I was talking to some co-workers the other day about the hiring situation at the restaurant I manage, and about the fact that its basically impossible to get kids today to be serious about working. Now I am the first to admit that there are many exceptions to that rule, but I am talking by and large here.
Looking at the generations, we've gone from Baby Boomers, to Flower Children, The Me Generation, Yuppies (SP?) to my Generation X. Generation Y has come and gone and we are on the precipice of a new era... The Entitlement Generation. When I heard this name mentioned it just totally clicked with me and the problems facing today's youth. They Think that they deserve everything, without putting in the work for it.
What they don't relies is the work that there parents and grandparents out in to get them to that comfortable situation to begin with.
Most of today's middle and upper class don't have to work, don't have to put the effort into proving themselves capable of responsibility because we have trained kids to think that they should just get everything. I mean look at the saturation of product in the teen consumer market. Hell, just watch one episode of MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen and you'll want to strangle the pretentious lot of them.
I think back to when I was 15 and starting my first job and how my father made me earn the things I wanted. If I wanted to get a car, I needed to get a job to pay for maintaining it and the upkeep of that. I wanted new $100.00 shoes, guess what .. I got to buy them.
Now that's not to say that my parents never helped me out. I owe them a lot and they helped me buy my first car and helped me many times since then. But I always knew that it was my responsibility.
I just look at today's teenage youth and wonder what will happen when they get to be in their late 20's and what will happen. Let's hope that the entitlement they feel also entitles them to a better future.
End of Line.
Gerrad!
2 comments:
I read recently that Gen X has the biggest debt in the history of all generations. Now I don't know much about this new generation, but one thing is for sure. With all that we have done (Gen X) at least we worked to get what we have. Many of the Gen x'ers are in debt due to college. Now with the new generation, perhaps they won't have to work as hard to get a chance at life. But will they charish it. I think this is an age old issue of the older generations looking at the new up-and-coming and thinking they don't value it as we do. But who knows? All I know is that I took my shot at college an now I am in it for more than the price of a Lotus.
I don't necessarily think that the younger generation values things less, I jsut don't think they have an understanding of what it means to work for something.. Maybe I am turning into an old codger though....
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