07-17-2011, 02:22 PM
I'm 30, so I'm in the Millennial group. The entitlement thing is one that is driven by several issues.
First, most of us (at least the ones you're talking about), come from a middle class background, and have always been told that if we go to college, get a degree, that we will be rewarded with a well paying job of our choice. If you're told that all your life, you believe it, and it's quite hard to shatter that illusion.
Secondly, like every other generation of Americans, we believe we will do better than our parents. We expect to have a better job, to be happier, to be more accomplished. This isn't very grounded in reality, because when combined with point #1, it leads to the belief that we will do so fairly early in life (ie, the degree is the golden ticket).
Thirdly, we have been impacted by our parents financial spending. What that means is that, we witnessed our parents buying anything they want, including for us. Many of our parents still do this, even if they can't. Many of our parents did this on the back of crippling debt, and at the expense of retirement contributions. Yet, to us, this is just our parents being parents. This manifests itself, most commonly, as our parents continuing to be parents in providing long after we graduate high school.
When you combine everything, with a stagnant economy, with a wage growth that has been stagnant since the early 80's for the average person, and with boomers who are unwilling to move on in jobs, you end up with many unrealistic expectations and an enabling atmosphere to allow that to continue. Eventually, depending on the parents financial situation, it may burst, and that's when you see people with graduate degrees working at McDonalds.
What we've created is going to be a lost generation that will end up very bitter to anything their parents generation did. It could result in some great values and an end to excess, but it could also go a negative way. It will be interesting to see, thus far, it has come out in the area of anti-big business, pro-environment, and pro-rights (mainly immigration and gay marriage, we hate the focus on social issues).
For myself, I was lucky. I realized that traditional college wasn't for me, and ended up back home at 19. My parents allowed me to fall flat a few times, and I ended up entering the working world. I have a good job and I save like crazy...and I'm not too happy with my parents generation (although mine had their act together financially). If my generation has some entitlement issues, it's entirely because our parents generation has entitlement issues - we're just going to be in a spot not to have them met.
First, most of us (at least the ones you're talking about), come from a middle class background, and have always been told that if we go to college, get a degree, that we will be rewarded with a well paying job of our choice. If you're told that all your life, you believe it, and it's quite hard to shatter that illusion.
Secondly, like every other generation of Americans, we believe we will do better than our parents. We expect to have a better job, to be happier, to be more accomplished. This isn't very grounded in reality, because when combined with point #1, it leads to the belief that we will do so fairly early in life (ie, the degree is the golden ticket).
Thirdly, we have been impacted by our parents financial spending. What that means is that, we witnessed our parents buying anything they want, including for us. Many of our parents still do this, even if they can't. Many of our parents did this on the back of crippling debt, and at the expense of retirement contributions. Yet, to us, this is just our parents being parents. This manifests itself, most commonly, as our parents continuing to be parents in providing long after we graduate high school.
When you combine everything, with a stagnant economy, with a wage growth that has been stagnant since the early 80's for the average person, and with boomers who are unwilling to move on in jobs, you end up with many unrealistic expectations and an enabling atmosphere to allow that to continue. Eventually, depending on the parents financial situation, it may burst, and that's when you see people with graduate degrees working at McDonalds.
What we've created is going to be a lost generation that will end up very bitter to anything their parents generation did. It could result in some great values and an end to excess, but it could also go a negative way. It will be interesting to see, thus far, it has come out in the area of anti-big business, pro-environment, and pro-rights (mainly immigration and gay marriage, we hate the focus on social issues).
For myself, I was lucky. I realized that traditional college wasn't for me, and ended up back home at 19. My parents allowed me to fall flat a few times, and I ended up entering the working world. I have a good job and I save like crazy...and I'm not too happy with my parents generation (although mine had their act together financially). If my generation has some entitlement issues, it's entirely because our parents generation has entitlement issues - we're just going to be in a spot not to have them met.
![[-]](https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/images/collapse.png)