More Kids Want to Be YouTubers Than Astronauts Because Obviously

In a world where money means everything such a paradigm shift is self explanatory.

Money doesn't even figure in my opinion. When was the last time that astronauts were on TV? A major broadcast? When's the next planned mission that people care about? Astronaut is possibly the most elite and difficult to obtain profession in the world but most of that elite selected minority doesn't even make it into space. Over most of my life you couldn't even dream of being an astronaut because the position was full and they weren't holding candidate trials. They just aren't relevant in most kids lives except as a vague abstract concept on the periphery.

Money beyond necessity means as much or as little as you individually value it to mean.

And there is not "a world where money means everything" vs a world where money means less, money is literally an abstract representation of your trade capability with other people. If you want to trade things directly without the usage of money, you're free to do so at the loss of a convenient abstraction. If you'd like to choose a different abstraction, like gold or real estate, you're free to do so. If you don't want to trade goods and services at all and do everything yourself, you're free to do so at the loss of convenience that comes from the division of labor. If you want to find a community of like-minded people that can pool available resources to grab a plot of land to collectively self-sustain, you're free to do so.

So no, this isn't some "we live in a society where..." situation where kids now want to be YouTubers because that's what society "values." The market barely values it, there are probably like 10000 successful YouTubers. Choosing that as a career path, given that they are primarily motivated by money, would be an idiotic decision. They're clearly motivated by other factors, like fame, peer adulation, flexible hours, and interest in the job itself. If money was the primary motivator, they'd choose almost any other profession.

This article makes a number of suppositions without really critically exploring those claims. Some questions I have after reading this:

1. How does this compare to historical trends in the US? Did more kids in the 80s want to be rock stars or Hollywood actors, for example.

2. How is the author establishing a relationship between occupational earnings and the ambition of young people? Do we know that this is even a significant factor or could there be other motivations (popular culture placing more value on Internet celebrities than scientists, for example).

3. What other variance is at play in the country data? You can’t rule out differences in the US and Chinese education systems, for example. There are many sociological and technological factors you need to parse here.

4. How much does this even matter? “What do you want to be when you grow up” is a question most of us have been asked at some point but how many of us stuck to those dreams? Further, there may be an argument for having a diversity of skills and experiences that is often limited by rigid educational and career paths. Some of the best software developers I have worked with have been musicians and artists.

All that said, I think it would be great if becoming an astronaut had the same or more appeal to young people as social media fame. I’ll also say that it’s never too late (look at Richard Garriott who took a break from designing video games to become a citizen astronaut). One of my life goals is to go to space before I die and I think it’s a real possibility.

I’m hoping one day we can be done with this money obsession. To live in the Star Trek Next Generation universe would be a dream come true.