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Gen Z does not dream of labor

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341–350 of 510 posts

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#341
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people would consider a suggestion to live in the Midwest as about the same as a suggestion that they spend the rest of their life living in a decrepit sewer system.

Maybe you should try to understand why certain kinds of people (of, perhaps the non-white kind) would not want to move into an insular community?

Spoken like a coastal elite. I’ve lived on the east coast, Midwest, and Cali. The Midwest is no more insular than anywhere else I’ve lived.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#342
post #295
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you should try to understand why certain kinds of people (of, perhaps the non-white kind) would not want to move into an insular community?

There are plenty of "non-white" kind of people in the midwest. Jeeze the racist stereotypes of the midwest is laughable In my neighborhood I would say at minimum 25% of the home owners are non-white families, if not more.

Exactly. The racism and class prejudice is so blatant in this discussion it’s pretty wild.

Bunch of representative bias anecdotes, mostly be people who don’t live there, or haven’t in 20 years.

And yet, if the same environment were to be encountered in another country, it would be “culture”.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote: I am Gen Z. This story holds true for my parents and I. My dad was a solider in Latin America, my mom, a nurse. Their job required, at most, 2 years of education beyond High School. I am a data analyst, with a Bachelor's and a Master's. I earn more than they both did together, adjusted for inflation. My friends are in "specialized jobs" as well -- some even being doctors and lawyers. We still have zero hope…

> We still have zero hope of affording a house, let alone retirement. This is ridiculous. If that’s actually true, move . Lower your expenses. Figure out something else.

Wow, I had actually never considered "figuring something else". Thanks for this amazing insight. It's almost as useful as telling someone with depression to "just be happy".

Rent in my town is one of the cheapest among bigger cities and I already live very frugally (public transit, only shop for groceries on sale and healthy food, don't go out to parties, don't drink, no addictions, no online subscriptions, only free hobbies + gym). GenXers and Boomers left a shitty world for Gen Z and, for some, life is just not the fairy tale you are used to - sorry mate.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#344
post #337

> “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…

>People are willing to save and/or hustle for 5-10 years to get material rewards, but beyond that it feels pointless. Let's test that theory. So assuming that person in their 20's doesn't want to move to the Bay Area/Seattle/Austin/NYC they can find a nice house in a metro area within a 20-30 minute drive of plenty of medium-high paying jobs, for around $200k. So assuming they're smart enough to put 20% down on that…

> So assuming that person in their 20's doesn't want to move to the Bay Area/Seattle/Austin/NYC they can find a nice house in a metro area within a 20-30 minute drive of plenty of medium-high paying jobs, for around $200k.

Maybe in 2000. I don't think that's true in any major metropolitan area (say over 1 million). Which is also coincidentally where most people live.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#345

> “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 is a lot of confirmation bias in these stories. Half the issue is that people have been indoctrinated to expect home ownership and long for some golden age seen on TV that never existed. Home ownership was never universal in the US. It has been within a few percent of 65% since the 1960s[1]. It was always out of reach for the lowest earners, like those that make minimum wage. Some people whos parents owned hous…

It seems to me like there’s a big difference between “since the 1960s” and “always.” Is there no good data going at least 100 years further back?

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving thousands of miles sucks . Leaving all of your family, friends, and work is an enormous disruption to a life.

Life isn’t easy. Sometimes you have to make hard choices. What’s your point?

You've inspired me, I'm going to make the hard choice and knock over a bank to build a better life. The police can't deal with all the crime these days, so I'd say the cost/benefit analysis is pretty good.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We still have zero hope of affording a house, let alone retirement. This is ridiculous. If that’s actually true, move . Lower your expenses. Figure out something else.

Wow, I had actually never considered "figuring something else". Thanks for this amazing insight. It's almost as useful as telling someone with depression to "just be happy". Rent in my town is one of the cheapest among bigger cities and I already live very frugally (public transit, only shop for groceries on sale and healthy food, don't go out to parties, don't drink, no addictions, no online subscriptions, only free…

They expect you to go move somewhere cheaper where your career prospects are stocking shelves at Walmart or serving food. Maybe if you're lucky, you could get a job for $36k from the one company in a 200 mile radius that's still hiring in your industry, but is on life support and won't be around in a decade. Also, please ignore the fact that its competitors have all gone out of business or left for better prospects in higher CoL areas, as well.

It's not so much a solution as it is a sneering dismissal of real problems that they don't want to hear about anymore.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#348
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in the Bay Area, this is article from 2020 and even then $384k got you only in the top 10%. $105k was basically median. Source: https://amp.thecalifornian.com/amp/4625295002 The national percentile doesn’t really matter when your income is not portable, and you can’t just move and take it with you. As another post said, it’s doable on $135k but it’s not easy in the SF Bay Area.

> The national percentile doesn’t really matter when your income is not portable, and you can’t just move and take it with you. With remote work, it's a lot more portable than you might think.

For some, yes. Unfortunately, this is not as evenly available as one might hope or even as widely as it was used during pandemic.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> otherwise people would switch to non-exempt jobs. But we're seeing this in the US, between covid restaurant layoffs and closures; Tipped dining service is struggling to recruit.

Tipped employees are required to be paid minimum wage if their tips don’t equal 7.25/hr. Their employer is federally mandated to make up the difference. Having said that, most tipped employees are doing much, much better…which is why they aren’t clamoring to go wash dishes in the back.

There are far more exemptions than that.

https://www.minimum-wage.org/articles/minimum-wage-exemption...

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We still have zero hope of affording a house, let alone retirement. This is ridiculous. If that’s actually true, move . Lower your expenses. Figure out something else.

Wow, I had actually never considered "figuring something else". Thanks for this amazing insight. It's almost as useful as telling someone with depression to "just be happy". Rent in my town is one of the cheapest among bigger cities and I already live very frugally (public transit, only shop for groceries on sale and healthy food, don't go out to parties, don't drink, no addictions, no online subscriptions, only free…

> cheapest among bigger cities

You’re not forced to live in a bigger city.

You weren’t forced to uselessly over-educate yourself.

You aren’t forced to stay where you are, in a dead-end, complaining about how it’s everyone’s fault but your own.

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