The It-Sucks-To-Be-Me Generation
Daniel Gross over at Slate.com takes aim at Generation Y as a bunch of whiny complainers.
Humph.
Now I was born in 1978, straddling the Gen X and Gen Y fence, though I have to say with younger brothers in tow I was definitely more influenced by Generation X than my youngest brother. I've noticed the differences too. Gen X'ers are more tech-savvy than Gen Y. Gen X'ers are more professional and clean cut, while Gen Y is more... not slovenly, but neat and tidy is the opposite of whatever it is. Gen X'ers blog, Gen Y'ers use MySpace. Gen X'ers have PDAs, Gen Y'ers have iPods.
You get the drift.
The point here is that Mr. Gross takes aim at a problem that most twenty to thirty somethings feel is universal, pejoratively of course:Oh, it's so hard to be young these days! Just crack open Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time To Be Young, by Anya Kamenetz, or Strapped: Why America's 20-and-30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead, by Tamara Draut, and you're plunged into a world of darkness and sorrow.
This is, with apologies to the Broadway musical Avenue Q, the 'It Sucks To Be Me' Generation. To hear these authors tell it, college graduates (and twentysomethings who haven't gone to college) are in a world of hurt. The deck is stacked against them: student loans and credit-card debt, budget deficits and McJobs, high housing prices and generational warfare waged by more-numerous baby-boomers. Gross goes on to lambast Generation Y complaints about the future:And so, here we are again. Now, today's twentysomething authors are clearly onto something. College is more expensive today in real terms. There's been a shift in student aid—more loans and fewer grants. The Baby Boomers, closer to retirement, are sucking up more dollars in benefits. There's more income volatility and job insecurity than there used to be. So, why are these books—Generation Debt in particular—annoying?
It's not that the authors misdiagnose ills that affect our society. It's just that they lack the perspective to add any great insight. Writing in the New York Times this weekend, economics reporter David Leonhardt called Strapped, "a grim tale of one-sided generational warfare." Draut argues that "with the possible exception of having a larger array of entertainment and other goods to purchase, members of Generation X appear to be worse off by every measure" than prior generations. Huh? How about the Internet and Starbucks coffee and Lipitor and not having to worry so much about AIDS or crime or Mutual Assured Destruction or getting drafted into the Army and getting sent to Vietnam? Here's the problem. I never graduated college, yet financially I'm better off than most of my peers who did go on. Why? I have no debt, I pay my bills, I make good money, I own my own home, and best of all I pay my college education a few classes at a time.
Contrast this to any of my peers. Most are saddled with $50,000 of college debt (more if they are in graduate or law school), most live on credit, paycheck to paycheck, most rent becasue it's the only affordable housing they can get, most work part-time jobs upon getting out of college, and few of them are doing what they majored in.
Mutually assured destruction? Why yes, thank you. That would definitely get rid of my credit card debt, my student loans, and heck - maybe in the aftermath of nuclear winter and fighting off my fellow survivors for food, I might be able to have a patch of real estate to call my own...
As for the "great insight" Mr. Gross adds, it is simply this:Today's twentysomethings, by contrast, have their whole lives in front of them. Want a cheaper house? Quit Manhattan and move to Hartford, Conn. Want to make more money? Pick a different field. Ah yes... I'll draft a banner and walk through the poorest neighborhoods of New York and Los Angeles. Crowds will follow, and we'll march to cheaper places such as Fresno or Hartford, find those jobs, and live happily ever after...
Only in order to be able to afford to live in Fresno and Hartford, the jobs are in New York and Los Angeles. Then you have to commute.
And let's talk about entry level jobs. That does the average political science or psychology major do with their degree? Straight to retail my friends. Or in the Fredericksburg area, Capital One or Geico. Sure, they might be able to get a job in Northern Virginia or Washington, but $30K is about what you can expect if you're lucky. $24K if you're working in Fredericksburg.
Is it any small wonder why college graduates go back home to their parents?
Gross heaps further disdain upon Generation Y:Kamenetz also makes cavalier statements about economics and career development. "The job market sucks," she proclaims. It may not be as good as it was in the 1990s, but suck is a pretty strong term. She complains that a $700 personal computer, a necessity for any young person, is expensive. Huh? Computing is incredibly cheap. The first PC I bought, that crappy, tiny Mac, cost $2,000 in 1990 dollars. Yes... how could any of the reading public be mistaken. $700 is chump change; a whole two weeks of salary for crying out loud! What is she complaining about, that ingrate!
Of course, the target of Gross' angst is nothing less than a 2002 Yale graduate. Heh. If that's the top of the stack, where her skills should be the most marketable, then why on earth would Gross (or anyone) assume that Generation Y has is any easier for the average college graduate?
What stacks against Gen Y?
1. Housing costs. Average rent in Fredericksburg is $1000/mo. Let's say someone pulls down $30K coming out of college... after paying taxes, credit cards, car payments, and student loans, how much of the ol' budget do you think is being swallowed up by housing alone? Want to buy a house? Forget it - not until you're married and can bring two of those incomes to bear.
2. Student loans and other debt. Let's face it. Everyone has a credit card, and most people use them when they are in a pinch. Student loans being the only way to pay for college nowadays, and yes - it's going to add up. All that money goes into a deep, dark hole never to be seen again. Best piece of advice for anyone getting out of college or in college is to tear up that credit card and never, ever use it. Get the gas card your parents got you when you were in high school (and if they didn't, get one yourself) and use it for gas only, save it forever. That counts towards your credit rating as (1) an old line of credit you (2) have responsibly paid off. Everything else, burn.
3. Car payments. Gotta drive to get from point A to point B. If you are fortunate enough to live in the city, you're still paying $3/day for Metro fare. That adds up folks...
4. Job market. Taxes, loans, credit, car, housing. Is $30K a year a fair salary for someone with no experience? Sure it is. Is it enough to cover the expenses of your emerging college graduate? Probably not.
Now lest I be lambasted myself for being a protectionist, Gen Y "hand me everything" snob, let it be known that I am huge on entrepreneurship. I firmly believe in free enterprise, the lack of entitlement, fair and moral business ownership that takes care of employees rather than collective labor dictating demands, etc.
But what I am saying (and what most of Gen Y is saying) is that the cards are stacked against us financially - for better or worse. Taxes take our money, student loans take our money, credit takes our money, car payments take our money, housing takes our money... what's left to be happy with? In a Jeffersonian sense, one might argue that we have life and liberty, but what of the sin against our property?
What makes the Gen Y complaint relevant is not that it's a rehash of the "Me Generation" that complained because they wanted more. Gen Y complains because what they are earning is being taken through one conduit or another.
This doesn't excuse bad choices. You rack up credit card bills, you owe. You buy the tricked out Lancer, you owe. But taxes? Rising education costs? Housing? These are things policy makers have control over and Gen Y'ers do not, either by reducing the tax burden on those who can least afford it, quit giving in to every cost increase proffered by higher education, and quit making stupid decisions on land use when it comes to affordable housing.
In Virginia, is it any small wonder why the up-and-coming coinservative Republicans (bloggers, VCAP challengers, etc.) are all younger guys? This is not a problem that will go away with the quip "get a (better) job." That might be appropriate for the 1960's, but Gen Y is working hard and looking for financial relief.
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Shaun Kenney 
8 Comments:
Given that most folks don't even think about what they want to do post-college until a week after graduation, the problem might be that we're emphasizing the wrong things in college? Then again, flood the market with CS majors and the average salary goes down as well thanks to supply/demand.
It's a combination of all things.
Also, I would argue against much of that first paragraph. I am tech-savvy, very neat (perhaps straddling into OCD, i.e. overly organized), and blog (who uses MySpace, seriously?). The only thing I don't do is use a PDA; pencil and paper are good enough there, and leaves room for my iPod (see, I'm not entirely immune).
Just a question: what year is considered the "official" start of Generation Y?
Generally, Generation X is considered to have ended by 1978. However, as "art" (as in Kenney" clearly demonstrates, Gen X's staying power went long after that.
As for when Gen Y begins, most consider post-1980 as the starting point, though there is considerable blurring.
Typically, dress codes and use of technology are key deliniators, but of course, the lines are still technically being drawn by those who draw lines (tip o' the hat to CR_UVA)...
Still, considering the demographic (successful twentysomethings who read blogs), we might not be getting the types of posts here that you would get on other spaces such as Myspace or Xanga.
For example, look at "The Greatest Generation", generally more conservative, roll up your sleeves and work, do it yourself-ers. Followed by the Baby Boomers, the Me Generation, who were able to reap the benifits of a hard working generation before it. Gen-Xers come off of that and think, "Damn, I'm not going to be like that," so you find a bunch of hardworking, do it yourself-ers again. Gen-X is greatly responsible for the technology boom which Gen-Y has been able to use with little to no effort, it's been handed to them.
Gen Yers who remember the Cold War, basically.
Interesting stuff, and it probably explains why all us twentysomethings are going "eh?" when we read about these slacker Gen Y folks (and why I get a bit confused and say Gen X rubs off).
check out my blog for more news and info on what's going wrong and how to get out of it (I am big on entrepreneurship too)
anyakamenetz.blogspot.com
...okay, stupid nerd joke, I know.
What will be interesting (or funny, or sad, depending on how you see it), is that Generation Z will start to come of age in another 15 years (?) or so; what might the observations there suggest?
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