Everybody Hates Us

2011-12-03

But here’s the thing: Those Baby Boomers who started this “you don’t want to flip burgers” bullshit did flip burgers. Or roof houses, or mine coal, or wax porn stars’ assholes. And that wasn’t something to be ashamed of back then — that was the era before you needed a bachelor’s degree to get a job waiting tables (but more on that in a moment). But at some point between my grandfather’s time and now, getting your hands dirty became something to be ashamed of. My generation perpetuated that. We made it socially unacceptable to:

A) Do any job that requires sweat and/or a uniform.

B) Work 70-hour weeks to get ahead.

So if you don’t do either of those things, what’s left? Getting an education and waiting for a good job in your field. But now, when we catch you doing that, we mock you and tell you to go flip burgers. And that’s bullshit. We told you your whole lives that those jobs were for idiots and failures. You think you’re too good for those jobs because that’s what we’ve been fucking telling you since birth.

— Hey you, Gen-X’er! I have to say I genuinely appreciate the way you put the Millenial generation’s failings in the context of history. Maybe we aren’t intrinsically terrible, lazy, entitled, sensitive people. Maybe culture and society PRIMED US TO BE THIS WAY. What a thought.

Source: cracked.com

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Adam Carolla expounds on the participation-trophy-addicted generation.

Guys, did you know we’ve been downgraded from the less-than-meaningfully descriptive “Millenials” to the much more colorful “Ass-Douches?” Man, we suck.

2011-10-28

Here’s an idea: millenials are struggling because they’ve come of age in the worst economic period since the Great Depression. They’re also at the peak of a demographic boom — they’re the largest generation since the Baby Boomers — but they face more significant economic challenges than the Boomers ever did. In 1968, no one could have predicted that the Boomers, who prided themselves on the social advances made in the 1960s, would preside over the largest increase in economic inequality since the Gilded Age. The millenial’s current struggles have nothing to do with how they were raised, and it’s too early to predict how the millenials will turn out, or how they’ll change the country.

— FROM THE ARTICLE COMMENTARY. 10 points for clarity, 10 points for relevance, and 200 points for realizing that humans exist within a system of generations and not in a vacuum.

Source: The New York Times

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At the same time, if you graduated from Stanford with a decent GPA you should have a job. A lot of the problem is that people aren’t willing to settle for jobs they don’t want. Sometimes you have to, at least for a while.

— FROM THE ARTICLE COMMENTARY. Oh, I see! I should luuuuuuuuuurve my job as a Starbucks barista? I should appreciate it for its “occupational experience?” Because, for many of us, THAT’S ALL WE CAN GET! And they call the millenials delusional.

Source: The New York Times

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A Stanford graduate in English literature (with honors no less !) and a Michigan grad in political science. Precisely which job skills can they offer an employer with those kinds of majors ? Why does mere graduation from a “prestigious” university entitle them to do anything more than the menial jobs you describe ?

Exactly what does society owe them after they made deliberate choices to study in areas of such marginal employability ?

— FROM THE ARTICLE COMMENTARY. Right, here I thought we were starting to get a little societal sympathy for being the first generation for whom a $100k degree is WORTHLESS. An english/political science major in 1947 would be a seasoned academic and professor. That same major in 1977 wouldn’t be as relevant, but it could lead to a well-paying job due to the cognitive skills required. That advanced degree in 2007? Fucking useless. And that’s our fault? Excuse me??? Also, commenter, due to your strange pronoun choices and spacing usage before punctuation, I don’t know how you can lambaste an English major without feeling at least a little bit hypocritical.

Source: The New York Times

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Maybe if I knew that our children would be coming of age in an economy that would crush even the best and brightest among them, I would have cared a little less about their score on an advanced placement history test, and a little more about helping them find happiness in moments at the margin.

— Don’t worry, random parent. I’m not sure it’s possible (or worthwhile) to metaphysically prepare someone for economic devastation which saddles them with life-long debt and ruins their chances of getting a job to pay it off. I’m sure you did your best.

Source: The New York Times

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If you…have prospered despite the economy, landing one of those jobs that come with an embroidered gym bag, you’re obviously fine. The big change is that when you describe yourself as lucky—a word that comes up a lot with friends I know like this—you may actually mean it more than you would have before. (Before, it would have just been codespeak for “privileged.”)

If, though, you set track records and made summa cum laude—if you earned praise not just for effort but real achievements—only to land back in the same bedroom where you drilled for the SATs, then you are unmoored…you have had your worldview kicked in.

— Here we are, more digitally skilled, multi-task able, and educated than any other cohort (except perhaps the next one), being told that we will be the first generation ever who will not be better off than our parents. How the hell do you expect us to respond?

Source: New York Magazine

2011-09-12

In the Middle Class Museum rests the sarcophagus of a mother and father with public high school educations who raised a family and sent their children to college and retired at 65 and did not die in debt. History is full of wonders.

— All kidding aside, this actually brought tears to my eyes. No wonder there’s so much frustration with our generation - we’re set up to fail and expected to win.

Source: Gawker

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Almost everyone sells out sooner or later, but it’s pretty fucking depressing to see an entire generation of 21 year-olds who should be doing drugs and talking stupidly about The Revolution instead doing drugs and talking stupidly about which brands are Real. Kids these days will argue until with you until the weed runs out over whether or not selling out even exists any more.

— Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Can’t sew our own clothes, because then we’re hipster posers. Can’t buy clothes someone else makes, because then we’re sellout posers. Guess we’ll just have to go naked.

Source: Gawker

2011-09-01

We did everything we were supposed to,” said Stephanie Morales, 23, who graduated from Dartmouth College in 2009 with hopes of working in the arts. Instead she ended up waiting tables at a Chart House restaurant in Weehawken, N.J., earning $2.17 an hour plus tips, to pay off her student loans. “What was the point of working so hard for 22 years if there was nothing out there?

— What a joy to find a Times piece that has a little sympathy for the “Limbo Generation,” as I guess we’re now called. If the only jobs available are waiting tables and “lunch provided” internships, excuuuuuuuuuuse me if I grow my own food to lower my grocery costs, or sew my own clothes, or get really excited when I have a spare $4 dollars to take to that fair-trade coffee shop down the street with the awesome music (my “splurge” once a month). Thank you, NY Times, for recognizing that THESE ARE OUR LIVES. So we’re not trying to impress you with our back-to-the-land, good livin’ skills, we’re just living them the best way we know how.

Source: The New York Times