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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

#281

Post by wavefunction »

atemerev wrote: post #176
Draiken wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this canned response all the time. But it's a gross oversimplification of the issue designed to keep the ignorant happy. The cheap things from china, all your amazon crap, your iPhones and all the rest of the so called "nice things" of today's society are only gained through (near) slavery conditions elsewhere. This delayed effect on how bad things are that is now reaching rich countries like the US, but it has…

Yes, this is Marxism. Marxism was tried quite a few times already, particularly in the USSR. I was born in the USSR and lived there until it collapsed, so I am pretty familiar with what Marxist socialism used to look like. Thank you, I prefer capitalism, which brings prosperity, innovation and peace to the world.

>capitalism, which brings prosperity, innovation and peace to the world

I am not sure this assertion holds up under historical inquiry but that's my opinion.

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

#282

Post by asdff »

tzakrajs wrote: post #153
temp99990 wrote: post #37

I’ve been fortunate to have landed in a financial position where I’m not scraping by as a millennial but having worked for several years in SF tech one thing that I have felt increasing unease with is the feeling that the companies I’ve worked for might not actually be a net positive for the world. My problem is more existential than economic, which is very much a first world problem but a problem for me nonetheless.

Our minds aren't really that special as engineers, we were typically shown a path to engineering from our parents or environment that lead us here. It was a real privilege to receive that pathway. That isn't so say there wasn't hard work, but the path provided ample motivation. Not so for many of our contemporaries who have the same very capable bundles of neurons in their brains but no pathway to elicit motivation t…

It's pretty humbling to be constantly reminded of how lucky your circumstances really are. I bet there's a couple of those homeless people who could have been in your very shoes had a coin flipped differently.

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

#283

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

jdoliner wrote: post #116
syn0byte wrote: post #15

A single mother working as a waitress at Denny's in the 1980's had more spending power than a college educated cubicle drone in 2019; Let's talk about how is social media's fault! Twice in the last 20 years - more than any other time in US history combined - The Presidential election went to the candidate that LOST the popular vote; These generations just lack a proper understanding of civics! The beatings will conti…

There have been 4 or 5 (one is a bit ambiguous) elections where the winner lost the popular vote. [0] So no, this isn't more than any other time in US history combined. But more importantly, who cares? They lost the popular vote in an election in which the popular vote didn't count for anything. If the popular vote had counted for something in these elections, you would have gotten a different result. The candidates…

I agree. Complaining about the popular vote in presidential elections is like complaining that the NBA Finals were won by the team that won the most games, but had a lower total score across those games. Winning 2 games by 5 points each, is better than winning a single game by 30 points. So, winning more states even by close margins, is better than running up the score in a few states.

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

#284

Post by tathougies »

eropple wrote: post #272
tathougies wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> congruent with my politics--I mean that not just in the "who you vote for" sense of the word, but in the "how a society should operate" sense of it You believe that a society should operate such that a lot of people can't afford to live there?

Somerville is already one of the most densely-populated places in the United States (16th most densely populated city in the nation as per the 2010 census--6th most that isn't part of the NYC metro area) and I'm enthusiastically in favor of that increasing with additional building. Keeping in mind that new construction necessarily overwhelmingly favors high-end construction I'm also in favor of increased proportions…

> 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 feel some travel would get rid of such notions, but oh well.

> --and, tbh, I've seen your posts before, I thought about ignoring you because I get a troll whiff out of them

Probably a good idea not to engage if you're uninterested in engagement.

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

#285

Post by Animats »

avmich wrote: post #174
Afforess wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many problems with this. 1. 300 million people are not registered voters. ~50-60 million are. 2. First Past The Post means people are voting for the candidate they hate the least, not the candidate they prefer. 3. The election wasn't very close. 2 million votes more for 1 of the candidates in 2016. 4. The electoral college "matters" in that without it, the Iraq war wouldn't have happened, nor Trump. Saying it's th…

> 1. 300 million people are not registered voters. ~50-60 million are. Each candidate of two in 2016 USA presidential elections got approximately as many votes. So total number of voted - not registered to vote - is twice as much.

2016 popular vote, President:

    Donald J. Trump      Republican       62,980,160
    Hillary R. Clinton   Democratic       65,845,063
    Gary Johnson         Libertarian       4,488,931
    Jill Stein           Green             1,457,050
    Evan McMullin        Independent         728,830
2000 popular vote, President:

    George W. Bush       Republican       50,456,002
    Al Gore              Democratic       50,999,897
    Ralph Nader          Green             2,882,955
    Patrick J. Buchanan  Reform              448,895
    Harry Browne         Libertarian         384,431
    Howard Phillips      Constitution         98,020
If the US had either a popular vote system or a ranked vote system state by state, the outcome would have been different. Nader had more votes in Florida than the difference between Bush and Gore.

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

#286

Post by noobiemcfoob »

dragonwriter wrote: post #122
shanusmagnus wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "losing the popular vote" narrative would be a lot more compelling (at least to me) if the elections were less close. It looks bad to win the Presidency and lose the popular vote, but I don't think it actually matters. In a nation of 300 something million, close enough to half want either candidate. The problems lie elsewhere. (The fact that I can say "either candidate" is part of it.) [Edit: I should have said…

> In a nation of 300 something million, close enough to half want either candidate. Neither of the major candidates ever has support from anything close to half of the 300-something-million population; of the total 324.5 million population, the 2016 election was like 20.03% to 19.26%. Even of the eligible-to-vote population, the vote for the two major party candidates was about 26.84% to 25.68%.

Which underlines the parent post's point. Those margins are so slim as to not matter. We're talking about the entire election hanging on the difference of one moderate sized city's population.

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

#287

Post by Konnstann »

fancyfish wrote: post #136
temp99990 wrote: post #37

I’ve been fortunate to have landed in a financial position where I’m not scraping by as a millennial but having worked for several years in SF tech one thing that I have felt increasing unease with is the feeling that the companies I’ve worked for might not actually be a net positive for the world. My problem is more existential than economic, which is very much a first world problem but a problem for me nonetheless.

Your feelings sound not unlike colleagues working in hedge funds who say it's hard to maintain motivation when your purpose at work is to optimize a percentage risk/return at the end of the quarter. Quarter after quarter. Year after year. I think this correlates with the idea we expect to derive most of our "purpose" directly from our work [1]. Which certainly doesn't bode well when you are told to go to college for…

I was told to major in something marketable, and minor in my passion. It happened that my passion was marketable to some extent, and now I do derive a lot of my purpose from my work. I'm lucky that my job is "making the world a better place" but it isn't incorrect to have that outlook.

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

#288

Post by rdiddly »

Domenic_S wrote: post #250
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.

Of course, how could I forget Y2K?

Cuz it was so forgettable! ka-zinnggg!

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

#289

Post by noobiemcfoob »

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.

The scale of it all is ever increasing, even if the sentiment is near constant.

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

#290

Post by eropple »

tathougies wrote: post #284
eropple wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somerville is already one of the most densely-populated places in the United States (16th most densely populated city in the nation as per the 2010 census--6th most that isn't part of the NYC metro area) and I'm enthusiastically in favor of that increasing with additional building. Keeping in mind that new construction necessarily overwhelmingly favors high-end construction I'm also in favor of increased proportions…

> 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 there are, and I travel extensively--travel and consulting used to be my job. There are not, however, ones that fit my idea of how people should live (which rules out otherwise lovely places like Richmond, VA), don't decouple me from my personal social connections (i.e., are in New England; as an example I really like Columbus, OH) and have sufficient mass transit to not park my rear end in a car every day (i.e., not the Amherst area of western Massachusetts or somewhere like Unity or Orono, Maine--both places that I love, but the car dependence sucks).

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