The Setup

Last week someone mentioned something at work that I thought was interesting.  Someone said something to the effect of “and thats the problem with young people, they are the entitlement generation and think they deserve everything right away.”  The comment wasn’t directed at me, but my generation and I thought about it.

First off, the statement is somewhat true or as true as blanket statements about millions of people can be.  Suffice it to say I think there is a ring of truth to it and know plenty of people my age with that mentality.   The more I thought about it the more I realized what I would consider the central root of the problem doesn’t centrally rest on my generation.

The Charge

My generation has been called many things, Generation X, Generation Y, Tech gen, etc.  I don’t really identity with any of those names because my parents generation can’t seem to figure out what we are(which is fine, I don’t think we can either).  Suffice it to say its not a big deal, but it strikes me as odd and people don’t have a problem calling my parents “baby boomers” or my parents parents “the greatest generation.”  So for the rest of my post I will refer to my generation as “the entitlement generation” because I think that title rests in some truth, but also encompasses more than my generation.  It encompasses the entire United States of America.

Generations learn from its parents.  Nothing says entitlement like a baby boomer that thinks they are owed the American dream and thusly takes our a mortgage they can’t afford and later forecloses and blames it on someone else.  Does “the greatest generation” deserve to take more out of a welfare system than they paid in?   The entitlement generation is a generation that believes they are owed something simply because they are.  I would say this makes that every generation.

The biggest lie this country needs to get around is the idea that every American can own a home, two cars and a widescreen television.   Our entire economy is unraveling because people want to own homes they can’t afford and loan companies were up to the task of loaning money to them.  Since our entire economy is wrapped up in the housing market and foreclosure means mortgage backed securities are tanking, the market is suffering so much many jobs are being lost.  Jobs being lost means the massive amount of credit “baby boomers” and “the great generation” have amassed are being called out.  Bankruptcy is on the rise.  Foreclosure is also on the rise.  Yet my generation gets pegged as “the entitlement generation?”  To that I calmly say bullshit.

The whole notion of purchasing something you can’t afford reeks of entitlement.  And I can tell you my generation didn’t learn how to max credit cards and increase spending and get poor home loans from ourselves.  We learned it from they that came before us.  And we learned it well.

The Unraveling

Lest this post be misconstrued as a angry rant from a angst ridden twenty eightish something, lets unravel some of what I have said.  I don’t really find it useful lumping entire people grounds into categories unfairly.  Not all of my generation or my parents or their parents are money spending loons.  In fact, my wife and I have a tight reign on our budget so well I know few people that rival it(from the budgets I am somewhat familiar with).  I know lots of other people in generations that have it under control as well.  Yet here we are, our economy is in ruin because of entitlement and American dream.

I also don’t want to get my generation off the hook by blaming our parents.  Adults take responsibility for their actions.  That said, it doesn’t hurt to understand where certain tenancies root from, but that doesn’t shift the blame off our shoulders it just allows us to understand how we became to be.

The Question

A question has been in my mind for quite some time is one I can not shake.  The question basically goes like this: “How can people only realize there is a problem with anything when the issue is burning them alive?”  Why couldn’t people realize they can’t afford a home loan that eats up 70% of their paycheck only when they are in foreclosure?  Why do people only admit we are in the great depression 2 when they are out of a job and hurting?

I have been thinking about evolution as well, you know that whole idea that change happens over time.  Since its Darwin’s 200th or something birthday or what not.  I have been thinking about survival of the fittest and how animals pass down skills to offspring, often times simply by a generic imprint.  Some is learned, but much is not and I find that amazing.

I think it is entirely possible that as humans evolved our ability to pass on knowledge ended on a generic level and let us increase that knowledge in terms of what we can learn.  Certainly we can cram more into our minds than a dog or monkey and our high status on the evolutionary totem is proof of this.  That said, it now rests in us to evolve which means we must take the initiative to learn.  I have no question that we are not capable of learning amazing things, my question is on if we will.

Can society learn from its mistakes and pass that knowledge on to its children?  Can people realize there is a problem before they are burning alive in the proverbial fire?  And it saddens me to say I simply don’t know.

Jon “entitlement generation give me everything now, bitch!” Out.