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The Cheapest Generation

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Cheapest Generation

#71

Post by loganu »

angersock wrote: post #7

Here are some scattered observations and opinions as somebody in this generation. I'm basically just dumping gut feelings here--don't expect a lot of well-written explanations. There is not a lot worth buying that is long-lasting. Most everything feels mass-produced and cheap, and the things that aren't are pretty obviously marketed at people trying to buck that trend. I don't want to pay 10x more for something witho…

Same age bracket, same sentiment in my peer group. Even in Alberta where health-care and other social nets exist, and un-(or under)-employment is rare, much is the same. We've seen ads for cars and suits and fertilizer for so long that we're immune to any of it. Our parents lived in such a radically different time in terms of the economy, technology, societal norms, that we can't relate to each other, even though we'd like to. We "young folk" share a collective skepticism, so we advertise products and services to each other when we find something that works or makes sense to us. We don't care about crashing markets and fiscal cliffs because we don't have years of retirement savings. We don't buy newspapers or watch the evening news; News is received through twitter, facebook, or real conversations, if and when there is any news. It's not that we don't want to pay for things. We just don't want what you're selling, or the format it comes in, or the commitments that come with it.

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#72

Post by mkramlich »

angersock wrote: post #7

Here are some scattered observations and opinions as somebody in this generation. I'm basically just dumping gut feelings here--don't expect a lot of well-written explanations. There is not a lot worth buying that is long-lasting. Most everything feels mass-produced and cheap, and the things that aren't are pretty obviously marketed at people trying to buck that trend. I don't want to pay 10x more for something witho…

epic rant, well-written and enough truth that it rings

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#74

Post by jnbiche »

jseliger wrote: post #46
angersock wrote: post #7

Here are some scattered observations and opinions as somebody in this generation. I'm basically just dumping gut feelings here--don't expect a lot of well-written explanations. There is not a lot worth buying that is long-lasting. Most everything feels mass-produced and cheap, and the things that aren't are pretty obviously marketed at people trying to buck that trend. I don't want to pay 10x more for something witho…

I like a lot of what you say, especially about cars and urban development ( http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/why-would-you-want-... ), but I will note a couple other things: Police... always always always make things worse They don't always make things worse, as I discovered when a random guy pounded on my door in the middle of the night and threatened to kill me: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/guy-…

Sorry, I'm going to disagree here. My generation worked our asses off getting Obama elected, and was really the driving force behind his election (to my shame). Yet, as soon as he's in office, all his promises to us, all his soothing words, all his assurances of change, were out the window. Other than some lame alternative to single-payer health insurance, and (only after major prodding) some gay rights advances, he's become George Bush II.

So what's the morale of this story? Choose better next time? He sure had me and a lot of my very smart friends fooled. Vote? As a generation, we not only voted, we pounded on doors, argued with family, gave major money, made up the team that built his fundraising website, which basically carried the election, on so on. Vote third-party? Well, they're politicians, too. Subject to the same motivations and personality types. Who's to say they won't turn out exactly the same?

And yes, there are good cops and bad cops, but mostly (if you spent time around them, as I have in a professional capacity), you'll find that they're highly trained to think of themselves and their own safety and needs first and are mostly indifferent to the population they are supposed to serve. Unlike quite a few lawyers (at least initially), they are rarely driven by any concept of justice, but rather by power, excitement, camaraderie, and steady pay. Justice and service rank a very distant fifth and sixth after those four.

By the way, if those cops hadn't found the drunk guy outside your house (could have happened easy enough, he could have easily collapsed inside his own apartment or behind the bushes and quietly passed out), it's quite possible that they would have just assumed you were the crazy person and hauled you off to jail for filing a false police report and on suspicion of being mentally ill.

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#75

Post by Joister »

jseliger wrote: post #46
angersock wrote: post #7

Here are some scattered observations and opinions as somebody in this generation. I'm basically just dumping gut feelings here--don't expect a lot of well-written explanations. There is not a lot worth buying that is long-lasting. Most everything feels mass-produced and cheap, and the things that aren't are pretty obviously marketed at people trying to buck that trend. I don't want to pay 10x more for something witho…

I like a lot of what you say, especially about cars and urban development ( http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/why-would-you-want-... ), but I will note a couple other things: Police... always always always make things worse They don't always make things worse, as I discovered when a random guy pounded on my door in the middle of the night and threatened to kill me: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/guy-…

>Vote! Convince others to vote. Every election is a potential revolution, which is why we have them.

How'd that work when you brought in Obama?

Until America adopts a preferential voting system it'll be stuck with a two party system, and neither party will be "revolutionary". They'll be ever-so-slightly off center in whichever direction they hope to pick up votes.

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#76

Post by Zigurd »

tylerhwillis wrote: post #66
angersock wrote: post #7

Here are some scattered observations and opinions as somebody in this generation. I'm basically just dumping gut feelings here--don't expect a lot of well-written explanations. There is not a lot worth buying that is long-lasting. Most everything feels mass-produced and cheap, and the things that aren't are pretty obviously marketed at people trying to buck that trend. I don't want to pay 10x more for something witho…

I share a lot of the sentiment here, but I also think our generation is conditioned from a decade of hearing about all the newsworthy corner cases. As an example: cops don't always make it worse, 95+% of the time they are helpful and create better outcomes for society. That said, all we've heard for the last ten years are the news stories that you mentioned - so we think of them as a negative force. I think this same…

> * 95+% of the time they are helpful and create better outcomes for society.*

That's "one 9." If you are black, that service level is practically a guarantee you will experience a catastrophic failure.

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#77

Post by Joister »

boyter wrote: post #68
bradleyjg wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Late Gen X here. If these feelings are widespread amongst Gen Y, that actually makes me optimistic for the future. Thanks for writing it up.

Gen Y here. OP nailed it. I live in Sydney Australia and its exactly how I feel.

Gen Y Hobart Australia here. I also think he mostly nailed it, but I trust Australian police officers. The few occasions I've dealt with them they've been level-headed and very friendly.

This last election has been demoralizing as fuck though. I stayed up to date on all the news and policies. I tried to talk around people I knew who were voting Liberal. I had 0 effect. Next time around I may just not bother.

And the mainstream news is a pile of shit but that's a much longer rant.

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#78

Post by anonymoushn »

cgore wrote: post #5
fintler wrote: post #3

Gen Y here. I think they answered their question halfway through. Total student debt in the US is currently about $1,134,752,535,374.00 and increasing at a rate of about $2,853.88 per second. The article title is linkbait -- any generation that spends that amount of money isn't "cheap" (I think the word "exploited" is probably more appropriate).

I make a lot more than a lot of GenY, and have less student loan debt, and it is a MAJOR part of my budget. I don't see how someone with an average salary and average student loan debt could get a loan for a car or for a house.

How long will it be a major part of your budget? Someone with a typical state university student debt load making a typical SV software engineer salary can be out of debt in 5 years without much discomfort.

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#79

Post by grecy »

cenhyperion wrote: post #28

“We just think nobody truly understands them yet.” I don't think that's true. I think that auto manufacturers don't want to accept that millennials don't associate cars with freedom, independence, maturity, and sex in the same way that cars were viewed by previous generations. At most they're a way to get from point A to B for most millennials, at worst (if you're a car maker) they're viewed as dirty machines that th…

>>“We just think nobody truly understands them yet.”

>I don't think that's true.

What they actually meant to say was:

"We just think nobody has figured out to convince them to buy crap they don't need like they did their parents. We're working on it, hard."

Re: The Cheapest Generation

#80

Post by WalterSear »

guerrilla wrote: post #36
carsongross wrote: post #14

You have to love the media: "The boomers voted themselves healthcare on their kids backs, made their kids go into crushing debt for education, put basic housing out of reach for them and look to be financing their retirement via them. How come those darn kids aren't buying cars?"

It reminds me of how kids used to work for the parents on a farm or factory to help support their family. Maybe the burden has just been moved, assuming the quote has any validity.

Eventually the kids got a farm out of it.
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