Millenials have come up a few times in a few posts now. Do you have any fact based info, or are you just going off your gut feeling? I’m 41, but have a lot of friends that work service industry jobs that are in their 20s still. And most of them are struggling their asses off to make ends meet and live good lives
Just curious, but if they are drowning in debt from college but working in the service industry, have they not yet graduated or as of now haven’t found a job in their major?
Little bit of both. I live in Austin, which has an absolute flood of 20-30 year olds currently. Some are people who went to school and didn’t graduate, some are degree but not job based on degree, some are working towards degrees still, some are just working service industry as a way to make money instead of an entry level in what their degrees are in. I certainly don’t speak for all of them, but despite a pretty strong job market, there aren’t a ton of high paying jobs available to recent or fairly recent college grads.
I currently work in the Credit Union industry. I see millennials day in and day out and have hired and fired them. The main issue I see with some of them (not all of them) is that they think it is ok to show up to work 15 minutes late. Some think that they are entitled to leaving 10 minutes early because they worked hard. I see them not planning for their future by not building their 401K up. Most of the ones that come in and our of the company I work for have no real desire to work their way up. They want paid an executive salary and want paid now because they are “entitled.” I interviewed one millennial who said that she was ok with the salary that we were offering her. The next day she called in and said that she wasn’t ok with the salary and wanted more money because she had just bought a brand new car. I see millennials buying $60,000 trucks and cars. They just don’t seem to make good financial decisions in my experience.
My dad was an Accountant. I paid for my college education out of my own pocket. I took 15-18 hours a semester and worked 30 hours a week as a part time mechanic. I also bought and sold classic car parts and project cars to make additional money to pay for school.
Thank you for an honest, well written out response.
I appreciate that.
In my experience, the millenial kids are no different than the Gen Xers and Yers that I grew up with.
A lot of them made really stupid decisions when they first entered the real workforce because “I’ve got money now!”
Part of the hard truth for millenials currently is just how bleak the outlook is financially for them. I get why older generations look down on them, but it’s a hard time to be entering the workforce if you’re hoping to buy a house and live the American Dream in an actual city and not 10 miles in the suburbs. Shit is crazy expensive now.
That is the truth. It takes a lot of money to live. Anymore I think it might be better for a student to maybe go to a vo-tech and learn a trade as opposed to going to college. I have noticed in the industry that I work in, it is sometimes hard for some of the older generation to retire. They have worked their way up to a good salary and just don’t want to let it go. That can make it tough on the millennials to find the job that they are looking for as well.
That’s another super valid point. People are working longer/later in life too, which means that upward mobility is a lot harder.
It was really eye opening when I first started talking to some of the kids I’m friends with (relatively kids). Lucky for them they’ve got jobs that pay well enough to stay afloat and maybe even put a little away, but almost all of them are riding huge college debt that will probably be chained around their necks for their entire adult lives.
GoodS to know, thanks. A lot of folks are born on second or third base and think anyone else is a lesser human. Appreciate your perspective, as it comes across as honest.
Was tuition regulated? And how much finding did higher education receive? I work in higher education so I know how much finding they get.
School was probably a lot less for you and I than it is now.
And making generalizations about millennials is bad. They were raised by parents. Do they have no responsibility?
I did not go to a big named college but I paid about $1,000-$1,500 a semester and bought used books.
I stand by my comments on millennials. Not all are bad workers and feel entitled. But a whole lot of them sure are. I have seen it day in and day out with my own eyes.
Some parents should probably kick the millennial out who is still living in the basement and plays video games all day instead of wanting to work. At some point you just have to grow up, get a job and learn how to budget. So, to answer your question, some parents do need to have more responsibility. I do think it is just fine for mom and dad to help their kids out. However, unfortunately, mom and dad won’t always be there.
It is considerably more than that now. And I work at a public institution.
I’m sure that it is. I would be willing to bet that the books cost about as much as I paid for my tuition. That’s why I was saying that it might be just as good for some kids to learn a trade as opposed to drowning in debt for college. Honestly, I’m not sure how much some companies look at degrees like they used to.
I do respect your perspective, and I’m glad this has actually been a civil discussion for a few posts.
I do echo what BG said as well, though. College is insanely expensive now. I went to UT in the '90s and it wasn’t cheap, but it’s going up in the thousands of dollars per semester in the last 20 years, and not just a few.
The thought that the kids now can just follow the example of when their parents were in school and work an odd job to pay for it is no longer even close to true. A fair amount kids that go to school on loans end up with 100k in debt or more before school is done.
The system is broken and getting worse by the year, finances to costs. And a minimum wage job (or even a decent SI job that tips well) doesn’t come close to covering it.
Something does need to give on college expenses, I can agree with that. I also think that someone should look hard at which college that they can afford to go to. Would it be nice to go to UT, OU or a big named college? Sure. I couldn’t afford going to a big named college at the time so I went to a smaller college and got the same education cheaper.
Just for the record, I don’t have any ill will towards anyone here. I have enjoyed reading baseball related posts from Limey, Bud Girl, and many others since the 90’s. Just because we might not see eye to eye on some political things doesn’t mean that we can’t agree on rooting for the Astros.
It’s where you rank the candidates on your ballot by reference. Each candidate would get a certain amount of points for first place votes, less for second place votes, less than that for third place and so on and so forth down the line. Basically the way that MVP and Cy Young votes are cast. Universal refers to everyone doing it that way. I think only Maine has ranked primaries right now.
I thought Maine did ranked choice, which I learned recently, other states are doing for their primaries. At any rate, my limited understanding of ranked choice, for the primaries, is that every voter ranks their top three. If one candidate doesn’t get 15%, then all their voters 2nd choices are re-allocated, and so on. Ultimately, the final tallies are for only candidates who exceed 15%. What you describe is something slightly different.
I LOVE high gas prices!!
Did you go to public schools 1st-12th grade? Were there other people who attended the same college as you either previously or at the same time as you? Do you have health insurance? Have you ever driven one of your prized muscle cars on a public road?
If you answer yes to any of those questions, you’re getting free shit other people paid for, you didn’t pay for it out of your pocket. So I’d say Limey has you pegged pretty spot on.
Here’s how Trump will kill us all:
If you think that sounds bad, know this: the “community” infection reported occurred near that Air Force base.
My family is so lucky.