Unrealistic Expectations

[gayl]

I'm not sure where to put this, so Mods move it if it's in the wrong area

As the pandemic stretches on, I have noticed a lot of people with unrealistic expectations. A few examples are the fact that people expect a vaccine to be 100% effective, no side effects, no illness, and no pain. People are expecting colleges to be completely free, everybody accepted, no cost factor, and a ticket to a million dollar house on graduation. People are saying you can't build financial security as easily as past generations. Whether that's the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, get it?

I don't know about you but I didn't start from an easy spot. If I could climb out of homelessness, work 1.5 jobs while desperately trying to not lose my home in the 1990s, have 2 kids own their own home in my HCOL area -- why can't others? My generation complained that 'we' had it harder than our parents and I'm sure our parents generation complained the same

Yes, they may have to forego shopping at Niemann's, buying a Tesla, megahome, gardener ..... but it's all about priorities.

 

[Teacher Terry]

The difference that I see is that when I graduated from high school you could get a good paying job with no skills at a factory. This allowed people to buy homes and have families. Now many non skilled people work for minimum wage. It’s a huge difference.

 

[gayl]

We don't / didn't have factories but I guess that's a valid point in some areas.

In & Out Burgers pays $17 hr ..... if someone stays at a starter job then, yeah, no advancement

 

[38Chevy454]

My feeling is many younger people have lost that start at the bottom and work your way up career development that most of the E-R members here grew up with. Seems that many have become too soft, accepting of govt or other handouts, as opposed to working hard and making it on your own; starting at entry level and getting salary increases and promotion as way to climbing the ladder.


Agree that many have hard time to distinguish between wants and needs. Don't need a Tesla, but do need a vehicle to get to work. Don't need a megahome, but do need a roof over your head.


Maybe I am viewed as an unsympathetic hardass, but I have no sympathy for self-inflicted problems. You made a choice, now live with the consequences. It's part of being an adult. Stop with wanting a bailout or freebie, be happy with what you can have with your own money and time supplying the resources.

 

[JRon]

What about the internet? Barely existed 30 years ago and now lots of people are making a good living providing a service or product to the world which wasn’t even possible when most of us entered the workforce. There are opportunities today - just different than before.

 

[gayl]

It's not JUST money. They expect everything to be easy!

Play a sport and didn't get a medal or trophy? UNFAIR!! Got a vaccine and less than 1 per million others got a blood clot?? UNFAIR / HAZARDOUS RESULT!! Applied to school and expected to either: pay for it based on income / work you're way through / scale back to an affordable school [1st 2 yrs at free community college]? UNFAIR!

 

[razztazz]

It's not JUST money. They expect everything to be easy!

Play a sport and didn't get a medal or trophy? UNFAIR!! Got a vaccine and less than 1 per million others got a blood clot?? UNFAIR / HAZARDOUS RESULT!! Applied to school and expected to either: pay for it based on income / work you're way through / scale back to an affordable school [1st 2 yrs at free community college]? UNFAIR!

Same stuff I heard 40-50 yrs ago and the same stuff old people used to "S" on young people about. plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Tom Waits lyrics:

their memory's like a train
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away
And the things you can't remember
Tell the things you can't forget that
History puts a saint in every dream

 

[freedomatlast]

The concept of delayed gratification has become all but extinct.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

And GET OFF MY LAWN!

 

[gayl]

And alot of those complaining are my age!!

 

[Retireby45ish]

Agreed. I wonder if the internet and everyone seeing all the “stuff” that everyone has (as well as homes, cars,etc) assume that is the norm. Creates these unrealistic expectations for these kids (young adults) and they just want it cuz it seems like everyone else has it. And mommy and daddy wanted to help them and protect them. But in the end they ruined them because nothing was expected of them and was just given to them.

 

[Gumby]

And alot of those complaining are my age!!

Indeed. A regular complaint I hear about Connecticut is that taxes are too high to retire here. Which baffles me, because they've been the same for a long time and it shouldn't come as a surprise. You had time to plan for the fact that you'd have to pay them, and if you didn't budget for them, then you didn't properly plan for retirement and probably should have stayed in the workforce a little longer.

 

[teetee]

Not sure if it is out of context but I never felt it is impossible for me to make it, despite that I did not start working and saving until I was 36.

Perhaps it was because I chose to be single and have 70+ saving rate every year so all the progress I have made seems to be compressed compared to others. To me my "play the long game" is 15 years tops. But after 8 years of working my projection has been changing for shorter to reach the same goal for RE.

I think those who complains about the system are into a self-pity mode by blaming the uncontrollable. Hopelessness and/or long term illness can also do that to a person.

When I see people whine that they will never be able to retire, while knowing them do stupid things (keeping up with the joneses, several vacation trips a year, have no clue about how debt, tax, health insurance, and investing work), I would say they are the cause of their delayed retirement.

 

[MRG]

Indeed. A regular complaint I hear about Connecticut is that taxes are too high to retire here. Which baffles me, because they've been the same for a long time and it shouldn't come as a surprise. You had time to plan for the fact that you'd have to pay them, and if you didn't budget for them, then you didn't properly plan for retirement and probably should have stayed in the workforce a little longer.

+1
My older sister chooses to blame the state she lived in her entire her entire life for taxing her SS so she can't afford to live there anymore. She's just retired at 72, took her SS at 62 and moved to another state so her primary source of income isn't taxed! I always thought she had money because every couple years she bought a new vehicle.[emoji849]

I don't think this attitude is anything new at all. Maybe the OP is just heard it more lately? I see people everywhere who failed to save and prepare some for no apparent reason. The 76yo man fetching carts at the grocery store has a reason he needs the money. I remember my 75yo teammate at Megacorp, he'd retired twice before, once with a pension.

 

[lordjust]

I'm not sure where to put this, so Mods move it if it's in the wrong area

As the pandemic stretches on, I have noticed a lot of people with unrealistic expectations. A few examples are the fact that people expect a vaccine to be 100% effective, no side effects, no illness, and no pain. People are expecting colleges to be completely free, everybody accepted, no cost factor, and a ticket to a million dollar house on graduation. People are saying you can't build financial security as easily as past generations. Whether that's the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, get it?

I don't know about you but I didn't start from an easy spot. If I could climb out of homelessness, work 1.5 jobs while desperately trying to not lose my home in the 1990s, have 2 kids own their own home in my HCOL area -- why can't others? My generation complained that 'we' had it harder than our parents and I'm sure our parents generation complained the same

Yes, they may have to forego shopping at Niemann's, buying a Tesla, megahome, gardener ..... but it's all about priorities.

What a bunch of old fuddy duddys... the preferred route is Instagram model, YouTube star, or Twitch streamer. Case in point, the Kardashians! If they can do it anyone can.

Boomers with their saving money and work through the ranks mentality. Thats so old school!

 

[Silver]

The concept of delayed gratification has become all but extinct.

I think the concept of personal responsibility has become extinct. Everything seems to be someone's fault or responsibility.

 

[Ready]

It's not JUST money. They expect everything to be easy!

Who is “they”? Are you referring to someone in your life that is irritating you by their behavior?

For as long as I can remember, there have been hard working people who find success and those who never get it. I don’t see it being any different today than it was 40 years ago when I first started my career. Not everyone in life is going to be successful. Some will be lazy, unintelligent, or just unlucky. It’s just part of life.

 

[Amethyst]

There never were any factories near any place I ever lived. I knew about skilled trades and construction sites, as my father was a master electrician specializing in high-voltage construction. He raised three kids on his wages, and he never finished high school. He usually commuted about 40 miles to the sites his union assigned him to work, but he refused to live near those sites because the schools were bad.

OK, that was a million years ago, I am old, and he is long dead. The young tradespeople who come to our home, have interesting stories about how they got into their trades. One woman, a plumber who re-set a toilet for us, started out by helping the school janitor after school. The man who is repairing a tile floor for us, learned his trade from his grandfather, a Polish immigrant. We've also had four, count 'em, different sets of brothers doing a/c installation, home electrical repairs, and pest control. All these people are young enough to be my kids. The brother pairs all own their businesses.

I point out these things to show that there are many paths besides college - even today.

We don't / didn't have factories but I guess that's a valid point in some areas.

In & Out Burgers pays $17 hr ..... if someone stays at a starter job then, yeah, no advancement

 

[RAE]

. People are saying you can't build financial security as easily as past generations. Whether that's the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, get it? .

Some people do have unrealistic expectations, but I think it is absolutely true that it's more difficult to build financial security as easily as past generations (at least for most young people). Just look at the data............wages have been basically flat (or actually declining, when factoring in inflation) since about 1980. We've had a couple of recessions and a pandemic lately, that has really set a lot of young people back quite a few years in their careers. Sure, some highly motivated young folks have managed to avoid these pitfalls and still do fine, but a whole lot more are struggling. Personally, I am glad that I entered my working years when I did, as opposed to anytime in the last couple of decades. All you need to do is look at the huge increase in wealth inequality in this country over the last 30-40 years to see where the vast majority of the $$ is going. It's not a trend that is good for the country, IMO.

 

[travelover]

And GET OFF MY LAWN!

And the older I get, the better I was.

 

[Lewis Clark]

... I point out these things to show that there are many paths besides college - even today.

+1

Mike Rowe (former host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel) has a foundation that gives scholarships to people for training in the skilled trades.

https://www.mikeroweworks.org/about/

 

[Montecfo]

There never were any factories near any place I ever lived. I knew about skilled trades and construction sites, as my father was a master electrician specializing in high-voltage construction. He raised three kids on his wages, and he never finished high school. He usually commuted about 40 miles to the sites his union assigned him to work, but he refused to live near those sites because the schools were bad.

OK, that was a million years ago, I am old, and he is long dead. The young tradespeople who come to our home, have interesting stories about how they got into their trades. One woman, a plumber who re-set a toilet for us, started out by helping the school janitor after school. The man who is repairing a tile floor for us, learned his trade from his grandfather, a Polish immigrant. We've also had four, count 'em, different sets of brothers doing a/c installation, home electrical repairs, and pest control. All these people are young enough to be my kids. The brother pairs all own their businesses.

I point out these things to show that there are many paths besides college - even today.

yes. it's never been easier to GAIN valuable skills whether in trades, coding camps, or college which has never been more accessible through juco.

And we do still have factories and shop floors.

 

[gayl]

And JCs are tuition free for almost everyone!!

 

[naggz]

Kids these days.


“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Socrates 469 – 533 B.C.E


"The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them".
Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274


"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"
Plato, 4th Century BC


"When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint".
Hesiod, 8th century BC


"We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control."
Inscription, 6000 year-old Egyptian tomb

 

[Koolau]

Yeah, I could really go off on this subject with dozens of examples. I don't think it's so much that kids are "different" now as it is WE were different than OUR parents (okay, whatever you call kids these days vs us Baby Boomers.) WE are the ones that insisted EVERYONE get a college degree at the expense of vocational training. WE (for the most part) are the ones that insisted that there be grants and loans and every other kind of gift to the universities. Using the last one as an example, what did we get? More beautiful campuses with 2 or 3 more layers of bureaucracy between the TA actually doing the teaching and the College Top Administrator. AND yet - costs are through the roof and the education has been dumbed down - IMHO. Keep in mind I have 3 kids less than 12 years out of University. Not ONE knows anything about history. Not ONE knows about English Lit. Not ONE knows the Good and Indifferent in addition to the Bad about their own country. Not ONE graduated debt free. They ARE independent because we insisted and insured that they faced the consequences of their actions. They understand their place in the world because WE taught them.

Okay, end of rant since YMMV.