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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

#331

Post by blueprint »

refurb wrote: post #71
makerofspoons wrote: post #30

"Climate change, protecting the environment and natural disasters topped the list of most respondents on a personal level, but less than three in ten of both the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts cited it as a worry." This is surprising. As a Gen Z-er this highlights the kind of bubble I find myself in- my friend group is almost universally in a state of despair about the collapsing biosphere. Climate change and mass exti…

Climate change and mass extinction are the chief reasons I am pessimistic about my life. Can you name another time in recent history where the end of the world wasn't near? WW1, Great Depression, WW2, Mutually Assured Destruction, Swine flu, AIDS, Cuban missile crisis, etc, etc. The correct answer is it's always been this way and what we're going through right now isn't really all that new.

Bunch of nonsense. None of the examples you cited from other times had any remote comparison to the literal collapse of the global ecosystem. What do you get out of arguing that the level if crisis we're in is not so severe that humans civilization is going to collapse and that there's nothing we can do about it? At least with MAD, the most severe of your comparisons, there's an implicit reason why no one fired nuclear weapons. There is no recourse for what is happening on Earth right now. I'm actually kind of disgusted by your comment.

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

#332

Post by freeone3000 »

tathougies wrote: post #266
asdff wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same housing stock for the most part as the 1980s. There are teensy tiny bungalos that leak water built well before the 1980s in Los Angeles right now that are asking for nearly a million dollars. In fact, you will have a hard time finding any home in LA that hasn't gone up in price given an arbitrary 10 year period, while wages have been stagnant for the most part. It's a recipe for disaster when shelter be…

> It's a recipe for disaster when shelter becomes an investment opportunity rather than a basic human need. Why would this being an 'investment' interfere with its pricing anymore than if everyone had lived in these homes as shelter? You don't magically have the privilege of selling 'investments' for more than you bought it. Not trying to be facetious... just genuinely curious? If people are willing to pay that price…

You can only live in one house. You can invest in as many houses as you want.

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

#333

Post by krapp »

weaksauce wrote: post #269
rdiddly wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the world was going to end at the stroke of midnight Jan 1 2000. There was a real and palpable undercurrent of apocalyptism in the zeitgeist.

I remember talking to my fundamentalist Christian friend in high school who literally said his last goodbyes to his friends. The next time I saw him was awkward.

Did he join the Seventh Day Adventists?

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

#334

Post by xyzzyz »

itronitron wrote: post #295
tathougies wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home sizes have also shot up by a significant margin. What's the % change in price per square foot?

price per sq ft is probably going down as home sizes go up, largely due to location. Most new homes are built where land is available, further out from city centers, and therefore have a lower price per square foot despite being larger.

Yes, but it's always been true. The houses in 1930s, 1950s, and 1990s were also built where land was available, further out from city centers, so this hasn't changed, and doesn't explain why price/sq ft is going down.

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

#335

Post by Creationer »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #9

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.

I think the fundamental component is house prices. Our ancestors had much cheaper housing as a multiple of the median wage, and could mostly afford to buy based on the paid labor of the father alone.

Those same ancestors are still sticking around, living in those houses, and demanding tribute in the form of medicare and welfare payments (2/3rds of the federal budget).

I'm only saying this to spark and extend discussion: but a society in which Euthanasia is mandatory at age 80, with housing and monetary resources freed up for younger generations, is likely to be a happier and better place to live.

Alternatively we greatly limit immigration (including cross-border) - to only the most skilled and intelligent immigrants - and we create some kind of huge carrot/stick to get older people out of big houses and into smaller, managed apartments. A comprehensive land value tax, with discounts for families with children under 16, could solve this.

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

#336

Post by hiram112 »

Domenic_S wrote: post #225
icegreentea2 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a millennial, at least one thing that is different is that we all grew up in that brief period when the world wasn't ending. We grew up in the 90s and early noughts, when ya, there were problems, but they all seemed containable. It seemed like the adults generally knew what they were doing, and could be counted on the to the right thing. I'd also argue (with no real basis of course) that the type of dread that cli…

> the world wasn't ending. We grew up in the 90s and early noughts, when ya, there were problems, but they all seemed containable Here are some things I remember from that time off the top of my head: We were on the brink of environmental collapse as CFCs were destroying the ozone layer Acid rain was going to destroy lakes, trees, rivers, eventually killing us all HIV was not well understood and very very scary Waco/…

> We were on the brink of environmental collapse as CFCs were destroying the ozone layer

I'd probably be ridiculed by most of the younger crowd here for my views on global warming, I mean climate change, but as someone who distinctly remembers the nonstop warnings of the Ozone Layer - we're all gonna die - I just don't put much energy into worrying about the latest issues related to the environment.

Part of me knows that I'm probably underestimating the actual problem, but I've been hearing warnings for years that never amounted to anything.

I wonder if this is why the boomers, who were literally practicing nuclear bomb safety in school (much like school shootings now) and have had another few decades of dire warnings that never materialized, are even more unlikely to care about the environment or much else about which the younger generations are so fearful.

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

#337

Post by eropple »

ForHackernews wrote: post #321
eropple wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Boston area. I can't foresee ever leaving because of cost-of-living expenses. I'm not an import; I've lived in New England my entire life and the Greater Boston area--let's define it as "the Red and Orange Lines, and I guess the Green Line if I was desperate"--is effectively the only place I can be short of blowing off my family and my support network of friends and colleagues. The area is congruent wit…

I mean, that's fine and all, but you should probably just admit that you value the luxury of living in an extremely expensive area with lots of urban amenities. There's nothing wrong with it, but phrasing it like you simply can't live anywhere except these two particular metro lines comes off as really out of touch. Urban liberals' lifestyle is a luxury consumption choice the same way that a Rolex or a Masarti is.

I mean, sure, I like those luxuries. I also get panic attacks when driving in stressful situations and more than moderate traffic. Not wanting to cause a crack-up rules out a commute into an urban area from an only marginally cheaper suburban area. (I've tried it before.) And fully-remote work is uncomfortable, socially isolating, and completely impossible for my girlfriend due to the urban-localized nature of her career, which makes living further out impractical.

I've tried living elsewhere; this wasn't my first choice and I'm very lucky to be able to afford it. Perhaps all this makes this urban liberal some kind of snowflake, but that's all right with me.

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

#338

Post by tathougies »

eropple wrote: post #290
tathougies wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So that's a pretty weak strawman I'm not trying to argue, just trying to understand what you said. > I believe that a society should openly welcome people who are not members of the majority, should emphasize that its public administration be mindful that it operates for its constituents, and where, when citizens need help, they can get help. You honestly believe that other parts of the country do not believe that?…

> I'm not trying to argue, just trying to understand what you said. Cool (and I say that without snark). For future reference, I might suggest "can you explain what you mean by this?". It sets a better tone than what you wrote, which reads as points-scoring caricature. > You honestly believe that other parts of the country do not believe that? I feel some travel would get rid of such notions, but oh well. Of course t…

So if I had just asked 'can you explain what you mean' you would have given me an explanation about how you appreciate the way of life in Boston, etc. I was more interested in the fact that -- across the country -- places similar to Boston (i.e., large, rich cities) seem to all be having the very problem you are calling out (high home prices). I was interested in an explanation of how you thus justify liking the politics (which in my mind are intrinsically linked to the high home prices) while simultaneously decrying its effects. Without asking my direct question, I don't see how I could have mandated this level of introspection.

Your response now seems to indicate that the main reason you want to stay in Boston is your family, which I get wholeheartedly. But your claim was that you appreciated the politics, which doesn't make any sense to me still, because in my mind, the way of life you idealize (and I'll admit I like it too) sounds like it leads to expensive home prices.

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

#339

Post by Balgair »

opportune wrote: post #297
jjoonathan wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need people. They always complain about needing people because it's always in their interest to do so, but the fact that they don't just raise wages strongly suggests that they don't know how to profitably employ additional people and that "we need people" is just a bunch of hot air. This dilemma, and many like it, vanish entirely if you stop paying attention to what people say and start paying attention t…

Yes, if you need people, raise prices until you can afford the people that are available. The actual industries that do need people (like tech) have done that.

Semi-related: Many SV companies have been involved in illegal wage-suppression-fixing recently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

> The defendants are Adobe, Apple Inc., Google, Intel, Intuit, Pixar, Lucasfilm and eBay.

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

#340

Post by opportune »

jakeogh wrote: post #61
makerofspoons wrote: post #30

"Climate change, protecting the environment and natural disasters topped the list of most respondents on a personal level, but less than three in ten of both the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts cited it as a worry." This is surprising. As a Gen Z-er this highlights the kind of bubble I find myself in- my friend group is almost universally in a state of despair about the collapsing biosphere. Climate change and mass exti…

In elementary (late 80's) were constantly propagandized that the whales were going to be extinct, the ozone layer was going to be gone, and killer bees were going to get us all. Not a peep of optimism that we could solve problems. It was presented as inevitable. There are strong forces that need people to be in a constant state of worry. Power is derived from it.

The first two were legitimate issues that were solved through international policy (international whaling restrictions and CFC restrictions, respectively). People were right to make a big deal about them, because unmitigated they would have had quite bad consequences
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