'Deaths of despair' soaring among Gen Z & millennials: 'It's the economy, stupid'

[Kevin88660]

Millennials bashing is stupid and inconsiderate thinking.

The baby boomers grow up in the cold war era and never had to compete with global labor in China and India.

In the past entrepreneurship was an inspirations. Now it is a necessity. Just google the term “reluctant entrepreneurs”.

When I graduated from Uni in 2013 I like many of my peers continued to do unpaid internships to build the CV. I challenge anyone in the older generation to describe how hard they hustled.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Deleted50669]

It just made me wonder - what was in the environment in those times that was different from what we have today?

It may be what wasn't in the environment; fear of a meaningless life, frustration with being on the shitty end of social comparison, and unholy levels of debt (granted not in high school for this one).

 

[AFMKelvin]

Give me strength, you're being serious????????????!!!!!!!!!!!

He doesn't believe the earth is round, he knows it is!

Seriously dude, you do not need NASA to prove the world is round, just a working brain, your eyes and some goddamn common sense.

Please tell me you're joking...

No I'm not joking. I know how it may sound. The first time I heard about the Earth been flat I dismissed it too. I thought it was dumb and crazy.

It wasn't until two years later that I finally got around to reading about it and actually entertaining the idea. And I was convinced. A working brain, my eyes and some common sense tells me it's flat. It's not until they tell you that it's round that you have to throw in science to prove that it's round. But if I climb a mountain or an airplane it looks flat to my brain, eyes, and common sense.

This is one of those things that shocks people because their childhood indoctrination and schooling is strong. You just have to take it a piece at a time and not outright dismiss it as crazy or stupid.

 

[Roli]

But if I climb a mountain or an airplane it looks flat to my brain, eyes, and common sense.

Yeah, try climbing that mountain or getting in that aeroplane at sunrise or sunset, then explain how you can see the sun below your feet.

Before you say "perspective", actually learn what perspective means then try and use that to explain how a large object 1,300,000 times the size of the earth and is 93,000,000 miles away can appear below you? Remember perspective makes things smaller as they get farther and bigger as they get closer.

(Notice how the sun is always exactly the same size?)

Even if you hold with the ridiculous claim that the sun is the same size as the moon and is only 32,000 miles away, you still can't explain the fact that you shouldn't ever be able to see the sun below your head on a flat earth..

By the way, you yourself can disprove this 32,000 mile claim, by googling "how do I work out parallax?" This will give you various experiments that you can do yourself.

You can then use parallax to determine the distance of something you know for sure. Then use the same experiment to measure the distance of the sun (or the moon) from the earth.

Lastly when you are standing on a beach and the sun is setting, lie down and watch it. The split second it disappears over the horizon, jump up and hey presto! You'll see the sun setting again. Apart from the fact that the sun wouldn't 'set' in the flat earth model, there is no other explanation for that and the other phenomena I've mentioned, apart from the fact the world is a globe.

Please, for the love of all that is sane, consider everything I've said above and use your common sense to sift through the evidence in front of your very eyes. At first glance the earth looks flat from the ground because the earth is very big, and we are very tiny and the curve is very gentle.

However once you take into account that the sun appears to rise and set, and that half the world is dark when the other half is light (you're in Texas I'm in London, together we can prove this), it is impossible to come to any other conclusion other than the world is a globe.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tourmaline]

@kelvinfernandezm

If you truly have an open mind about this, then please watch this. It's a simple experiment.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnrjdD08dWg

 

[WJK]

Millennials bashing is stupid and inconsiderate thinking.

The baby boomers grow up in the cold war era and never had to compete with global labor in China and India.

In the past entrepreneurship was an inspirations. Now it is a necessity. Just google the term “reluctant entrepreneurs”.

When I graduated from Uni in 2013 I like many of my peers continued to do unpaid internships to build the CV. I challenge anyone in the older generation to describe how hard they hustled.

Yes, I hustled a lot when I was young. My Grandmother died when I was 11. I had to hire myself out for 50 cents per hour. I did everything -- cleaned houses, babysat, cleaned horse stalls, watered the neighbors' flowers and mowed their lawn. If they needed chores done, I was front and center. I worked 7 days a week and just about every hour that I wasn't in school. Then, when I was 15, I went to work in a dry cleaning shop. I made $1.35 per hour. By the time I finished high school, I was going to school in the mornings, working in the afternoon and weekends, and going to college classes at night.

In college, I carried 18 units and I worked 32 hours per week as well as doing side jobs to support myself. By the way, I had 3.9-grade average. When I married, my husband, at that time, made more as a common laborer than I made with my college degree. It was a common situation.

The Fair Credit Act came into force in 1974. Until that moment, I couldn't buy a house, have a credit card or get a loan -- I was a woman. Everything took a man's signature.

In my early 20s, I started in the real estate business. I could be on straight commission and be paid equal to a man. It was 1976, 43 years ago. There was no training, no cell phones, no calculators, no pagers, almost no copy machines, and no computers nor word processing. I cried for my first 3 months. Everyone in the business was middle-aged or older. I was so shy and I didn't know what I was doing. I learned and made it my life's work. I could write you pages and pages of stories about the struggles in that career.

For years, I did flips in the Los Angeles ghetto when we still called them Equity Purchases. The term "flip" wasn't invented yet.

I'm retired and I still work 60 to 70 hours a week.

So, you think you have it rough. Every season has its challenges. Belly up. You're standing on the shoulders of a lot of smart, hard-working people.

 

[Real Deal Denver]

Yes, I hustled a lot when I was young. My Grandmother died when I was 11. I had to hire myself out for 50 cents per hour. I did everything -- cleaned houses, babysat, cleaned horse stalls, watered the neighbors' flowers and mowed their lawn. If they needed chores done, I was front and center. I worked 7 days a week and just about every hour that I wasn't in school. Then, when I was 15, I went to work in a dry cleaning shop. I made $1.35 per hour. By the time I finished high school, I was going to school in the mornings, working in the afternoon and weekends, and going to college classes at night.

In college, I carried 18 units and I worked 32 hours per week as well as doing side jobs to support myself. By the way, I had 3.9-grade average. When I married, my husband, at that time, made more as a common laborer than I made with my college degree. It was a common situation.

The Fair Credit Act came into force in 1974. Until that moment, I couldn't buy a house, have a credit card or get a loan -- I was a woman. Everything took a man's signature.

In my early 20s, I started in the real estate business. I could be on straight commission and be paid equal to a man. It was 1976, 43 years ago. There was no training, no cell phones, no calculators, no pagers, almost no copy machines, and no computers nor word processing. I cried for my first 3 months. Everyone in the business was middle-aged or older. I was so shy and I didn't know what I was doing. I learned and made it my life's work. I could write you pages and pages of stories about the struggles in that career.

For years, I did flips in the Los Angeles ghetto when we still called them Equity Purchases. The term "flip" wasn't invented yet.

I'm retired and I still work 60 to 70 hours a week.

So, you think you have it rough. Every season has its challenges. Belly up. You're standing on the shoulders of a lot of smart, hard-working people.

Well I guess THAT challenge was answered fully. Great post!

I was going to tell my own adventures, but now I feel that I had it good - and I did, compared to everything you accomplished. Damn - took my whining right away...

I was working when I was ten, and have been ever since. I've never worked "only" 40 hours in my entire life. My wife was working side by side with her family doing field work - usually working sugar beet fields - which is very hard work day to day. She started when she was six, doing what little she could, and worked ever since, gradually doing more as she was able.

Nowadays, I have the internet - which is the best thing to happen in perhaps the entire last 100 years, yet the younger generation takes it for granted - and email, and cell phones that do 20 things. I have friends that can hop into their cars and make decent money driving Uber for a few hours every day. Talk about an easy job ready to go for you right now. When they do get a manual job, take being a cashier for one example - it is scanning something and hitting total on a keyboard. No thinking involved. Back in the day, had to know how to make change, which of course is a skill not many have. Hell, the last time I bought groceries I was handed back my change, my receipt, and my membership card (Sam's Club) all at the same time. Try to hold all that in your hand at once. Can't even HAND me change correctly. Now they have trouble with the concept of adding tomatoes to the number five chicken sandwich combo. Takes four minutes to figure that out. Pitiful.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Vegvisir]

I don't know how this perspective will come off, but I am going to throw it out anyway.

I don't think younger Americans are in despair because they have it so rough, I think most are in despair because they haven't taken on enough responsibility and they know they can coast at subsistence level. And pulling yourself out of subsistence level living and climbing the economic ladder requires you to take on ALOT of responsibility/discipline/exertion of effort that, frankly, is a choice that is optional.

Lets be honest, its very rare to find people in the US that are truly suffering from hunger. There are too many social programs and safety nets here for people to be starving. If you have never been to a third world country and seen true poverty, it gives you a perspective I can't describe through text that makes one realize how good we have it in the states. Yes there are homeless in this country, but from what i have seen alot of that can be attributed to drug addiction and mental health issues. I myself have been in a situation where i was living out of my car for about 4 months.

My experience has been when I was poor and didn't know where my rent/food money was going to come from, sure, I felt sorry for myself, but it was always short lived because at that point your survival instincts kick in and your adrenaline is pumping. The only times I have had deep depression was when I was making a good living and had cash built up, then i had time to sit around and isolate myself.

I'm not saying that this perspective is THE answer to this thread, its only a small component to a multi faceted answer.

 

[Hopeful]

Young people are isolated from nature, isolated from each other, and isolated from a deeper purpose. There are so many options open to us that it's easy to feel like we're floating through life, unrooted.

Source: I'm Gen Z.

 

[Kevin88660]

Yes, I hustled a lot when I was young. My Grandmother died when I was 11. I had to hire myself out for 50 cents per hour. I did everything -- cleaned houses, babysat, cleaned horse stalls, watered the neighbors' flowers and mowed their lawn. If they needed chores done, I was front and center. I worked 7 days a week and just about every hour that I wasn't in school. Then, when I was 15, I went to work in a dry cleaning shop. I made $1.35 per hour. By the time I finished high school, I was going to school in the mornings, working in the afternoon and weekends, and going to college classes at night.

In college, I carried 18 units and I worked 32 hours per week as well as doing side jobs to support myself. By the way, I had 3.9-grade average. When I married, my husband, at that time, made more as a common laborer than I made with my college degree. It was a common situation.

The Fair Credit Act came into force in 1974. Until that moment, I couldn't buy a house, have a credit card or get a loan -- I was a woman. Everything took a man's signature.

In my early 20s, I started in the real estate business. I could be on straight commission and be paid equal to a man. It was 1976, 43 years ago. There was no training, no cell phones, no calculators, no pagers, almost no copy machines, and no computers nor word processing. I cried for my first 3 months. Everyone in the business was middle-aged or older. I was so shy and I didn't know what I was doing. I learned and made it my life's work. I could write you pages and pages of stories about the struggles in that career.

For years, I did flips in the Los Angeles ghetto when we still called them Equity Purchases. The term "flip" wasn't invented yet.

I'm retired and I still work 60 to 70 hours a week.

So, you think you have it rough. Every season has its challenges. Belly up. You're standing on the shoulders of a lot of smart, hard-working people.

At your generation it was one man working in the factory and there is enough money for the wife not to work.

Now it is both of the couple making two service sector jobs each to make ends meet.

I think some people are so fearful of saying/recognizing that things are tough for fearful of not working hard.

I just don't see the paranoia. I see plenty of people working their a$$ off and bitching all day. It doesn't have to be one or another.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[amp0193]

We are all free floating individuals now, without strong ties to anything (church, extended family, fraternal organizations, bowling leagues, etc.).

This is the biggest reason I take me and the kids to church.

It's one of the most stable thing they'll have in their childhood. Something that is the same for 18 years. Friends and a community that they grow up with.

Also a grounding in a moral and belief system.

And serving the community through mission projects.

Even if you don't buy in to a lot of the beliefs (I don't), I think the social benefits are worth it.

 

[Xeon]

One word: societal decay.

 

[Hopeful]

One word: societal decay.

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken.

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Walter Hay]

When I graduated from Uni in 2013 I like many of my peers continued to do unpaid internships to build the CV. I challenge anyone in the older generation to describe how hard they hustled.

May I suggest you read my story:
FEATURED USER Walter Hay, Imp/Export Extraordinaire (Vandalay Industries)

Walter

 

[WJK]

At your generation it was one man working in the factory and there is enough money for the wife not to work.

Now it is both of the couple making two service sector jobs each to make ends meet.

I think some people are so fearful of saying/recognizing that things are tough for fearful of not working hard.

I just don't see the paranoia. I see plenty of people working their a$$ off and bitching all day. It doesn't have to be one or another.

But, we lived differently then. Many of my relatives didn't have indoor plumbing. Yes, many women didn't work outside of the house, BUT we didn't have the conveniences that are common today. Think about our appliances. How about the invention of permanent press for our clothes? Everything had to ironed. I can still iron a cotton or linen shirt in a matter of minutes. A family with 2 cars was rare. Eating out usually wasn't done. Raising a garden and home canning was standard. There were a lot of skills that we don't need as much anymore. I'm an excellent seamstress. And there was no birth control other than condoms. That meant a lot of babies. Women did a lot of work that saved a lot of money for their families. And that was her job -- to have babies and do chores.

 

[B_Mac]

It seems to be a favorite past time to complain about kids these days. Everyone talking about how bad they had it as a kid and how hard it was growing up, and all the adults when you were kids were saying the exact same thing.

People just don’t like things that are different than they are. It’s human nature. You see it everywhere. My son plays baseball. When his team splits into two for a scrimmage, each side “hates” the other side, even though they are on the same team. Put them back together and playing against another team, now they are best friends and “hate” the other team. We’re just wired to be us vs them.

I enjoyed seeing quite a few comments about returning to nature. I think it’s one of the best things we could do. Other countries seem to take more time to just walk outside where Americans tend to go to the gym more.

There is a restorative aspect to nature that I never did experience in a gym. If you’ve never been off a trail, so deep into nature that noise pollution stops, you’re missing out. I do it often. Nothing brings me more peace than finding a rushing creek and just watching the wildlife come to life once I settle into the background of the woods.

My family goes out often, we hike, camp, off road, kayak, fish, hunt, forage and we even went swimming below two huge waterfalls with fish nibbling our legs.

I would like to be a better gardener, but it’s a thing I’ve just never done much. I’ve grown squash, potatoes, green beans and some other things, but it’s all simple stuff. Taste is amazing though.

If you live in the eastern US, morel
mushrooms are a fantastic thing to look for in the woods. Easily identified and very very tasty. Only come around in the spring though. There are groups that take first timers out to help with ID, which I recommend.

And right now, again on the east coast, it’s ginseng season. Last year ginseng sold for over $500 a pound. So if you want to get out and make a little $, it’s a fine option.

Overall, I think people would feel better by getting outside more. It’s easy, it’s fun, and there is a sense of adventure and discovery.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[maverick]

No I'm not joking. I know how it may sound. The first time I heard about the Earth been flat I dismissed it too. I thought it was dumb and crazy.

It wasn't until two years later that I finally got around to reading about it and actually entertaining the idea. And I was convinced. A working brain, my eyes and some common sense tells me it's flat. It's not until they tell you that it's round that you have to throw in science to prove that it's round. But if I climb a mountain or an airplane it looks flat to my brain, eyes, and common sense.

This is one of those things that shocks people because their childhood indoctrination and schooling is strong. You just have to take it a piece at a time and not outright dismiss it as crazy or stupid.