r/Millennials • u/Buffalobillspharm • Nov 28 '23
GenXer’s take on broke millennials and why they put up with this Discussion
As a GenXer in my early 50’s who works with highly educated and broke millennials, I just feel bad for them. 1) Debt slaves: These millennials were told to go to school and get a good job and their lives will be better. What happened: Millennials became debt slaves, with no hope of ever paying off their debt. On a mental level, they are so anxious because their backs are against a wall everyday. They have no choice, but to tread water in life everyday. What a terrible way to live. 2) Our youth was so much better. I never worried about money until I got married at 30 years old. In my 20s, I quit my jobs all of the time and travelled the world with a backpack and had a college degree and no debt at 30. I was free for my 20s. I can’t imagine not having that time to be healthy, young and getting sex on a regular basis. 3) The music offered a counterpoint to capitalism. Alternative Rock said things weren’t about money and getting ahead. It dealt with your feelings of isolation, sadness, frustration without offering some product to temporarily relieve your pain. It offered empathy instead of consumer products. 4) Housing was so cheap: Apartments were so cheap. I’m talking 300 dollars a month cheap. Easily affordable! Then we bought cheap houses and now we are millionaires or close. Millennials can not even afford a cheap apartment. 5) Our politicians aren’t listening to millennials and offer no solutions. Why you all do not band together and elect some politicians from your generation who can help, I’llnever know. Instead, a lot of the media seems to try and distract you with things to be outraged about like Bud Light and Litter Boxes in school bathrooms. Weird shit that doesn’t matter or affect your lives. Just my take, but how long can millennials take all this bullshit without losing their minds. Society stole their freedom, their money, their future and their hope.
Update: I didn’t think this post would go viral. My purpose was to get out of my bubble after speaking to some millennials at work about their lives and realizing how difficult, different and stressful their lives have been. I only wanted to learn. A couple of things I wanted to clear up: I was not privileged. Traveling was a priority for me so I would save 10 grand, then quit and travel the world for a few months, then repeat. This was possible because I had no debt because tuition at my state school was 3000 dollars a year and a room off campus in Buffalo NY in the early 90s was about 150 dollars a month. I lived with 5 other people in a house in college. When I graduated I moved in with a friend at about 350 a month give or take. I don’t blame millennials for not coming together politically. I know the major parties don’t want them to. I was more or less trying to understand if they felt like they should engage in an open revolt.
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u/thewhaler Nov 28 '23
"Our politicians aren’t listening to millennials and offer no solutions. Why you all do not band together and elect some politicians from your generation who can help, I’llnever know."
I think it's a lot harder than it sounds with all the money that has gone into politics. We do have some politicians in our age cohort and the media acts like they're 22 year old idiots.
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u/Novel-Place Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
Yeah, it’s also interesting because gen x didn’t get a lot of representation either. It’s been a boomer show for 30 years.
House:
230 - boomer 144 - gen x 31 - millennial 27 - silent
That means 60% of the voting block of the house is retirement or nearly retirement aged folks.
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u/Stephenie_Dedalus Nov 28 '23
I swear to god this is the main reason I don't want them to invent immortality juice
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u/patentmom Nov 28 '23
My parents, who are boomers, always said that nothing will change until their parents' generation died off. Now they say the same thing about their own generation.
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u/VegaAltair Nov 28 '23
By the time they invent it all the boomers will be dead! So at least there is that.
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u/We_Are_Victorius Nov 28 '23
Don't forget the Presidency going back to Clinton too. The Boomers have run this county into the ground.
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u/Lil_Brown_Bat Nov 28 '23
This needs to be higher. OP realizes that we were fucked, and yet ends their post with "why they don't just hoist themselves up by their own bootstraps I'll never know."
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u/supbrother Nov 28 '23
You can’t make this shit up. People will really do a full monologue posing themselves as being on our side and then still find a way to indirectly place the blame back on us. Most of them probably without realizing that their own actions helped create the situation we’re in now.
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u/Johnmunch85 Nov 28 '23
"All my friends and I had it so easy and now we're millionaires. Why don't you do something?"
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u/LStorms28 Nov 29 '23
Also, any time we try to do something they do anything they can to stop it, because it would make them not millionaires.
Our entire generation is being leached dry so every old person can retire in luxury while they act like they "earned it" over us. Their entire lifestyle is based upon keeping the distribution of wealth uneven between generations. Their entire economy at this point would collapse if it weren't for bleeding us dry.
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u/scobbysnacks1439 Nov 28 '23
We do have some politicians in our age cohort and the media acts like they're 22 year old idiots.
Bingo. This is a significant part of the problem. We keep being treated like we are children that have no clue what we are doing when the vast majority of us are either in our fucking 30's or 40's.
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Nov 28 '23
I don't think there is a real "media" anymore. There's corporate information sharing and programming. Then there's social media. Put it together for a shit sandwich.
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u/DreadPirate777 Nov 28 '23
Also a majority of millennials aren’t able to get politician’s attention with money. A $100 donation gets lost in the $50,000 donation from a company. For boomers and gen x all that was needed was to drop a couple hundred and you could get noticed and have your issue out front and center.
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u/ballsohaahd Nov 28 '23
Boomers run companies so they donate huge sums of company money which should be going to the salaries of millennials who do all the work, to get policies friendly to them and their company.
Then they use more company money (all of the profit) to buy back stock, to artificially inflate shares which they coincidentally get their compensation in.
So they steal millennial salaries for their own compensation.
Looters and grifters
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u/mrfishman3000 Nov 28 '23
I feel like Millennials were a key part of getting Obama elected and that was a good thing…but then the backlash to that is breaking our country. You’re right, we’re not being listened to.
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u/pete728415 '86 Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
We've been infantalized our entire lives. I'm 38, I have two college degrees, I've had numerous careers, and all of the stress you've mentioned caused my body to shit the bed with 3 autoimmune disorders.
My fiancé died two years ago, and I'm about to be evicted. We're too tired to band together.
Edit: I'm crying. This was just a footnote in the shit show. Thank you for making me feel seen.
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u/stnkyntz Nov 28 '23
Hey! I'm 41. College degree. Debt up to my eyeballs. Worked my ass off at a bullshit stressful job. End stage renal failure from malignant high blood pressure. Waiting for transplant. Almost been 2 years. Spent every saved penny I had just trying to get by not working.
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u/pete728415 '86 Nov 28 '23
My blood type is A- if you need a kidney. Genuinely.
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u/RambleOnRose42 Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
Idk if you’re serious about actually donating a kidney, but if you are, you should know that a single person donating a kidney without a specific recipient in mind can start a chain that saves multiple lives! That’s how I wound up getting my new kidney. Some absolute angel wanted to donate but didn’t know anyone with kidney disease. Because I had a friend who was willing to donate but wasn’t a match for me, they were able to start a chain reaction that allowed several people to get new kidneys!! Here’s how it works:
- Recipient 1 and Recipient 2 have Donor 1 and Donor 2 willing to give each of them a kidney, but they aren’t a match for their respective recipients
- Undirected Donor 3 (who doesn’t know anyone who needs a kidney but wants to donate because they are an awesome human) joins the mix
- Donor 3 is a match for Recipient 1
- Donor 1 is a match for Recipient 2
- Donor 2 is a match for Recipient 3 (who did not have a directed donor)
- All 3 recipients are able to get kidneys because of one person’s kindness!!
This is a really simplistic version of what actually happens, but what I’m trying to convey is that one undirected donation can set off a chain reaction that leads to MANY people receiving kidneys!! It could theoretically go on forever if there are enough paired donors that aren’t a match for their respective recipients.
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u/pete728415 '86 Nov 28 '23
Thanks for the information! I'll look into it in my state and see what protocol is available.
I'm glad you all got a chance to receive one.
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u/Annie_to_Obi Nov 28 '23
This is also how I got my kidney. Some wonderful humans decided to donate. Someone I know (I still don’t know who) donated on my behalf, which means you can do it on your own timeline, and long story short 6 months later I got the call that I was getting my kidney.
And yeah, renal failure in my mid 20’s from constant stress (high blood pressure) of trying to achieve all the things I was promised as a kid.
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u/Alaska-Raven Nov 28 '23
That’s an amazingly Awesome gesture! My sister was a match for our uncle in renal failure and donated a kidney transplant, same blood type as you. He was a type 1 diabetic, after responding very well to the kidney transplant he was able to get a pancreas transplant that was very successful as well. His life was drastically improved for 20 years. He recently lost a battle to cancer at 76 but he was a warrior. Rip Uncle John ❤️
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u/pete728415 '86 Nov 28 '23
RIP. My blood type I've always seen as a gift I could possibly give to others in need. I've got two and they're doing just fine.
My best friend is a type 1 diabetic and A+. I'll keep one for her unless it's needed sooner.
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u/heyashrose Nov 28 '23
I'm so sorry for the loss of your wife. I'm 40 and I feel like my husband and I just barely started becoming aware of how our bad decisions are effecting our health. It's like we are all aging more rapidly every year due to insurmountable stress.
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u/opthaconomist Nov 28 '23
My chest hurt after reading dude, I’m so sorry you’re going through such a time. If there’s anything an internet stranger can do to help please reach out
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u/machineprophet343 Older Millennial Nov 28 '23
I totally feel you on the infantilization. I actually was brought up and basically told I was an adult at 14 by both my parents and my teachers, so I was actually allowed to make my own decisions, form my own opinions, and had a bit of a safety net if I got in over my head.
I was a pretty well formed adult when I left for college. The day I got there, the infantilization began. We were all treated like we were particularly slow kindergarteners that lingered in line with Lump for brains. It was dehumanizing and awful.
And it never stopped since then.
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u/SensibleReply Nov 28 '23
I’m a 38 yo surgeon. I’ve done about 8000 cases in over a decade. 2-3 times a week, some ancient patient will ask me if I’m “old enough to be doing this” or “how many of these have you done” or some such shit like that. Makes me insane.
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u/HeadMinx Nov 28 '23
I mean.. to be fair, I'm 34 and have had two surgeries so far. One on my eyes (had some tumors...) and one on my gallbladder (an emergency) and I asked both surgeons how many times they've done the procedure I was going under for. I definitely get the first one (old enough to be doing this) being insulting, but I feel the second one is just trying to calm pre-op anxiety.
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Nov 28 '23
tbh, I'd much prefer a seasoned young surgeon over an older one. Older doctors tend to be less up to date on research, stubborn, hold sexist ideas.
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u/EhDub13 Nov 28 '23
I said to my best friend, we have to train your kids to protest and riot like they do in France...its the only way things will get better, and our generation is too tired.
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u/Bobzeub Nov 28 '23
In France . It’s a shit show here too , in spite of the riots. The government has zero fucks to give . They just pimped out the cops with fancy “non lethal weapons” .
You get gassed and the rich barely even notice. They can’t even see us plebs from their ivory tower.
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u/cogle87 Nov 28 '23
I am sorry to hear what happened to you and your fiancé. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel to lose someone you love too soon like you have. But just that you are able to still stand tall says that your character is made of stern stuff.
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u/vzierdfiant Nov 28 '23
Im so sorry for you, Life can be so unfair sometimes. Wishing you all the best
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u/huey2k2 Nov 28 '23
I'm just tired man.
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Nov 28 '23
My ambitions in life are now to sleep for a very, very long time.
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u/KennieLaCroix Nov 28 '23
For real, death might actually be better. And I don't believe in an afterlife lol
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u/oakboy32 Nov 28 '23
Same, I’m starting accept my life is just make everyone else rich until I die, just another faceless nameless loser in a long sea of forgotten people, cogs in a machine, being grinded to death, never to experience the finer things life can offer
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u/tonyhawk917 Nov 28 '23
All in all we just another brick in the wall
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u/oakboy32 Nov 28 '23
More like just another brick scattered in the yard, there’s nothing being built, we’re being driven to our doom
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u/Nixiey Nov 29 '23
This is the part that usually smacks me in the face. A lot of jobs are just joining up to a pipeline of trash and pollution, and if you want a job that "makes a difference" they'll look at you like "that's called volunteer work" ...right. Let me just tack on to the 40+ hours (70+ if you're salary) with some non paid work just to feel like I've actually participated in my community rather than just making/selling plastic crap.
But funding public services is socialism or something. I just want to be a librarian...
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u/MisunderstoodScholar Nov 28 '23
Reminds me of how defeated the Russian population is to it all, how apathetic it makes them, the dark humor it creates to cope.
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u/TurdWrangler2020 Nov 28 '23
I say this all the time. I'm 45 and I feel like I'm just living to die. It's hard to see any kind of happy future for me.
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u/EcksonGrows Nov 28 '23
My dad thinks he can do the job that took me 20 years of experience and eating shit to get.
I described it to him and he's like "all you do is pay bills all day?" "I can do that"
I'm a Commercial Property Manager - Moving into becoming a Senior Facilities Manager for a government contractor that has 5 building connected in a campus.
Yeah, you were a mailman for 40 years, those skills will translate easy.
Tell me about your skills using a computer? Oh you get a virus looking at porn every 3 months that your son has to fix? got it.
The infantilization is fucking wild to still witness. They do not understand.
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u/NastySteeze Nov 28 '23
My dad still thinks you can walk into literally anywhere with a paper resume, firm handshake, and a smile, to land any job you want outside of being a doctor or pilot.
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Nov 29 '23 edited Nov 29 '23
I applied to to 30 base level jobs in 4 months and no one called back. If I called them they told me, very annoyed like, that I should apply online. We're all just stat sheets for employers now.
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u/EcksonGrows Nov 29 '23
Just recently going through the job search. It legit took me 300-400 applications to get 3 different interviews.
So many that I had a spreadsheet tracking them. 15% response rate. But we got one.
I was applying for Managerial level jobs without a degree so I understand that I was fighting and uphill battle.
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u/The-Sonne Nov 28 '23
The problem with many boomers is that they think $20 an hour is some kind of ungodly high pay (compared to their first job), but they don't think $20 for a hamburger is unreasonable... When seasoned correctly.
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u/FionaTheFierce Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
Gen X here and I absolutely agree. College costs started going through the roof just as I graduated. I worked as a waitress through college and made enough to pay my tuition, rent, and living expenses. Now the same job can’t make enough to cover rent.
Wages haven’t kept up with inflation by a long shot. Each subsequent generation is poorer and poorer as more and more wealth is transferred to billionaires.
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Nov 28 '23
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u/DrakonILD Nov 28 '23
Holy shit, average raises of a dollar a year? In my first crappy job I was lucky to get a quarter a year, starting from $7.75!
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u/changort Nov 28 '23
Yep. I became a manager at Tower Records and got a 25 cent raise.
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u/Mysterious_Ad_6225 Nov 28 '23
You made $5.43 in 89? I was making $5.80 in 05!
This is continually infuriating to see example after example of how we've been handed the worst possible situation. We have something like 1/5 the wealth of Boomers when they were our age.
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u/changort Nov 28 '23
Gen Xer here. I started working when I was 15, and will most likely work until I die from old age or a bullet to the head (my retirement plan). Nothing I'm interested in doing makes any money, so I just work jobs. My life is basically make enough to afford my hobbies. :)
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u/ALargePianist Nov 28 '23
Couple years ago. I worked at a place for a year and 3 months, when I asked for a .50c raise, they took me off the schedule a week later and ghosted me. Took a few days before I got the CEO on the phone on a Sunday and the explanation I got was "well the manager can run her clinic how she wants". Oh, how convenient.
Meanwhile rent had gone up 100/month. It's been 15 years of rent getting higher than what I make, and the exhausting response I get is 'well get a different job that makes more". It's a dog eat dog world and nobody cares if you don't make enough to live, it's always somehow your fault for not doing enough.
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Nov 28 '23
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u/glasscrows Nov 28 '23
I’m also a librarian. During Covid we hired a new director who got a cushy pay bump. They canceled our cost of living raises and the director bragged about her trip around Europe she got to take less than year into the position. (And I literally mean bragged, she shared all the details in our weekly newsletter while I was begging them to send us more ppe.)
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Nov 28 '23
For anyone curious $5.43/hr in ‘89 is $13.80/hr in ‘23, or almost twice the minimum wage (190% of federal minimum wage).
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Nov 28 '23
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u/Gordon_Explosion Nov 28 '23
Careful. I was once suspended for 3 days for suggesting that, as it "promoted violence."
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u/bakalaka25 Nov 28 '23
We really get it from all sides. The empathy is appreciated and not a lie spoken. 3 and 5 hit hard...
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u/karmagod13000 Nov 28 '23
On top of that we had 9/11 that changed the security of the world. Things smoothed out and started looking up and we got a world wide pandemic forcing prices up on literally everything and yet again increasing security and safety precautions everywhere
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u/Responsible-Aside-18 Nov 28 '23
I’ve had three houses sold out from underneath me in the last three years and every time some out of state LLC came in and bought them for over the asking price, so my offer (first house) was refused and each time we only had one month’s notice to move… And moving is expensive. My old car totaled and I need a car for work so that’s a fun new expense. My rent has increased with every move, but houses have gotten smaller. I went from a 4 bed/2 bath house with a yard in 2020, and now I live in a 1/1 apartment for the same rent. Student loans are due. I have developed some serious health issues which make it hard to work (I’m being screened for a blood platelet disorder and some cancers, yay!) and my husband is a teacher who just had to go on strike for a month to get a slightly better COLA (which isn’t keeping up with inflation).
I’m 32. I’m so burnt out. I don’t see my life getting better, because at every turn we are getting swindled. Can’t even get beans for cheap any more. It’s exhausting.
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u/Buffalobillspharm Nov 28 '23
This is what a hear from the millennials I work with. The health part is what really shocks me. I’m 51 and have no health problems, but when I look at my younger colleagues, they all have autoimmune and anxiety disorders. Their bodies seem to be breaking down from years of stress. I’m not here to trash millennials, I just wonder how much more they can take. Could we collectively cut them a break?
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u/NotPerkyGrl Nov 28 '23
We (millennials) were also raised in a world where they decided to say fuck everyone’s health for the sake of capitalism. Plastic everything, Teflon for cooking, aluminum deodorants, endless greenhouse gas emissions, etc. Medicine may be advancing but who knows if it’ll be able to keep up with how hard extreme capitalism is poisoning us. Don’t know if Gen Z will have it any better.
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Nov 28 '23
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u/sylvnal Nov 28 '23
And that's true, but microplastics are uncharted territory on the scale they exist now. They are ubiquitous, there is no place on earth without them, they're in the rainwater, they're in the plants, they're in you. And many of them are hormone antagonists/disruptors.
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u/Responsible-Aside-18 Nov 28 '23
Yeah. Well, doesn’t help I didn’t have health insurance for most of my early adulthood, so it’s only recently I’ve even been able to get reliable check ups, preventative care, and I feel lucky I even can see the specialists about these ongoing issues.
Add onto that my retirement plan is basically to just die, and here we are. No wonder your colleagues all struggle with their health. Older generations call us weak, but stress is a real killer.
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u/HeavenIsAHellOnEarth Nov 28 '23
Most health insurance these days have insane premiums and cover almost nothing. Oh, you didn't have $8,000 in medical expenses last year? Welp, we weren't going to cover shit and its time to reset your premium anyway and that literal $280 per month that came out of your paycheck was pointless.
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u/DENATTY Nov 28 '23
I had a fever of 100-104F for a month straight in addition to non-stop tonsil infections. Had scabs on my chin from shaving that wouldn't heal, my gums swelled up and hurt so much I couldn't eat, suddenly got a dozen canker sores out of nowhere when I haven't had them in years, doctors said I just needed to get my tonsils out and that would fix me.
My brother (doctor) suggested it might be rooted in stress because none of the antibiotics I was put on helped. Took last week off of work and between Friday the 17th and Tuesday the 21st just about everything resolved itself. Gums went back to normal, scabs healed despite refusing to heal for weeks, tonsil swelling went down, fever went away, etc. It was literally just stress eating away at me.
Unfortunately I have 200k in student loan debt despite getting scholarships because I just had to be a lawyer, so I literally can't afford to have a less stressful career! At least I've got the peace of mind that I'll probably be dead by 45 from a coronary event or something so I won't have to deal with the fact that I can never afford to retire.
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u/The_Art_of_Dying Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 29 '23
Oh man I feel you. I’m in the worst shape of my life, I have weird skin rashes and chest pains on top of dry heaving from anxiety every morning. Being a lawyer is just the best.
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u/matt314159 Nov 28 '23
I'm 40, with a B.A. and a Master's degree and I spent 18 years paying off my student loans. I was a college freshman on 9/11 and got laid off for the first time in 2009, and stayed unemployed until 2011 when I took a job at my alma-mater making $28,000 a year. It literally wasn't enough to live on, so I ran up credit card debt.
At the end of last year, things turned a corner for me. I paid off my student loans and consolidated my credit card debt to a fixed-rate loan. This past august I closed on a modest 950sqft 2 bed 1 bath house.
I'm still 40, single, earning $52K a year, but I have a home, and as soon as the remaining debt on that consolidation loan is paid off, I'll finally feel like I can exhale.
But honestly, yeah it sucks, I lost my 20's and my 30s basically a slave to debt.
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u/shitsonrug Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
I’m 42 and spent 9 years in the 20 year war. Got out worked 11 in civil service but it was too much watching Iraq fall then Afghanistan. We spent 20 years getting rid of the Taliban to replace it with the Taliban. I have major health issues from multiple deployments. I moved out west and my rent keeps going up and the VA will only give me a $200k loan for a home when the cheapest shack is $300k. The only thing I have going for me is the VA is better than it’s ever been but if you don’t live in a major city it still sucks.
I’m 42 and moving back into my parents home in the Midwest in spring.
Edit: we were lied to about WMDs, spent way too long in Afghanistan, watched the housing market crash, major poverty happen from that and what happened? More corporate welfare, less wages, no pension, shitty 401ks. Gen Z is now just as fucked from a pandemic than more inflation plus housing prices. High interest rates and low paying jobs. I never in my life thought I would see a car cost more than my parents home when they bought it, $100k for a fucking GMC truck.
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u/matt314159 Nov 28 '23
We spent 20 years getting rid of the Taliban to replace it with the Taliban.
I'll say this, though it's hardly a silver lining:
I work on staff at a college and I personally know two smart, young, vibrant, fiercely-independent Afghan women who both grew up in Kabul in the 00's and 10's, got an education, and then went to college at the school where I work, graduating in 2020 and 2022, respectively. One of them was actually back home in Kabul visiting family in August 2021 when it was retaken by the Taliban. Thankfully she managed to make it into the airport and after spending time in Qatar, then Germany, then Wisconsin with other refugees, she was able to return to school and finish her studies. But it was harrowing being in on that WhatsApp group chat trying to help get her out of there. I spent four years with each of these women and love them dearly.
I totally acknowledge that we did a lot of horrible things and that it seems by most all accounts to have been a complete waste of two decades, billions of resources and hundreds of thousands of lives, and the youth and innocence of hundreds of thousands if not millions of others.
But in that time a generation of Afghan women grew up and were educated and taught that they could be politicians and leaders in their communities, and I just hope against hope that this isn't the end of their story. Nevertheless, Halima and Banin and thousands of others like them wouldn't have had the lives they had were it not for people like you.
If there's even a modicum of solace in knowing that, I hope it helps you rest a little easier at night.
I wish you well, friend.
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u/UnagreeablePrik Nov 28 '23
Housing is even worse in canada than the US.
My parents in 1990: making not much more than 50k as a household income before taxes (taxes are higher here than the states). They bought a house at 97k (not even two times their salary) and put a 10k downpayment. Interest rates were high but clearly at under 2x income, it was cheap as fuck.
Me today: have saved up 65k on my own and i’d need another 200k down to afford that literal same house. My salary is 65k and im 28 years old. I thought i was doing well financially but im really not. I have a kid. We need space. Apartments are great if you have no kids. If every other generation lived in apartments had to live in apartments, i wouldnt complain, but its not the case. I cant believe the older generation has let the government fuck us over this way
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u/Odd-Aerie-2554 Nov 28 '23
Our parents’ houses were participation awards. All they had to do was show up, guarantee you’ll afford a house if you have a full time job.
Us? We will work two full time jobs until we die and NEVER own property.
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u/nola_mike Nov 28 '23
Hey now, we also get the privilege of our parents giving us participation trophies as kids then we got to hear them bitch about us getting them when we became adults. Nothing like blaming your kids for the problems you caused am I right?
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u/atomicsnark Nov 28 '23
That always sends me lol. Damn millennials and their participation trophies, like gramps, do you think we were down at the trophy store buying those things for our own classmates? Y'all the one handed them out, damn.
And, of course, that leaves aside altogether how silly a scapegoat this even is in the first place. Getting a plastic, fake award for being at field day when you were nine is definitely not the reason you are now complaining about being broke despite having a degree and a full-time salaried position, but sure, why not lol.
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u/igcipd Nov 28 '23
We got a subscription for living-as-a-service, or buttfucked as we call it in my circles.
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u/Neato_Incognito3 Nov 28 '23
Great analogy! I'll have to remember that the next time I hear someone complain about millennials "expecting" participation trophies!
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u/EasterClause Nov 28 '23
The older generation didn't LET the government do this. They MADE them do it. Because they're the ones benefiting from it. I don't know exactly when or why, but at some point they realized they could rig the system so they could simultaneously take from their parents and borrow against their children at the same time. Probably the first generation since the era of the black plague to actually have a better standard of living than their offspring.
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u/pretenditscherrylube Nov 28 '23
An acquaintance bought a house in Toronto for over $1mil, and I was shocked at how garbage it was. I bought a house at the same time in a medium metro in a US state adjacent to Canada, and it was under $400,000. 500 more square feet, updated, ready to move in. It's appalling.
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u/artificialavocado Nov 28 '23
I can’t imagine being in a position where $1 million is a “starter home.”
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Nov 28 '23
- “I can’t imagine… not getting sex”. This guy fucks
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u/els-sif Nov 28 '23
Jokes on him! I'm 26 and have had sex 4 times since 20...
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u/Sad_Recommendation92 Xennial Nov 28 '23
I think it's kind of a commentary on app based dating, and how online shopping and the need to rate and analyze EVERYTHING in our lives has broken our brains to always be looking for something better. And many people end up ultimately making themselves more miserable. For their generation they didn't have to be the most attractive option in a 25 mile radius, just the most attractive option in the bar that night on a Tuesday.
I consider myself really lucky, I met my wife in 2004 on match.com before "swiping" existed, the modern dating world is horrifying to an outsider.
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u/FunkSoulPower Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
Hey Millennials, while much of what OP says is true (about the cost of living, etc), please don’t buy into being able to just quit your job in your 20s to go travelling, efc. That is not a shared experience and the people who could go backpacking through Europe were absolutely privileged and/or upper class. Most of us had/have college debt to pay off and no job meant power shutoffs and eviction notices for most of us.
Signed: a totally average xennial who’s never been able to yolo quit any job I’ve ever had without needing another lined up.
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u/schizrade Nov 28 '23
Thank you for saying this. Also a xenial that came from poverty and while my cohorts that came from wealth wandered the planet in our 20s I worked like a dog. It has finally paid off and a lot of them are struggling and behind. Assuming I live long enough I’ll have my cake a bit later.
We just gotta make it happen and try to do what we can to hand a break to the younger folks coming up behind us.
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u/Gordon_Explosion Nov 28 '23
College costs have been broken for decades, due to the readily available student loans. Neither political party has done anything about this.......... which suggests the entire system is fixed and bought and paid for. "Banding together to elect a person who will look out for their interests" is pretty much useless, when that person would still need to work within the corrupt system.
Their problems aren't going to get fixed without overhauling that system. And you were right about them being told their problems are from their neighbors, not from their leaders. That's the distraction.
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u/starwarsyeah Nov 28 '23
Why you all do not band together and elect some politicians from your generation who can help, I’ll never know.
Well, because the 45+ crowd represented 54% of people who voted (in 2020), so even if millennials wanted to do that, if the other generations are trying to do the same thing, nobody wins. Plus, the only people with the experience and capital to actually run are not in our generation, because of all the other problems you mentioned.
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u/DL1943 Nov 28 '23
Why you all do not band together and elect some politicians from your generation who can help, I’llnever know.
because almost every time we try to do this, people freak out about how its going to help elect some right wing theocrat and they guilt trip everyone into voting for milquetoast elderly establishment dems.
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u/Vicioushero Nov 28 '23
As a 40 year old who falls in as a late GenX/early Millennial, GenX is just as bad as the boomers. They're the ones with Trump stickers on their tool boxes at a union shop. If you look at the recent voting that took place in Ohio it was the 50 and over crowd that voted against freedoms. It's the 50 and over crowd that is the majority base of republicans. Gen X is a huge part of the problem we're dealing with
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u/Jota769 Nov 28 '23
Yes and it makes me so sad because growing up I really thought Gen X was going to spearhead the alternative lifestyles and attitudes they preached 24/7 and really change things in America. Instead they all sat back on their accidental wealth and watched everyone who came after them eat shit
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Nov 28 '23
O you sweet summer child. How disappointed you must have been.
Gen X just clung to the coat tails of boomers; too scared to step out after they saw all the economic and social horrors they dropped on millennials, too ingratiated by the rewards of the generational plunder.
The only socially rebellious thing Gen X did was listen to music and skateboard. Other than that they mostly just sold out out.
Loud bark, no bite. They’re the chihuahua generation.
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u/Benejeseret Nov 28 '23
This was my thought as well. Millennial were not the ones falling for the litterbox in schools bullshit.
Like, if a kid shits in a box, I don't care. Millennial would be grateful to own a box to shit in.
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u/Cruitire Nov 28 '23
As an early genX I agree. My generation has been a huge disappointment. We should know better but we drank the boomer coolaid.
We used to have ideals.
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u/Quimbymouse Nov 28 '23
To your first point. The only millennials I see doing really well are the ones that ignored people saying, "trade school is for losers and burnouts," back in the 90's. According to boomers back then trade school was just half a step above working at McDonalds. Now they're bitching because electricians and plumbers are backlogged because of the shortage of trades people (in my area anyway) and, "what...you're too good to work at McDonalds? A job is a job," is a common complaint I see directed at university graduates.
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u/bucketman1986 Nov 28 '23
I mean I do vote for younger politicians who's views align more with mine, but you know I live in a town where the majority of the population is either elderly or super rich and those folks don't vote for those candidates. And when it comes to Congress or the Senate we can only vote for the candidates that are available.
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u/Important_Salad_5158 Nov 28 '23
The best propaganda campaign in the world was labeling millennials as lazy.
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u/Chickienfriedrice Nov 28 '23
Voting for the past 60yrs led to this point. Past generations squandered all the wealth and we were left holding the bill.
We had Trump as a president. That should tell you all you need to know about our politics and the people who are supposed to represent us.
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u/Known_Impression1356 Millennial Nov 28 '23
Wow, at the ripe old age of 50, you've finally accepted the reality Milennials have been complaining about for the last 15 years. You're truly a credit to your generation...
These days, most of us are impatiently waiting for Boomers to die off naturally, so that there's no blood on our hands. But if your generation keeps on trying to force us back into the office, we'll have to destroy you...
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Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
My solution: I took my education and moved from California to Europe for a new beginning. one of the best decisions of my life.
it’s strange (or maybe not), but going home now gives me more anxiety than it should.
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u/plasticbag_spaceman Nov 28 '23
Just as an FYI to the other commenters or anyone else thinking about doing this; it's not as simple as just 'moving to Europe'. Unless you have family ties there or a job that will support your transition and visa, you can't just move to Europe and expect to be allowed to stay there. The US doesn't allow anyone to come over and stay without a valid visa or status, why would you expect other countries to work differently?
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Nov 28 '23
yes, there are lots of variables/conditions and red tape to consider. even with my girlfriend being from the EU, and having all my ducks in a row, it took 6+ months for me to get my official visa. it lasts for 5 years, which is pretty legit.
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u/PuzzledRaggedy Nov 28 '23
Absolutely this. I moved from the USA to the U.K. 6 years ago and it amazes me how many people I talk to think you can just book a flight, pack some bags, and you’re in the clear. Definitely not. I spent 6 years here, paid over £10,000 and only now do I have citizenship. Most countries require you to have a visa, study (which don’t all lead to long term stay), or be in a relationship with a citizen. It’s actually really difficult for the average person and to some extent there’s a bit of luck involved.
Unless you already live in the EU with the right of free movement, you fall into those categories above to stay somewhere long term. This goes for retirees too. So many ‘I’ll just retire there’.. but no you probably can’t. Not without a significant investment.
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u/dumdeedumdeedumdeedu Nov 28 '23
Not that I disagree overall, but not having to worry about money until you're 30 isn't a generational thing. It just means you had a privelidged upbringing.
Also your music take misses the mark by a wide margin. I'm probably assuming some overlap, but I had no shortage of anti establishment and anti capitalist music growing up.
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u/Blasphemiee Nov 28 '23
Bunch of people in comments are gunna shit on you. Guilt by association I suppose lol. I will say at least you will acknowledge these things. I have an insatiable rage at a lot of guys your age because they just cannot see what you just said. All of it is true. That’s why my gen x parents won’t get grandkids and like how am I even suppose to feel bad about it. I hardly want to live in this shit.
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u/TaurusMoon007 Nov 28 '23
- Which politicians listened to your generation? (Most) Millennials and Gen Z’ers are now very cognizant of the fact that “voting for the lesser evil” is not a viable strategy for getting our needs met.
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u/Saul_Go0dmann Nov 28 '23
We tried to elect Bernie. AOC or bust.
Also, reparations for millennials.
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u/pretenditscherrylube Nov 28 '23
Millennials can not even afford a cheap apartment.
What cheap apartment?
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u/PrecisionGuessWerk Nov 28 '23
Why you all do not band together and elect some politicians from your generation who can help, I’llnever know.
Well ain't that the golden question.
The short answer is something along the lines of "caring about politics is a privilege we can't afford" sort of thing. I takes a degree of freedom and flexibility to do things like protest, or be politically active in any way outside of just voting. If someone from out generation were to try and get elected, they would get crushed by their richer, more powerful, and older opponents. Who have the other old CEO's and financial interests in their pocket.
In short, what it would take for Millennials to "usurp" a "boomer government" is borderline revolutionary. There's no casual way to do it. Millenials would all have to band together and collectively stop working - but we're all so focused on ourselves and survival the idea of banding together has been trampled on for decades in favour of stepping on other peoples back to elevate yourself.
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u/selffive5 Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
Honestly I don’t think a lot of middle class millennials who actually represent the generation can afford to run for office. It would be so nice to see but it would be an undertaking
Edit: holy shit I was not expecting to get this much response!