Millennials

[digitS']

I feel sorry for them. I didn't have that experience. Post-war, the American economy was going strong. It seems that with every (brief) recession - I used it as an excuse to go to part-time and go back to school for a year or 2 .

It didn't really help. I kind of got caught in a box of taking the easy way (happy way) in employment and ill-health (both mine and in my immediate family) kept me from climbing very high on the ladder of prosperity. Still, I didn't usually have much trouble finding some work and somebody willing to pay me for it. I just had to DO THE WORK. I wonder what it is like for the Millennials.

I am gonna do some gossiping . . . I know a couple. Knew them as a different couple . . . lady was married before and had 2 kids - I knew them then. They divorced and she remarried. I thought the new guy had infinite patience putting up with those 2 kids as they went on thru their teen years. Good for him! Both of them were egotistical little brats! But, Teenager - thy name is Ego.

Well anyway, the oldest graduated from high school. They said they'd get him a car if he got a job. After another year, they gave him a "job" . Oh, the boss' kid! Since he was still living at home, it was obvious that he seldom showed up at the shop. It is kind of a Mom & Pop place & I think they only have 1 other employee. But, he got the car - zoom, zooom, z o o o o m m! Car didn't last a year! Much of that time, he lived with Grandma . . ! I saw how well she could put up with him the other day when she stopped by to pick him up :/. Yikes! He won't be driving her car!

Oh yeah, he's been back at home for the last month. His mother's home . . . Stepfather? He moved out about a week ago.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

We are living in the most unusual age so far for human history. A big transformation of how humans, well, can it be called survive, or maybe it can be called thrive, where folks live on future work. Credit.

That life is right along with new mass communications of written word, words that go along with all kinds of graphics, words that are there so that businesses can advertise. A world of owners and, well, face it, slaves to the wages that the owners use to make huge amounts of money resources.

And it is all very complex interweaving. It makes things so that this humanity, us large Mammal Primate Ape Humans, Angel Spirits one and all, which are among the larger animals of the planet, have for population numbers what is popularly estimated to be just over 7 billion. 7,000,000,000 humans, each weighing, I don't know the average weight but including the children, the very poor, the randomly picked, the wealthy, the lazy, the powerful, male and female and what have you, can I venture 150 pounds and not be too far off? Now, 7 billion times 100 is...ohph, 700 billion, 700,000,000,000, and add half of that...ohph...

1,500,000,000,000

That's 1 trillion 500 billion pounds of humans who are alive and trying to eat, feed, and house our bodies every day.

Some of that 1 and a half trillion pounds get to enjoy unlimited whatever they need and want, and not only that, those pounds have so much they don't know what to do with it. Yet, they still charge exorbitantly large rent and inflated prices for their things, and then grumble about having their wage slaves get health insurance. Better to just get pretty young new employees rather than fixing up the old ones. Heck, they want the new medical advances for their own selves.

So that those very few get to live 120 nice and fat years while their poor dumb wage slaves live maybe 8 years after retiring, if they ever get to retire!

What an age to live in!

Supposedly 7 billion humans. I think the number right now is more like 14 billion. I know I was not counted.

=====

 

[digitS']

where-to-move-in-america-if-you-want-a-job-more-money-or-lots-of-single-people

 

[canesisters]

I've always wondered...
What would happen if we were to decide that kids were kids and adults were adults and there wasn't such a thing as adolescent? Is it really so farfetched to believe that 12year olds can rise up to high standards? Not, of course, all the responsibilities of an older adult - but is it not somehow failing them to let them spend all the years between 6 and 20 with no other expectations than to go to school and keep their room clean? And then to expect them to suddenly 'become' a responsible 'adult'?
Perhaps this 'teens will be teens' idea has something to do with all the 30yr old 'teens' wandering around today?
Just my rambeling 2-cents worth

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not all that negative about it. My parents were raised during the Great Depression. They developed habits that never left them. Dad never threw away a used nail, no matter how rusted or bent. He never got rid of a piece of sawn wood unless it was so busted up it could not be reused, then it was used as kindling. I liked those. They were easier to split into kindling than tree branches or tree trunks, though maple wasn't too bad.

Many of us spent much of our development years in a time that we clearly understood that just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you. There were certain excesses at the time yet most of us turned out pretty well.

The Millennials were raised in their own time. They will develop as they develop and will learn what they learn from the times. I'm different from my father. My sons are different than me. I suspect the Millennials will manage to muddle through like humans have for a few thousand years. They will be different than we are but I don't think that dooms then to failure.

 

[digitS']

I'm also optimistic about them despite what I was seeing 18 months ago. For one thing, I see the stability shown by a young millennial neighbor, not the one referenced but the guy who bought a nearby home and moved in about that time.

I also see my DD's hard work. She has been working almost steady since age 17, graduating from high school and college. Right now, she is working 2 jobs - 1 FT, 1 PT. It's gotta end soon! She's one tired 20-something ...

I'm dismayed that the urban area here has made the top 10 list for the Highest Poverty Rate Among Young People! It makes me feel somehow, responsible. I don't want her to see that list and reflect on it too much ... don't want her to leave ...

Steve

 

[w_r_ranch]

I agree with cane... We were brought up in a time that expect us to be productive & were groomed from an early age.

When you were little, we were assigned chores. Complete the chores & we got 50 cents allowance per week. When you were old enough (12), you got a paper route & taught to save half of the money we earned.

When we were older (16) we got a job(s) after school. This allowed us to purchase a car & learn how to keep it in repair.

When we graduated from high school, we were expected to either get a full time job & support ourselves or go to college (we had to pay half of the expenses). Either way we had to leave 'home' & make our own way in life. As I've said before, cold & hunger are powerful motivators.

IMO, parents that allow their children to stay & pay for everything are doing their children a disservice by enabling them. Personal responsibility needs to taught at an early age or it will never take hold. One only has to look around our country to see what happens when it isn't. Look at the number of people protesting stupid stuff, why aren't they at work???

 

[digitS']

Oh that other kid, living off mom and grandma, we don't have to worry about him.

He's in jail, armed robbery.

Cost to mom and grandma has dropped to $0. Oh, I guess costs have kinda shifted ...

Steve
who's spell checker always suggests "Jobs" after i sign off

 

[bobm]

Before WW2, a person with a sixth grade education learned more in grade school than today's high school graduate of life skills that one needs to survive in the real world. With the advent of cell phones, and other electronic gadgets and legalization of mary wanna,as well as a few other questionable life mores, todays' kids have lost spelling, math , conversation skills, and the value of money and the concept of family. Since today's parents want their kids to have more than they had, these kids want it now and let someone else pay for it. Since the illegals ( ? ) are here, we get " press 2 for Spanish" instead of them learning English. The politicians now give us everything that THEY know what is good for us, then they let US pay for it .

 

[digitS']

I'll have to take your word for education in the Threadbare Thirties. The war had ended and Dad came home early from overseas. Caught a flight to San Fran. That still makes me a boomer rather than a member of the Lucky Few Generation. (I'll capitalize that since there were so few born prior to armistice.)


Dad was always very pro-education even though he had precious little, having to quit school and work on the farm. Mom and Dad were the Greatest (another capital ) but we are moving on ...

DS is a Gen X. I'd like to claim that I was 7 years old when he was born but there's nobody who would believe me. We are now past the Millennial births. If we go '65 to '85 for X and '85 to '05 for the "We Millennials," we are half way onto the "Z's," or whatever they will choose to call themselves .

Another 10 years, another Social Security cohort ... better hope they can keep the economy afloat for us pre-historics . There won't be all that many of them - they will have to be creative. It might be an idea to just go ahead and buy the farm.

Something positive .

Steve