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I am a millennial. These things are not what is making life hard for us. Things that actually do make life harder for us:
1. Climate change
2. Income inequality
3. Stagnant wages
4. High student debt
5. High housing costs
6. High medical costs
7. Reduced employment benefits
8. High environmental debt (plastic waste, deforestation, degraded soil, etc.)
Basically what makes life hard for us is older generations borrowing from the future to sustain current consumerist lifestyles that started after the end of WWII. The bill is coming due and millennials and Gen Z have to pay it.
So keep calling us spoiled, weak, and entitled if it makes you feel better and allows you to hide your shame.
I am a millennial. These things are not what is making life hard for us. Things that actually do make life harder for us:
1. Climate change
2. Income inequality
3. Stagnant wages
4. High student debt
5. High housing costs
6. High medical costs
7. Reduced employment benefits
8. High environmental debt (plastic waste, deforestation, degraded soil, etc.)
Basically what makes life hard for us is older generations borrowing from the future to sustain current consumerist lifestyles that started after the end of WWII. The bill is coming due and millennials and Gen Z have to pay it.
So keep calling us spoiled, weak, and entitled if it makes you feel better and allows you to hide your shame.
It's a fact that Millennials do not have the same opportunities in this society that baby boomers had at the same age. With today's cost of living combined with the crushing debt most young people have by the time they finish college, many things that are taken for granted by older people are out of reach for younger people. Buying a home is a perfect example. Never mind the fact that so many young people are having to work dead-end jobs because of a poor economy and worthless degrees.
Did you know that 30 years ago, a family of four could survive on one income? Won't cut it today.
I’m not sure how young you are, but as someone who grew up in a single-income household 30+ years ago, this incorrect. It was the same then as it is now (and 40, 50, 60 years ago...), in that it depended on
1. How high that one income was
2. How you define “survival”
3. Do you have a side-hustle? It was as essential then as it is now
1. Losing wallet/credit card
2. Arguing with partner
3. Commute/traffic delays
4. Losing phone
5. Arriving late to work
6. Slow WiFi
7. Phone battery dying
8. Forgetting passwords
9. Credit card fraud
10. Forgetting phone charger
11. Losing/misplacing keys
12. Paying bills
13. Job interviews
14. Phone screen breaking
15. Credit card bills
16. Check engine light coming on
17. School loan payments
18. Job security
19. Choosing what to wear
20. Washing dishes
Oh, the humanity!
I would love to have someone be able go back in time and list the top 20 stressors for 20-somethings every 50 years starting at about 1819 (1819, 1869, 1919, and 1969). What is so interesting to me is that about eight of the items on the list were not even in existence 50 years ago, as they were directly cellphone and Internet-related.
In fact, for most 20-somethings in 1819 and 1869, the only stressor on the list for MOST millennials might have been was washing dishes, as most people did not have a closet full of clothes and most people were still living and working on farms and they did not have a "job". In any case, worrying about widespread sickness or being injured and just be able to have enough food to feed one's family were top of the list for most, I think.
(Btw, I was born in 1953, and the only thing on the list that I stressed out about in the 1970's-80's was being able to always pay my bills -- and none of the other things. However, I will say that my husband has always been stressed out by traffic.)
Last edited by katharsis; 03-20-2019 at 06:32 AM..
Hey, fellow millennials, let's stoop to the OP's level, 'cause why not?
Biggest problems according to boomers I've encountered online and IRL
their kids have to go to school with black people
transgender individuals might be allowed basic dignity/peeing in peace
gay people are *gasp* getting married!
Amazon wants their credit/debit card #
prospective employers expect you to know what a resume is
there are people walking around and "looking" in their neighborhoods
I feel sorry for you if you actually believe that. I would be interested, however, in having the above study done for all generations. Btw, I'm a retired Boomer, and my stressors are (just in the order I'm thinking of them):
1. Myself or my husband getting seriously sick or injured.
2. The current political climate in general (note that I'm a moderate)
3. Overpopulation (possibly leading to increased pollution and possible mass starvation)
4. Increasing nastiness in society (due mainiy to mass media)
5. Modern technology (yeah, I admit it -- I'm a dinosaur in that regard)
6. Computer hacking and security concerns
7. Terrorism
8. The complete breakdown of the economy and losing our savings/security
9. Loss of personal privacy
10. Going to the dentist (actually, this has always been my #1 personal stressor, lol)
And, yeah, I also hate housework, traffic and doing our tax return every year, but I certainly don't stress out about them.
Last edited by katharsis; 03-20-2019 at 06:47 AM..
They hate young people almost as much as they hate California.
MOSTLY not true. Most of my fellow boomers that I know like most young people, as do I, and most of California, although I do admit that I find it very hard to tolerate the highly populated areas in SoCal within about 75 miles of the Pacific (i.e., L.A., San Diego, San Bernardino, etc.).
I’m not sure how young you are, but as someone who grew up in a single-income household 30+ years ago, this incorrect. It was the same then as it is now (and 40, 50, 60 years ago...), in that it depended on
1. How high that one income was
2. How you define “survival”
3. Do you have a side-hustle? It was as essential then as it is now
I look at my parents. When my dad was my age 30 years ago, he made slightly more than I make now adjusted for inflation and had a condo, two cars, a stay at home wife, and two kids. He had only a high school diploma and was working in a job that today would require an MBA from a top school to even get a glance from a hiring committee. He worked 9-5, then came home. We went on yearly vacations as a family and my mom would additionally take my brother and I to visit relatives for an additional vacation. We were the first in our neighborhood to have a computer, and then a few years later we were the first to have internet. My parents didn't have side hustles - they didn't need them to live a comfortable life on my dad's income.
Contrast that with me. I have a master's degree and a job that didn't even exist 10 years ago, so I'm constantly learning on the job and in my free time to be competitive. I live in the same region as my parents did, but had to move further out in the suburbs and live in a 1 bedroom apartment. There's no chance of buying even a dumpy condo due to the cost, and forget supporting a spouse, much less two children. Thankfully I don't have student loans or I would likely still need to live with roommates in my 30s as many of my peers who work in professional fields do. I have multiple side hustles, including helping my boyfriend with his multi-million dollar side-hustle-turned-full-time-business. And yet even with a huge revenue stream, most of that money goes toward paying off student loan debt. Just law school alone resulted in a 6 figure loan balance - and he started his side hustle to pay for his living expenses! Even with my side hustles, I'm limited because I've never worked a job where I could just work 9-5 and then leave and not think about work until I came in the next day. That seems typical of most of my peers.
Millennials as a generation have a higher percentage who will have a lower standard of living than their parents than any living past generation while at the same time having higher educational attainment and a more technical work landscape. Yes, that is stressful. Maybe that experience makes traffic getting into work just a little bit harder to deal with.
Geez, is this thread still going on? Look up the company who administered the poll and on whose behalf they did it. Y’all have been trolled, and you fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
You nailed it. Each generation weakens the next by providing an easier life for them. I am no exception and I think it is normal. As a parent you love your children more than life. Their pain is your agony. I can say with all honesty that the very first second I saw my daughters after they were born, I was crazy, insane, in love with my babies. I still am. Guess what? They love their dad too.
I was strict, they had chores, they didn't get a free allowance. They didn't get their first cell phones until they were leaving for college. They started Karate at age 5 and I made them stick with it until they were 17 then it became their choice. The chose to stay with it. My daughters are not the girls who need safe spaces, freak out because a politician they don't agree with won. They never bum money off of their parents or anyone else.
Now their brother is a hard case. LOL. He may be adopted but there has never been a son more like his dad than he is. Hated school, hated in a classroom. He needed to be outside. He went to welding school and is doing great, but growing up he loved to break the rules. Thank god for his mom or I might have choked him. He admits now that he did it just to get me POed.
If millennials are weak or petty, their parents did it to them.
Edit:
The one thing I have seen is parents trying to be the BFF instead of the parent. Children need that parental guidance, they need to face discipline and failures. It prepares them for life. It's our job to get them ready to survive without us.
I'm not a fan of being strict but also not being a helicopter snowflayke maker.
I'm surprised we can't figure out this parenting thing through the generations. It's not that difficult to find a balance and understand our kids are individuals and need different types of direction and support but they need to learn to be self reliant.
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