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Gen Z does not dream of labor

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Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#31

Post by Barrin92 »

coffeefirst wrote: post #16

I don’t see how this is significantly different than ever prior counterculture disillusioned with the culture and economic expectations they inherited. The only thing they need is a new style of music to go with it.

because the counterculture of old actually had a "counter" part often with significant impact and organization. In Japan in 68 and 69 students shut down much of the university system for over a year[1]. And even though eventually dying down these movements had lasting impact on culture. It's where green political movements were born, sexual rights for women were gained, and so on.

Gen Z 'counterculture' doesn't have a music genre because it doesn't need one. it's not pushing back or claiming anything, it's just nihilism with memes.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968%E2%80%931969_Japanese_uni...

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#32

Post by seibelj »

burlesona wrote: post #14

> “My dad got a job straight out of high school, saved up, and bought a house in his 20s,” said Anne Dakota, a 21-year-old receptionist from Asheville, North Carolina, who earns minimum wage. “I don’t even think that’s possible for me, at least with the current money I make.” I think this is pretty much the whole story. It’s very hard to be motivated to work when you could save your entire adult life and still strugg…

No post body was provided.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#33

Post by azemetre »

criddell wrote: post #13
lemoncookiechip wrote: post #8

Yes, lets paint a whole generation of people with wide brush strokes.

Should we never talk about trends within a population?

Is it actually a trend or is the media pushing another narrative that likely applies to 2% of the targeted population?

Reminds me of this essay by Paul Graham:

http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#34

Post by [deleted] »

burlesona wrote: post #14

> “My dad got a job straight out of high school, saved up, and bought a house in his 20s,” said Anne Dakota, a 21-year-old receptionist from Asheville, North Carolina, who earns minimum wage. “I don’t even think that’s possible for me, at least with the current money I make.” I think this is pretty much the whole story. It’s very hard to be motivated to work when you could save your entire adult life and still strugg…

[deleted]

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#36

Post by frankbreetz »

endisneigh wrote: post #28

Curious how all of the issues are resolved. If workers (as they should imo) get paid more, it will result in more inflation, resulting in their purchasing power on key things like housing effectively not changing as inflation adjusts the cost of housing to be more expensive. I'm also curious to see if companies run by Gen Z pay better or worse than Boomer run companies. If they're not I don't see how the situation wi…

The answer is to build more housing, it is simple supply and demand

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#37

Post by derevaunseraun »

deathanatos wrote: post #30

> “I simply want to live my life slowly and lay down in a bed of moss with my lover and enjoy the rest of my existence reading books, creating art, and loving myself and the people in my life.” … and our article author thinks what, that Gen Z invented this? That generations before Gen Z "dream of labor"? Dreaming of labor is called a nightmare. I work to make ends meet.

> Dreaming of labor is called a nightmare. I work to make ends meet.

I don't know... I think it's possible to think about work not as a zero-sum game but as an opportunity to grow and promote growth. But at the same time this is kind of a white collar mindset... it's hard to sell people on growth when the work is more demeaning

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#38

Post by Jerred »

As a Gen Z it's not that our entire generation is lazy it's that we've seen our parents give their entire lives to a company or industry just counting down the years to retirement. That personally is my worst case scenario for my career. Sure some people my age just want to be famous and not do any hard work, but I'd say the majority just don't want to be a "good employee" for 40 years just increasing the number every quarter for shareholders.

There was another article on here the other day about how half of Gen Z wants to start their own business and I think that's more accurate. Or at least give that a shot before giving in to working for someone else all their life. It just seems archaic now to give half of your waking life to a company.

Most of us would gladly give even more time just to start something that we get all of the profits from and therefore have more control over the whole of our lives. And I'm not talking about starting a billion dollar tech company, just something to pay the bills and save a little.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#39

Post by endisneigh »

frankbreetz wrote: post #36
endisneigh wrote: post #28

Curious how all of the issues are resolved. If workers (as they should imo) get paid more, it will result in more inflation, resulting in their purchasing power on key things like housing effectively not changing as inflation adjusts the cost of housing to be more expensive. I'm also curious to see if companies run by Gen Z pay better or worse than Boomer run companies. If they're not I don't see how the situation wi…

The answer is to build more housing, it is simple supply and demand

Housing is not free to build, though. I agree in general that more housing should be built, but it's not some sort of silver bullet.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#40

Post by MisterBastahrd »

vasco wrote: post #29
burlesona wrote: post #14

> “My dad got a job straight out of high school, saved up, and bought a house in his 20s,” said Anne Dakota, a 21-year-old receptionist from Asheville, North Carolina, who earns minimum wage. “I don’t even think that’s possible for me, at least with the current money I make.” I think this is pretty much the whole story. It’s very hard to be motivated to work when you could save your entire adult life and still strugg…

There's also a bit of over romanticism regarding being depressed and everything being shit which I think throws boomers a curve ball. They see the existential dread response to lack of prospects and think people are like this because they don't have avocado toasts, when the only way out is to breadth first search for Google. If you don't want that, I don't know what your prospects are nowadays coming out of universit…

The average house sold in 1946 cost $5.25K. The median salary at the time was $3K.

The average house sold today costs $374K. The median salary is $51K.

You can argue that those houses that were sold back then were smaller, but they were also made of vastly better materials than modern home construction, and it's not like people even have the opportunity of buying those smaller homes unless they want to live in a slum.

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