American Dream Is Elusive for Whiny, Entitled Members of New Generation

[EEinNJ]

Being on the tail end of the Boomer generation myself, I find a lot of the comments here sanctimonious, and I agree with Geojen. Many of the students and recent grads I know are having a tough time- including some bright kids from top schools. It's one thing if you need a survival job (the young man in this story obviously didn't), it's quite another to make a bad choice that sacrifices both your long term potential and your happiness for the sake of a paycheck. I know people who've done that, and ended up stuck in underemployment for years.

I've always advised recent grads to choose their first jobs wisely, because it's easy to get type-cast and hard to change industries and jobs. I base that on my own experience- graduating during a tech recession and having a hard time finding work, I took the first offer I got after multiple rejections. My degree is in electronics, but I paid my dues in a below average paying, hot, dirty, noisy bearing factory for 2 years. It took years after that to work my way into a good paying permanent position.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

The guy in the story is doing odd jobs such as lawn mowing. But is he putting something like that on a resume for the job he really wants? This young many has been out of school two years. Which might more characterize him as someone not to hire for the job he wants? Having been unemployed for two years? Or having been in a different insurance job than he wanted and at "only" $40K?

[jIM_Ohio]

As a member of this "new generation," I find your title insulting and ridiculous. Anyone can find any member of any current living generation and find slackers with entitled attitudes and write articles about them. I realize the boomer generation generally regards itself as the best thing since sliced bread, but I'm sure they have their share of losers, just like gen x and the millenials, and yes, even the greatest generation had it's share of duds. Geesh.

Every generation likes to turn it's collective nose up at the new generation. This is nothing new.

I am probably a gen X or gen Y, not sure...

it is clear to me that the young people brought in have a different expectation level than what I started with.

They expect company cars, expense accounts, high salaries and similar. I went to school with 25 fraternity brothers, and while some of us were lazy, others were duds, and few even partied like it was 1999 back in 1992, I can assure you NONE of us felt we were entitled to anything. We created opportunities for ourselves, dealt with the curves life threw at us, and in general most are quite successful.

It is new in that when it was boomers, those people are rightfully called the best generation ever. We have an internet, we can type in english (not German or Japanese) and in general the world is at peace. That was not true when the boomers were born or raised.

Boomers had no college degree- none of my 4 grandparents went to college. They raised a combined 9 kids and led a modest but enriched life (they valued people more than possessions). Sometime since then there was a transfer to a possession based attitude (I need this thing, this thing and this thing).

I know one of my grandfathers walked to work, took his lunch with him everyday and worked as an engineer (without a degree) for various employers. Tell anyone today to do that and they are labeled an environment freak, not a hard worker.

[ea1776]

He is living in a 100% FANTASY world. He believes he is going to find something that doesn't exist. There are 2 reasons he won't get the job he is fantasizing about:

1. He isn't qualified.
2. He has a major attitude problem and feels he is so entitled. That sort of thing doesn't sit well with the great minds & spirits that run this country, and people pick up on it so quickly. There are no handouts, you have to EARN things in life.

If he was really ambitious, take the 40k job, live frugally, save, start a small business on weekends, read books on topics of interest, network, and continue searching for what you "really want" in spare time off of work.

What a joke.

[ea1776]

["the sheen was gone" when military asked him to reapply--ridiculous!)

Does this sound like someone who could survive in a tough job? Newsflash! Jobs that pay a lot usually do so because they are DIFFICULT and/or require special skills. Too bad he didn't re-apply to the Marines, because IMHO, that is exactly the place he belongs. No determination. No guts. No risk tolerance. and a whole lot of growing up to do.

[ea1776]

As a member of this "new generation," I find your title insulting and ridiculous. Anyone can find any member of any current living generation and find slackers with entitled attitudes and write articles about them. I realize the boomer generation generally regards itself as the best thing since sliced bread, but I'm sure they have their share of losers, just like gen x and the millenials, and yes, even the greatest generation had it's share of duds. Geesh.

Every generation likes to turn it's collective nose up at the new generation. This is nothing new.

I am a member of the "new generation" also. My parents generally raised me by showing me how NOT to act (dad is a recovered alcoholic, and my mom has major issues, spent time in jail, among other things). They didn't help me much in college either. I took out student loans and graduated as an electrical engineer from a good university. I've lived on my own since I was 17 years old and have definitely paid my dues. All of my knowledge of how to handle money came from reading books and this forum. Many financial/life lessons I've learned the hard way. I think all of this is why I have attitude I do, the genuine feeling that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. I think there are others like me from the "new generation" also.

Having said all that, I still believe most kids "back in the day" had it tougher than I did growing up, and I think that may be why a larger percentage of the "old generation" doesn't have the same fantasy expectations.

[ceejay74]

Whoa, just checked back in and only now realized I'd ruffled some feathers! Sorry, I thought my revised headline was clearly only denigrating this ridiculous kid (and any other kid of his generation as privileged as he is who actually thinks he's struggling). I'm very sympathetic to what new grads must be facing, which is why I opened the article expecting to relate to the kid, and instead got this irritating whine-fest.