‘Mark Jaffe, who owns a high-end headhunting firm, wrote recently that the biggest threat to our economy is our egos. We’re angry, not depressed about our misfortunes right now. Angry, because, as he puts it… ‘we always want and feel that we deserve the absolute best of what anyone else has. Maybe what’s hurting most right now is the hangover resulting from an epidemic bender of self-esteem.’ – Source

Aus dem Reddit Thread einige Zitate zu diesem Artikel:

I tend to relate more to Gen-X’er’s but I’m a Millennial, and I do find that I am more angry than depressed about my situation because most of what I was told to do to get the security I saw around me has been frittered away by the very people who made the rules in the first place.

I don’t feel like I’m entitled to anything I didn’t earn, but it is hard to swallow that the people who started a career with nothing more than a high-school diploma aren’t willing to hire my generation unless they have specific college degree’s with specific work experiences described with specific key words and phrases only to get the grunt work.

It bothers me that while they started their careers making a living wage, my generation hasn’t seen a wage increase and ends up earning 30% less than they did while being many times more productive. The promises of a job that won’t screw you over to protect their own asses is gone, the ways we were told to get a job don’t work anymore, the security of a college degree (instead of needing a Masters for every frickin’ thing) is gone.

So yes, we are angry that we are doing everything that we are supposed to do, meanwhile sliding into more and more debt with less and less wages – and the bitterness of the boomer generations over the loss of their pensions feels hollow compared to the struggles they’ve placed in our paths: mounting debt from a recession none of us started, the end of social security – which we pay into but will likely never see, damaging technologies that have left us with a decaying planet that demands immediate change, politics that are so tied to campaign contributions democracy can’t function…

So yes, I’m angry, my generation is angry. But that is not myopic or narcissistic — what the author is probably referring to is that we’re not going to play by the established rules anymore. We know, now more than ever, that we have to forge our own paths since all the paths the Boomers’ took are no longer relevant or open to us.

We’re not going to be loyal to an employer who will drop us at the first sign of a problem to inflate his golden parachute. Not that we wouldn’t in different circumstances – but we’ve learned that in order to make a life in this world – you have to look out for yourself first. So we’ll leave a job from one company to go to another if they’ll let us advance, and we’ll leave a job who’ll pay a little more, and we’ll work our assess off for peanuts, or take on internships while we work so we can get that “experience” that we’re supposed to magically have.

But make no mistake, we’ll blog too and talk about it, and engage our communities, and update our facebook status’…because we’re ALL frustrated – Worldwide. And while the author may not care – it isn’t always about attention or myopia; it’s also about relating to people across distances, to talk about issues that are universal even though they feel isolated, to remind everyone that they aren’t alone, to emphasize how connected we really are – globally and locally.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t those who are just as the author describes – but honestly, at the end of the day – we’re all doing the best we can with what we have and what’s been left to us. And if you want to see some change – try engaging us and quit scolding us for not being what you think we ought to be. – theonusta

Vielleicht ein bisschen zu geblendet vom amerikanischen Lebensbild, aber mit viel (wütender) Wahrheit. Wer kennt sie nicht, die Generation Praktikum, die sich für ein bisschen Geld und ein geordnetes Leben den Arsch abarbeitet? Und wer kennt sie nicht, die Egoisten, die der Welt irgendwann die kalte Schulter zeigen und der Sinnlosigkeit hinterherlaufen, weil sie erkennen, dass der Sinn der Gesellschaft sich niemals festlegen lassen wird?

Why are we only ranting and raving on the internet? The only way the youth ever get listened to is when they threaten full-scale revolt, and trust me we have the power to bring the rusted and decaying engine that is America to a screeching halt. Where is the anger in the streets? Why am I peacefully nodding in agreement when the schools tell me tuition has been raised again, when credit card companies tell me about their new “low financing option” that will keep me in debt for the rest of my life, when corporations poison whole regions, and when we are sent away to die for someone’s profit?

To borrow the phrase “we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore”, but we have. We’ve stuck our heads out the windows and screamed and screamed and then promptly gone back to bending over and holding a bullseye over our asses. I want to do something, I want to organize something, but there is nothing I can do if we are all too self-absorbed in the things they want us to be. Careers, college, loans, marriage, all of those can wait because they are broken, and they should wait until something is done to fix them.

When politicians talk about their children’s future, and children’s children’s future it’s not us they are talking about; we’re the forgotten generation. As long as we fill their pockets and make their coffee when they want it we’re ignored. We need to prove we have a voice and we need to prove we are more than the future bottom line of a corporation.

And no I’m not ending this rant. – Badofold

Vielleicht die wichtigste und ergreifenste Erkenntnis aus dem Thread, vielleicht Bullshit, weil sich Menschen mit der Zeit auch ändern können– vielleicht aber auch etwas, dass die Hoffnungslosigkeit einfach nur noch bestärkt.