I would say I am unhappy and angry because of the above (i.e. inequality and exclusive hierarchy). When you try to make something of yourself under the naive assumption that you live in an inclusive society that rewards ambitious and initiative, and then discover that this is all a mirage... it can be disorienting and a long process to re-discover who you want to be as an adult, and how it is you want to engage with society. Most of the time I just want to hide in a forest and wait for the Singularity. But yes, I am channeling my anger and unhappiness in a productive direction - or starting to. I want to identify the ways that we can actually break out of the contemporary order. I agree that the opportunity for real change is high, and another world is possible.
I empathize. IMO this is primarily due to a 'time of plenty' vs. 'time of scarcity' mindset. Currently, we are operating under a 'time of scarcity' mindset, but I would argue that it is an illusion. A large number of systems, institutions, and the cultures that are associated with them are sunsetting. The scarcity is relative. IMHO the important thing is to move forward with optimism and an open mind. I think we feel similarly. We needn't frame a vision of success yet, atm we need to feed the good and help it grow.
feed the good and help it grow.
Well, I could say that here in the US we spend too much on prisons, and not enough on blah, blah, blah... but it's the general trend rather than the details that matter. The current under 35 generation is feeling the pinch, and significant resources have not been mobilized to improve their situation. National economies do not function based upon a balance sheet but upon legislated initiative. The old guard is not motivated to work in the interests of the under 35 generation, and I would argue that they take cover under the narrative that the balance sheet does not allow for it. Both major parties are operating under this narrative, IMO. Disenfranchisement has always been the state of the poor people in the US, but it now includes a good portion of the middle class as well. Organized labor used to be a primary means by which the middle class could exercise power, but technology and trade has eroded the leverage unions had.
This article made me angry, because of the condescension. I am under 35, and admittedly I have been blessed in my career, but my expectations of a career are perfectly reasonable. I put a lower priority on career advancement and a higher priority on family compared to my parents' generation but I don't expect to own two cars and go on foreign holidays every year. I find it aggravating to be told that I think I am a special unicorn and don't live in the real world - all my friendship group are realistic and down to earth as well. I feel like the 'entitled Gen Y' trope is made up. Unfortunately, I predict that when I am in the senior generation I will forget all this and will probably believe that the young generation are entitled snowflakes.
I feel this as well. In general, many of my peers have had decent careers and got on with living. We haven't been particularly entitled to anything. However, the rising cost of living in cities (London is especially ridiculous) means its harder to get holidays, houses, cars. It's not that we are delusional about our expectations, it's that the odds have been stacked more against us. But even this is just a sweeping generalisation based on nothing more than my own peer group
I didn't like this article the first time it was posted This is not a slam against a repost, as it was originally posted over 2 years ago, but I don't feel like typing up again that I think this article is douchey and patronizing. Here's a great example of why this guy seems like an asshole to me Core reasons for posting: Image Crafting, Jealousy Inducing This article 2 years ago basically soured me on the guy writing waitbutwhy. He seems like an asshole. mk On a side note, search is way better in that it's returning things, BUT, everyone let's try a little experiment. Copy/paste the link for the Gen Y article into search and see what comes up. It's like 15 pages of results, most of which I don't understand why they're showing up. It's...interesting. Also, the original posting of this article didn't show up at all in the first page of results. I found it by searching "waitbutwhy.com". Then it was in the first five or so results.On my walk home from work, I was whistled at twice, honked at twice, and one car almost caused an accident slowing down to stare at me. Sometimes I really hate men.
My reaction exactly. Like the world needs more condescending douchebags who think that complex problems can be summarized into one heavily biased blog post, solving nothing but giving everyone more mud to sling at each other.This article 2 years ago basically soured me on the guy writing waitbutwhy. He seems like an asshole.
Ya, I share a practically identical perspective.
(This is all conjecture - I don't really have any evidence for this. I'm a historian, not an economist, after all) I guess I figure that the economy's really gonna tank at some point. I dunno if it'll be from an inevitable slow-down/crash on China's end (I'm pretty confident it will happen - maybe not now but in the next ~15 years as the Chinese population grows older and huge proportions of their labor force starts to retire - as a Sinologist I'm pretty interested in how the government's gonna react to huge swathes of discontent, too) or from something on the domestic side. Either way, I think things will get bad pretty quickly a la the Great Depression and that this will ultimately lead to another FDR-type (coupled with another New Deal Coalition voter bloc) who comes in and starts reforming things pretty heavy handedly. But to be honest there isn't really any way to predict the future, really. Climate change and migration patterns are gonna be a whole other factor, with people from the 'Global South' fleeing some pretty catastrophic conditions in favor for more stable countries. I don't really know how the world will react to that. Either way I do think it'll get pretty rough before getting better. OR I could be entirely wrong and we'll get a shift to FDR-style leftism sooner. (As you can probably tell, I really love FDR). Or we'll go down a dystopian corporationist route , though I'm skeptical of that sort of thing.
I do believe this is the article. http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html
Thanks, added it - not sure why it didn't attach in the original attempt