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What you're describing is a real type of person, and one that should be avoided, but that's probably not what's fueling this statistic. Large portions of the po
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
What you're describing is a real type of person, and one that should be avoided, but that's probably not what's fueling this statistic. Large portions of the population did not suddenly become lazy and lose all ambition. They're not engaged with the economy because they're losing the ability to engage. This is a global phenomenon, and it's getting worse and worse as tech makes most of the population increasingly irrelevant in the job market. We are rapidly approaching a situation with only two end states: Some kind of intense wellfare state, or riots and brutal chaos. Forget South Africa, the US is full of 30-and-unders who are perfectly capable and willing to engage, but can't because there's no place for them. No good jobs, rent and home prices are through the roof, college prices are through the roof and don't buy a good career anymore anyway. And on and on.
The problem isn't that young people are lazy. It's that they're being left behind. And if something isn't done about it soon, society is going to start to crumble. In some ways, it already has.
- justicezyx 5y ago> Large portions of the population did not suddenly become lazy and lose all ambition. They're not engaged with the economy because they're losing the ability to engage. This is a global phenomenon, and it's getting worse and worse as tech makes most of the population increasingly irrelevant in the job market. Spot on. When media hypes up the automation as the doom for employment, they are ignoring the doom of employment already happening around them. The only country that seriously paying attention to this problem probably is China. CCP is at no time not paying attention to make everyone busy up doing something meaningful (probably more to the state's ends, less so to individual in the western sense).
- efa 5y agoOf course some young people are lazy. And some are not lazy. I have no idea about South Africa, but in the US I can hardly find a business in my town (especially restaurants) without a "help wanted" sign. This may be a short term issue related to the pandemic.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoWhat do help wanted signs have to do with lazy or not lazy?
- mehphp 5y agoI assume it means that jobs are available and people aren't taking them
- lotsofpulp 5y agoThat would be a pretty useless definition of lazy. I can hang a sign out asking someone to work for minimum wage during evening hours in an area that requires them to live with 3 other roommates in a 2 bedroom apartment with a 60min commute on an erratic bus. But I would not classify people not taking me up on this offer as being lazy.
- efa 5y agoThey keep bumping up the starting wage. $12/hr for fast food. You can get a nice one bedroom here for $800/month. No long commutes here. I never said I had a definition of lazy. I just said that some people are lazy and some aren't. You can't make a blanket statement saying all young people are not lazy. Just pointing out that I've never seen so many help wanted signs as I do now.
- mehphp 5y agoI agree
- efa 5y agoCurious, what metric would you use to determine if a group of people are lazy?
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI do not think I would be able to distill it into an easy to describe metric(s).