What Is It About 20-Somethings? (NYT-rel)
therecordpeddler
229 Posts
Recent article from NYT magazine.
What Is It About 20-Somethings?
Further development of the mind, career, etc.?
Or lazy hipsters?
What Is It About 20-Somethings?
Further development of the mind, career, etc.?
Or lazy hipsters?
Comments
It's not really that there isn't much out there, since there are tons of programs/opportunities, but that the competition is so rough, and the job security is non-existant - new hires are the first to go, and when you're starting out, moving out, paying back loans, the consequences of losing a job are immesnely bigger than when you're older and (should) have some savings in the bank. College degrees are so meaningless and watered down at this point that unless you went to an Ivy, you're not getting hired on the strength of your school, straight up.
So you're saying the rest of the world has "Spelunked" you?
I'm also 23. I have an BS degree in econ from a really good school, and am working on my MA in econ now. Like the article suggests, I'll probably go through a series of jobs before I settle on one I like. Internships seem to now be a necessary counterpart to academic achievement. I've been participating in some program or other since I was 14 so I can "get ahead" in life, as have been most of my friends. Most of the work I've done has been unpaid, and it seems bizarre that some of my unpaid positions were ridiculously competitive to get. Every summer has been some new internship, and keeping the same position for over 6 months is rare. Standards of measuring achievement seem to have changed. No wonder it takes us so long to "grow up." For many 20-somethings, all that preparation was stifled by the recession that hit the nation just as most of us were graduating college.
*when I was 14, the 9/11 attacks happened. I have never really known a time when "terrorism" was not a threat,
*when I was still in high school, the nation went to war with Iraq,
*when I was doing my undergrad coursework, the nation went into a enormous recession,
*I start taking computer classes in kindergarten and I took my first typing class in school in 2nd grade.
Just off the top of my head, terrorism, technology and the economy have been the most significant phenomena to affect my generation, IMO. Maybe same-sex marriage and the first Black president, too.
You should probably have figured out by now that the terrorism threat is basically bullshit.
If you can no longer promise the 'American Dream' then you must rule by fear, create a threat that will keep people in check and feeling grateful for saving them from what lurks beyond their borders.
This idea was proposed by Republican think tanks as far back as the late 50s
Correct.....hahaha
Though with modern 20th Century technology used in a much quicker and more sophisticated level.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/united-flight-arrested-terror-charges-amsterdam/story?id=11517664
"Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands have been charged by Dutch police with "preparation of a terrorist attack," U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News. U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed "mock bombs" in their luggage. "This was almost certainly a dry run, a test," said one senior law enforcement official.
...In addition, officials said, al Soofi was found to be carrying $7,000 in cash and a check of his luggage found a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, three cell phones taped together, several watches taped together, a box cutter and three large knives."
Dude was just going on vacation, likes to do his own cooking and has stomach problems.....and so he wears more than one watch at a time.....what's the big deal.
Circumstances change sometimes in as little time as one generation. None of these phenomena are new, in the sense that they have all occurred in other countries in the recent past. Young people drifting from job to job was (and still might be) very common in Japan post-Lost Decade. There are many countries where large extended families live under the same roof for a long time - i.e. in communist Poland, the waiting list for an apartment or house (if you could afford it) used to be decades long.
If anything, this article is really a window on the insecurities of the generation(s) that came before us. Not to bash anyone, but "boomers" seem to be pretty worried about whether or not we are going to follow their example - WHICH HAS WORKED OUT SO WELL LOL - as if they need us to choose the same path in order to validate their lifestyles.
That's what this 22 year-old says, anyway.
High-larious! I'm 32, and my savings account is in the triple digits. We've been moving in this direction as a society for a long time, and most of the people I know my age are saddled with plenty of student loan debt, little prospect for advancement at their jobs because the baby boomers aren't going to retire until they're dead, and the threat that if they actually do get laid off, they're going to have to figure out how to support not only themselves, but their young children. Everybody's fucked.
You're damn right they do. You think I'm more worried that Russia is going drop an ICBM on my head than that some fucking lunatic fanatic of a certain un-named religion will use a box cutter to hijack an airplane and fly it into the building where I work? Really. Is that what you worry about Harvey, nuclear weapons? I haven't worried about a nuclear bomb since I sat under the desk with a little card around my neck with my name and address on it in 1972.
you mean six-figures right? Tripple digits means $100?
^^^David Rockefeller over here.
Puh-lease. The news did nothing BUT try to label this as some kind of home-grown, whiteman, tea-party terrorism.
Sayin'. I mean triple digits.
Well, NY Times writer...those days are long gone. Us 30-something's, even the white one's, already know this like the back of our hands. Because we were the ones who did everything we were supposed to do to attain that American dream, yet still fell short...by miles. There is no job security. Job benefits are now a joke. They say Social Security will be bankrupt by the times we reach 65. The institution of marriage is now a joke. And by way of crappy food, poisoned water, tainted immunizatuions, unaffordable health care, and a laughable education system, even having chuildren is no longer something that is encouraged.
20-something's might as well languish in school or at their parent's houses forever...because frankly there is nowhere for them to go. Aside from weapons production, there is no industry left here in America. Our money isn't actually worth the paper it's printed on. And our government is as corrupt as it can possibly be.
So all there is really left to say is: fuck it. Walk softly, do what you can to help out your neighbors in greater need, and just drift/coast/slackerize or whatever negative descriptor these fat fuck old people want to negatively label it as. So what foagies, you still have a house, 3 cars, a boat, and anything your heart desires. Well, smoke a terd in hell when you get there for us...as we are just gonna keep being true and not so exploitatively greedy and we're just fine with that.
Our hearts > Your treasures.
Corn futures.
so true...Im 39, my savings used to be in the 5 digits and my retirement funds also in the 5-digits, but 4 years of only being able to have part time work made short work of that...my major decisions have been skewed by the current situation...decisions like not having kids, probably ever...not buying a house because it is a really bad investment (you basically take a five digit down payment and flush it down the toilet to secure a loan on a depreciating investment, doesnt sound wise to me) so my goal now is to remain debt free and to not, in any circumstances, rely on credit for anything...
Which is exactly zero when you can't even take care of yourself or your own family. But it sure sounds nice to say it.
In about six months you are going to experience the greatest buyers market in housing in a generation. Coupled with current interest rates of 4 1/4. The time is almost now. Westchester, here I come.