NEWSWIRE: 10/9/17
- New research shows that more people are leaving the Washington, D.C. metro area than arriving for the first time since the Great Recession, a trend spearheaded by Millennials. But who can blame cash-strapped Millennials for trying to get more bang for their buck in cheaper cities? (George Mason University)
- NH: Historically, inflows to DC are stable while outflows wax or wane according to the health of the overall U.S. economy. Both inflows and outflows are also dominated by young people age 20-35. (See original study here.) So from 2009 to 2013, the net youth in-migration was large--but more recently it has turned around as Millennials have been lured elsewhere by higher wages and (given D.C.'s rapid recent gentrification) by lower housing costs. Retiring (Boomer) federal employees are also becoming a drag on D.C. population growth.
- Gen-X contributor Reuben Levy memorializes Tom Petty, whose death he says is a huge loss for Generation X. A Boomer by birth, Petty’s relatable brand of down-on-your-luck rock and roll made him an icon for countless hardscrabble Xers as well. (The Z Review)
- NH: In Millennials and the Pop Culture, we offer a timeline describing how each generation interacts with the pop culture. After its first cohort reaches age 20, a generation typically enters a three-decade curve: In the first decade, it listens to pop music performed by the previous generation; in the second decade, it listens to its own music; and in the third decade, it performs music for the next generation. For Gen Xers, its first decade was the 1980s. And most of the music (from glam rock and new wave to punk and early hip hop) young Xers listened back then to was performed by Boomers--including Madonna, Van Halen, Blondie, Michael Jackson, Sting, and (yes) Tom Petty. (The only interesting exception was thrash metal, which was performed by very young Xers, heading bands like Metallica and Anthrax.) Flash forward to the 1990s, when Xers were mainly playing for each other (gangsta rap, grunge, etc.). And then to the 2000s, when they performed for Millennials. Today, btw, it's Millennials playing for Millennials.
- The Smartbe “intelligent” stroller costs over $3,000, has smartphone connectivity, and claims to drive itself. While this may seem like overkill to older consumers, Millennial parents could be convinced that a battery-powered electric stroller is worth the price of keeping their young Homelander children safe. (The Washington Post)
- NH: Watch this ad to savor over-the-top marketing to affluent female Millennials. She is so smart, so fit, so optimized, so responsible, and so in control that, my god, she never even needs to touch her own child. One hates to call this ad a self-parody, but one wonders why, for all that money, she doesn't just hire a real person to look after her baby.
- Boomer Columnist Jim Camden comments on a recent study showing that his generation has always been more polarized than Millennials. While Camden originally assumed that the Internet has fostered political polarization, he comes to the (correct) conclusion that “cranky old people are responsible for polarization.” (The Columbian)
- NH: Several studies have come to this conclusion. Perhaps the most thorough, the NBER article cited in Camden's op-ed, was performed on nine separate measures of political polarization. It comes to the same conclusion as the others, that polarization is positively correlated with age and negatively correlated with time spent on the Internet or social media.
- Cadillac’s new “Super Cruise” semi-autonomous hardware lets the car do the driving—as long as the driver is still paying attention. The device, which admonishes drivers who look away from the road for more than six seconds, is yet another example of the mixed messaging of so-called “self-driving” features that still require a human driver. (Bloomberg Business)
- Contributor Mark Regnerus believes that the primary driver behind declining marriage rates among young adults is the “cheapening” of sex. While it’s true that it has become easier (and more socially acceptable) than ever to find a sexual partner without getting married, this explanation is a nonstarter, since Millennials have also been bringing down rates of sexual activity. (The Wall Street Journal)
- NH: Given the 1,400+ comments on this story, it's safe to assume that readers have strong feelings on this question. It's also safe to assume that the basic argument--"cheap" sex undermines marriage--has been around a long time, going all the way back to widespread use of contraceptive pills and the coming of age of young Boomers back in the late 1960s. If the argument does have merit, it sure takes a long time to play itself out. Regnerus does acknowledge an alternative explanation, that sinking wages and educational attainment of men relative to women have rendered them less "marriagable," but he dismisses that argument too lightly. In fact, David Autor et al. recently published a much-discussed study demonstrating that falling marriage rates are directly correlated year by year (across 722 commuting zones) to falling male wage rates and a falling manufacturing employment share.
- Fully 71% of Millennials visit multiple stores to find the best deals, compared to only 57% of Boomers. Rattled by the recession and student loan debt, Millennials aren’t afraid to pinch pennies to save a few bucks. (First Insight)
- Eagle Home Mortgage will pay up to $13,000 in student loans to any customer who purchases one of the company’s homes. Student loan assistance programs, increasingly utilized by hiring managers to lure top talent, may be one way to incentivize debt-laden Millennials to start buying homes. (The Wall Street Journal)
- NH: Interesting that $13K tied to a loan payback is worth more to Millennials than simply $13K in a cash rebate. This deal, which never would have worked for young Xers, demonstrates how comfortable Millennials are with behavioral nudges and institutional set-asides. It may also help "signal" to Lennar (the homebuilder that owns Eagle Home Mortgage) which Millennials are likely to be good credit risks.
- A new Target-Pinterest partnership will enable consumers to snap a picture of any item in the real world and be sent a list of comparable Target products. The service is an example of the type of added value that today’s retailers must provide in an age of commoditization and mobile shopping. (TechCrunch)
- NH: Millennials, who came of age surrounded by dumb screens, used text (e.g., Googling) to search for things. Homelanders, who will come of age surrounded by ambient intelligence, will use images (driven by AI engines) to search for things. The biggest decline in day-to-day, real-world literacy may not have happened yet. It may be yet to come.
- Contributor Henri Steenkamp notes that Millennials are saving their money, but not investing it. He believes that Millennials see the stock market as an outdated relic of their parents’ era—but in reality, this generation would simply rather play it safe in a no-risk checking account. (Entrepreneur)
DID YOU KNOW?
Haggling Made Easy. The rise of non-confrontational Millennials has transformed negotiation into a lost art. Armed with e-commerce platforms and automatic bill payment services, today’s young consumers can get by financially without ever speaking to a human. But a new wave of app-based services promises to save Millennials money without forcing them to haggle. The Clarity Money app uses data science and artificial intelligence to identify bills that are open to negotiation—and negotiates bills on users’ behalf. In beta testing, Clarity Money saved users an average of $300 annually. Hiatus, a similar app, not only haggles with bill companies, but also makes it easier for users to cancel recurring bills—an invaluable service for Millennials in particular, who don’t like talking on the phone to begin with. (See: “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Text You.”) These apps aren’t limited to bills: Carjojo, a mobile search tool for prospective car buyers, even allows users to outsource the negotiation process to a third party for a $199 fee.
