Millennials need a dose of reality

Fox News ^ | 4/3/2019 | Carol Roth

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Under President Trump, things are going very well in America. After experiencing 2.9% economic growth in 2018, we are currently enjoying structurally low unemployment, with historic lows for people of color, and close to 7 million jobs that have yet to be filled. Wages are up, inflation has remained in check and while there are always exceptions to the rule, overall, people should be feeling great, right?

Well, millennials missed the memo and feel like they haven’t participated in American prosperity at all, Charlotte Alter claims in a Time Magazine cover story on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y..

Alter, who is herself a Harvard grad, the daughter of a famous journalist and TV producer and the sibling of a venture capitalist, unironically writes in a tweet: “People our age have never experienced American prosperity in our adult lives— which is why so many millennials are embracing Democratic socialism.” This on the back of a quote from Ocasio-Cortez in the piece that says, “’An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity,’ she says. ‘I have never seen that, or experienced it, really, in my adult life.’”

Whether this is an attempt at gaslighting or pure delusion, in America, things are so good that many young people don’t know the difference.

Ocasio-Cortez herself, who has spent most of her adulthood under the Obama administration, says that her current gig in Congress is, at age 29, her first full-time job — one that notably pays six figures. She attended a university that costs, according to estimates, more than $70,000 per year for tuition, fees, room and board. Even her signature lipstick, which gets a shout-out in the piece, retails for $22. This is hardly the profile of a person who

[Old Teufel Hunden]

I hate grouping whole people by their age. To me it only applies to the fact that you have common characteristics because you grew up at the same time. For instance, people my age have our whole world view shaped by the Cold War because that's when we grew up. Things like being lazy, etc.. I don't believe a group of people share because of their age.

Having said that, I think there is a commonality not just among Millennials but lots of people today that we live in terrible times. Fortunately for myself, my parents grew up during the depression which helps give me perspective. I can remember as a child listening to my grandmother tell stories of her youth in the 20's with flappers etc... However, looking back I never remember her talking much about the depression. These are people that knew hard times. We can all take a lesson from those among us who grew up during the depression or spent their youth fighting wars. We have too many things to be thankful for because we live in some of the best times ever.

[TMD]

Hard times make strong men, strong men make good times, good times make weak mean, weak men make hard times.

[1Old Pro]

“’An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity,’ she says

First step, get a job and work for a decade.

[vg0va3]

Thank you for this. I forwarded to my millennial son.

[Starboard]

millennials missed the memo and feel like they haven’t participated in American prosperity at all

*****************

That prosperity was in part financed by $22 trillion dollars of debt. Just wait until the millenials find out they’re going to have to inherit that debat along with over $100 trillion more in unfunded liabilities.

[Starboard]

Very true. A corollary to that truism could that weak men talk about problems; strong men act to solve them.

[Starboard]

First step, get a job and work for a decade.

***************

They might get a job, but it probably won’t be a full time one. Like AOC, millenials just arent’t into the “work thing”.

[metmom]

Alter, who is herself a Harvard grad, the daughter of a famous journalist and TV producer and the sibling of a venture capitalist, unironically writes in a tweet: “People our age have never experienced American prosperity in our adult lives— which is why so many millennials are embracing Democratic socialism.”

They are immersed in it and don't recognize what they have.

What a bunch of ingrates.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

The older generation knew what happened when God was taken for granted or not taken at all!

My family has had similar stories. The sacrifices of my grandparents and parents have given us gifts but more so blessings of how living life in Christ here gives us a way to truth of everything- here and hereafter!

Lose God, lose everything IMHO.

[headstamp 2]

Hell, I came of age in the mid 70’s. Talk about lousy economic times especially with Mr. Peanut running things and telling us on a daily basis how horrible everything was.

We were going to freeze to death, run out of oil, starve, whole industries virtually closing down, strikes, nuclear winter, national malaise, super high inflation, decimated military.

These kids have no idea.

Today I think its more the “social justice”, PC insanity and emotionalism causing a lot of our problems. Also a huge cross section of young adults suffering from a sense of entitlement.

The sad part is no history being taught. History supplies perspective, grounds you and enables you keep it together during your own hard times.

To many today, history started when they were born. No respect is given to it.

Helicopter parenting and participation trophies.

[Red Badger]

Millennials are the result of 50 years of liberal indoctrination. To wit:

There is nothing to be happy about, the world sucks and you are miserable.......................

[ClearCase_guy]

I don’t think the article is written very clearly.

I believe the author is trying to make the point that America is very prosperous under Trump, but had also been prosperous before. We have a high standard of living. People attend expensive universities. People have wonderful electronic toys. We live in good times. But young people feel oppressed and poor and cheated of the good life that other people had. These young people do not realize how good they have it.

I think this is a decent point as far as material things go. But I think young people have truly been cheated because they don’t live in the country I grew up in. After Clinton, 9/11 and Obama, this country has been transformed into a frightened place where freedom is not valued and angry little groups of trouble-makers think they ought to control everything. Our country is in a bad spiritual place, and I feel bad for young people.

[Stravinsky]

Great post. You describe so many of my fellow millennials very well when you state that “history started when they were born.” That attitude is to be expected of kids and many teenagers, but millennials are now 20s-mid 30s and show no sign of understanding the bigger picture.

[BBQToadRibs]

Next door neighbors have 2x millennial kids. The son is a slacker pot-head. The daughter was an honor student, is in the National Guards, and in training for Med School.

Same parents, the kids are night and day.

[Alberta's Child]

In one of his books (I believe it was Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Robert Bork astutely noted that one of the biggest cultural/moral problems the U.S. increasingly faces over time is BOREDOM.

I look around me and I see a nation filled with young people who have no idea what to do with themselves and no urgency in their lives to do anything at all.

This dingbat AOC is a poster-child for this pathetic state of existence.

[Buckeye McFrog]

First step, get a job and work for a decade.

I recently attended a corporate event where a very senior HR executive gave a talk. Her major point about the challenges of hiring Millenials was the fact that they, in her words, "resist" the notion that you have to start at the bottom and work your way up.

They walk in with a degree and a closet full of participation trophies and think they should immediately start playing a role in the management of the company.

And AOC actually managed to do exactly that. So crazy as it seems, that's become their model.

[Vigilanteman]

Ditto. Even McDonald's type jobs were hard to come by. I thought I was damn lucky to work my way through college by driving cab, delivering flowers, factory assembly work and a hodge-podge of other odd jobs which paid just a little over minimum wage.

One of the few things which kept me sane and optimistic in Mr. Peanut's days was the radio program from Ronald Reagan which came on just as I was driving my old beat up car from one job to the other.

[thoughtomator]

The commonality among millenials is that at least half of them had their fathers removed from the home.

And that is why they are struggling. No other factor cripples future outcomes for kids the way the absence of a father does.

[headstamp 2]

[[One of the few things which kept me sane and optimistic in Mr. Peanut’s days was the radio program from Ronald Reagan which came on just as I was driving my old beat up car from one job to the other.]]

“I’m Ronald Reagan and thanks for listening”.

Truly a brilliant series that virtually drove him into the White House.

[susannah59]

I am with you there! Yet I don’t remember being miserable nor pessimistiCc about the future, even with Carter’s “misery index.” I don’t remember my peers being miserable or pessimistic, either.

It may be because we weren’t that far removed from the realities of life.

The “history started when they were born” crowd can’t even comprehend a black and white TV with no remote control and an antenna in the back yard or a telephone attached to the wall and shared with not only the whole family, but on a line shared with neighbors. They certainly can’t remember not having even those things (I remember my family getting our first telephone and our first TV).

I think that information overload also contributes to our problems. Our news came from an evening TV broadcast, a daily or weekly newspaper, and maybe a news magazine. Now “news” from anywhere on Earth is available 4/7/365 and contributes to pessimism.

That, and our “celebrity culture” which makes fancy New York apartments and Malibu beach homes and a party-all-the-time life seem like the norm so that more ordinary lives seem deprived.

It seems that without having real problems people are having to invent them, thus social justice, PC, and the like.