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Well, in regard to my kids - their spending is not because of higher prices. They think nothing of maxing out every credit card they have, spending thousands of dollars on vacations, etc. They spend more money on Starbucks coffee in a year than I do buying old tractors. One of my kids has bought new car every year for the past 5 years. He gets sick of them, trades them in on a loss, and gets something else. My oldest - who lives in Westminster, CO bought a new house with a $500,000 mortgage, and interest-only monthly payments - and with variable-rate interest. He argued with me -saying it was good idea because his equity would be in the value of the house that would keep on going up in value. Now, two years later, his wife wants to move to north Texas and he's been told his house is worth $50,000 less now - than when he bought it. I'm not condemming the life-style - but it's not the way my wife and I live. We have zero-debt and don't buy what we cannot pay for. That's our choice. We don't make much money either. With people living like my kids do (and there are many) - that's fine too - as long as taxpayers don't have to bail them out when things go sour. Also - about post-education. With two of my kids -they did NOT go to college. Both were offered engineering jobs when they left the military. So, both went to work as engineers with no degrees. One of them also went to work as a highschool math teacher with no degree, but got bored with it. He was hired because he's good a math - and it seems good math teachers are scarce. My point here is - it seems certain parts of the military provide great training that is later in demand in the private sector. Both those kids have degrees now - but that came later and was paid for by the companies they work for. My only son that did NOT go into the military, and went through college instead - up to a Masters Degree - makes the least - and knows the least - out of any of them. That being said, he still makes a lot of money working for IBM. My daughter dropped out of college first semester - she was too much of a party-girl. She then went to a 1 year nursing school, got her license, and then got a $28 and hour nursing job that is also paying for her go go back to college nights. From what I've seen, the opportunities some of these young people get are amazing - as compared to what was available to me when I was younger. I thought I was rich when I was making $10 an hour working for a Deere dealer 55 hours a week back in the 80s.
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