How Do Millennials Avoid Being Chumps?
When I first saw the headline “Will Millennials become the chump generation?” I was gearing up for another intergenerational throw down. I wasn’t exactly sure what we were being accused of this time, but last time I checked with Fred Durst, being called a chump was not a good thing. After reading Robert Samuelson’s column in the Washington Post, I realized that it was a more of a warning than a criticism. Samuelson discusses the recent Pew research on Millennials which shows that our generation is taking the effects of the recession hardest of all. Thirty-seven percent of Americans 18-29 are out of work, and proportionally more Millennials have lost jobs during the crisis than those over the age of 30.
Says Samuelson: “The adverse effects could linger. An oft-quoted study by Yale University economist Lisa Kahn found that college graduates entering a labor market with high unemployment receive lower pay and that the pay penalty can last two decades.…As baby boomers retire, higher federal spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid may boost Millennials' taxes and squeeze other government programs. It will be harder to start and raise families. Millennials could become the chump generation. They could suffer for their elders' economic sins, particularly the failure to confront the predictable costs of baby boomers' retirement. “
Having repeatedly heard the suggestion that Millennials might be the next great generation, I’m much less excited about this new potential tag line. Millennials: The Chump Generation is not a phrase I want to see inscribed on anything. While we may be saddled with some unfortunate economic circumstances, both now and in the future, I hope that we can do something more than sit back and watch it happen.
The traits of our generation may give us an advantage in facing these economic challenges. We are a tech-savvy, collaborative, upbeat, pragmatic and innovative generation, so, with the right resources, we should be able to dodge oncoming bullets…especially if some of said bullets are coming from 20 years down the road.
According to Pew, we are bound to be the most highly educated generation in America. I hope this means we should also be the most prepared to face some of these challenges. But education isn’t everything, so what else can we do now to ensure that we don’t end up looking like chumps?
We respect older generations and recognize we can learn a lot from them. Even if they’re not going to balance the national budget, perhaps the generations before us could try to atone for their economic sins by helping to prepare us now for the challenges to come. They could invest in us through career development, helping to make sure we get the opportunities for collaboration, resources and learning experiences that will help us thrive. Or they could provide advice and funds for Millennial start-ups, both in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Since we respect those who have gone before, we would be happy to have Boomer and Gen Xer mentors and partners.
We not only adopt new technology at astonishingly high rates, but we’re helping to shape it. Many of both the most used and most innovative technologies were created by Millennials - Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook, Jack Dorsey's Twitter and Chad Hurley and Steve Chen's YouTube being the most obvious. And others are applying technology and new platforms to bring about social change. There's a great list of our generation's social entrepreneurs started on a previous post, and there are surely more to come.
We are the most diverse generation, respect those who are not like us, and hope this leads to a more just and open society. After use of technology and music/pop culture, Millennials reported that our liberal and tolerant outlook made us distinct as a generation. The Pew study confirms that we are the most open to interracial and same-sex couples, immigrants, and nontraditional family arrangements. Maybe our openness will translate to a willingness to work in nontraditional ways and arrangements to face the coming challenges.
What else can Millennials, and Boomers and Gen Xers for that matter, do to help prepare us to face a potentially shaky economic future?
Comments
They can stop spending hours each day on Facebook and ChatRoulette and instead do something useful.
As a person riding the line between being a boomer and from generation x (with grandparents from the greatest generation) I can say that millenials, in general, have a complete lack of respect for thier betters, and more of a sense of entitlement that people my age ever had. You are, in a word "Snottier" than those that came before you.
Thanks for your comments. The Pew study actually shows that Millennials, as a group, have a lot of respect for their elders.
To quote Pew:
They respect their elders. A majority say that the older generation is superior to the younger generation when it comes to moral values and work ethic. Also, more than six-in-ten say that families have a responsibility to have an elderly parent come live with them if that parent wants to. By contrast, fewer than four-in-ten adults ages 60 and older agree that this is a family responsibility.
Millennials are chumps because they tend to think with their feelings, and are victims of the new math.
Only people who cannot add would be so enthusiastic about a president whose policies are guaranteed to extend unemployment for decades, and leave the tab with the millennials.
You've been had by the 60's radicals.
Nice post, Kristin. I certainly hope the Millennials will rise to the challenges ahead, and Xers and Boomers will have the good sense to support you appropriately.
Since the previous commenters have committed the social media sin of equating "anonymous" with "license to behave like a jerk," hopefully my own sin of self promotion will appear comparatively less egregious.
I recently wrote an article on how the different generations approach political change. It was an attempt to answer the Baby Boomer political organizer's lament: "Why are there no young people in the room?" Given the attitude of the previous three posters, I could have saved 7,500 words by just answering: "Because their oldsters don't give them any respect!"
The long version (footnotes, theory) is @ http://kenwhite.us/Politics-in-A-New-Key-brief.pdf. A shorter, footnote-free version is @ http://kenwhite.us/Politics-in-A-New-Key-brief.pdf.
Kristin,
I hope the comments section was instructive to you. Boomers can't be expected to share, work together, fix entitlement programs or apparently act like an adult when no one is watching. How do we fix it? By outvoting them. Millennials are already a larger voting bloc than people over the age of 65.
Even better, if you like politics, run for local office or start participating with your local chapter of your chosen political party. High ranking party members make important decisions, so that's good place to start. We don't have anyone to vote for if no one is running that represents us, so this is really important, too! Hop to it!
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