unemployment rate. What about the rate of vacant positions?

We have built a screwy world IMO. One built for billionaires, professionals in high demand and the tech savvy.

Ya the mill just closed in 100 mile.  Property will probably be cheap there coming up. 

Personally, I am not convinced that immigration is the driver of housing inflation. It seems to me that the issue is world wide and I wonder if it is just a result of population growth everywhere? And releasing crown land isn’t what’s I see as a solution because there have to be services and employment for the occupants and if not impossible it is going to be hard to provide both at a cost that’s will lower prices. And I keep hearing that nobody can afford a home but my child and her 3 kids all have bought  homes, my friends kids have homes and there seems to be a hell of a lot of new homes around me in Langley full of people.
As we all know when animal populations grow to unsustainable sizes they collapse. Maybe the population of invasive bipeds is merely nearing the tipping point? Food supply is becoming stretched in a lot of the planet, the habitants are succumbing to epidemic diseases and the population is turning on itself.

You can get property cheap in Japan one of my coworkers just left to live there and another just bought there.

Australia has also reduced their immigration  abd its reducing housing prices.

Lots of countries tho with positive birth rates so not going to effect their as much.

Ya sure the war was bad, but the post war period in North America was one of the biggest economic expansions in history.  The population was booming, manufacturing jobs were plentiful, and you could raise a family on one salary.  But since then things have gotten progressively more difficult, especially for young people.  As we have been discussing, housing prices and rents have gone up much faster then incomes or inflation.  Manufacturing jobs have left the country forever. It's very rare for an early 20s person to get a job like that.  So yes, in today's terms you were lucky to have that first job without having to pay exorbitant rent.  I gotta say, the fact that you saved and created a new business is admirable, but you cant buy a parking spot with a 15k down payment these days. 15k is like 5 months rent if you live alone. And 14.6% unemployment is nothing to sneeze at. Most of the jobs those kids do have are minimum wage.   The average salary for everyone in Vancouver is 63k per year, while according to google AI you need a salary of 150k per year to buy the average condo in Vancouver, with a 50k down payment.  Would your manufacturing job pay that much today? You do the math. 

BTW just so we are on the same page, my record is only 32 days in a row without a day off.  You win. 

And I'm glad you still have that boat  .

I am with you roeman. I had typed out a whole rant but decided that it would just come across as an old mans raving so I decided to just point out that we had nothing when we started and were the children of people who had experienced a war and a depression who also had nothing.

Weren't you lucky roeman.

It was not luck it was a result of hard work and determination.  My main job was at a manufacturing plant and it sucked, shitty pay and hot work.  I bought a used boat and used fishing gear, built my own website and starting guiding on the Fraser as second source of income.  Bought used tools at garage sales and started installing vinyl decking and aluminum railings as a third source of income.  Not luck at all, I hated being an employee and was not a very good one so I made my own way of making extra money.  My last position was with a fuel delivery company, at 54 I outworked every 25-30 year old there, they were lazy and had no idea of work ethics and what it took to succeed. FYI I don't need another boat, I have 3 now, a 15 foot jet boat, 12 foot spratley and a 12 foot raft, and no need for another. 

Weren't you lucky roeman.  These days young people can't even find one good job.  Unemployment for 15-25 year olds is at 14.6% Minimum wage wont even pay the rent in the city, and saving money is almost impossible. 
 
As for the rest, I don't even know where to start.  You obviously have led a highly privileged life, and have no idea what it's like to start with nothing but the dirty clothes on your back.  Let me ask you this: would you hire a person currently homeless, perhaps with mental health/addiction issues? No??  Maybe they will find a "new way of living" by breaking into cars at popular fishing spots, or other worse crimes. And welfare is way cheaper then putting them in jail, which means lower taxes for you.
 
Oh and please, buy yourself another boat.  We shore fishermen don't want to have to deal with your anger either.