How did the tail-end of Baby-Boomers produce such dysfunction?
 

I look at my own older sister who's kids were raised with no real consequences to screw-ups, have a gross sense of entitlement, NEED to be praised everyday for mediocrity, and have all the confidence in the world(no doubt psycho-tropically drug induced), yet have the actual ability to do very little.

Then I realize that this is not unlike mainstream America...how did we raise such dysfunctional person(s)?

It makes me very sad. My travels have really opened up my eyes about the current situation in America. We have big problems ahead.

I've been watching these TV shows, The 60's & The 70's. Seems a lot is explained there.

I believe a big part of the problem is the result of a social construct. Everyone gets a trophy just for showing up, and it's not a mental illness if you collect in mass and demand you have "rights" as a class member.
But I also believe that part of the problem is environmental. We've been polluting our planet with pharmaceuticals that just can't be filtered out of the water that we bath in, cook with, irrigated crops with,etc. I believe this must be having an effect on children both in the womb and after birth.

*sign* Not another one of these again....

What you consider "mainstream" is a media production. All the media spits out is young hippies who don't feel safe if someone writes trump on the sidewalk. Then you have some personal instances where you notice some young person has a gross sense of entitlement. What happens next? You perpetuate a myth that all young people have a gross sense of entitlement.

Maybe it's just Canada, but everyone I know, even when I run into an old acquaintance, are working their assess off and finding jobs. I don't know where the media finds all these hippies. You don't see it as much on the news here.

Sure, it could just be my social circle, but I truly am widening it to people I haven't seen in years and run into at a store. Everyone is doing pretty good and working hard. Some have good jobs some have bad jobs, but everyone either has a job or is back in school for an education that will get them a job.

Much like myself, many of the university grads who didn't graduate with a degree in something health, engineering or business oriented are going back to school, but many times they choose college this go around because it gets you a job. I chose MBA. Studied my ass off for the GMAT and received my acceptance at a co-op MBA program that provides 12 months work experience at 3 different companies with great pay. Best decision of my life. But not everyone with a humanities degree could buckle down enough and succeed on something like the GMAT. So for them, I feel bad. Many of them were overachievers in high school, with great minds and ambitions, and passionate about a program that at the end, doesn't have very good employability. It was like a mirage for many of them. Reaching a light at the end of the tunnel after hard work. Only to find no reward. Literally no reward. Back in retail or something near min wage.

This is where a lot of the millennial frustration lies. You have your education system, parents and friends feeding you this idea that university is higher level thinking, and trades/college is somehow for the less intelligent. What they don't tell you is that the programs that have the largest enrollment, which are also the programs most pushed and generate big money, i.e. humanities and social sciences, can provide great programs in themselves, but to have a career require further specialization or education.

I've just been through all this, and analyzed the $hit out of it. There is a lot more to this than what is portrayed in the media and the perpetuated stereotype of entitlement.

But don't get me wrong. We have a hipster problem. There are a lot of entitled millennials. Lazyness etc. But not nearly as much as you think or what is portrayed. Perhaps I'm wrong about America and that is just the situation in Canada, but I don't believe that. We have a fraction of your population. For every 1 hippy we have, you have 10. Its a no wonder why you run into more of them.

I've ranted about this before because its frustrating. I like to think I have a somewhat "enlightened" perspective on these issues. From the inside out in a sense. Just trying to shed some light on the situation and provide a different perspective.

This is also a problem in Canada also!

So are the housing prices.

I think this country is pretty damn nice and a hell of a place to live. My other country, the one I was born in (I'm a dual citizen) is a ****show:

Venezuela Is Falling Apart - The Atlantic

I'll take the USA's first-world supposed problems like the ones mentioned here every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Great post. I feel the same way when "Canadians" rant about how much "better" other countries are. I always ask them why they are living here.

Pretty much anything south of the USA is a ****show. Costa Rica excepted.

Europe isn't so how right now either.

So which countries opened your eyes?? Serious question.

Its a general statement. Not specific to any country. The attitudes and value systems among young people in most of the world are very, very different than what I see in America. An extreme example: compare the behaviors of an inner city youth in Baltimore against a young person in Japan.

The advent of participation awards....the giving of ribbons evn to the losers.

JD159 The housing prices in Canada are the same as owning a Porsche if you don't have one you have missed the boat ,prices are crazy

lol! I have a 944 but don't want the housing equivalent :D. Spoiled millennial right here SmileWavy

https://youtu.be/hLpE1Pa8vvI SmileWavy

BINGO!!!!!!!

This started after I was out of school but I think is total BS. I wasn't a winner most times so I know losing is like. It sucks. You either work harder to succeed or move on.

My kids are in elementary school now. My son is not a "winner" per se. He just doesn't give a crap either way.

My daughter is just the opposite. She works hard to be better than the others. Sometimes she is, sometimes not but she doesn't complain that it's not fair.

I'm older than most of the parents so my perspective is probably skewed a bit.

JD159 statement on the education choices and career opportunities rings true ..... however.... I see what I call "the generation with no real mother and father" a good reason why these young folks have the allusion that they are all going to get a great job stopping global warming or saving a whale. They are more imprinted by their peers and socially hot topics.

The broken family unit like you mention is another terrible issue entirely. A lot of those kids arent able or dont have the drive/discipline to put themselves through school. I am in a fortunate situation and always try to remember that. A lot of the people from my generation with European ancestry, which is a good chunk at least here, seem to enter these disciplines not because they want to save whales or stop global warming.

They enter the programs because they hear "stay in school, go to university and you'll find a great job."

Grandparents often didn't go to university, it was more of a rarity. So they worked hard, perhaps in trades, and wanted their children to go to university because they believed it was the ticket to a better life.

My parents, both social sciences graduated, were successful despite not having a stem degree. My father developed a financial services platform, with a poli sci degree. A humanities or social sciences degree went a lot further 25 years ago. So now, that "go to university and get an education mentality" is passed down. But the value of that degree has dramatically decreased. Everyone has one now.

So we're left wondering why, even though we did what we were told, we aren't getting the jobs. We "stayed in school" and "went to university". College and trades were never pushed because our grandparents felt that it was low-end work. So many millennials are off to university to get an education but with no real direction but expectations.

The problem is a cultural one. So it will be interesting to see if us millennials can make something of it. I am, my friends are, their other friends are, and many more of us.

It's far to early to banish an entire generation as "lazy" this early on.

Blame it all on the damn hippies and beatniks.

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