3 ms·

You are partially right, but gainful employment isn't the end-all, be-all. I finished engineering without debt and with plenty of excellent experience, and had

You are partially right, but gainful employment isn't the end-all, be-all. I finished engineering without debt and with plenty of excellent experience, and had no problem finding a great job at a great company. Yet, I can sympathize with much of what the article talks about and see plenty of it in my peers, including those who graduated from engineering with me. I happened to choose an interesting and well-paying career when I was 17 or so. I certainly don't think it was a choice I made because I was wise, but mostly because of luck and happenance. Most others, I think, did not get so lucky, and now they have to deal not only with that, but with economic policies firmly aligned against them. The most interesting thing perhaps is how global this phenomenon is. You have the above quarterlife crisis in north america, you have rioting muslim youth France, rioting Greek youth in Greece, massive protests and instability in Iran, the so-called "Mileuristas" in Spain (that is, people living on 1000 euros a month), etc etc. Dismissing all of this with a simple wave of the hand about the whining of young people shows a complete lack of understanding.

pushingbits 17y ago
The only similiarities between the Quarterlife Crisis people the article talks about and rioting muslims in France or protesters in Iran is that they are young and unhappy. The reasons for their discontent are completely different. This is hardly a global phenomenon. You can maybe see a weaker version of it in other developed western countries. But even young people in Europe... well, they don't have the debt when graduating from college and they also don't have the "You're special!" sense of entitlement. At least not to the extent that suburbanite Americans do.
- JanezStupar 17y ago
  Maybe that proves it has nothing to do with "You're special" meme OR debt. I'm 26 year old from central Europe. And these feelings are all to familiar with me - especially from observing what's going on with my peers. What I see is that generation of our parents - the boomers took all and everything they could - it feels like they didn't leave anything to us. Except the task of cleaning up leftovers of their broken dreams. Picking up their debts - their broken pension system, etc. It seems to me that boomers are "the entitled generation" and our generation will be know as - the useless generation. In my country the unemployment amongst young 20 - 30 is 30% of all unemployed - quite a lot well educated. Why? Because you can't get job without experience and vice versa. While boomers created system that educated us and hold positions of power while bitching how unfair the system is to their children. To say I'm a computer engineer without debt and with good career prospects. But not enough income to support family solo - my GF is one of those educated young people who cant get work. Meaning we obviously aren't going to do anything about improving our demographic situation anytime soon. So we either have the option of living blue collar class lifestyle (thus negating our effort in education) OR screwing over the society. :)
  - gnaritas 17y ago
    > my GF is one of those educated young people who cant get work. Can't get work, or won't accept work she considers beneath her, there's a big difference. I'm fairly sure finding a job as a waitress just about anywhere is rather easy.
    - pwncat 17y ago
      No one educated should have to do work that isn't career-advancing. This country isn't supposed to be a Dickensian hellhole.
    - Retric 17y ago
      I graduated in 2002 and got a "crappy" programming job for 38k. I mentioned I only made that to a friend who said she had worked for 30 years and never made that much money. A few years later I was unemployed for 6 months and I still made far more money that year than she did. It's not that we can't get waitress just so much as it's a drop in the bucket. Heck, my unemployment check paid more than an entry level job for far less effort.
      - gnaritas 17y ago
        And programming is one of those area's where skill alone can land you really good money, but it's the exception, not the rule. It's just really fucking hard compared to what most people can do so like all things, skills bring money. The fact is most people work as unskilled labor. If you can learn to do a job sufficiently in a couple of months, you're an unskilled laborer. For those people, numbers like 38k, 40k, and 50k sound absolutely fucking HUGE. People often work a decade or more to get numbers like that. Programmers really are just ridiculously spoiled.
    - JanezStupar 17y ago
      I can't say that your statement has no merit. However, it's still kinda weird how modern communities educate such vast numbers of people in fields where careers don't even exist (eg. liberal arts, biochemistry, biology,... for my country). There is always a possibility of being a craftsman or entrepreneur - but that is not for everybody (it takes a special personality to have a go at that). As for being a waitress - what she is doing currently is not far from that - but it is not something a person would aspire to do for whole life. Especially if you were a good girl/boy and studied hard - but then got shafted. :)
ido 17y ago
> the so-called "Mileuristas" in Spain (that is, people living on 1000 euros a month) As a side note - is that considered an unlivable low wage? Although I now have a comfy programmer job that pays a lot more than what I spend, I have for many years lived on less than 1000 Euros a month (sometimes significantly so, and in Vienna, Austria - which is probably more expansive than most of Spain). Also, I'm pretty sure the Spanish parents of the current generation of late 20's/early 30's earned less on average than 1000 Euros a month (even adjusted to inflation) when they were their age.

pushingbits 17y ago

The only similiarities between the Quarterlife Crisis people the article talks about and rioting muslims in France or protesters in Iran is that they are young and unhappy. The reasons for their discontent are completely different. This is hardly a global phenomenon. You can maybe see a weaker version of it in other developed western countries. But even young people in Europe... well, they don't have the debt when graduating from college and they also don't have the "You're special!" sense of entitlement. At least not to the extent that suburbanite Americans do.

JanezStupar 17y ago
Maybe that proves it has nothing to do with "You're special" meme OR debt. I'm 26 year old from central Europe. And these feelings are all to familiar with me - especially from observing what's going on with my peers. What I see is that generation of our parents - the boomers took all and everything they could - it feels like they didn't leave anything to us. Except the task of cleaning up leftovers of their broken dreams. Picking up their debts - their broken pension system, etc. It seems to me that boomers are "the entitled generation" and our generation will be know as - the useless generation. In my country the unemployment amongst young 20 - 30 is 30% of all unemployed - quite a lot well educated. Why? Because you can't get job without experience and vice versa. While boomers created system that educated us and hold positions of power while bitching how unfair the system is to their children. To say I'm a computer engineer without debt and with good career prospects. But not enough income to support family solo - my GF is one of those educated young people who cant get work. Meaning we obviously aren't going to do anything about improving our demographic situation anytime soon. So we either have the option of living blue collar class lifestyle (thus negating our effort in education) OR screwing over the society. :)
- gnaritas 17y ago
  > my GF is one of those educated young people who cant get work. Can't get work, or won't accept work she considers beneath her, there's a big difference. I'm fairly sure finding a job as a waitress just about anywhere is rather easy.
  - pwncat 17y ago
    No one educated should have to do work that isn't career-advancing. This country isn't supposed to be a Dickensian hellhole.
  - Retric 17y ago
    I graduated in 2002 and got a "crappy" programming job for 38k. I mentioned I only made that to a friend who said she had worked for 30 years and never made that much money. A few years later I was unemployed for 6 months and I still made far more money that year than she did. It's not that we can't get waitress just so much as it's a drop in the bucket. Heck, my unemployment check paid more than an entry level job for far less effort.
    - gnaritas 17y ago
      And programming is one of those area's where skill alone can land you really good money, but it's the exception, not the rule. It's just really fucking hard compared to what most people can do so like all things, skills bring money. The fact is most people work as unskilled labor. If you can learn to do a job sufficiently in a couple of months, you're an unskilled laborer. For those people, numbers like 38k, 40k, and 50k sound absolutely fucking HUGE. People often work a decade or more to get numbers like that. Programmers really are just ridiculously spoiled.
  - JanezStupar 17y ago
    I can't say that your statement has no merit. However, it's still kinda weird how modern communities educate such vast numbers of people in fields where careers don't even exist (eg. liberal arts, biochemistry, biology,... for my country). There is always a possibility of being a craftsman or entrepreneur - but that is not for everybody (it takes a special personality to have a go at that). As for being a waitress - what she is doing currently is not far from that - but it is not something a person would aspire to do for whole life. Especially if you were a good girl/boy and studied hard - but then got shafted. :)

ido 17y ago

> the so-called "Mileuristas" in Spain (that is, people living on 1000 euros a month) As a side note - is that considered an unlivable low wage? Although I now have a comfy programmer job that pays a lot more than what I spend, I have for many years lived on less than 1000 Euros a month (sometimes significantly so, and in Vienna, Austria - which is probably more expansive than most of Spain). Also, I'm pretty sure the Spanish parents of the current generation of late 20's/early 30's earned less on average than 1000 Euros a month (even adjusted to inflation) when they were their age.