Morgan Housel

And if in the process of doing that, you inflated your kids' expectations to a level that they will never be able to exceed themselves through their own hard work and dedication, it's actually a curse.

Look, by and large, there has been wage growth, real wage growth adjusted for inflation over the last several generations.

On average, that's true.

On a whole, that's true.

The areas in which it is absolutely not true, that is just dramatically more expensive today than it was in any previous generation is housing.

And that's the most important thing to people.

In terms of like box checking into adulthood, buying a house is near the top to where if you can feel that you can do it, you feel like you're really making progress.

I'm an adult.

I own my own house.

I'm doing it.

And if you can't do it, you feel like you're just kind of stuck down in some lower level that you'll never get out of.

And so when people talk about the price of housing, they talk about it like it's a spreadsheet problem.

Like it's just, oh, we got to get down mortgage.

It's a social problem.

And I think almost every social problem today that we have,

In any country, in America or any other country that has expensive housing is downstream of housing affordability.

If you can't afford your house, you're less likely to get married.

You're less likely to have kids.

You're more likely to abuse drugs.

You're more likely to have poor mental health.