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Gen Z does not dream of labor

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Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#51

Post by closeparen »

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…

Asheville is an increasingly trendy and prestigious resort town for very rich people from all over. It is not a place I would expect anyone to buy their first home.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#52

Post by rkk3 »

seibelj wrote: post #32
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…

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Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#53

Post by civilized »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #25

> “I don’t have goals. I don’t have ambition. I only want to be attractive.” This apathetic declaration is the start of a TikTok rant that went viral for its blatant message: to reject hard work and indulge in leisure. It’s weird to see these opinions presented as a new phenomenon. Wanting to avoid work and indulge in leisure is a tale as old as time. It’s even a common theme among characters in ancient writings. Wha…

A great trick to make an old pattern sound like news is to present an age-related phenomenon as a generation-related phenomenon. "Teenagers are acting like teenagers" can't be spun as news, but "Gen Z is acting like teenagers" can be.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#54

Post by jolux »

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…

I’m a gen Zer (albeit on the older side) and I don’t feel this way about work. Probably depends what field you’re in, I quite like being a programmer.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#55

Post by immigrantheart »

As an immigrant, no matter how many times the story about problems of work and wealth inequality and similar theme being brought up, I could never sympathize with it.

I think I was raised in the time and place where working just doesn't ever get the luxuries of life. For example, working as a plumber and can afford 2 1/2 kids, a house and a car, that is always impossible. At least in my country. I think America is an anomaly for that such of things to happen. I kept wondering whether that was because America itself is outsourcing their inequalities to outside world, because they won the war.

So to me, today's situation is just a reversion to the norm. Being a mere plumber with 2 1/2 kids in college and with a house and a car is never realistic to begin with. This type of situation was just a good times event, and only happen due to some abnormalities. But it is abnormality.

I mean, the history of the world has shown that feudalism is the default choice. People can never be equal. People aren't born equal. Some people are born stronger, faster, smarter, more beautiful, etc. Equality seems to be just abnormalities. An unstable form. The stable form is feudalism.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#56

Post by bufferoverflow »

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…

The problem with this narrative is that the job of the father isn't specified. He could've been a plumber/electrician/welder who would do really well in the current market. These jobs pay well above the minimum wage.

The world has changed - simple labor that requires a few days of training doesn't pay much. Most jobs, with few exceptions, that require a decade of training, do pay well. That's why there's such a huge gap between Amazon packers and electricians, and an even bigger gap with surgeons.

If you want to do well in the modern economy, you have to choose your specialization wisely. Most simple labor will be automated very soon anyway.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#57

Post by JonathanMerklin »

endisneigh wrote: post #39
frankbreetz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's usually seen as immoral to bring up in this context, but if you can't increase the denominator, you can try to decrease the numerator.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#58

Post by deathanatos »

closeparen wrote: post #51
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…

Asheville is an increasingly trendy and prestigious resort town for very rich people from all over. It is not a place I would expect anyone to buy their first home.

> ______ is an increasingly trendy and prestigious ____ town for very rich people […] It is not a place I would expect anyone to buy their first home.

I've heard this about pretty much every place, at this point.

("Move somewhere cheaper!" … and get "geographic multiplier"'d into a lower salary, and you're right back where you started.)

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#59

Post by ixtli »

jolux wrote: post #54
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…

I’m a gen Zer (albeit on the older side) and I don’t feel this way about work. Probably depends what field you’re in, I quite like being a programmer.

I’m a millennial and I feel the same way, but I think a lot of this is due to a privileged position we have in the labor force. It’s the whitest of white color jobs. We’re still exploited as any trade, but it’s easier to be an architect or a lawyer than it is to be a construction worker. Especially over time and with contradictions sharpening as they are.

Re: Gen Z does not dream of labor

#60

Post by lilsoso »

falcolas wrote: post #18

Um, stupid question… Who TF “dreams” of being some billionare’s “labor”? Folks “labor” out of a lack of choice; so they might survive in this world. They labor for the chance to dream.

People routinely comment on this site about how they enjoy engineering and challenging problems, and how they dislike jobs with meetings, or not enough work, or fluff.

Those people, perhaps without realizing it, often enjoy 'being some billionare’s labor'.

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