I think a lot of older people don’t get it.
Today isn’t just like 1980 but with worse music.
Today isn’t better than 1980 because interest rates were higher then.
The country is $33T in debt.
The country pays $1T a year in interest payments alone.
Wages have been stagnant for 40 years — inflation drives up costs everywhere, but wages do not keep pace.
Social life is almost entirely digital and that sucks. Sure, YOU may decide to socialize out in the real world, but if 99% of everyone is still digital, your effort will fail.
Leadership positions in politics and business go almost exclusively to Ivy League educated lawyers and MBA types. You don’t fit into that category? Well, you will never get that big promotion. Your corporate career is going nowhere.
And you are tracked and surveilled everywhere you go. Do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, you could lose everything you have.
This is an absolutely rotten time to be young. People have no hope. They don’t see anything getting better for them no matter how hard they work. Jump back to about 1980. Reagan spoke of “Morning in America” and people latched on to that because they could feel it. But no one feels that today. People have given up. And the problems are deep and systemic. You can’t say “pull yourself up”. That’s not a realistic solution at all.
And don’t tell me “My nephew is young, and he’s doing great.” I don’t care about your nephew. I don’t care about the 5% who are doing just swell. I care about 95% of the young people who will look back at the Joe Biden years as the best years of their lives. Think about that.
You get it. Well said, every word.
This place is over-represented with aging Boomers who think the Reagan years were just yesterday.
Gen-Z has been sold a bill of goods by the older generations.
Gen-Z will eventually be in charge. Boomers can't live forever and Gen-X is small in numbers. Gen-Z are huge and they're going to force changes to the way things have been for the past century in ways we don't yet know. But, there will be changes.
Nicely stated. And accurate.
“You can’t say “pull yourself up”. That’s not a realistic solution at all.”
What I see in your comments is nothing but excuses, coddling and no regard for individual responsibility. There is definitely a loss of work ethic and discipline with many of the younger folks. I am recently retired but saw it first hand toward the end of my career.
I started out working on a farm when I was 13 for $1.25/hr. My first real job was in construction in the early 80s. Most days we started at 7 am but were at the job site by 6:30 and hoped to get done by 4 but usually never finished up before 5. In the summer when the days are long many of us worked side gigs or helped each other build our houses or garages or put on a new roof. Then the single guys went out in the evenings chasing women. Sure we had our share of duds that didn’t last a day, some were sent packing before lunch.
You mentioned digital social life. IMO that is a huge problem; digital in general. I really don’t think people (any age) realize how much of their day is spent (wasted) playing on smart phones.
My son and his wife, both late 20’s, are making a go of it, doing quite well. All my son’s friends from HS and college are doing well; married, having kids, buying houses, etc.
It comes down to what decisions one makes as a teenager along with some nudges. Focus on what you can control rather than all the perceived misery.