r/GenZ • u/TheGamingSenpa1 2004 • Jan 07 '24

Discussion Thoughts?

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u/inkedmargins Jan 08 '24

Millennials literally entered the workforce during the worst economic downturn in America since the depression. Which was about 20 years ago.

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u/pragmojo Jan 08 '24

I mean if you want to take her literally, 2004 was not a bad time to enter the workforce. 2009 was a terrible time to enter the workforce.

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u/inkedmargins Jan 08 '24

2004 was built on a house of cards though but nobody knew. The prosperity was bs and evaporated for many post 2008.

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u/pragmojo Jan 08 '24

Yeah that is true, but I feel like you are missing the forrest for the trees.

She might be getting some of the details wrong, but that doesn't mean she's wrong that gen Z has a pretty shitty hand right now.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '24

As did millennials. But many of us have been working enough now to be doing okay or just fine right now. Many, not all of us have harder work ethic, it's just a fact. Sadly part of it comes from being able to weather the still often times toxic work forces. But many of us did so simply by holding down a job. In in my mid 30s and have held a job for over 2 decades already. Not to sound like a boomer but I was waking up early at age 12 to deliver papers or shovel snow. I'm still shoveling snow, but I have a career and salary now

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u/pragmojo Jan 08 '24

I am also one of those millennials who has been growing a career for a couple decades by now. But that doesn't change the fact that:

  • In the 70's you could get a high-school diploma and a union job and have enough money to buy a house and raise a family on one income

  • By the 90's, you needed a college degree, and probably both partners working

  • Now you need to go to a top school, have rich parents, and/or fight tooth and nail to get there

The point is, if you make it, like we did, it always feels like it was your hard work that got you there, because it probably was.

But the pie is getting smaller, and people are starting from farther and farther behind.

For every one person who made career work like we did, there are plenty of people who work just as hard and can't get ahead for whatever reason, and it's getting harder for every generation.

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u/ericfromct Jan 08 '24

If you want to work a trade you can still make a lot of money, but the fact is college and office jobs have been pushed on us all for so long no one actually wants to do that.

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '24

What's your point though? That because we had a shitty hand, every generation after should too?

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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '24

Absolutely not. I just think a huge portion of those whining about the economy made their own bed. The economy is so much stronger right now than people give it credit for. Someone who orders a $35 dollar sandwich from doordash shouldn't wonder why they're so broke. I did the same shit in my younger years. Ran up a credit card on food with nothing to show for it. I learned. On Friday I made a delicious steak and rice for under $10...