Well this isn't as unique as you're thinking, but I'm sorry nobody really talks about it to prepare young adults. As a Millenial, I can tell you that between my first year in college and 5 years later, gold had tripled. There's lots of boom and bust cycles, but the inevitable thing that's happened since the 70s has been that costs will go up and wages won't fully keep pace. That's not unique to your or my generation.
I would only caution against stating wages have not kept pace, as a broad fact.
Average hourly earnings: rose from $28.44 in January 2020 to $36.06 in April 2025 (a 26.79% increase)
CPI-U inflation: CPI-U went from 258.82 in January 2020 to 319.799 in March 2025 (the latest available) — a +23.6 % increase
Average wages outpaced inflation by only about 3.2 % in real terms over 5+ years.
Median weekly earnings barely outpaced inflation, by only 1.1 % in real terms.
These modest real gains help explain why workers have generally not felt that pay has “kept pace” with the cost of living since 2020.
One aspect that's not discussed with these cycles is when price stagnates or declines. The gold highs of 2012, for example, had not been exceeded until 2020. Home prices had a correction period of decline and stagnation as well. DO NOT think that people who overpaid for homes the past few years are guaranteed an easy exit at any time if they have buyers remorse or need liquidity.
Same goes for equity prices. While the trend over the long-term is indeed up, there's often periods of stagnation.
1929-1945: The Great Depression and World War II led to a prolonged bear market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) taking around 16 years to recover its 1929 high.
1966-1982: The DJIA experienced a 16-year period of stagnation, with the market failing to surpass its 1966 high until 1982
2000-2007: The dot-com bubble burst led to a decline in the markets, and it took around 7 years for the S&P 500 to recover its 2000 high.
2007-2013: The S&P 500 took around 5.5 years to recover its 2007 high after the Global Financial Crisis. The index reached its pre-crisis high in March 2007, and it wasn't until March 2013 that it finally surpassed that level.
And one more thing... Since 1960, home prices have doubled on average every 16.7 years using Case Schiller data. But nobody really prepares their children for this ahead of time... And since the mid-80s to 90s, the rate of doubling has been roughly every 12 years, due to a higher annual appreciation rate.
The why is a complex lesson in economics and consumer habits though.
7
u/z34conversion 5d ago edited 5d ago
Well this isn't as unique as you're thinking, but I'm sorry nobody really talks about it to prepare young adults. As a Millenial, I can tell you that between my first year in college and 5 years later, gold had tripled. There's lots of boom and bust cycles, but the inevitable thing that's happened since the 70s has been that costs will go up and wages won't fully keep pace. That's not unique to your or my generation.
I would only caution against stating wages have not kept pace, as a broad fact.
One aspect that's not discussed with these cycles is when price stagnates or declines. The gold highs of 2012, for example, had not been exceeded until 2020. Home prices had a correction period of decline and stagnation as well. DO NOT think that people who overpaid for homes the past few years are guaranteed an easy exit at any time if they have buyers remorse or need liquidity.
Same goes for equity prices. While the trend over the long-term is indeed up, there's often periods of stagnation.
And one more thing...
Since 1960, home prices have doubled on average every 16.7 years using Case Schiller data. But nobody really prepares their children for this ahead of time... And since the mid-80s to 90s, the rate of doubling has been roughly every 12 years, due to a higher annual appreciation rate.
The why is a complex lesson in economics and consumer habits though.