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I also thought my youth sucked, but life only gets worse from there. Sure looking forward to upcoming retirement gave a spike of happiness to previous generations but that no longer applies to us.
Coincidentally on point, I just happened to rewatch the IT Crowd episode “FriendFace” (IMDB).
It came out December 2008, just as Facebook was going mainstream, and it fucking it nails it, all the way back then.
Transforming the internet into a single monolithic social space is just not a good idea. And it was likely the beginning of data mining, privacy breaches, manipulation etc. None of that makes anywhere nearly as much sense without big social platforms.
It could and should be remembered as our generation’s cigarettes/smoking. Something we all just did despite how obviously bad an idea it was (again, IT Crowd nailed it out of the gate, which means it was there for anyone to notice).
I think that’s just because boomers own all the assets. Assets are pretty much happinesses.
Young adults didn’t have much assets in the past either. I suspect a strong factor here is rather that due to high rents for apartments in population centers, young adults are forced to stay with their parents which can be quite miserable at that age.
People earn more as they age there’s no doubting that. However young adults now own less assets overall than their parents or grandparents did at their age. It continues that way for every age cohort too.
The baby boomer generation owns and has owned more wealth than any other generation in US history even when accounting for age.
Or if you don’t have parents, or can’t move back with them for whatever reason, you just suck it up and remain in the rent poverty trap forever, unable to save up for a downpayment quickly, while house prices get higher faster than you can save otherwise.
I’m not even in a population centre, I work remotely and live in a tiny town rent a shitty mouldy damp basement, but even rent alone for this place alone is higher than what median monthly take-home is for almost half of the population. My neighbours upstairs, who have a hole in their ceiling, pay for an apartment not much bigger than mine as a houseshare of 5-6 people, they’re packed in there like sardines.
All my friends (including myself) moved away and I started working full-time with no summer vacation. Also my work, that I pulled all nighters to get a degree for, is pointless or actively makes the world worse. What was I supposed to be happy about?
I was meant to be happy?
I’m happier in my 40s than I ever was in my 20s.
I mean, shit’s still fucked. But it was so much worse then.
Maybe a shocker to you, but you’re not a young adult anymore.
This study is specifically about people in their 20s. Usually in that age you’re supposed to be happy and full of hope for the future. Sure, your time maybe sucked, but you’re not the average.
Today’s youth grows increasingly frustrated and hopeless, because if you look around, there’s nothing to hope for. The future is bleak. That wasn’t the case 20 years ago.
The future was bleak back then, too. And then it got worse as my family grew…bubble, recession, correction, pandemic, war.
It’s not any easier, but we are in a better place personnally, and partially because we are numb to it- and realized this shit will continue so we might as well carve out a life we can enjoy now, and stop planning for future happiness.
Part of it is luck, part of it is doggedly sticking to a carrer that paid me less than a McDonald’s employee right after university, and that experience gave us the ability to capitalize on luck.
I don’t have the answers to boost the happiness of young people, and I really appreciate the fight the milennials are giving this world and hope they continue to make positive changes.
Stick around, we like you.
Look back at all these events. Which of them seemed permanent?
A recession is bad, but there’s a very real hope that it’s going away soon. The pandemic was a once in a lifetime event, but even that had hope very very soon - the first rumors of a vaccine made rounds literally within days after the first lockdown.
Today’s crises are different. Look at the climate. What you see as a young person is, that the entire world is acknowledging that the world is burning - but nobody is doing anything about it.
Look at the economy. In large parts of the Western world the promise of “work hard and you’ll have a good life” simply isn’t true anymore. And that’s not a fluke, recession, bubble. It’s systemic and people know that.
I’m literally in the top 10% income wise here in Germany. And even I would have to pay loans back for 20 years with my partner to afford a house here, and even then it’s a thin margin. My parents’ generation could buy a house, go on vacations, and have a good life in general with two regular worker’s salaries. That’s nothing that will blow over in a year or two.
While i agree it’s not super fantastic for young people, what you gloss over is during the recession/housing crisis our assets, that we worked for 10/15/20 years were wiped out . While you cant forsee buying a home, imagine working to get one, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath you-through no fault of your own, and loosing it.
Yes those things i mentioned were transient, but you need to eat every. single. day.
We opened our place 4 months before covid, and almost every single person I had worked with during the previous 7 years were laid off…again, all thier assets were wiped out just to survive.
We got very lucky, had a great landlord, an amazing community & 35+ years of experience to get us through.
The takeaway is: you cannot look to the future like you’re going to make it through unscathed, but you are goi g to make it through. Climate change, the world heating up is something that will happen and we will habe to change society as a result, but society does not change unless it is forced to…so you might as well go buy that house, have that baby, and carry on because without moving forward in life you are just biding time until you die.
Again, you’re looking at the situation from a completely wrong angle.
Seriously guys, are you unable to understand that your own position is not that of the current youth?
Yes, having a house taken away is bad, but let’s be realistic here: how many people did that really affect and how did the kids look at it? For most kids, in 2010 this whole thing was over. And they were seen as something fixable, and people ostensibly worked on fixing them. There was (and this is important!) a clear, realistic path out of the pit.
We don’t have that today. What is the path out of a looming fascist revival? What is the path out of a full blown climate crisis? What is the path out of a society ruled over by rich old men?
The youth has no self efficacy left. We don’t have it either, but we just throw a bunch of copium every day and ignore the problems.
Ok…so my points are invalid because I am living in the time that the young occupy, but don’t “get” because I am not young…and yet your points are valid because you’re too young to have experienced the full effects of the recession/covid, etc.
What is the path out of a looming fascist revival? The same as it always has been; strife, war, deprivation.
What is the path out of a full blown climate crisis? Humans will adapt.
What is the path out of a society ruled over by rich old men? lol…when has it not been so? We are still in our infancy as a race…at some point it will change, but unless you are willing to work your entire lifetime to make that change it will continue.
Unless you’re commited to working towards making a change, you’re just complaining.
I was worried about climate 20 years ago, when I was a young adult. I essentially Cassandra’d large parts of today’s world (growing fascism, worse access to quality of life, healthcare etc, bad job opportunities, enormous youth unemployment, massive environmental damage).
I was for the record also miserable, and it surprises me to hear that everybody else wasn’t. Now I actually feel even worse about that period of my life.
My friends all went to uni and I went straight into full time work after college. They were having a blast while i was speed running the adult human condition. They had overseas trips and big uni balls and I worked and saved.
By my mid 20s I’d bought a house and was quite advanced in my career, and now I’m middle aged I’m in a far better financial position than they are, and I’m old enough now to put aside FOMO for my youth.
But here’s the thing, I did the work really hard thing and got the pay off that was promised. This generation? I don’t think it matters what they do, they’re fucked. And that’s bitterly unfair.
If I were their age, at least in my country, I’d do a trade, travel, try and live off the grid or look into tiny homes and communal living. The system was always rigged but once upon a time there were ways you could get ahead, with some sacrifice and delayed gratification. It’s just not true anymore and it’s bullshit to tell them otherwise.
I’d counsel young people (again in my country) to learn useful skills and live it up. Don’t even try to play the game.