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[Descan]

I was born in '93. I think my generation has grown up with this idea that the older generation has no idea what they were doing. Both with technology and with politics. I think artistically the idea of actually being sincere with art will, if not predominate, then a big part.

And I think the internet was a game changer. People will be able to break into smaller groups, because everything is equal on the internet. People who share your interests don't need to be in the same town, school, or block as you. They just need an internet connection. But because of how open it is, I think there will be a lot of cross-talk between subcultures. People will be closer together, but it'll be because of actual similarities and not a survival mechanism.

[Slayerhero90]

Generation Z, I guess.


I'M SO SORRY!

[MaximumZero]

SalmonGod and I are '83 buddies, and eharper256 and I are boomerang buddies (I've had to come back to this shithole three times.) I'm from urban Michigan, US, and the outlook here is "Completely Fucked." Then again, I'm part of an ever-growing population of overwhelmingly poor people with little-to-no hope of ever escaping poverty. The fact that someone has essentially taken over the area and proclaimed themselves Tsar-of-Michigan-and-to-hell-with-the-will-of-the-people doesn't really help. Unemployment in the area is down, but that's because most of us (of those of us who qualified for unemployment in the first place) are simply running out of benefits and are no longer being counted. Sure, there are jobs in the area, but the poor are unqualified to fill those positions because the education to get them is prohibitively expensive and time consuming. I mean, how are we supposed to keep the lights and water on while we get that doctorate?

[SalmonGod]

Last I saw, real un/under employment for people our age nationwide is around 50%, while the number of us who are college educated is record high.  I know people with degrees who have had to call in favors just to get a job at Wal-Mart or fast food.

[Truean]

Last I saw, real un/under employment for people our age nationwide is around 50%, while the number of us who are college educated is record high.  I know people with degrees who have had to call in favors just to get a job at Wal-Mart or fast food.

Tragically, this.

Yet somehow, most older people can't figure out how they raised a family of 2.5 kids fairly comfortably on one income, absolutely means they had it better than a modern family barely managing raising kids on two incomes (that's assuming employment at all).

2 > 1.... It's that simple, and so is denial of it. Our parents/grandparents horridly screwed everything up. They blame us, but we're the ones who will write the history books after they die.... Their lives are ephemeral; their denial is eternal. 

College =/= road to success and I seriously advise younger clients away from it if they must take out student loans.

[alway]

College =/= road to success and I seriously advise younger clients away from it if they must take out student loans.

Bad plan. That should depend on both the person and the major in question. Any sort of tech field is absolutely the road to success, as they are good, high paying jobs for which there is an ever growing shortage. A double major in philosophy and english is another case entirely.

[Truean]

College =/= road to success and I seriously advise younger clients away from it if they must take out student loans.

Bad plan. That should depend on both the person and the major in question. Any sort of tech field is absolutely the road to success, as they are good, high paying jobs for which there is an ever growing shortage. A double major in philosophy and english is another case entirely.

Excellent plan, $40,000 will buy you a duplex in foreclosure in need of $10,000 of repairs with a tax deductible mortgage and a double rent payment coming in. Much better than a college degree. If it goes downhill, declare bankruptcy, unlike student loans.

I realize I have a different view here. I'm ok with that.

[sneakey pete]

I was about to say about exactly what alway said.

Collage =/= road to guaranteed job.

Again though, Biased due to different systems in this country.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

There are dozens of millions of empty homes all over the US. Housing is not a good thing to get into unless you have lots of money to spare.

[SalmonGod]

College =/= road to success and I seriously advise younger clients away from it if they must take out student loans.

Bad plan. That should depend on both the person and the major in question. Any sort of tech field is absolutely the road to success, as they are good, high paying jobs for which there is an ever growing shortage. A double major in philosophy and english is another case entirely.

Computer sciences and engineering are great, but it's a minority of people that are cut out for it.  I'd tell anybody who is cut out for that stuff to go for it, but what do you tell everyone else?  I know many many other people, myself among them, who are highly tech savvy with degrees that are still very technical, but still struggle to do anything with them.  Most of us have tons of great ideas, but are too stuck in drudgery and desperation to realize them.

And you have to account for the direction civilization is moving in.  It's going to be a while, but we're moving towards the elimination of everything but hard sciences, technical design/innovation, and culture in the job market.

[Heron TSG]

I don't know about my fellow college students here, but I would be seriously fucked without government financial aid. I'd be stuck in a town with a shrinking job market (mostly timber and mining... construction didn't fare so well during the recession.) and little money. Now I'm scraping by on my way to a computer science and mathematics degree. At the least, I have a few years of getting educated while my part-time jobs* balance out my tuition and whatnot.

*What qualifies as a job for a college student: Tutoring, tutoring, and.... guess what else?

[MaximumZero]

I would happily take out those loans if I could get my hands on them. I've been trying to for years now, and no one will even think about it. Too much risk, not enough upside (even when I was a 3.5 GPA Computer Science major.)

Also, yeah, I'd be seriously fucked without the Pell Grant. There's no way I'd ever have gotten into college without it.

[Truean]

Its complicated and housing requires practical knowledge and work skills few have, among several other things.

In any event, this leads right into a shifting of attitudes away from belief in the world being a meritocracy. Fewer people seem to believe that what you get is a result of how hard you work. Rather than intelligence and work ethic, it now seems to be about ownership. Ownership = reward, and little else. If you're rich, then things are awesome for you, but if you're not.... Lots of people aren't believing the game is fair as readily as people once did. Perhaps it's the high rate of un/underemployment, or the increases in the price of food, or how banks and large companies got bailed out while the rest of us didn't....

Point being, there's an increasing notion that the game is rigged, due to the current economy, in favor of the rich. Maybe it's just my view, but I see this as largely generational.

[Svarte Troner]

I should probably be taking college a bit more seriously than I am now. I managed to fail a class I should have dropped, but didn't because I'm an idiot, this first semester... No telling what that's going to do to me in the long run. At least now I've got a month to sit around on my ass and think about how I'm going to pay for this shit among other things..

tl;dr Svarte Troner is in over his head.

[Zrk2]

The feeling passes. I think.