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Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

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Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#81

Social media's ills, rising wealth and income inequality, rising sea levels, mass extinction event, crumbling roads, shit wages, corruption in government and industry, governments overwhelmingly filled with representatives of other generations with different priorities...there is a huge list of reasons to be pessimistic and they are constantly thrown in our faces online.

[deleted]

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#82
post #31

A single mother working as a waitress at Denny's in the 1980's had more spending power than a college educated cubicle drone in 2019; Let's talk about how is social media's fault! Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote; These generations just lack a proper understanding of civics! The beatings will conti…

>> "Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote" There aren't a lot of data points--less than 100--for this, so it might not be statistically significant. Both those presidents are awful , but that could be an anomaly once seen in the context of a more significant sample.

It could also be that candidates are getting better and better at playing the system. Why aim for the popular vote when it's the electoral vote that counts? If the popular vote would count the candidates would change their campaign strategies.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#83

Social media's ills, rising wealth and income inequality, rising sea levels, mass extinction event, crumbling roads, shit wages, corruption in government and industry, governments overwhelmingly filled with representatives of other generations with different priorities...there is a huge list of reasons to be pessimistic and they are constantly thrown in our faces online.

It’s really hard to take that seriously. If social media is causing you heartburn then back away from it or delete your accounts. I deleted my Facebook account nearly a decade ago and deleted my Reddit account last year. Nobody is forcing you to be a drug addict slave of online media. Some of your list looks like entitled anxiety desperately in search of sympathy. For example you mention rising sea levels. Do you own…

Curious where the corruption measures are from? In the US, public trust in government is at historic lows. https://www.people-press.org/2019/04/11/public-trust-in-gove...

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#84

My wife and I are not having kids. If you could sum it up into one short explanation as to why: My wife and I don't believe that the future is going to be a better place. Chief among the reasons are wealth inequality and buying power. If I can barely afford to buy a house now with a great job, I shudder to think what my kids would be faced with.

Is it that you can't afford to buy a house or that you can't afford to buy a house in the Bay Area?

That's a silly question. Why would you want to buy a house outside the Bay area?

/s

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#85

One thing I'm pessimistic about is this pigeonholing thing regarding to one's role in a job. I'm a programmer and therefore I can only program. Or so it seems. People don't take me seriously at entry level positions of: - Consultant - UX Designer - Data Scientist - Marketing (analytics) I wish people would at least interview me on it. They'd be surprised what I know and am able to do. One person made it obviously cle…

Do as I did and fake yourself some references. It might not be ethical but the hiring system is broken and I prefer a warm meal and a roof over my head.

Savage. I support this. I relate with your attitude too. That kind of thinking sure have given me more than a roof and a warm meal.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that just means a single mother today working the same job would be able to afford fewer things than 20 years ago. where is the comparison with cubicle drones?

If a cubicle drone is making twice as much money in adjusted terms but has to pay three or four times as much for housing, they could well be coming out behind in the equation.

One thing that I find amazing about Americans is that most of them don't understand inflation at all. It's uncommon to see any mainstream source talk about inflation-adjusted values when referring to past numbers. This becomes clear when for instance box office numbers become a conversation topic -- nobody really stops to consider how comparing films from 20 years ago with films of today is just really a measure of how money loses its value and therefore movies make more money than before

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#87

A single mother working as a waitress at Denny's in the 1980's had more spending power than a college educated cubicle drone in 2019; Let's talk about how is social media's fault! Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote; These generations just lack a proper understanding of civics! The beatings will conti…

Would you just quit the butt hurt about the popular vote? It doesn't make any sense to keep bitching about this. The popular vote has NEVER been how the US elects a President and with good reason.

The US has been on the downslope since Nixon removed us from the gold standard. They let the central bank rob us blind. Now we are letting foreign nations usurp our internal systems until they fail. The next leg down is going to be really ugly and you're bitching about the very people trying to fix this shit.

Also ETA: I got screwed over by Boomers for well over a decade. Nobody would mentor me our help me in my career in any way because I wasn't part of their generation. Find a way to help yourself--quit bitching and get out there and do something about it. That's what I had to do. A friend gave me the best advice years ago: "You're spending all your time framing the problem, when are you going to address it?"

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#88
post #8

I think it boils down to "comparison being the thief of joy." Social media of all types are basically one giant comparison machine, and the people that are the most visible on social media are the richest/best looking/most successful etc.

I don't think it is all due to social media. America is very much seen as the 'Land of Opportunity' where people are lauded for 'pullng themselves up by their bootstraps'. Today's environment though makes that much more difficult for younger generations than it did for older ones.

Prior generations are quick to say I did it, why can't you when in reality millenials are in a completely different economic starting block in large part due to the policies and lifestyles of the boomers.

On top of the negativity being levelled at them, the simple act of trying to financially survive is exhausting.

The differences between the haves and have nots and the difficulty in becoming a 'have' without a firm economic base provided by your family is becoming greater all the time.

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#89

A single mother working as a waitress at Denny's in the 1980's had more spending power than a college educated cubicle drone in 2019; Let's talk about how is social media's fault! Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote; These generations just lack a proper understanding of civics! The beatings will conti…

> Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote; These generations just lack a proper understanding of civics!

An untrue claim[0] that's been copy-pasted for a while. It has happened twice recently and three times before that, stop making it sound like it's unprecedented. None happened in the 1900s, so it's very rare (well, an 11% occurrence rate now) but not more than in the rest of history.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...

Re: Millennials and Gen Z Increasingly Pessimistic About Their Lives, Survey Finds

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree 100%. It's easy to find a scapegoat but the reasons are complex, and from data we know that Millennials and Gen Z are having greater difficulty achieving basic levels of economic stability that were somewhat easier for previous generations. Students are graduating with increasing amounts of debt and entering a job market that can make it tough to pay rent if you don't have experience. It's also easy to say…

It is honestly ludicrous to see the results of decades of economic warfare and the nonstop closing of proverbial doors of economic opportunity done by boomers and to a lesser extent gen X and then boil everything down to "Social media means more people compare their normal to everyone else's best." It isn't that it's not true, it is! Social media sucks for mental health. It's just also true that there are many legiti…

I think it's a tricky one, because there are a couple of factors here.

It's not just one thing, but rather a ton of things - for example, there is social media which is a great way to see which of your 500 friends is currently on vacation right.this.second (and someone always is). While in some senses there's more opportunity than ever before for some groups (e.g. minorities / women) in the workplace, there's also more competition than ever before as more people go for these jobs.

Baby boomers and to a lesser extent, Gen X don't really understand that the economy is different for young people, in that everything that was cheap for them (housing, healthcare and education) is now grossly unaffordable, but the things that were the domain of the rich now cost next to nothing (international travel, cellphones, computers etc).

I make a lot of money (I'm 26) compared to most my age. But like most young people in San Francisco, I have a roommate. I couldn't buy a house on my own. But I could fly anywhere in the world with no worries. The housing situation will be fucked in California for the foreseeable future because politicians don't care about the poor and the vulnerable.

We look at business efficiency as a good thing (and it broadly is), but I think we don't fully account for the costs, in the inherent stress it places on us all. So we now all need a college degree to get an entry level job. That's led to a bifurcation of the economy, between those with a credential and those without.

The climate thing is tricky. I think we'll sort it out, but it is a big problem.

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