# Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy



## Alles_Paletti (May 15, 2013)

I think the advice at the end is good regardless of which generation you live in. I certainly encourage everyone I know to do these things. Stay ambitious, do your own thing, and learn to do it well. 

If you feel this doesn't apply to you it doesn't mean it's complete bullshit. Stereotypes seldom apply at individual level but they usually exist for a reason. 

For those who haven't seen it, this a great speech which is applicable to this article.


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## dragthewaters (Feb 9, 2013)

Alles_Paletti said:


> For those who haven't seen it, this a great speech which is applicable to this article.


This is exactly what I'm talking about. Our parents' or grandparents' generation would NEVER have gotten a graduation speech like that (and yes, they were spoiled and entitled too when they were high school age, contrary to what they might have you believe). This kind of "fuck you, you're not special" insult-mongering only started happening, or at least gaining national publicity, after the economy crashed. Total propaganda.


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## Snow (Oct 19, 2010)

OMG WTF BRO said:


> You're older Gen Y, we're not quite as _special _you know :kitteh:
> 
> We still have some Gen X funk left on us from being socially cognizant in the 90s.


Hehe ya, I was just thinking this too. But I still see it, even in myself sometimes. I know my INTP self often wants to daydream, but I should also realize that I've been told "limitless daydreaming" is okay.


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## Snow (Oct 19, 2010)

thismustbetheplace said:


> This is exactly what I'm talking about. Our parents' or grandparents' generation would NEVER have gotten a graduation speech like that (and yes, they were spoiled and entitled too when they were high school age, contrary to what they might have you believe). This kind of "fuck you, you're not special" insult-mongering only started happening, or at least gaining national publicity, after the economy crashed. Total propaganda.


You're right, our parents and grandparents would never have gotten this speech. You may also be right, that this is partially due to "insult-mongering" and social change, but could this also be because our parents' and grandparents' generations would never have needed such a speech in the first place?

There is truth in what you say, I will certainly not deny that. But I also believe there is truth in the other side.


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## Shahada (Apr 26, 2010)

thismustbetheplace said:


> This is exactly what I'm talking about. Our parents' or grandparents' generation would NEVER have gotten a graduation speech like that (and yes, they were spoiled and entitled too when they were high school age, contrary to what they might have you believe). This kind of "fuck you, you're not special" insult-mongering only started happening, or at least gaining national publicity, after the economy crashed. Total propaganda.


You're right.


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## Alles_Paletti (May 15, 2013)

thismustbetheplace said:


> This is exactly what I'm talking about. Our parents' or grandparents' generation would NEVER have gotten a graduation speech like that (and yes, they were spoiled and entitled too when they were high school age, contrary to what they might have you believe). This kind of "fuck you, you're not special" insult-mongering only started happening, or at least gaining national publicity, after the economy crashed. Total propaganda.


It's not an attack. 

It's motivation.

The article is not 'fuck you, generation Y', nor is the speech. 

It's message is pretty sweet the way I read it: Generation Y, we know that people have unrealistically high expectations of you, also because society feels it's invested more in you. Yet you are not more or less capable than older generations. It's not fair to create the impression you should somehow do better. 

So, don't feel intimidated. Just do your own thing.


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## dragthewaters (Feb 9, 2013)

Revenant said:


> You're right, our parents and grandparents would never have gotten this speech. You may also be right, that this is partially due to "insult-mongering" and social change, but could this also be because our parents' and grandparents' generations would never have needed such a speech in the first place?
> 
> There is truth in what you say, I will certainly not deny that. But I also believe there is truth in the other side.


I don't see why people think we need this speech either. If you read any historical or sociological records of teenagers/20-somethings throughout history you will see that pretty much every generation was regarded as lazy, insolent, and spoiled.

Here are the facts:
*Gen Y is attaining much higher educational levels than any other generation in history. Back in the day most people dropped out of high school and were still able to get good jobs with enough income to raise a family on with a single breadwinner. Now people are graduating from college and getting postgraduate degrees in record numbers, and STILL many families struggle to put food on the table with TWO breadwinners.

*(At least in the U.S.) we work much longer hours than any generation since unions became prevalent. Not only that, but thanks to technology we are expected to be available to answer questions and solve emergencies 24/7. "At-will" employment, jobs without benefits, long-term contract work, mandatory unpaid overtime, unpaid internships, and so forth are used to keep the workforce down and defang unions. Our parents and grandparents, meanwhile, had health insurance, pension plans, and a lifetime career ladder with job security. Our parents and grandparents would never have dreamed of taking an unpaid internship for experience, but it's practically a requirement these days (and if you're poor and can't afford to work for free, then you're screwed).

*Hours have increased steadily but wages have remained stagnant, when taking inflation into account, since the 1970s. American worker productivity is four times what it was in the 1950s and yet we have no significant increase in quality of life to show for it.


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## Raain (Jan 3, 2012)

Alles_Paletti said:


> I think the advice at the end is good regardless of which generation you live in. I certainly encourage everyone I know to do these things. Stay ambitious, do your own thing, and learn to do it well.
> 
> If you feel this doesn't apply to you it doesn't mean it's complete bullshit. Stereotypes seldom apply at individual level but they usually exist for a reason.
> 
> For those who haven't seen it, this a great speech which is applicable to this article.


What a borring and cynical twat!!


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## Raain (Jan 3, 2012)




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## dvnj22 (Apr 24, 2013)

I think the old white guy in the video is just bitter.


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## Raain (Jan 3, 2012)

*Actually, a few doodles don't explain why Gen Y yuppies are unhappy*

@Promethea


Actually, A Few Doodles Don’t Explain Why “Generation Y Yuppies” Are Unhappy
By Alison Herman on Sep 17, 2013 2:00pm











Word to the wise: if an acronym for an age group happens to be a term that’s widely considered a slur, it’s probably best to drop it. Ditto if your not-even-trend-piece on said age group amounts to baseless accusations of Special Snowflake Syndrome and useless advice like “it’ll work itself out.” But while we’re in the business of making staggering generalizations about millions of people, here’s my take: There’s nothing Gen Y loves less than having our generational failures comicsplained to us in pseudo-infographics thrown together in MS Paint. Or being called GYPSYs.The basic premise of “Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy,” a post that appeared on the Huffington Post this Sunday and blew up on social media not too long after, is that Generation Y, a group that includes everyone between the ages of 20 and 35 and presumably a whole lot of non-yuppies, is… unhappy. It’s not clear how Wait But Why, the anonymous blogger behind recent listicles like “7 Asinine Things About Society” and “7 Ways to Be Insufferable on Facebook,” came to this conclusion; there’s nothing about depression rates or job satisfaction or any other indicator of general welfare. But WBW has determined “Protagonists & Special Yuppies” to be in a bad way, and therefore we just are.


So what’s the cause of all this angst that may or may not exist? After boiling down the nuanced, subjective concept of “happiness” to a simple formula of “reality minus expectations,” WBW tells us we’re expecting far too much for ourselves. The op-ed’s single piece of evidence to that effect is the ballooning popularity of the phrases “follow your passion” and “fulfilling career” over the past couple of decades. Of course, a quick search for terms like “financial stability” and “stable career” also shows a substantial, if not quite as dramatic, increase. And then there’s the strong possibility that all this dream job talk is coming from the supposedly “practical” and “secure” baby boomers — all Google Ngram tracks is what was said, not who said it. Which would mean it’s boomers who “want to be fulfilled by their career in a way their parents didn’t think about as much,” not their post-recession kids.













With that non-demonstration out of the way, WBW then calls out Kids These Days for thinking of themselves as, among other things, “unusually wonderful,” “a shiny unicorn,” and deserving of “a flowery career lawn.” No wonder Gen Y is so obviously — obviously! — at sea; we’ve somehow reached young adulthood without internalizing the idea that jobs are “actually quite hard” and it takes “blood, sweat, and tears” to be good at them. How one gets from “people want fulfilling jobs” to “people expect fulfilling jobs to fall into their laps,” we’ll never know. But WBW has a truth bomb for us deluded 20-somethings: they don’t! Thank goodness someone has the guts to tell us that professional success requires “working really hard for a long time.”


Needless to say, I’m not a fan of this line of reasoning, largely because Generation Y has plenty of reasons to be disappointed that have nothing to do with high expectations. Even if all a 20-something feels entitled to is a full-time job with a living wage, they’re increasingly likely to be SOL: as of June, only 44% of us had a full-time job, with 12% unemployed and 4% straight-up giving up. Over a third of 18-to-31-year-olds still live with their parents. We’re living through an insane employment market where we take unpaid internship after unpaid internship, only to have just 37% of them end in employment. Even rock-solid yuppie fields like law are looking shakier by the day. No wonder less than a third of young people “actually feel that their job is part of their long-term career plan.” We may be unhappy with our jobs, but it’s not because we expect to be CEOs by 30. It’s because at this rate, it’s nearly impossible to see ourselves becoming CEOs at all.


In other words, Gen Y’s plight isn’t just in our heads: it’s very real, and it’ll take more than empty platitudes and sad-faced stick figures to fix it. I’m not sure who WBW think they’re helping when they tell young people to “just dive in” to a job market that hasn’t made any room for them, but it’s certainly not the generation it advises with truisms like “you’re not special.” Like most articles about Gen Yers, millennials, and other synonyms for “people younger than the people who read and write trend pieces,” it comes off like an older generation reassuring itself that young people’s problems are either self-inflicted or all in their heads, not a good-faith attempt to understand another age group.


It’s easy for anonymous writers like Wait But Why to boil down a host of (completely justified) anxieties to a simple case of yuppie entitlement. But it’s also a lot of other things: irresponsible, condescending, and pointless all come to mind. As far as I know, no Gen Yer has ever compared their parents’ desire for steady employment to a unicorn vomiting rainbows. We’d appreciate it if our elders returned the favor.

Actually, A Few Doodles Don’t Explain Why “Generation Y Yuppies” Are Unhappy – Flavorwire


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## g_w (Apr 16, 2013)

Ya done good posting this, @Promethea.

The two best parts are the "expected awesomeness of my career" curve and the "Facebook Image Projection".

Life isn't all TEH AWESOME for other cohorts either: each generation faces a different set of challenges.


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## Uralian Hamster (May 13, 2011)

I think there's some truth in this. Quite a few people in my age think there's a stigma about certain types of jobs, eg; mechanic, plumber, electrician, etc. It seems like everyone wants to be an engineer or architect or psychologist or CEO or lawyer or doctor or whatever.


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## g_w (Apr 16, 2013)

@thismustbetheplace --

I apologize in advance for stepping on your toes, but I'm going to take the liberty of interspersing my own commentary with your remarks.:tongue:

If you enjoy them, please let me know if I have your permission to PM you for a little more analysis, and suggestions about your own personal situation. And remember, free advice is worth every penny...:shocked:



thismustbetheplace said:


> The author of this article can go fuck themselves with a wooden spoon.


Just [email protected], but that was a picturesque phrase! 


thismustbetheplace said:


> I really don't see this "Generation Y entitlement" everyone bitches about. I see people of my generation being massively undervalued compared to what they should be worth in any sane economy.


The obvious conclusion being, that the economy is...INsane.
(...politics aside, the economy has not sucked this bad, for this long, since the Great Depression. Despite any "government figures" to the contrary.)



thismustbetheplace said:


> I see people of my generation working longer hours and achieving much higher educational attainments, on average, than our parents' or grandparents' generation had to, and having no comparable increase in salary, status, or quality of life to go with it.


There are several reasons for this. One of them is that the number of people who *attend* college seems to be going up; in addition to (going back to the mid-60s / mid-70s era) the entrance of large numbers of women into the workforce: meaning there are many more workers available than in prior generations, thereby driving prices *down*.
The presence of H1-B immigrants and offshoring has only increased this problem.

I'd disagree about "quality of life" if only because of "hedonics" and the great decrease (in comparable dollars price) of certain luxury items, from calculators to computers to central air conditioning to music delivery to options on cars.



thismustbetheplace said:


> I see people who aren't cut out for college, who in other eras of time would have worked in industrial jobs, having few to no options.


Yup, many of these jobs have been sent to Third-World Countries, regulated out of existence in the United States, or automated.



thismustbetheplace said:


> I see people crippled by student loan debt, the likes of which no other generation ever had to take on (except for maybe part of Gen X). I see people graduating from top colleges with good degrees and being forced to live with their parents because nobody is hiring.


Lotsa material here. Boomers could work part-time during the school year, and full-time over the summer, and pay for their college in its ENTIRETY that way.
What changed?
The number of, and the pay of, college and university administrators.
The number of departments, and majors, which simply didn't EXIST 50 or 100 years ago, and which do not produce graduates with knowledge which can be used to create new wealth. There are TWO issues here, not just one: the obvious thing is that the majors have professors which need to be paid, and they use infrastructure which has to be paid for. But the other, is that the people who get out from the University, with a degree in one of these majors, often end up being subsidized in one way or another by the government: which drives up taxes for everyone.
The number of new University dorms, lofts, student centers, and the like, with first-class amenities. These have to be paid for as well.
And of course, the practice of changing University from "consumer paid" to "government paid" through loans which are paid off over time: this decouples price from cost, decouples demand from price, and acts on a tax on people "trying to find themselves" or who "go to college cause then you can get a GOOD job" (TM)




thismustbetheplace said:


> I have an Ivy League degree in molecular and cellular biology, with a 3.4 GPA and over 4.0 senior year GPA, and research experience at three pre-eminent and world famous research institutions with excellent recommendations from every employer I've ever had, and yet I don't get even an email back for an interview for 90% of the research technician jobs I apply to. Jobs which I could do in my sleep for the most part and which pay $25K to $35K a year, definitely not what one would consider an "Ivy League"-worthy salary, but by this point I would do the entire fucking "Singing in the Rain" dance routine if I was offered a position. And yet people say I'm "entitled" for being pissed off at the fact that I might be permanently unemployed even after I spent years and years working hard so that I could get a good job, and now I'd be happy settling for just a job, period?


Here's a question -- and one which you haven't quite considered in quite this light before.
Go out of your house, and take a drive with your fiance. Drive around the neighborhood, or across town.
While doing that, count the number of businesses who actually have a need for someone with a degree in cellular and molecular biology from an Ivy League school.
Then, try to decide: whatever these cellular and molecular bio types are DOING at those jobs, how much new wealth does it create?
There's a reason that hamburger flippers are not paid $150 / hour : the work they are doing, does not generate that much revenue.
Same with most of the research technician jobs: unless you are the head honcho pulling IN the government grants, or you are a superstar in drug discovery -- and even then, the arcane human trials and safety and efficacy laws, together with patent laws, lower the expected return -- those jobs are more of a *cost* to the company than a benefit.
Perhaps you should consider leveraging your looks and intellect (a killer combo!) to go into SALES of pharmaceutical goods, or scientific and lab *supply*.
Gold prospectors often went broke, but the people selling them picks and shovels and camping gear...not so much.



thismustbetheplace said:


> I don't really know why these "Gen Y is sooo spoiled and entitled" articles keep coming out, but the paranoid side of me thinks it might be some sort of propaganda to keep the young people down and make them think that things are supposed to be this way, that they're supposed to work and work and work and get into massive debt and have nothing to show for it in the end. If we have ambitions then we're called entitled but if we decide we want to live small and boring lives then we're called lazy slackers.


I think the powers that be have grown increasingly sophisticated at sucking every last bit of wealth out of the middle classes, whether through rent-seeking or taxation. Did you see elsewhere on PerC how the CEO of Nestle is trying to make the claim that drinking water is not a right, but that all potable water should be owned by corporations? G'rrrr.....



thismustbetheplace said:


> Living an extraordinary life would be nice, but what I dream about more than anything is living an ordinary, boring, stable life.


You have your health, your looks, and a man who loves you and is willing to commit to you (a rarity among the gen-Y set, I'm told).
Don't disparage them in bitterness: that's a good start.


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## incandesce (Aug 24, 2013)

thismustbetheplace said:


> I have an Ivy League degree in molecular and cellular biology, with a 3.4 GPA and over 4.0 senior year GPA, and research experience at three pre-eminent and world famous research institutions with excellent recommendations from every employer I've ever had, and yet I don't get even an email back for an interview for 90% of the research technician jobs I apply to. Jobs which I could do in my sleep for the most part and which pay $25K to $35K a year, definitely not what one would consider an "Ivy League"-worthy salary, but by this point I would do the entire fucking "Singing in the Rain" dance routine if I was offered a position. And yet people say I'm "entitled" for being pissed off at the fact that I might be permanently unemployed even after I spent years and years working hard so that I could get a good job, and now I'd be happy settling for just a job, period?


Don't mean to single you out but OH MY GOD, I thought I was the only one in this situation. It's like, what the hell was that degree even for?

I think what I mostly take exception to in this article is the assertion that unless you do settle for an ordinary life, you're entitled. Fuuuuck thaaaaat.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

thismustbetheplace said:


> Our parents and grandparents would never have dreamed of taking an unpaid internship for experience, but it's practically a requirement these days (and if you're poor and can't afford to work for free, then you're screwed).


That's because business actually realized they needed to trained people and did so. They had apprenticeships and also did things that allowed people to work their way up in the company. A family friend was able to get her job working in the accounting department of a local manufacturer (which still exists to this day) by them coming to the high school and recruiting her. They actually went to the high school and found people to train. I wonder if you'd ever really be able to enter the accounting department of anywhere without at least an associate's degree.


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## Adrift (Apr 5, 2011)

Gen X-er here. Yep, the article is all true. This is the most self-absorbed and selfish generation I've seen. You guys post every minutiae of your daily lives on facebook as if the world cares, lol.



thismustbetheplace said:


> I don't really know why these "Gen Y is sooo spoiled and entitled" articles keep coming out, but the paranoid side of me thinks it might be some sort of propaganda to keep the young people down and make them think that things are supposed to be this way, that they're supposed to work and work and work and get into massive debt and have nothing to show for it in the end.


Occupy Wall Street is a Gen Y movement and it's essentially a "give me free stuff or I'll burn down your business" type of movement. Sandra Fluke is another face of Gen Y; she wants people to pay for her $3000/month sex habits and a large majority of Gen Y'ers voted for the guy who vowed to give you free stuff.


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## chimeric (Oct 15, 2011)

Adrift said:


> Occupy Wall Street is a Gen Y movement and it's essentially a "give me free stuff or I'll burn down your business" type of movement. Sandra Fluke is another face of Gen Y; she wants people to pay for her $3000/month sex habits and a large majority of Gen Y'ers voted for the guy who vowed to give you free stuff.


Is it better for corporations to get free stuff than for poor people to?


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## Adrift (Apr 5, 2011)

@chimeric It's best to earn it, no matter if you are an individual or a corporation. Solyndra has no business freeloading off of the tax payer.


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

My dad brought me up in such a way that now I always end up tripping myself over and kicking myself on the ground :/ (not literally) Like I remember one day I had worked so hard to study for an exam and I got a B (it was the second highest grade, the highest was also B) and I went running home to show him, but instead of congratulating me, he said "Well, it could have been an A" and then he walked away... Don't wanna get into details about what happened after that day, but I think the problem is that most parents these days are either too encouraging, or too discouraging, but almost none are balanced in these kinds of things.


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