Why Gen Y yuppies are unhappy

[Titan]

Originally Posted by Dion

I get that todays youth has by far the greatest debt load when it comes to education but at the same time wouldn't you know that ahead of time. Maybe not a fair example but I worked for 3 years after HS to save up some money for my post secondary education.

What years was that and what was the tuition when you did go?

Part of the problem is we as a society have created the expectation that you have to go to college or you are a failure. There is no talk about how to pay for said college education. The result is kids get into it and have to pay for it however they can which means debt.

The corollary is that vocational education is looked down upon and not considered an option. This education moves you towards having a job where you actually create something, and said education is far cheaper and shorter and the job opportunities are massive. But the number of times people have said, no I don't have an education, I went to SAIT makes me sad. We are really setting the college kids up for failure and our economy will suffer as there is a glut of unfilled jobs as no one is qualified to fill them. And a whole bunch of over "educated" kids that are not qualified to do anything. This causes inflationary pressures on those jobs. Look at the people with wealth and more often or not they started driving a truck or a grader and built a business and now have more money than I will ever have as a lawyer with three post secondary degrees.

[troutman]

You haven't moved from that spot all night since you asked for a light
You little smoke stack
You've wasted my time
I'd like to see you try and give it back
I'm working
But I'm not working for you!
Slack Mother####er!
Relax, sit down
I'll kick that stool right out from under you
Well, then, I see you sitting outside
Well, I can do the same thing too
I'm working
But I'm not working for you!
No!
Slack Mother####er!
I'm working
But I'm not working for you!
Slack Mother####er
You Mother####er!!

[GP_Matt]

How much is tuition at U of C now?
I always thought the complaints about the cost of education were spillover from the US where tuition can be mid to high five figures a year.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

You work with someone who poured boiling water on a baby fox?

Yeah holy jesus ####, what kind of evil person do you work with?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Really, dude? Tuition rates have risen 35% in the last 20 years alone. It's not comparable at all. Also take into account that many people are working a lot longer or double-dipping, and you have a pretty clear picture of why the 20-30 age group are the most under employed.

EDIT: I would also ask what % of employers were requiring a post-secondary education for jobs with salaries comparable to today's.

Add to all of that having a generation that accumulated too much debt and saved far, far too little for retirement to the point where they cant retire and they're holding on to a lot of jobs that are unavailable to the next generation because of it.

[polak]

More whining about "the younger generation". Original.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Locke

Add to all of that having a generation that accumulated too much debt and saved far, far too little for retirement to the point where they cant retire and they're holding on to a lot of jobs that are unavailable to the next generation because of it.

Yeah! ... just ####ing die already Boomers!

[Red]

Originally Posted by Titan

What years was that and what was the tuition when you did go?

Part of the problem is we as a society have created the expectation that you have to go to college or you are a failure. There is no talk about how to pay for said college education. The result is kids get into it and have to pay for it however they can which means debt.

The corollary is that vocational education is looked down upon and not considered an option. This education moves you towards having a job where you actually create something, and said education is far cheaper and shorter and the job opportunities are massive. But the number of times people have said, no I don't have an education, I went to SAIT makes me sad. We are really setting the college kids up for failure and our economy will suffer as there is a glut of unfilled jobs as no one is qualified to fill them. And a whole bunch of over "educated" kids that are not qualified to do anything. This causes inflationary pressures on those jobs. Look at the people with wealth and more often or not they started driving a truck or a grader and built a business and now have more money than I will ever have as a lawyer with three post secondary degrees.

Thank you for saying that. Having a degree is not a recipe for success anymore. There are plenty of blue collar jobs that can be as satisfying and lucrative or better and you don't need to have student loans for that. I guess Gen Y need to realize that getting an MBA is not for everyone. Nothing wrong with being a plumber or an electrician. We are getting too fixated on desk jobs nowdays. I've been an office worker for a very long time and I see the expectations from young new hires. Unrealistic.

[polak]

Also, the greatest generation is far from perfect as people seem to think. They might have fought in a war but outside of that? They committed some of the most embarrassing moments of the last century. Racism, Paranoia, Bigotry, Enviromental carelessness, all of these things are qualities of the "greatest" generation. Also remember that personal credit is a relitively recent creation so who knows what the spending habits of earlier generations would have been like had it existed.

[Phanuthier]

RE: Article, I think we went way off topic, but it was a great read. Right on base, Reality-Expectations... very true.

Life is getting tougher and tougher, not just by competition, but some things like jobs being taken over by technology (self-checkouts, etc). Life is getting harder and harder, and it seems like a undergrad university degree is the new high school degree, etc.

I think someone said this above, this is the same with every generation. The origens of the "most entitled generation" or something came from the 70's when young adults in the 70's were just sitting around smoking pot or something?

On top of that, anybody who graduated in 2008-2012 (Basically the 25-30 year old's) got what is being described below... maybe not so much in Canada, but USA for sure. The economy is finally been recovering, but you never got your career started when you grad and now its been 4 years, and you are obsolete and companies want to hire new collage hires?

Originally Posted by Dion

There was a recession in the 80's where people couldn't find jobs.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Locke

Add to all of that having a generation that accumulated too much debt and saved far, far too little for retirement to the point where they cant retire and they're holding on to a lot of jobs that are unavailable to the next generation because of it.

Can't they be fired? Unless it's all unionized of course.
My work just let go a baby bomber in accounting and hired a 'yoot' who is 5 times as fast for about 2/3rds the salary.

So that's 1 win for the Gen Y'er.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Can't they be fired? Unless it's all unionized of course.
My work just let go a baby bomber in accounting and hired a 'yoot' who is 5 times as fast for about 2/3rds the salary.

So that's 1 win for the Gen Y'er.

I applied for that position once.

[blankall]

This article was awful.

It started off awful when he defined this age group as "Gen Y" and "GYPSY". He couldn't even come up with his own term for them. He defined them in relation to previous "generations".

The author in no way addresses the main issues facing this generation, which are the harsh realities of low employment opportunity and rising costs of living, particularly housing. Most people I know are not waiting for some dream job. They'd be more than happy with a 9 to 5 with a liveable salary and good benefits. These issues aren't the result of existensial crisis, they are the result of poor economic planning from the generations before.

[East Coast Flame]

I'm in the 25-30 age range and am doing quite well compared to my peers, but I'm coming to the point where I just can't ever see myself owning a home. With paying of my school debt, the thought of coming up with a down payment on a house that is worth living in seems unfathomable to me.

The definitions of success have changed with our generation. Debt is now a normal fact of life for people my age, while my parents generation would view that as a failing. I don't believe I have any friends that do not have some kind of debt, aside for the ones that came from incredibly wealthy families.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by East Coast Flame

I'm in the 25-30 age range and am doing quite well compared to my peers, but I'm coming to the point where I just can't ever see myself owning a home. With paying of my school debt, the thought of coming up with a down payment on a house that is worth living in seems unfathomable to me.

The definitions of success have changed with our generation. Debt is now a normal fact of life for people my age, while my parents generation would view that as a failing. I don't believe I have any friends that do not have some kind of debt, aside for the ones that came from incredibly wealthy families.

You keep seeing and hearing more and more how household debt has gone up dramatically since the 70's etc.

My next door neighbor who is retired told me had his house paid off when he was 35. I mentioned that to my father and he said he was about 34.

You don't see that too often these days.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by nik-

There's a recession every decade where people can't find jobs. That doesn't change the fact that a kid coming out of school now has a MASSIVE hurdle to leap just to be able to get their life started and it hasn't always been this way.

BS.

I see a ton of fresh grads making excellent money right out of University. A big part of the problem is, the current crop of kids, want a $500k home, a $50k BMW, and a vacation cottage before 30. And expect the income to support that.

My dad was a draftsman making about $850/mth, out of school in the late 60's, which was good entry level money then, and my folks scraped together every penny they could, drove a $150 1959 Beetle for 2 years, lived in a basement suite where my dad did building maintenance for $50/mth, and considered spam good cuts of meat for cripes sake, so they could scratch together a $5000 down payment, for a $20,000 home in Canyon Meadows. That sacrifice no longer exists. People just ask mommy and daddy for their down payment now. Even I am guilty of that one myself on my first home.

People now want everything NOW, and that is the problem. That expectation leads to expecting 6 figures out of school. A ton of the jobs are going over seas and to South America now at half the rate, because everyone feels entitled to a CEO salary, without having to work their way through the ranks.

The entitlement issue is not a myth IMO. And a huge reason a lot of these old crodgers are being kept around, is because the work ethic is totally different. I work with a guy who is 66 years old, that can twice as much done in a day and at a higher level of accuracy and quality, than someone half his age, myself included. He comes to work, to work. Not youtube, or twit, or facebook.... work. How valuable do you think a guy like that is to a company?

I am only 39, and even the guys in their 20's that work with me, are shocked, I will put in 10-15 hours of overtime a week and come in on Sunday when I have to, if I have to just to get the job done. And I am not even technically paid for it the way my pay is structured. But that is why, I got to where I did. I am a company man, as are the two other guys in my department, who are all a little older. People bounce around now, and have next to no dedication to their employers. It is hard enough to get the current kids coming through ranks to show up for their shift a half an hour early for a meeting for gods sake. When in reality, you should be half an hour early for that meeting. And these are people I only have a 10-15 year gap on.

I am not saying this applies to everyone, as there a few guys I see, that are actually getting the picture now. But as a whole, it is an entirely different attitude now. Myself, I am definitely on the unhealthy side of the fence. I am a classic workaholic, who doesn't know when to just put the pen down a shut the computer off some days. But on the flip side, I see way too much 'bare minimum' being put out as well. Once these gen Y'ers understand that it is earned, not handed out. And once they learn they aren't "Special little babies that deserve everything" like their mommy and daddy told them, then maybe they will start pushing out some of the old guys takin' their jerbs.

Now get the hell off my lawn.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by East Coast Flame

I'm in the 25-30 age range and am doing quite well compared to my peers, but I'm coming to the point where I just can't ever see myself owning a home. With paying of my school debt, the thought of coming up with a down payment on a house that is worth living in seems unfathomable to me.

The definitions of success have changed with our generation. Debt is now a normal fact of life for people my age, while my parents generation would view that as a failing. I don't believe I have any friends that do not have some kind of debt, aside for the ones that came from incredibly wealthy families.

Depends what kind of home you are looking for.
Could you put a 15K down payment on a kind of crappy 150K condo in NE for example? Could you borrow around 15K from anyone?

My cousin (24) just bought a condo in Harvest Hills for 210K. I lent her 10K. She will pay me back $200/month for 50 months, no interest.

Build your asset for 5-8 years then upgrade to something 300K etc...

Your first house shouldn't be your last.

Edit: pylon sort of beat me to it.

[Tinordi]

Articles like these are sign-posts to make everyone who reads it feel better about themselves by feeling superior to some fictitious brat. The content of the article is utterly vapid and without context.

[Tinordi]

Here's a counter article!

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%...bpYOjgnAlon9Gw

[DuffMan]

We have a guy at our work who is I think 69 or 70. About 5 years ago he was diagnosed with cancer, and was gone for about 2 years in treatment. Now he has to use a cane to get around and is pretty slow going up and down stairs etc. Apparently the guy is far from needing any money, and his wife also had cancer not long. Most of us wonder wtf he is still here taking away a job from a younger person who needs the money.

ABout a week ago I met him in the coffee room, and he says, "boy, it's such a nice day out, why are we stuck here at work". I wanted to ask him the exact same question when, he has money, but doesn't have a lot of time. Why aren't you enjoying the last bit of your life, ffs.

I also think , that once people retire, those without hobbies, and things to do, seem to age alot quicker and the life span is cut that much shorter. I'm thinking that is why this guy doesn't want to quit working as that will hasten the end for him.