it sounds like the response to the article’s description of Gen Y as spoiled, entitled, socially inept, over-educated, physically pathetic, developmentally challenged man-babies is to complain about how it isn’t their fault, the world isn’t fair and life is difficult.
Honestly, other than a pocket from 1996 through 2001, I remember there always being problems with the economy. And the 90s were really only awesome if you were in something computer related (which fucking sucks by the way).
And there now seems to be this new meme that everyone goes to college and higher education is an over-priced waste of time because you’ll just graduate with no job and end up working as a bartender or a barista. The fact of the matter is that only about 30% of American adults have a college degree which is a far cry from “everyone”. People who go to college still continue to earn more, are less likely to be laid off and find jobs faster if they are.
Is there still the concept that if you don’t go to college and get good grades in a useful major, you will end up working in a crappy McJob? You seem like bright people. Are there a lot of you on this board who graduated in the top 25% of their class from a top 50 ranked school and still can’t find jobs?
Do people really believe that a college degree will automatically confer some sort of nebulous “awesome job” on them when they graduate? What is that “awesome job” anyway? And what “field” are people studying that they can’t find anything even tangentially related to it in the job market?
Really I think Gen Y and Gen X just seem so much more spoiled, soft and entitled because in previous generations, people our age were overseas fighting Nazi’s and Asian people.
It is based on a percentage of your income for the past six months and caps (in NY) at $405.00 a week. Which is not that great if you were making $150,000 a year and living in a $3000 a month Manhattan appartment.
While not a solution, it is an option… IF you can get in. It’s getting harder to enlist or commission. Also, the military won’t MAKE anybody into anything. There is a fairly high washout rate before you get to ranks that aren’t entry level. It certainly won’t cure anybody of being a flailing man/woman-child, but it will get you to stand on your own feet or fall.
I made note of that in my original response, but the author doesn’t talk about trade skills or other skilled manual labor at all. From the article:
He gives a half-second’s lip service to “mining coal” and “roofing houses” (and waxing porn stars’ assholes) but really doesn’t touch on the trades as a legitimate career path at all. Which I felt was wrong.
Yes, that would be selfish. Having other people work for those corporations and pay taxes so you can sit on your ass in a tent and get government dole is the height of altruism.
The thread title. I think Cracked is a fun read, but the linked article seems to be starting with a theory that the author doesn’t bother to prove, and he then uses that theory as the justification to engage in some shallow stereotyping of Gens X and Millennials that don’t really have anything to do with Occupy Wall Street or anything else.
Amusingly, I thought the article in question was more spot-on before it was asked about here and I started dissecting it a bit closer. But to complain about it would be like bitching that The Daily Show isn’t fair & balanced in its reporting
Actually as a member of Gen X I think some people are forgetting what was “wrong” with us. We had menial, low wage jobs and didn’t care. That’s what made us “slackers” not the refusal to accept menial jobs.
Bullshit. Remember when the unemployment rate was lower than thought theoretically possible? That wasn’t all computer jobs. I am in a computer job, and during the bubble we had our Christmas party at an upscale restaurant, spouses/partners invited, and all got gifts. That meant a lot of people not in the computer industry were making money off of us, which was great. Sorry you don’t like computers, I do.
9.1% of them according to the Times.
My son-in-law just graduated from a law school high in the top quartile, and during graduation it was admitted that new lawyers are suffering also. So the problem isn’t limited to art history majors. Maybe kids graduating from a top 50 school are okay, but since not all our children are above average maybe we should worry about the 95% not in those schools. Or should we write them off?
Any evidence that anyone is turning down “non-awesome” jobs meant for college grads? Or is awesome anything above janitor in your book?
When my father came back from Europe in 1946 he got a good job in no time, with no college education. And no effort - he was planning on taking it easy, and they called him. I don’t think people coming back from either Nam or Iraq have it quite so easy.
I think it’s odd that you’re effectively assuming all the 901+ people are 18-35, in effect giving a pass to the hundreds of thousands of people in their 40s and 50s who has been out of work for 99+ weeks and are simply completely downtrodden from being unable to work and support their families for so long.
Obviously it’s possible to have a discussion about one generation as opposed to all people, but it should be an honest discussion that acknowledges that there are people of all ages who are demoralized by the depressed labor market.
For what it’s worth, I’m 27 and owned a business I started 6 years ago and now spend about 50% of my time consulting for various other businesses. I’ve laid off personally or as a consultant seen a lot more 40-55 year old professionals get laid off than young people. And I know a lot more 40-55 year olds who’re sitting around unemployed rather than taking a job at Lowes than I do 18-35 year olds. Being 27 I’d like to assume that if anything I’m biased toward knowing people my own age.
Personally I don`t think many people, regardless of age, deserve anything but sympathy. When there’s 80 openings and 900 applicants it’s just shitty, and if that goes on for months or years it’s going to take a psychological toll on anyone.
I’m guessing that if the unemployment rate was low there wouldn’t be anyone around with the free time to sit in the tents. I haven’t heard of anyone who quit a job to do it. If the bankers and the 1% are complaining, they’ve got only themselves to blame.
BTW, do you think the inhabitants of the Hoovervilles in the very early 1930s were lazy bums who should have just gotten jobs also?
Yes, and it is not clear to me that many people in OWS are there because they are turning down McJobs. They seem to be protesting bankers, not Ronald McDonald.
Who said about them being in OWS because they’re turning down McJobs?
This is the (ridiculously stupid) post to which I was responding:
“…it is a completely understandable and noble choice to refuse fast food/retail jobs. Why would anyone want to be an accomplice to a corporation that they believe is a negative force in the world, through the creation of miserable dehumanizing work, materialistic culture, environmental pollution, factory farming of unhealthy food, exploitation of people in developing countries, or whatever your cause is? Just because they’ll pay you? Wouldn’t that be selfish?”
Do you agree that it is “noble” for those people to refuse to work for the horrible corporations and instead rely on other people who work for those corporations to pay taxes to provide dole to the “noble” who then sit on their ass and protest?
I think it’s odd that you honestly believe that and that that was your only take-away from my example but… meh. I’m okay with it, I guess.
If anything, I was giving the 18-35 the benefit of the doubt but really I was mainly illustrating the point that there’s a lot of folks out there willing to put themselves out there for any steady job. Of course there’s people out there in their 40’s and over trying & willing to find the same work. What is that supposed to prove in this context? That even more 18-35s aren’t willing to since they obviously only make a subset of that 900? Fine – more 18-35 year olds found this job beneath them than I was giving them credit for.
Oh, I agree it was a stupid post. But I think it was stupid because I’m not convinced any significant number of people are turning down jobs to stick it to the man. It is equally as stupid, from the other direction, as posts which claim that people are turning down jobs because they are lazy bums who would rather sleep in the basement than accept all but the most awesome of jobs.
My company flew everyone and their spouses down to Disney World for 4 days to celebrate reaching 1000 employees. Those were good times. (they didn’t have a follow up trip when they let go of 700 of them a few years later):(.
That’s hardly the point though. I also remember news stories about how the “tech boom” wasn’t trickling down to manufacturing workers who were getting laid off left and right. And when I was in college in 1993, ending up as some sort of unemployable engineer like Michael Douglas in Falling Down seemed like a viable option. (You young kids are probably more familiar with the recent remake by the Foo Fighters).
Even in this down economy, I still get calls from companies and I see people I know starting new high paying jobs.
I feel like the job market has become inundated with lawyers. Mostly because it has become a default occupation for kids who don’t really know what they want to do but want to earn a six figure salary.
That’s not really what I meant. I’m curious what these “jobs” are that people expect to do when they come out of college with some vague degree philosophy or whatever and no prior skills. People like to say “college isn’t a trade school”, but businesses hire people to perform certain tasks and fill specific roles.
No, you misunderstand me completely. The idea behind such a protest strategy, and indeed the only way it could succeed, would be for nobody in society to take the McJobs. With no source of employees, the corporations would no longer be able to function, and would eventually cease to exist. Isn’t this something that the more radical faction of OWS youth would approve of? I definitely saw a lot of anti-corporate signage when I walked through my local Occupy. (I’m not part of the movement, for the record.)
That’s a fair response. I just write from my own opinion, but I agree that my politics are very fringe for my generation. Most 20-somethings today seem to have no interest in sticking it to the man, however it is one would go about doing that.
(they didn’t have a follow up trip when they let go of 700 of them a few years later):(.