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In Spain people such as Emilio are known from their pay as the 'mileuristas' (thousand euro-ers). In France they are the 'babylosers' - a term coined by sociologist Louis Chauvel to contrast them with 'babyboomers'. According to Chauvel, 41, a sociologist at the National Foundation for Political Science, for the first time in recent history a generation of French citizens aged between 20 and 40 can expect a lower standard of living than the one before. 'Mileuristas or babylosers: it's the same story,' he said. 'They have an average of three years more education than their parents, a worse job and a lower standard of living.'

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Generation X is from around 1965 to 1980.

Generation Y are in theory the children of the boomers, those born between 1980 and... 1995? Apparently 1978 to 1994 on the wikipedia page, though some say it starts at 1982. Also called the echo boom. As I'm born in 1983 I'm at the peak of this demographic bulge which may or may not be nice. The millenials come after.

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A population pyramid:

http://www.statisticum.org/outputs/index.php
We see boomers, generation X, then echo boom...

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Baby boomers are the greatest voters in history.

In the past few decades we've seen the environment get dilapidated, median incomes are down 15%, governments are heavily in debt and many social programs are headed to insolvency unless something is done.

[ 11 May 2008: Message edited by: 500_Apples ]

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'I am angry. I know a lot of people who are in the same situation and our qualifications are not being rewarded,' said Arias. For Nathalie, the weekend in her parents' seaside home will leave 'a bitter taste in my mouth'.

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Tough, baby.

Your degree doesn't automatically deliver a second home and an overseas vacation? The heart bleeds.

One guy is complaining about making 2,700 euros a month (that's CDN 48,700/year) in a job he really doesn't care about. That's really sad.

Another guy is worried that now he has a son he won't be able to redo his bathroom. Someone else complains about having to check prices in the supermarket. Please!

The worst case in the article, a "freelance architect" is only making 1,000 euros a month (CDN 18,000/year). Being a "freelance architect" is like being an "aspiring actor", the pay is going to be low for a long, long time.

This article isn't about the middle class, or a generation being squeezed, its about professionals who thought their degrees gave them a ticket to an upper-middle class lifestyle.

Can you say: sense of entitlement?

[ 11 May 2008: Message edited by: -=+=- ]

It is probably worse for working-class young people because their parents had unionised jobs and there has been severe delocalisation and disindustrialisation.

By the way, the guy who re-did his bathroom did it before the baby arrived, if I read the article well. Many houses in Europe don't come with shelving, cupboards, fitted kitchens etc.

These people seem to be the poorest in the article:

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Some of the pressure to graduate also slipped away when I saw one friend get his degree and then only earn €500 a month at an Italian space firm and another get €800 a month at the European Space Agency,' said Di Martino

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Rome is less expensive than London or Paris, but unless one can find social housing, not cheap by any means. They might be living with their parents or other relatives, but they may have had to move to another city for work.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the Generation X, Y, boomers, echo, etc, are based on very gross and non-specific data, and excludes many significant factors such as poverty, race/culture, immigration status, etc. Basically it's a tool to name the various white middle class demographics. Look, I even do it! I'm so ashamed of myself.

Its not just Europe and North America either, its a global phenomena. In Japan they call them 'Freeters'

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Images of stereotypical harried salarymen have characterized Japan’s workforce for generations. Identically clad in blue serge suits and sporting company pins on their lapels, these dedicated workers put in 14-hour days, obeyed their bosses unquestioningly and gave their companies undivided loyalty. In return, corporations provided them with life-long employment.

Guarantees of job security have evaporated due to shifting management styles and an economic slump that has lingered for more than 15 years. As a result, Japan is in a state of crisis. Middle-aged workers, for the first time in postwar history, are scrambling for jobs. The elderly are fretting about dwindling pension funds. But most importantly, young people are becoming increasingly disenchanted with corporate Japan. Many are seeking alternative lifestyles, a trend that has the country very worried.

Each year, corporations are hiring fewer seishain (full-time workers) with all the privileges this status brings. In the current economic climate, companies don’t want to take on the burden of educating raw recruits as they did in the past and to keep them for 40 years. They prefer to hire seasoned employees or part-time personnel.

This year, the number of part-time workers between the ages of 18 and 34 reached 4.5 million. Masahiro Yamada, an economics professor at Tokyo Gakugei University, expects this number to reach 10 million by 2015 despite a steady decline in the number of people in this age group because of the falling birthrate.

The Japanese were quick to pin a label, freeters, on these young part-time workers shortly after the economic bubble burst in the late 1980s. The term is derived from the English word “free” and the German word arbeiter, or “worker.”

If students and homemakers who work part-time were included in the official tally, the number of freeters would surge far beyond 4.5 million.

“Freeters are aging, and their negative influence will impact on every aspect of society,” warns economics professor Horimichi Suwa, who heads the career studies program at Shumei University in Chiba Prefecture. “One problem I foresee is an increase in crime because there are no jobs, but they will also cause problems to our social system because they do not contribute to the tax base or to the retirement fund.”

Freeters fall into three categories: the dreamers, the procrastinators and the ones who have no alternative.

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Fretting Over Freeters