Millennials and Work.

[Sarah in SC]

I could see a sword working pretty well...


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[kombat]

Every generation is worse than the last, yet the world in continually a better place, century after century.

Is it?

Are you sure about that?

Maybe I'm just jaded and cynical, but I perceive a world that is actually regressing in many ways. The previous generation put a man on the moon, and had space shuttles and supersonic commercial flight.

No human has walked on the moon in my lifetime. I'm 39. I've never been on a supersonic jetliner, and it looks like I never will. The space shuttles are collecting dust in museums.

Now add escalating world conflict, terrorism, famine, climate change, disease (SARS, Ebola, etc.), stagnant wage/economic growth, the post-9/11 hyper-security state, home and education price growth exceeding inflation, increasing personal and governmental debt, sovereign nations going bankrupt left and right ...

Is this world really better than the one in 1985? Why, just because we have cell phones an an Internet now?

It's hard to be optimistic about the future. This is one of the main reasons my wife and I chose to remain child-free. I couldn't in good conscience bring a child into a world I perceive as falling apart, and getting worse by the year.

 

[Totoro]

Is this world really better than the one in 1985? Why, just because we have cell phones an an Internet now?

Here is some random guy on the internet trying to say: YES.

Because:

• Child mortality has dropped like a rock.
• People have never lived longer as today.
• Extreme poverty has more than halved in the last 15 years or so.
• Girls in most places in the world are going to school.
• People dying in wars is drastically down.
• Accidents and fatalities in the workplace are way down.
• Child labor is on track to being eradicated in most countries.

No cell phones or internet needed.

Too lazy right now to find the stats for you, but this is a good starting point: Hans and Ola Rosling: How not to be ignorant about the world | Talk Video | TED.com

That said, the United States may be declining in some areas (middle and lower class specifically), but the world is better off, and will likely continue to march onwards. Massively so.

There are challenges of course (climate change in particular), but we've had those before. Odds are good that we'll address those and build a better world still.

 

[bUU]

Is it? Are you sure about that? Maybe I'm just jaded and cynical

I think that was dallas27's point. It is human nature as people get older to have a jaded view of the past and an erroneously negative view of the present in comparison. To be fair, there absolutely are ups and downs along the steady path upward, but there is no rational basis on which to assert that 337 of ascendancy of human civilization has suddenly, just this generation, stopped and reversed. If anything, it would be far too soon to even think one has the valid perspective necessary to see such an inflection point, much less be able to prove such an assertion.

 

[eytonxav]

Seems our views today are jaded by instantaneous news being delivered by the media, especially when it turns out to be wrong until the facts are checked. Years ago, there was probably a lot of negative things happening that we never heard about.

 

[HFWR]

We're all doomed!!!!

Now get off my lawn...

 

[dallas27]

From 5000 BC to 2014 AD, pick a year that you would choose to be born into an an "average" family.

I would expect all of us who really think it through choose a number relatively close to 2014.

If that is true, you are, with ordinality, ranking the past as worse than expected future.


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[bUU]

Geez... leave out one word and for some reason what you wrote makes no sense.

I think that was dallas27's point. It is human nature as people get older to have a jaded view of the past and an erroneously negative view of the present in comparison. To be fair, there absolutely are ups and downs along the steady path upward, but there is no rational basis on which to assert that 337

years

of ascendancy of human civilization has suddenly, just this generation, stopped and reversed. If anything, it would be far too soon to even think one has the valid perspective necessary to see such an inflection point, much less be able to prove such an assertion.

 

[MichaelB]

We're all doomed!!!!

Just the millennials. Everyone else is fine.

 

[Amethyst]

Born in 1980, only 15 years left before they start getting those ads for river cruises and walk-in tubs...poor things

 

[gauss]

Born in 1980, only 15 years left before they start getting those ads for river cruises and walk-in tubs...poor things

Uh, I was born about 15 years prior to 1980. Is my mail content going to undergo a change in tone soon?

-gauss

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Uh, I was born about 15 years prior to 1980. Is my mail content going to undergo a change in tone soon?

-gauss

Depends on whether the AARP has found you. If so, expect to get that sort of mail content.

 

[mpeirce]

Here is some random guy on the internet trying to say: YES.

Because:

• Child mortality has dropped like a rock.
• People have never lived longer as today.
• Extreme poverty has more than halved in the last 15 years or so.
• Girls in most places in the world are going to school.
• People dying in wars is drastically down.
• Accidents and fatalities in the workplace are way down.
• Child labor is on track to being eradicated in most countries.

and

• Cold War is over, much reduced risk of nuclear war with USSR/Russia
• Air is much cleaner (at least in US) CO down 84%, Ozone down 33%, Sulfur Dioxide down 60%, lead down 92%, etc. (EPA: 1980-2013)
• Bald Eagle removed from Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants

Still no flying cars though :-(

 

[aaronc879]

From 5000 BC to 2014 AD, pick a year that you would choose to be born into an an "average" family.

I would expect all of us who really think it through choose a number relatively close to 2014.

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Not me. I would chose 1948 give or take a couple years. I would have to be a caucasian male and not get drafted otherwise I would chose 2014. I would be "coming of age" in the mid-late 60's with sex, drugs and rock n roll, counterculture, free love. I think I would've really enjoyed that time socially compared to when I was that age in the late 90's. Also, there wasn't a need for a college degree like there is now. People who are below average intelligence like me could get a factory job that paid rather well AND had a pension and full benefit package. Now days if you're not smart enough for college you're pretty much screwed. Maybe you could do ok in sales if you have the right personality which I don't.

 

[Amethyst]

Aaron, you've said this before on the forum, and I refuse to believe you. You have more good sense and express yourself better than some Ph.D's I know.

Amethyst

People who are below average intelligence like me

 

[aaronc879]

Aaron, you've said this before on the forum, and I refuse to believe you. You have more good sense and express yourself better than some Ph.D's I know.

Amethyst

That may be true but I bet they didn't get a 19 on their ACTs.

 

[Walt34]

That may be true but I bet they didn't get a 19 on their ACTs.

I really wouldn't let that bother me. All that proves is that they tested for abilities/knowledge that you didn't have. Perhaps only on that day.

It took me an embarassingly long time to figure that out since I didn't test out so well either. But that does not equate to low intelligence which any psychiatrist will tell you is very difficult to quantify, let alone measure.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Here's an interesting article about the millennials in regards to purchasing cars and homes. Although a couple years old, I think it still rings true.

The Cheapest Generation - Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic

 

[daylatedollarshort]

That may be true but I bet they didn't get a 19 on their ACTs.

Aaron879, you have more common sense than most. I really admire your ability to control costs and live within your means.

 

[Amethyst]

And I had high SATs and was a National Merit finalist, but scored "below average" on several "aptitude" tests. There are so many things at which I am cr@ppy, but it doesn't make me cr@p.

It's how you handle life that counts.

Amethyst

I really wouldn't let that bother me. All that proves is that they tested for abilities/knowledge that you didn't have. Perhaps only on that day.

It took me an embarassingly long time to figure that out since I didn't test out so well either. But that does not equate to low intelligence which any psychiatrist will tell you is very difficult to quantify, let alone measure.

 

[dallas27]

Millennial will be just as dumb and consumeristic as the rest of us once the money starts rolling in for them. There just caught in a down cycle. The old people will eventually HAVE to retire, freeing up the promotions and advancement they've missed. They will create the next bubble, whatever decade it may be, and history will repeat. Reversion to mean.

 

[ChiliPepr]

Uh, I was born about 15 years prior to 1980. Is my mail content going to undergo a change in tone soon?

-gauss

Yup... I was born 16 years prior to 1980 and my mail has certainly changed in the last year...

 

[Amethyst]

On the other hand, it is really true that if you haven't grown up by 50, you don't have to. So with that in mind, I guess the mail doesn't really matter much.

P.S. Those younger workers who complain on the social media at work, complain quite loudly about low pay versus high cost of living. They refer to their non-govvie friends who do similar work, and get raises and stock options. So money does matter to them, apparently. As (I think) it should.

Amethyst

 

[JoeWras]

Millennial will be just as dumb and consumeristic as the rest of us once the money starts rolling in for them. There just caught in a down cycle. The old people will eventually HAVE to retire, freeing up the promotions and advancement they've missed. They will create the next bubble, whatever decade it may be, and history will repeat. Reversion to mean.

Maybe, to a degree. But there is something else going on here. My niece (she straddles the Gen-X/Millennial line) and her husband do not own a car. They fit in with the Atlantic article. But better yet, they are DINKs with 2 incomes in the 6 figures. They could afford a car a year. But they won't do it.

Instead, they take the company bus to work.

We'll see how this rolls out. Without kids and no intention to have them, their non-nesting instinct may play a role.