<p>Funny, I seem to know quite a few graduates in their late twenties, many with degrees from well-regarded schools, who have yet to gain traction in their careers. Some have had trouble finding steady employment, even if they got that first job without difficulty. Not that different from the seventies, but back then, law school (even at a second tier school) seemed to be a reasonable choice for many in that predicament. Not sure if that is the case any more.</p>
<p>Graduated in 1980 and the college costs were much less than they are now. I do not recall anyone having anywhere near the staggering debt they have now and I mean as a percentage of income not in actual dollar terms.</p>
<p>Kids who may have unrealistic expectations or low tolerance for struggle did not raise themselves. Our generation needs to look at not just whom we elected as leaders but also the standards that we established and the examples we set. </p>
<p>Kids are going to be most mindful of the way their parents are living when they are in their teens. They are not mindful of the cinderblock shelves, hand me down furniture, cracked plates and ‘vacations’ which we took when we were grad students or just getting started- unless we tell them. I know my boys, who grew up always having what they needed but not always having what they wanted (this was by design, we could afford what they wanted but did not give it to them)- can recount the story of my med school days when my roommate and I had to ‘recycle’ grated cheese which fell to the floor because we could not afford to buy any more…Because I told them these stories. I did not want them to think that anything was handed to me, to us, because it wasn’t. I didn’t want them to think it was a matter of luck, because it wasn’t. It was hard work and tenacity and being willing to say yes to situations others felt were not desirable enough.</p>
<p>We graduated in the late 70’s and while we had pretty clear career entry paths, my husband went through many cycles of retrenchment (of others) in the first 4 years of his professional career and was not paid anything resembling the salaries (even accounting for inflation/costs) many graduates now expect although he graduated from a ‘one letter school.’ </p>
<p>We delayed gratification and we made lots of sacrifices and we paid back huge loans. </p>
<p>I work in a career where I frequently am asking adolescents what they want to do with their life. I cannot tell you how sick I am of hearing kids say they want to ‘make bank.’ </p>
<p>I think some degree of struggle is humbling and maybe some degree of struggle is just what the next generation needs to be able to make better choices than our generation has…</p>
<p>[Young</a>, Educated, and Unemployed: A New Generation of Kids Search for Work in their 20s - Education - GOOD](<a href=“http://www.good.is/post/young-educated-and-unemployed-a-new-generation-of-kids-search-for-work-in-their-20s/]Young”>Young, Educated, and Unemployed: A New Generation of Kids Search for Work in their 20s - GOOD)</p>
<p>"Andrew Sum, an economics professor at Northeastern University, where he directs the Center for Labor Market Studies, has discovered that many college graduates are falling back on jobs that don’t require a college degree: waiting tables, bartending, working in retail. Using federal labor statistics, Sum has found that of the more than 2 million college graduates under the age of 25, about 700,000 have a job that doesn’t require a degree. And while unemployment and the lack of full-time jobs
are problems, Sum says that having a job for which one is overqualified is worse. People with a job that does not require a degree—even if they have one—earn up to 40 percent less than college graduates whose jobs require their schooling. What’s worse, the longer one spends in a non-degree job, the less likely one is to ever join the college-educated labor force.</p>
<p>And the economic effects aren’t temporary. Lisa Kahn, an economist at Yale’s School of Management, tracked the wages of white men who graduated from college before, during, and after the 1980s recession. Over a 20-year period, those who graduated in the peak of the recession earned $100,000 less than those who finished college before or after the
economic downturn."</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-12-06-collegegrads06_ST_N.htm[/url]”>http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-12-06-collegegrads06_ST_N.htm</a></p>
<p>Hah we still HAVE a 1972 BMW 2002 on blocks in a garage in town. H can’t part with his “youth mobile.” I think he has visions of restoring when 3 finishes college and he turns 65. Anyway, I think there are similarities in that it was difficult to find a job in the late seventies…we “were” the largest generation to go to college. I think kids with their feet on the ground do room together, take jobs that probably don’t love and still have dreams and aspirations. I think they do spend their money differently than we did, but the biggest difference is the college loan payments. I suspect there is a higher percentage of entitled kids simply because of the massive wealth generated through inheritance and the explosions in the market during the 80s and 90s when these kids were growing up. These kids will have it “tougher” than we did simply because they can’t count on a massive wealth transfer and have to save while simultaneously building a career and paying back any loans because “we” spent wealth transfer monies all on college for them :-)</p>
<p>I personally experienced no massive weather transfer (my parents defaulted on the loans they were to have paid back for me… and I took them over… there was no inheritance), never made a killing in the market or in real estate and we saved while building a career and while paying back massive loans (100,000 in 1982 was massive). No one should ever count on anything except the money they personally earn and their ability to use that money with some degree of caution. </p>
<p>Entitlement is all about thinking money grows on trees (or on houses appreciating in value, or stock portfolios, or investments in start ups or inheritances or money coming from anything else you did not work for). Sorry, but I do not think the kids are the only ones who feel entitled in many circumstances.</p>
<p>I also have to agree with Blossom. I graduated in 1980; I had 5000 debt, not sure that is that different from the average of low 20’s now (rents then were probably a quarter or less than rents now). (Of course, when H went to med school, our debts ballooned, but that’s still a fairly sure bet overall.) We did the cinderblock shelves, very old cars thing well into our children’s childhood. I think they’re more well-grounded now, on account of not assuming that the 21st century lifestyle is a given. They make in the 20-30,000 area and can live on it. They have health insurance. They never assumed they’d have the big TV, coach bags, a new car (or maybe any car). Their lives do resemble the lives of their parents at the same age (except not having kids). I do agree that, economic issues notwithstanding, there is, among some folks, an inflation of expectations that makes the current exigencies seem more dire than they were in past downturns. This is not to downplay the extreme circumstances that many people are feeling in this recession; just that 20somethings with college degrees but marginal jobs is really not that unusual or dire.</p>
<p>Not to worry. There is no real delay in careers. They are learning skills as they go. Even selling overpriced designer coffee allows them to gain skills</p>
<p>It’s a quickly changing world that our sons and daughters are being thrown into.</p>
<p>They will learn to create their own jobs.
They will learn to barter their skills with others to move forward.
They will change jobs often and refocus often as their world continues to change around them.
Many of the jobs they will be doing in five/ten years don’t even exist now.
They wil learn to be flexible. They will learn to become entreprenuers.</p>
<p>It can be very exciting and very scary at the same time. They will be fine as long as they continue to learn new skills.</p>
<p>They cannot depend on one company to take them to old aage with nice pensions and upward movement. It just isnt a reality anymore.</p>
<p>Some things don’t change: I just found out today that my d1 is not only moving to the same city I moved to in the 1970s, not only to the same part of the city, not only to the same street, not only to the same house, but will be living in the same ROOM that I lived in during the late 70s. She will have a clunker car, no IPAD, cheap mobile phone, no clubbing, no Starbucks, and saves money on her fellowship (which IS about 10 times what mine paid in the 70s.) No food stamps for her.</p>
<p>She’s a happy camper!</p>
<p>^^ Wowser…and some people don’t believe that what goes around comes around!</p>
<p>"It must have been a while since you have been back to Brooklyn. "</p>
<p>My hasidic MIL and SIL live in south williamsburg. I have been there several times since May, and several times during the last year. I am quite aware of the adjpoining areas - I have been to hipster N williamsburg, to Greenpoint, to Clinton and have walked around the mostly hasidic, but partly hipster part of NW bed stuy, and have driven all the way through Bed stuy to visit the library and botanic gardens. I have NOT been to Bushwick.</p>
<p>There are still lots of public housing projects there, lots of rough blocks. and even the hipster areas that I have seen, OTHER than some of the brand new housing, hardly looks luxorious. Bushwick, I have heard, is rather sketchier.</p>
<p>“Bed Stuy is now ~50% white.”</p>
<p>as was discussed in a widely touted article in the NYTs. What they forget to mention was that mostly those whites are hispanic. Not that I have ANYTHING against hispanics, but the NYT was giving a misleading impression of Bed Stuy today (they also forgot to mention the NW corner of the nabe that is majority Hasidic) There are some young hipster types in Bed Stuy, but its still quite a rough area, and not what you might expect quoting that statistic.</p>
<p>I graduated in the mid 1980’s with $10,000 student debt. I was married; we were broke. Jobs were hard to come by in the early/mid 80’s in my rust belt state (Yeah, they stink even worse now).</p>
<p>I think the difference now is attitude towards the future (and unfortunately, what I believe will also be the new reality). Back then, it was bad, but we all thought we could ride it out and it would get better. It did. I don’t see that happening now in this country’s future.</p>
<p>We bought a cheap house in a podunk town and paid it off. In the goes 'round, comes 'round circle, we bought it back and S2 rents it now. It is much less than the house he grew up in (which we built 13 years ago). I like to remind him when I moved in originally,
it had asbestos siding, 100 year old windows, a bad roof, an original kitchen, and no air.</p>
<p>S1 works 70 hrs/week at a manual labor job while he searches for “career” job. His initial plan made it all the way to the final stages before falling flat. He is sort of depressed. His g/f’s summer internship offered her a job after graduation next Jan. I don’t think she is entitled, but she certainly likes the spending–Coach purses, constant new phones, etc. As a general statement, I think our generation gave to much to our kids.</p>
<p>I feel that to find out what you personally love doing and stick to it will pay off sooner or later. It has worked for me, I have been in one field, did not like it, went back to school, got into something that I thought I would love and I am loving it 9 jobs later, with the same excitement about it. Follow your own heart (I listened to my parents first time around). Yes, you might loose your job several times, but if you love what you are doing, you will find the way back.</p>
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<p>I think this may be true, and I plead guilty. However, I was raised by austere Depression-era-raised-Midwestern parents who gave me very few “things,” and this did cause real stress in my life. I didn’t want my kids to be consumed with those feelings when it was unnecessary.</p>
<p>I liked to spoil kids. I am entitled and it is not a problem. The problem is (as confirmed by my own kid) is that many are not thankful for what they have (not to parents, but not thankful in general, to be alive, healthy, having family support, having opportunities). The job of a parent and for me it has been the most important aspect of it is to remind them that they are not hungry, they have roof over head, they are not ill, they have clothes, they went to college and those of them who has worked very hard got success (if they were also lucky in addition to working hard). Some parent might not feel like saying that and it is their right. However, my kid has really appreciated this type of view, it has helped her tons thru rough patches. And next time she is in a rough, I will still say the same, you are not sick, you are not hungry, you have shelter, you have clothes, and we love you and very many around you love you too, you have worked hard to be were you are now, might as well continue the same as it has worked in a past. I do not know any other approach, as everything else will lead to depression at some point in your life, we are all going thru rough times at some points. Not to underestimate, we rented her apartment with very nice view, very helpful…Yes, the more you spoil them, the better off they are (from my experience), they just work harder to insure to have the same and better when you are gone (and hopefully it will extand to their own kids)…and they love to help others, less fortunate, happy person spreads happiness around, sad one makes everybody else sad.</p>