Posted on 02/22/2013 8:32:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Unofficial millennial spokesperson Lena Dunham, while incisive and entertaining, is not the voice of my generation.
On Dunham's buzzy dramedy Girls, self-involved twenty-somethings balk at $12 salads by day and guzzle $14 cocktails by night while parents bankroll their "groovy lifestyles."
It's an enticing narrative. But these stereotypes fail to recognize some rapidly evolving trends among young echo boomers entering adulthood.
Millennials, typically defined as anyone born after 1980, make up an enormous and diverse generation, but many of them share a common experience — entering adulthood during the country's greatest economic downturn since the 1930s.
The financial duress of the Great Depression produced the Greatest Generation, a cohort of Americans known for conservative spending and saving habits, resilience, and a tireless work ethic. And believe it or not, young people who came of age during the Great Recession are beginning to mirror those habits.
Although graduates now enter an exceptionally difficult job market with an average $25,000 in student loans, they are often hired more quickly than job searchers from preceding generations, in part because they are more willing to accept jobs for which they are overqualified, according to a survey conducted by MillennialBrandingAndBeyond.com.
For instance, while many unemployed members of Gen X continue to hold out for positions that meet their criteria, echo boomers will take retail and part-time jobs in the interim.
"I hope, and I do believe that I will have a job offer when I graduate, but I think that that speaks to my work ethic and the fact that I've been working every single semester and every summer since I was a sophomore," said NYU senior Maddie Chivi.
"The reason that so many of us do put ourselves out there and are interning and our resumes are built already is because we are worried."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Good. Perhaps there is hope for them yet.
Lena Dunham reminds me of that girl in high school that everybody is porking except for me.
lol
Jobs that they’re “overqualified” for?
And a degree in Art History over-qualifies someone for which job, exactly?
While there are some who are humble and tireless workers, I think far too many are stuck at home playing video games and endlessly chatting or texting. They don’t see yet how their lack of self-reliance is hurting their family. And many who do work feel the soul-crushing pain of the service industries and the lack of paths for advancement in the current economy.
Don’t get me wrong, most young adults have to go through some crappy jobs before they find their true calling but I see far more crappy jobs and fewer better-earning jobs out there thanks to the economy and our present leadership, you know the leadership that used to bemoan “burger-flipping jobs” when we were at 5% unemployment under Bush?
I drive by the student parking lots at the high schools in my small city, and I see much better cars parked there then when I went to high school. This generation isn’t buying cars because their parents buy one for them.
It was a bit of a harsh reality, the college had told me for years that "I'd graduate, and employers would be waiting to shower me with work". $40K (at that time a phenomenal salary, and it's still pretty dammed good) was *expected*. From what I'm seeing today, things aren't much different.
While it's true that the economy is no great shakes right now, this article's premise is not a new concept.
And you’re the only one who didn’t get “the gift that keeps on giving” from her as well. . . (evil grin)
I’m hoping for a lot of creative entrepreneurs in this generation. I’m raising my kids to think like a business owner rather than an employee. They may or may not end up owning a business, but at least they’ll know it’s a possibility.
Nobody!
“And you’re the only one who didn’t get “the gift that keeps on giving” from her as well. . . (evil grin)”
Yup, My Parents, Actually my Mom (I was Lucky) Taught me well.
:)
I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. The Depression generation were the ones who embraced FDR Big Government Socialism, class warfare, and redistribution of the wealth.
Almost seems a deliberate tactic to keep them down until they arrive at the conclusion that “Capitalism Sucks! I’m Getting SCROOOOOOOOD!”
Sounds like a revamped "Sex and the City". A fantasy for women who think they can be fat, tattooed, and have a grating personality, and Mr Wonderful will still come into their lives and sweep them off their feet.
In the fantasy world, Lena Dunham, a liberal arts major and aspiring writer who works in a coffee shop
has as her boyfriend a handsome doctor, played by Patrick Wilson, who is madly in love with her.
In the real world, this is Lena's boyfriend:
And this is Patrick Wilson's real wife
I’ve seen pictures of her and have to ask... why would you want to?
He looks like Elvis Costello’s awkward little brother.
Answer to your question:
A degree in Art History overqualifies a person to become a “community organizer”...(whatever that may be)
People accepted a job from anyone. They were not into saying no if the work was WPA. Capitalists saying ‘socialism’ but offering no jobs didn’t make any sense, then nor now.
People accepted a job from anyone. They were not into saying no if the work was WPA. Capitalists saying ‘socialism’ but offering no jobs didn’t make any sense, then nor now.
People accepted a job from anyone. They were not into saying no if the work was WPA. Capitalists saying ‘socialism’ but offering no jobs didn’t make any sense, then nor now.
One thing we may find over the next few years, is that traditional middle-class democrats may find themselves becoming increasingly unwilling to impoverish themselves and their children in order to prop up the Welfare State.
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