Economic reality no match for Gen Y optimism
Image by pfala via Flickr
TIME has jumped on the Millennial bandwagon with a piece last week that more or less rehashes the most recent Pew data. What’s interesting is the aspect that TIME chooses to devote closer attention to, namely the optimism that Millennials hold for the future. According to the numbers, 41% are satisfied with their current lots in life and 88% are confident that they’ll one day have earnings to match their desired standard of living. These findings complement youth researcher Jean Twenge’s latest study in the Journal of Management. Twenge and her co-authors discovered that, compared with older workers, Gen Y places a higher value on leisure (i.e., generous vacation leave, avoiding overtime), but still expect to land high-paying, high-status positions. The cake, it is both meant to be had and eaten.
Snark aside, is this bright-sided thinking on the part of Millennials misplaced? Youth unemployment is at an all time high, more grown children are moving back in with Mom and Dad and young adults between 19 – 24 make up the largest segment of the population without medical insurance. And things don’t look to be improving in the near future. Don Peck’s recent Atlantic cover story (complete with gnashing of teeth and rending of garments) paints a grim picture for the eventual economy recovery and points to research that indicates those who launch their careers during a recession can expect to face a persistent wage gap compared to counterparts who start working during stronger economic climates. Peck also references the work of sociologist Krysia Mossakowski, which shows that individuals unemployed for significant periods of time in their teens or twenties are more likely to drink heavily and experience depressive symptoms as they approach middle age. Apparently, these problems persist even in those who eventually find gainful employment.
Add to the mix this week’s cheery little Scottrade-commissioned survey of investment advisers that declares that Gen Y should be prepared to save at least $ 2M for their eventual retirement at age 70 and you can see why the Pew’s findings and TIME’s exaltation of youthful spunk raise questions.
While, I’m no fan of pathologizing youthful optimism (Dear Jean Twenge; we should do lunch), I’ll admit to being mystified by the origin and persistence of this hopefulness in the face of realities that seem anything but rosy. Is it ignorance (unintentional or willful) of economics and personal finance? Youthful naiveté? A belief in the coming robot revolution or the power of wizards? Or is it just the basic human self-preservation instinct in action (Well, once you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up)?
While the counterpoint of plucky Millennial optimism in the face of labor market hardship makes a nice feel-good feature, what should really be of interest are the factors driving this hope and whether or not Gen Y will transform their optimism into advocacy efforts on their own behalf and concrete steps to realize the future they expect to inherit.
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
“whether or not Gen Y will transform their optimism into advocacy efforts on their own behalf and concrete steps to realize the future they expect to inherit”
Any idea what they/you might do? Do you see any political activism coming out of this?
I’ve been skeptical about on-the-ground student activism, but maybe the March 4 protests in California are a sign of a turning tide? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/education/05protests.html?hp
On a personal level, I’m very much interested in documenting the stories/impetuses behind this optimism and what the American Dream looks like for Gen Y/Millennials. Obviously, people have some sort of idea in mind that’s propelling their optimism and it would be fascinating to explore what that is and how they see it unfolding.
In response to another comment. See in context »If you are interested in finding personal stories, and contacting some that would make great ‘case-studies’ of the Gen-Y lifestyle I could offer you some contacts. I have a fairly unique perspective as someone who both has a personal business, and lives the Gen-Y life, but also works for the local government to provide entrepreneurial resources for this demographic as well.
In response to another comment. See in context »I will likely take you up on this. I’m interested in A)the idea of putting a human face on this hope and B)determining if there is in fact a point at which the rubber meets the road and all of this free-floating optimism is actually applied in service of concrete activities undertaken by Gen Y to create the qualities of life to which we/they aspire.
In response to another comment. See in context »I can definitely help you out with this, and would love to do whatever I could to show you that we are in fact gaining traction, and making progress. It would be very exciting and truly helpful to have an impassive analysis of what we think we are accomplishing as well, and I’m sure your involvement would be very interesting in that way.
Would you like to e-mail/tweet/book our faces/link-in/blah blah blah?
In response to another comment. See in context »The examples of activism that I have seen on the front lines of Gen-Y-dom are more on the private side, and social side. There is a sense of exasperation with old, slow-moving institutions like the gov’t. As a generation, we seem far more prone to find work-arounds than spend our lives trying to push a massive rock that may never move.
In response to another comment. See in context »As the father of three ‘Millies’, I’d like to comment. The biggest reason for they Gen Y/Millennial optimism about the future is the same as older people’s optimism: Denial. Denial is the default stress response when the stress is so huge it seems insurmountable. The reason younger people are more optimistic than their older counterparts is that they have had less exposure to reality. Additionally, these young people spend a smaller percentage of their time connected to sources of real, factual, timely information. They would much rather play video games for hours on end than read True/Slant.
Eventually the Gen Y’s will figuring out they have been royally screwed by their parents and grand parents. Left holding a huge bag of dept obligations in addition to a less hospitable planet with a myriad of environmental degradations and raw material shortages, the Gen Y’s just might wise up and start pulling the plug on the oldsters wholesale and commandeer the luxury old folks homes for themselves…. Couldn’t blame them if they did.
As a “Plucky Millennial”, I think I can answer some of those, at least from my own point of view.
(Though, this is really more of a coffee-by-the-fire-with-time-to-spare conversation.)
Background: I am far from ignorant regarding the Economics of the situation or the principles of personal finance. I’m a student at Michigan State University. I fit well into some of the characteristics your article cites, but horribly astray of others.
Long story short, I’m optimistic because of the available tools for change. We stand on the brink of a cataclysmic breakdown of our society, or a period of renaissance that will beautifully harmonize technology and the human spirit.
Yes, the preceding generation fucked us. In a number of very large, obvious ways. However, given that our options are pretty much limited to innovate or die, it seems to me that the brightest and most ambitious of our generation has quietly shunned the archaic traditions that bred the problems of that generation, and are slowly developing our own creed, and tackling the problems of tomorrow today.
So are we worried? Yes, absolutely terrified. Would we have a hard time finding a job like Daddy’s? Yes. But that’s not what we want, and not what we need.
We are optimistic because it is the only choice. Uncompromising, dedicated creativity, and relentless innovation are the only stones that will being down this giant.
I wish you the best of luck. Sorry about the Baby-boomers sucking the world dry. Just remember that complexity is the response of the damned. Look to a simpler past for insights into a sustainable future.
In response to another comment. See in context »I applaud your strategy of optimism.
As we speak, scientists are in the process of transforming skin cells into functional neurons.[take a few seconds to brood about that]
Nothing in the 70’s even remotely approached that capability. The pessimistic vie seems quaintly out of place in the technological world of collaborative design, regenerative medicine, genome sequencing, bacterials, exponential computations capabilities, petaflop, extaflops and mind blowing robotics.
In response to another comment. See in context »Optimism is a great attitude. And yes, there are technological masterstrokes to applaud.
Unfortunately few of the things you mention address the basic problems facing Gen Y’s: The earth can’t support more, longer living people. Sustainability demands less people using less energy. So advances in medicine are partially counterproductive.
If you can’t eat it, drink it or use it as an energy source, what good is it? Can’t perform those complex computations or run that robot if you don’t have the electricity to power it up.
In response to another comment. See in context »I am 27 so I think that makes me a Milli. I am horrified for my children and I. But you can’t let that stop you. Our only option is to do the best we can with what we have.
If I have to see one more old white republican say hes worried about his children and grandchildren I’m going to puke. Or maybe it is just their concess finally catching up with them for all the things they have done to ruin this great country.
I just look at what the baby boomers inherited compared to what they are leaving us with now. Its hard to understand how the generation that brought us civil rights and womans rights and so many other good things years ago. Could become so blinded by greed and elect Reagan, two Bushes and Clinton who were all corprate pigs. Obama, in my opinion, is the first pres. of the younger generations. If we could only get those blue haired old farts with there tired as5 ideas out of our way. The country would have a chance.
But in reality it is only going to get worse. Fox news is the highest rated cable news channel. People actually believe that crap. Of all the people I know a couple don’t have there heads up there you know whats. Our generation is even more greedy than the last. Worse, on top of that they are also just lazy. Everybody just assumes they will all be very wealthy its just a matter of time. I’m in construction and by many in my generation that is beneath them. Many people don’t want to do real work.
But other than that Life is good.
After finally getting my driver’s license and buying a 9-yr old Chevy with a trunk big enough for a Honda, I grabbed my copy of On the Road to wait hours in gas lines for the 1/2 tank of gas that would barely get me back and forth from school. Then I graduated college into the Carter presidency doldrums and came of age during the Reagan years when I would have rather ate my own liver than join that party (the bill for which we are now realizing Gen Ys will eventually pay). But I was optimistic the entire time, couldn’t wait for tomorrow even if my job prospects were slim or unacceptable. So, of course, gradual school was the answer.
Maybe optimism is just one of the wonderful parts of being 20-something? The difference is that sometimes the optimism fits the age, and other times the optimism has to change the age. For my late boomer generation the big change came in January, 1984 with the RIdley Scott Mac commercial during the Super Bowl. I got my first Mac that summer, and I felt all my optimism about the future had been validated.
I can’t wait to see what your generation is going to do. Great piece, and if you do have lunch with Jean Twenge I hope you will write about it!
Todd, that’s an excellent point about optimism potentially being the constant regardless of circumstances and thus sometimes appearing well-founded and other times seeming to be completely at odds with prevailing reality. Could certainly apply in this case.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] lowest level of current job satisfaction, us “echo boomers” somehow manage to remain optimistic about the [...]
[...] reading J. Maureen Henderson’s article “Economic reality no match for Gen Y optimism,” I found one Gen Y’s (erjorgenson) comments on why they are [...]
[...] mind the smaller paycheck if it’s attached to higher levels of personal satisfaction. We are an optimistic bunch, and we have low Credit: [...]