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The Jackpot Generation (macleans.ca)
17 points by mmphosis on Sept 14, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments


I grew up in Canada, but my family and I are first generation immigrants from Ukraine. The privilege of my peers left a huge, almost traumatizing, impression on me. My parents were constantly working overtime at their minimum wage jobs at a plastics plant to support us, while my brother and I were raised by my grandmother. Most of my peers had wealthy parents and it was hard to relate. The silver lining is that it really motivated me to work hard and escape that. I live in California now and make many times more than my parents ever made in their lives. My mom still works as a janitor for minimum wage.

Most people I know back in Canada get lots of support from their parents. Everyone I know who bought real estate had huge help from their parents. Canada is just too expensive otherwise and local jobs don't support the cost of living. It definitely feels unfair to those that don't have wealthy parents. They fall behind, and as housing prices rise, it becomes harder to catch up. Those definitely won demographic lottery, and I don't think many of them understand how lucky they are.

All that being said, given a global perspective, I am very lucky, too.


It will be a good time in the next 10 - 20 years to sell things the nouveau riche buy. Handbags, perfume, luxury cars, expensive restaurants that aren't as good as they are "exclusive".

The real jackpot will be awarded to the owners of such businesses.


>An Ipsos survey found that among Canadian boomers who are planning to leave 100 per cent of their estates to their children, the average inheritance will be about $940,000.

Presumably this is in most cases simply their parents' home being inherited? (also with that being close to the average home price in the country)


Using the average here seems a little sus too - what about the median? Surely that is quite a bit lower?


I wonder how Canadian Tax will affect this. IIRC, in the US, I think the first 1 Million is tax free. After that I do not know what happens.


The threshold is $13 million in the US, that’s entirely tax free at the federal level, per person.


> a lot of millennials are really into their parents. Many boomers retooled the family structure to something more emotionally enmeshed.

Historically speaking the nuclear family is a very new and very western thing. Is the author trying to say parents love their kids too much?




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