The War Against Youth

[livinghope]

The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers took care of that.

By Stephen Marche

Comments

[bleed_peroxide]

This shit is precisely why I'm terrified of going on with college. I lose hours (and eventually) my apartment if I work less hours at my job, but if I don't go to college, I'm stuck at this fucking retail gig forever and can't progress upwards.

These days, I'm more aware of how fucking bleak everything is and think "what the fuck is the point of any of this". I don't see how things are going to improve.

[bleed_peroxide]

I would need at least a master's in my field to even get a decent job, plus a lot of experience that is impossible for me to find right now.

Same here. I should have started my third year of college, but personal issues and finances kind of fucked that up. I don't even know if it's worth it, yet I know that I need a Master's (I'm majoring in Psychology) to be able to do anything to validate spending all that time and money into school. Meanwhile, I have to afford living on my own.

[peace_piper]

I used to want to go to grad school too, I'd really need a masters to get ahead in my chosen field, but after looking around at the prospects in my state (Oregon is where I live but I got my bachelors in Hawaii) I decided, "why bother?".

There are no jobs, it's impossible to get tenure or any kind of security and it would just be needless stress and money I don't have for something that's still just as much of a gamble to pay off. (Pay off meaning that I would get that "good job" and be able to pay back the loan for grad school.)

It just ain't worth it to spend all that money, time and effort to get a masters so I can end up working at a fruit stand off the highway (or to get my bachelors, retroactively).

[ljtaylor]

My parents are boomers and my dad is starting to wake up to the fact that yes, jobs are hard to come by for my generation and no, I will never earn anywhere near approaching what he did. He's always been snobby towards 'poor people' but he never had to houseshare with 4 others until he was 30 in order to afford the rent. Nor has he been to job interviews where the employer flat out asks you if you'll work for free. I'm training to be an architect and I'm seriously disheartened by how awful the situation is for graduates; and more so by the lack of job security and the fear that my partner and I will have to live far apart again just so we can both have "good jobs".

[igglepoof]

and more so by the lack of job security and the fear that my partner and I will have to live far apart again just so we can both have "good jobs".

UGHH That's one of the main reasons I've been single for so many years.

[caerfrli]

you're paying into it so you are entitled to collect. I hate how the word has been debased, like "welfare"

[fenris_lorsrai]

Conveniently forgetting that your SS payment is based on how much you put in. spent years not working? you get jackall for social security.

[nikoel]

Yeah, you actually are entitled to SS because you pay into it.

[shadwrayvn]

God this is what I was talking about with my patient's wife! I am not fucking part of an "entitled" generation I am working & paying into these programs so yea I want these benefits! The debit I have from going to school I seriously don't know how long it will take to pay it off but I can't not go to school or I will be stuck in a job that honestly barely covers my daily living costs!

[nesmith]

The Boomers have lived and continue to live with what George Carlin called (with depressing and uncanny accuracy) "a simple philosophy: 'Gimme that it's MINE! Gimme that it's MINE!'"

I still love the music and TV and movies of the 60s/70s but I am really beginning to utterly loathe and despise the young people who grew up then. (As a whole, in general terms.)