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they are not going down the wrong path, they are going down the path we sent them.
they did not mess up we did.
This is the answer.
I repeat - THIS IS THE ANSWER.
The younger generations don't have a universally bleak future, but we have set up, for them, a system which makes it much more difficult to succeed than it used to be.
Drive around Rust Belt cities and observe all of the decaying factories - places that were once built and operated as manufacturing centers, providing well-paying jobs for people who didn't have master's degrees. They're abandoned now, in favor of new shiny factories in China and Taiwan.
Power has been removed from teachers, in the classroom, and now our educational system is a shell of what it once was as educating kids practically has been replaced with "teaching to the test". Disciplining kids with the dunce cap and paddle in front of their peers (a WONDERFULLY effective deterrent to misbehavior) has been replaced with having to write out "discipline referrals" which are as long as a legal-sized sheet of paper and delivering them to the office in hopes that a principal will handle the matter.
Houses are currently three times more expensive, relative to income, than they were when the "Greatest Generation" (of the WW2 era) was young adults. (EvaDing The BuLL: CHART - U.S. House Prices To Family Income - compare the 1960's to today. I found two sources back in the day that said that the ratio was ~1.67 in 1940, which given the low 2's of the 1960's is plenty feasible.)
The national debt continues to skyrocket with no end in sight... largely to fund the aforementioned welfare programs.
Traditional family values, which once held families and society together and deterred crime, are being gutted in favor of "progressive" values which aren't anywhere near as good at solidifying society. (For proof of how traditional family values prevent crime and other social ills, compare the USA to Japan. A little bit of research will show you why Japan's crime rate is tiny compared to the USA's crime rate.)
The modern jobs being touted as reducing the unemployment rate are, in reality, low-paying "crappy" jobs... which are a paltry replacement for the better-paying "decent" jobs that were lost during the recession.
All you have to do to see that the younger generations have a bleak future is check the numbers. The USA did indeed recover (to an extent) from past recessions but that was because the structure of the country was still relatively solid. The same is not true for this recession. You don't tax, borrow, and lie your way out of a recession. That's like painting a rattletrap car so it looks decent and putting transmission fluid in the engine so it won't smoke just so you can sell it. The guy who buys it will get many very unpleasant and anger-inducing surprises later on. Well, we're painting the USA's problems and putting transmission fluid in its engine so it doesn't give the visible appearance of being in bad shape. The people forced to "buy" this situation are the young adults, who are in for a HUGE shock once the "quick fix" wears off and reveals the unpleasant truth.
Because they're jealous of us and wish that they were born later because they don't want to be known as the generation who screwed up the future. But that's okay, we'll fix it, for ya!
As a member of Gen. Y (aka Millennial) I can proudly say that we'll be just fine. We were kids and we sat back and watched the Baby Boomers make mistake after mistake.
The Pew Research Center - Millennial's Priorities
52% - Be a good parent
30% - Have a successful marriage
21% - Helping others in need
20% - Owning a home
15% - Having a very religious life
15% - Have a high-paying career
9% - Having lots of free time
1% - Become famous
would love to see how we differ with the same research quoting the "baby boomers" percentages- I did a test once and was considered a millenial yet closing 61?
I see these people *everywhere* texting on their cell phones. They come over to my house, sit on the sofa, then text endlessly. Or at work they will try to work and text at the same time. I call that rude.
Also these people can't decide ANYTHING on their own, they have to ask on the internet what to do. What color to paint their house, which car to buy, what color car to buy, what accessories they should get for their car, etc. They are a bunch of blind sheep who must be led around by "group think".
Statement 1. Traditional family values, which once held families and society together and deterred crime, are being gutted in favor of "progressive" values which aren't anywhere near as good at solidifying society.
Addendum to Statement 1. (For proof of how traditional family values prevent crime and other social ills, compare the USA to Japan. A little bit of research will show you why Japan's crime rate is tiny compared to the USA's crime rate.)
Statement 2. The modern jobs being touted as reducing the unemployment rate are, in reality, low-paying "crappy" jobs... which are a paltry replacement for the better-paying "decent" jobs that were lost during the recession.
Statement 1: And what proof do you use to justify this statement? Just because this happens to be your personal opinion...does not make it fact.
"Traditional family values" by the way, is Republican code-speak for "white, hetero, Christian, male superiority over all others."
Addendum: That is a rather shallow anecdote, and only one small part of a giant picture. You are oversimplifying things. Typical of right-wing conservatives who believe they, and they alone, hold the answer to all of society's ills - which solutions, incidentally, require a return to "those good old days" when the f*ggots stayed in the closet and the darkies knew their place.
Statement 2: The one truthful thing in your post. And, I would make the suggestion that this true statement alone...is a more realistic reason for the increase in crime we see here in this country...many of these are crimes of desperation. In Japan, they take better care of their people's basic needs than we do here in America.
In fact, I go so far as to propose that most of society's ills - which you outline in statement one...ARE DIRECTLY CAUSED....by what you said in Statement 2.
I believe todays young are amoral psychopaths,just look at the school shootings, we have a generation that views mass murder as normal behavior.when I was young you had to go to the worst neighborhood in a really bad city to see an shooting ,today you can see that any where.I remember being an commuter train about ten years ago.a group of teens were causing so much trouble that the train had to stop at the next station and wait for the transit police to throw them off.while waiting I noticed the reaction of he other riders around me. those of my age were very discusted,younger than me- seemed a little annoyed.even younger -didnt care and those of the same age were laughing and were surprised what was all the fuss was about.every generation just gets worst and worst.pop culture certainly proves this very clearly.
I remember graduation from high school....way back in 1965...a man told us (my future husband and I)
that we had no future, Vietnam war, the world would end soon, etc.....but being young we figured he was
just an old bitter guy...it didn't scare us. Maybe every generation feels that way..
I believe todays young are amoral psychopaths,just look at the school shootings, we have a generation that views mass murder as normal behavior.when I was young you had to go to the worst neighborhood in a really bad city to see an shooting ,today you can see that any where.I remember being an commuter train about ten years ago.a group of teens were causing so much trouble that the train had to stop at the next station and wait for the transit police to throw them off.while waiting I noticed the reaction of he other riders around me. those of my age were very discusted,younger than me- seemed a little annoyed.even younger -didnt care and those of the same age were laughing and were surprised what was all the fuss was about.every generation just gets worst and worst.pop culture certainly proves this very clearly.
I am disgusted by your terrible grammar.
I have highlighted some of your more egregious grammatical/syntax errors.
1. todays should have been today's
2. No space between words separated by commas
3. No space between the last word of a sentence, and the beginning of the next sentence.
4. Lack of capitalization of the first word of new sentences.
5. Run-on sentences.
6. To see an shooting - should have been "a shooting."
7. A comma is inappropriate after shooting" - instead you should have used a semicolon.
8. You misspelled "disgusted."
9. Even younger - was not an appropriate place for a new sentence, these should have been connected by a semicolon, and "even younger" should have been preceded by "those" to read "...seemed a little annoyed; those even younger didn't care..." no hyphen was justified, and "didnt" should have been "didn't."
10. "What was all the fuss was about" is a serious syntactical error.
11. Every generation does not get "worst and worst" - it may be you opinion that every generation gets "worse and worse."
Your lack of education is showing. How could anyone take your opinion as a measured, reasoned, well-thought out opinion, when you cannot even express the thought in an articulate, grammatically correct way?
I seem to remember something about not throwing stones when you live in a glass house.
(By the way, another common error I see from people who complain about this youngest generation; an error which, thankfully, you did not commit; is to see the phrase "should of been" where "should have been" is actually correct.)
I am disgusted by your terrible grammar.
I have highlighted some of your more egregious grammatical/syntax errors.
1. todays should have been today's
2. No space between words separated by commas
3. No space between the last word of a sentence, and the beginning of the next sentence.
4. Lack of capitalization of the first word of new sentences.
5. Run-on sentences.
6. To see an shooting - should have been "a shooting."
7. A comma is inappropriate after shooting" - instead you should have used a semicolon.
8. You misspelled "disgusted."
9. Even younger - was not an appropriate place for a new sentence, these should have been connected by a semicolon, and "even younger" should have been preceded by "those" to read "...seemed a little annoyed; those even younger didn't care..." no hyphen was justified, and "didnt" should have been "didn't."
10. "What was all the fuss was about" is a serious syntactical error.
11. Every generation does not get "worst and worst" - it may be you opinion that every generation gets "worse and worse."
Your lack of education is showing. How could anyone take your opinion as a measured, reasoned, well-thought out opinion, when you cannot even express the thought in an articulate, grammatically correct way?
I seem to remember something about not throwing stones when you live in a glass house.
(By the way, another common error I see from people who complain about this youngest generation; an error which, thankfully, you did not commit; is to see the phrase "should of been" where "should have been" is actually correct.)
Chiefly due to political and economic problems, from what I have heard.
The smarter, foresighted elderly members of the upper middle and upper classes are labouring intensively to safeguard wealth for their children and grandchildren. My peers (aged 20-30) struggle to secure well-paying permanent positions, often delaying milestones of adult life (marriage, cars, property).
Talented, driven graduates (solid, above average, but not the highest/most connected echelon) are taking several months or even years to secure positions that in better years would have been procured during senior year or a few weeks after graduation. In the meanwhile, they work in unstable, short term positions volunteering or in unpaid internships if they have some support (pocket money, housing, and/or car) from their parents. If not, they're working the same jobs they would have worked in HS or college: Starbucks, the grocery store, McDonalds, etc. Being degreed and earning less than $10/hour seldom engenders optimism.
Those that do eventually get that permanent position through sheer tenacity and more than a little luck find themselves a victim of stagnant wages and rising costs. This is where an ideologue will step in and say that salaries haven't done much worse than published inflation numbers, but for those of us purchasing such frivolities as education, food, energy, housing, and healthcare, one cannot help but feel financially left behind.
Courtesy of social networking tools like Facebook & Linkedin, I can watch this drama repeat itself dozens of times over. A small elite (well-connected or Rhodes-scholar level CVs) prosper, but that is a repeating reality omnipresent throughout history.
Those more inclined to think smaller/local will feel as if their progress is depressingly slow when comparing with their parents. My year are now in their mid 20s, out in the working world, and many are in long term relationships of somewhere between 2 and 5 years. The notion of a wedding is an impracticality not worthy of the least consideration. Regardless of their feelings for their partner, the costs of the wedding would constitute an extreme burden. Even a "cheap" wedding under $5,000 would be thousands that are unavailable. The proliferation of temp work (ie hired in November, contract till January) makes it extremely difficult to plan for the future, whether you are considering income, location, or other factors. Then there's the matter of setting up a household...and children.
The bigger picture thinkers (in my experience, often economics or poli sci graduates, or those working in such fields today) look at the macro factors driving up costs and otherwise impeding a return to the good old days. At home, they see a federal government with the financial ineptitude of the 18th century French court and the shoddy governance of 5th century Rome. They understand that price increases go back to the basics: raw materials, foodstuffs as globally traded commodities, transport, and labour. These basics have inexorably increased, an effect exacerbated by the growing affluence of the developing world. As this is likely to continue, they expect no reprieve. They recognise globalisation as a double edged sword. Having access to a world market (a stay-at-home-mom running a small business in Virginia can ship to Hong Kong as easily as to New York) is a double-edged sword. Workers and businesses in the developing world can effectively undercut their counterparts in the developed world. Globalisation, arguably, is dragging its most active participants (more than a few states are still basically "objects") towards an average. Those above that average are experiencing suppressed growth or none at all, while those below it are booming.
Both types approach their problem differently, but their thought processes do converge.
Both sets (local & bigger picture) of uoung adults/gen Y today, aka the parents of the young adults of the future, realise that their children will be experiencing a lower standard of living than they did growing up. Young adults, now taking so long to get off the ground & out of their parents' houses, wonder how they could hope to provide as they were provided for. This fear ranges from the relative frivolities like Christmas presents, vacations, and cars in high school to more substantial concerns such as k-12 educational opportunities, college ( the cost of which is still rising at a dreadful rate), housing, healthcare, and other expenses. Faced with having less to offer, they needlessly express concern on how they could offer a happy childhood that unlocks fair opportunities in a world that will likely be more, not less, competitive than today's.
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