why generation y yuppies are unhappy

[Sonikku]

This really is the debt generation. I'm pretty sure the costs of college/housing/healthcare etc have remained pretty flat over the decades or at the very least always kept pace with wages. If they're still in debt after that, it is their own fault. Kids today just want to spend spend spend and keep borrowing to keep the high times rolling for everybody. Have they no idea that one day they'll have to pay it back? Knowing this generation, they'll conjure up a way to pass their debts onto their children sooner than take responsibility for their own expenses. And what is with the choice in the degrees? You think baby boomers got a career with a Liberal Arts degree, much less a high school degree? Don't make me laugh. Next they'll start acting entitled to a retirement just for paying fica something in their pay check every month.

Youths today are all about trying to benefit from the hard work and sacrifices of their parents generation from the one end while trying to run up huge debts and leaving nothing left for their children's generation on the other end but a burden. A damn shame if you ask me. No one can say we didn't try to teach them better than this.

 

[OverVolt]

This really is the debt generation. I'm pretty sure the costs of college/housing/healthcare etc have remained pretty flat over the decades or at the very least always kept pace with wages. If they're still in debt after that, it is their own fault. Kids today just want to spend spend spend and keep borrowing to keep the high times rolling for everybody. Have they no idea that one day they'll have to pay it back? Knowing this generation, they'll conjure up a way to pass their debts onto their children sooner than take responsibility for their own expenses. And what is with the choice in the degrees? You think baby boomers got a career with a Liberal Arts degree, much less a high school degree? Don't make me laugh. Next they'll start acting entitled to a retirement just for paying fica something in their pay check every month.

Youths today are all about trying to benefit from the hard work and sacrifices of their parents generation from the one end while trying to run up huge debts and leaving nothing left for their children's generation on the other end but a burden. A damn shame if you ask me. No one can say we didn't try to teach them better than this.

I think education is 2x-4x the rate of inflation

 

[OverVolt]

If I were a betting man, I would bet every generation states that the 'new' generation sucks....

Baby boomers had the saying "don't trust anyone over 30"

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I'm generation Y (and a non-minority) and the government picked up the overwhelming majority of my tuition's tab. If people want to attend a private, Ivy, or UC college that's their problem in dealing with tuition. There are plenty of cheaper alternatives.

 

[desy]

I don't think the new generations suck, I understand they come from a different frame of reference. It just leaves us gob-smacked when the entitlement shows up, many don't have to suffer the hard landing as boomerang kids but I don't think that's a bad thing.

Many cultures in the world work generationally, its been the runaway success of modern civilization that allows us to live like kings. they sure as hell didn't live like this in 1913 a mere hundred years ago.
In fact human history has been much harder than it is today for the unwashed masses

 

[OverVolt]

I don't think the new generations suck, I understand they come from a different frame of reference. It just leaves us gob-smacked when the entitlement shows up, many don't have to suffer the hard landing as boomerang kids but I don't think that's a bad thing.

Many cultures in the world work generationally, its been the runaway success of modern civilization that allows us to live like kings. they sure as hell didn't live like this in 1913 a mere hundred years ago.
In fact human history has been much harder than it is today for the unwashed masses

Thats very, very lofty. I'd take 1890 anyday. The birth rate and family formation rates were much much higher. They certainly weren't struggling to survive and thrive due to economics anyway. We have cell phones and lots of television oh wow. The things that matter like being able to start or raise a family are getting pinched.

 

[Zaap]

This current generation is pretty spoiled, but all of this blaming their parents bullshit...

"Oh boo hoo, my evil parents told me I'm special, and now I'm 31 and just figuring out that everyone else in the world doesn't automatically think I'm special too...!"

Give me a f'ing break. That's not anyone's parents' fault- that's a person's own fault.

Yeah sure, better that your parents told you you're a worthless POS that'll never amount to much, so you can spend all your life proving them wrong.

Like previous generations of parents never told their kids they were special.

It's just that the more current generations tuned out before they heard the SECOND part of what their parents actually told them (and the same thing parents have told their children since the dawn or time:

1st part: "You're special."
2nd part: "To ME. And your family. To everyone else, you're just another schmuck. You'll actually have to prove yourself to them. Now get your feet off the table, sit up straight and do your homework."

Then there's the "Wahh! All previous generations had it soooo good, they just don't understand the hardships of today wahhhh...!"

Yeah, sure. Everyone had it so great, that's why there was the "Great" depression. It was great. That was followed by the "awesome!" being drafted into multiple wars both hot and cold, followed by "Amazing!" social unrest, civil rights battles, inflation, stagflation, energy crisises, black friday, yellow tuesday, orange monday... multiple recessions, etc, etc...

Yeah, it's always been such a blast for past generations.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Thats very, very lofty. I'd take 1890 anyday. The birth rate and family formation rates were much much higher. They certainly weren't struggling to survive and thrive due to economics anyway. We have cell phones and lots of television oh wow. The things that matter like being able to start or raise a family are getting pinched.

I'm pretty sure that India has a higher birth rate today than did America in 1890. Get going before you miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime! :whiste:

 

[desy]

1890 where avg life expectancy was 42.5?
where people used to die of toe scratches, where 50% of your income went to purchasing food, where 90% of the population never traveled more than 20 miles from where they lived?
Pass
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/history/news-photographs-boys-working-mines-early-1900s
My dad was a carpenter in the 60's they worked 10 yrs a day and Saturday mornings, that was the expectation not overtime

 

[yllus]

My parents are boomers, they worked hard and lived modest lives. I have by and large done the same thing. I'm a genx'er. I have a 20 year old niece, born in 1993. She has a FULL Presidential Scholarship. Her entire schooling for 4 years is paid for, including housing. Is she going to be a scientists, engineer, mathematician? No, she is majoring in psychology. Completely worthless. She has NEVER worked a real job in her life, not even McDonald's. She is totally unprepared and her parents will support her until they die (my prediction).

Isn't a Presidential Scholarship pretty prestigious, indicating she actually is pretty intelligent (at least academically)? It is possible that she could actually get a job in psychology and make more of a difference to the world in that field than a computer scientist, engineer or mathematician ever will.

Jobs at McDonald's and Best Buy and whatnot should only be taken by necessity - for an aspiring professional, they provide little value and lots of distraction during a pretty hectic time in a person's life. If she's got a good chance of being a star in her field, she should keep her eyes on the prize. (This coming from someone who worked at Best Buy during university because he needed the money, so I'm not just being snotty towards retail workers.)

This really is the debt generation. I'm pretty sure the costs of college/housing/healthcare etc have remained pretty flat over the decades or at the very least always kept pace with wages.

They haven't. Not by a long shot. And thus everything that followed that sentence in your post is wrong.

 

[pcgeek11]

May I suggest their expectations are based on what their parents had, and they have less than their parents. Is quality of life declining in the USA?

They have less than their parents because they have not yet put in the effort with a little sweat and blood. If the quality of life is declining in the USA it is because the younger generation is not willing to put in the effort. They want it given on a platter.

 

[BoberFett]

I'd take 1890 anyday. The birth rate and family formation rates were much much higher.

Sure, as long as you don't die from TB...

 

[pcgeek11]

Yes, I think so.

My parents are babyboomers. My dad has an associates degree in criminal justice, he was a cop and worked as a security guard, my mom went to work for the post office.

They bought a home, were able to buy a new car every few years and raised my brother and I.

Today, I seriously doubt someone holding the same jobs my parents held would be able to as well as they did.

Even something as basic as buying a middle class home is out of reach for most working class families.

It is out of reach if you have to have 4000 SqFt on the lake. If you "have" to have a house that big you have too many children. A family with two kids should only need at most a 2000 SqFt, 4 BR Home.

 

[pcgeek11]

Man that's a pretty good rant. I'm on the tail end of the boomers, not ready to retire, and I had kids late in live, effectively skipping a generation. I see my sons friends at 15ish, and never saw such spoiled brats. "Oh I have to have a cell phone." "When are we getting a PS4".. on and on. GIMME. Take me to softball. Get me this, buy me that. Hell, the kids in the ghettos are turning up their noses at gifts that their family couldn't afford in the first place. I'll tell you what though, they'll line up around the feeding trough when Mom and Pop kick the bucket because it's their right, and besides their kids will want two cell phones.

Excellent post! I see the same thing.

 

[BoberFett]

It is out of reach if you have to have 4000 SqFt on the lake. If you "have" to have a house that big you have too many children. A family with two kids should only need at most a 2000 SqFt, 4 BR Home.

50 years ago, those two kids might have even *gasp* shared a bedroom. A 2 bedroom, 1 bath house would have been enough for a family of four. Around here, a typical house from the 60s was a little rambler, 3 9'x9' bedrooms each with tiny closets on the main level, maybe a partially finished basement. A galley style eat in kitchen. Maybe 1500sqft finished.

 

[pcgeek11]

Yea but it isn't her fault her parents must be really trying to shield her from "the world"

There is Gen y, currently figuring out they are screwed because they followed their parents advice and it didn't work. Gen X, who followed their parents advice and it worked!!! And the baby boomers, who are getting senile and out of touch.

No, we are not. We are getting tired of being blamed for the self imposed shortcomings of the Y Generation. And the whinning!

 

[Ns1]

this is seriously gold.

 

[AViking]

My grandparents bought their house for $3000. My parents bought theirs for $30,000. Today a house is $300,000 - if I want to move away - since average homes cost $450,000 there - AFTER the housing bubble popped. I might as well move to Texas then and buy a $100,000 house. My family never needed to consider moving away to be able to buy a home. Instead we're expected to pay the $450,000 and get a $100,000 job. Well with those kinds of expectations what do you think happens? Nobody is telling their kids to move away and buy a cheaper house in the middle of America. For those of you living in Texas I imagine that the same is true except that salaries are lower and you're expected to live in the big cities and buy a $300,000 home.

What ends up happening is debt. Lots of it. I managed to not get into debt and avoided the whole thing but I most people aren't able to. I'd say not willing to avoid it but I struggle to fault all these people for borrowing money to own a car, own a home, and live a life that they are told is the American dream and is expected of them.

Of course all this hits the fan when unemployment numbers rise and interest rates increase since the debt to income ratio is way too high. Blame the banks for that. Who lends money to someone who can't afford it? The banks do.

Lets just blame it on personal responsibility though since that is an easy way to just avoid solving the problem. Rather than reduce debt we'll just keep increasing it until another bubble bursts. Student loans, credit cards, mortgages, cars, etc....no problem. Let the good times roll.

 

[pcgeek11]

50 years ago, those two kids might have even *gasp* shared a bedroom. A 2 bedroom, 1 bath house would have been enough for a family of four. Around here, a typical house from the 60s was a little rambler, 3 9'x9' bedrooms each with tiny closets on the main level, maybe a partially finished basement. A galley style eat in kitchen. Maybe 1500sqft finished.

I was thinking what you said but was being a little lavish! Hell the house I live in now was built in 1980 and is 1500 SqFt on a 3/4 acre lot. A bigger house is just more work.

 

[mchammer187]

My parents are boomers, they worked hard and lived modest lives. I have by and large done the same thing. I'm a genx'er. I have a 20 year old niece, born in 1993. She has a FULL Presidential Scholarship. Her entire schooling for 4 years is paid for, including housing. Is she going to be a scientists, engineer, mathematician? No, she is majoring in psychology. Completely worthless. She has NEVER worked a real job in her life, not even McDonald's. She is totally unprepared and her parents will support her until they die (my prediction).

I only worked one summer in my life unless we are counting the ones after college started went to engineering school on a free ride pretty much and am doing fine 31 now.


If she received a scholarship and is not going to be riddled with debt and her parents didn't pay for her schooling than I don't see the problem here. If everyone was a stem major than they wouldn't be in demand. That said she could be very well worthless but it is not going to be because of those choices.

Taking on 200K debt to go to a private liberal arts degree to find yourself is different than taking 0 dollars to do it and if she is intelligent to get a scholarship to begin you can't really say she hasn't worked for anything because that in it of itself requires a lot of work.

 

[AViking]

I was thinking what you said but was being a little lavish! Hell the house I live in now was built in 1980 and is 1500 SqFt on a 3/4 acre lot. A bigger house is just more work.

Nice thing about living in Europe now is that everything is so small. I can clean the place very fast. My parents are selling their home and buying a much smaller one. These giant mcmansions that are all the rage are really stupid. I don't need a 700 square foot living room.

 

[Murloc]

I am part of that generation I guess but honestly, what I see is people who are given the chance to study whatever they want (often all paid by parents), and the parents don't press for career-oriented degrees, but they don't get told they're special either, lots of people are just without a compass and try out a subject before changing for another one or give up on university (if they have a professional secondary diploma) or stuff like that, maybe they went to high school instead of doing an apprenticeship, coming from a proletarian background, and not being that good at it, so they go for easy degrees. This maybe wouldn't have happened with cash-strapped parents. Except for the fact that lots of people are poor and face the same hard choices people faced back then.

I'm from the 90s so I'm kinda at the end of the timeframe given in the article, the reality is that no one of my peers sees a rosy future or see anything getting handed to them, just lowering wages and cut-throat competition.
I guess that when people from previous years finished university, they found a much better job market and were optimistic until they got crushed by reality during the crisis (and other compounded issues relevant to my location).

 

[werepossum]

Thats very, very lofty. I'd take 1890 anyday. The birth rate and family formation rates were much much higher. They certainly weren't struggling to survive and thrive due to economics anyway. We have cell phones and lots of television oh wow. The things that matter like being able to start or raise a family are getting pinched.

Screw that. In 1890 Fallout 3 wasn't even out.

 

[zinfamous]

I'm a gen xer and the y gen are a bunch of pussies. Wah wah wah.

I always thought I was a gen X'er, but according to that timeline I am gen Y.

damn it, now I hate myself!

 

[Spungo]

Funny you should say that...

A study came out recently showing people who are on social media are unhappier than those who aren't. It took a while to figure out if it was the "apps" causing the problem or if unhappy people gravitated to social media. Turns out it's the former and it's a significant effect. Since younger generations tend to favor such interaction it's possible that what we hear complained about is due in significant part to "new age" social interaction.

Humans have never been happy. During WW1 and WW2, people were so depressed that the recruitment office had a line.

A lot of the problems with generation Y are caused by growing up in single parent homes. According to the stats, growing up without a father is the single worst thing that can happen to a child. IIRC, it makes men overly aggressive and women overly sexual.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/apr/05/crime.penal