Meet the Gen Zers struggling to stay in work or school — and the parents who are at a loss for how to help
Meet the Gen Zers struggling to stay in work or school — and the parents who are at a loss for how to help
A rising number of America's young people are disconnected from work, school, and a sense of purpose.
- A rising number of young Americans are disconnected from work, school, and a sense of purpose.
- Disconnection rates have been increasing since the 1990s, affecting young people's futures.
- Poor mental health and a lack of a financial safety net contribute to rising disconnection.
Are you kidding? The parents can't figure out why? Really? Neither can mine by the way.
They don't understand that the social contract is broken. Working for a living wage is a concept that's all but disappeared. A job can't pay the rent and food. And employers aren't giving any significant pay raises or promotions in order to cut costs. They've been through TWO major economic events - 2008 and COVID - and the massive layoffs that go with them.
I think I heard Jimmy Carr say something about this along the lines of the reason that millennials and the younger generations play so much video games is that it's the only way to experience the fantasy of actually doing something and progressing in any significant way that we don't experience any more in real life. And forget about owning a home and building a family with kids and all that. It's become incredibly difficult and something reserved for the wealthy elite.
Boomer parents who were able to get a well paying job with a high school degree and got good raises their whole life will never understand this.
Not sure I agree, no matter what way you cut it, Boomers/Gen X were sold a turd , sure it was disguised as a snickers and they chewed away with gusto, embracing it with both hands but what they did can't be replicated even though most of them refuse to even acknowledge that, Limits to Growth within a finite biosphere etc pollution, population, resource depletion, climate chnage etc all catching up with us.
Lamenting it's loss is bizzare, it was a turd to begin with. Entitled white folks fucking the biosphere and minorities over and living off that explotation is surley fucking toxic.
Not recognizing it for what it was and poviting to a sustainable lifestyle (from about say the '70s or 80s) is however even bizarrer and inevitably has lead us to where we are.
That "young people" are tempted with the same stupid snickers turd and lamet not being able to chow down is just indoctrination writ large I guess.
You don't need to play video games to accomplish something and feel progression. Any hobby will do that. Some are essentially for free, other than the time spend. Hence I do not see that one specific connection. Otherwise should be a good starting point to figure the reasons out.
Of course! But, I'm saying it e generation in general has been doing that to fill a void.
There never was a social contract lol what are you talking about?
You people act like the capitalists weren't always trying to get the most out of us while giving us as little as possible...but none of you will change your buying habits or sacrifice anything to save the system.
Kids rail against how hopeless it is while spending $20 on chipotle and paying these companies they're complaining about.
I don't think it's just not getting a fair slice-- they don't like the pie.
When I was 20, there was hope that technology was serving us better, we could (and would) fix pollution and global warming, people's health around the world was improving, open space and protections for wildlife were increasing. Progress seems much less of a straight line now, and young people I know are skeptical of human effort in general. The easy solution seems to be just do less and have less, which doesn't motivate you to work for rich people. I don't agree with all of the gloom, but you can't expect them to just snap out of it.
Progress is well and alive for people in the top 10%. Lots of people I know are thriving, but they come from money and are making six figure salaries at 25.
But for the bottom 90%, we're all fucked. As much progressive as I've made in my 15 working years, I'm not really any better than I was at 22 when i got my first job.
well yeah we increasingly cant see the fruits of our labour.
just feels like we are grinding ourselves for nothing
And then the fuckers fill our games with grinding!
so we are compelled to spend more money on microtransactions to speed it up. even our distractions gouge us for our time and money, so exhausting.
Yeah more and more there's a sense of "what's the point" among young people, and having few supports and being burnt out from multiple jobs just makes it worse. Most of their energy gets spent on trying to make it to the next week or month, and from whatever's left they can't really even think about saving up for anything.
You're working for older people's pensions that you'll never see. You're working to fill the pockets of the rich owner class. If I didn't have a very specific goal and a decent amount of support from my family, I don't know if I would have gotten through a rough patch in my life after finishing university.
Almost 2 months every year for my brothers are dedicated to fucking standardized tests, they’re way longer and worse than when I was a kid and it was like 3 days a year. What can you even learn when every couple months you have to spend a whole month learning nothing and taking tests?
I think that's gonna be a global issue very soon. I'm a millennial in the EU and feel already like that. I more often see it in younger generations.
I get financially by. That's it. No huge savings. I don't own a car because it would just make it more expensive to be alive. Thinking about buying a house or apartment? Hell no.
Right it's our fault the entire world, the government,the economy is on the verge of collapsing and staying in work and school will solve all of our problems we can't afford to have a life, staying in school to get into work is pointless having a job is pointless you can't afford to live anyways. So who's fault is it let's think real hard about that.
I don't think giving up is the solution though.
Laying around being a burden is the worst way to go about it.
Actually I do understand more than most other gen z people. I was buying and cooking my own food since I was 14 my parents never cared. I've worked everyday of my life right after highschool I'm actually going to college this fall I'm just pointing out it's difficult to even get a job at all anymore even if you apply to a million different jobs so getting through school nowadays isn't exactly going to get you very far in this age we live in
Right. We need a revolution. If you go far enough left, you get your guns back.
theres little incentive not to though. its getting hard for new generations to even afford food, so whats the actual point?
on the other hand theres mounting incentive to start using guilliotines again.
A growing group of America's young people are not in school, not working, or not looking for work. They're called "disconnected youth" or "opportunity youth,"
There's already a term for this: NEET. Not in Education, Employment, or Training
