We're in trouble. The Millenials are Liberals
I'd say uneducated to boot, but that's kind of a redundancy...
- Hot
- New
- Categories...
- Producer's Lounge
- Producer's Vault
- The Gulch: Live! (New)
- Ask the Gulch!
- Going Galt
- Books
- Business
- Classifieds
- Culture
- Economics
- Education
- Entertainment
- Government
- History
- Humor
- Legislation
- Movies
- News
- Philosophy
- Pics
- Politics
- Science
- Technology
- Video
- The Gulch: Best of
- The Gulch: Bugs
- The Gulch: Feature Requests
- The Gulch: Featured Producers
- The Gulch: General
- The Gulch: Introductions
- The Gulch: Local
- The Gulch: Promotions
- Marketplace
- Members
- Store
- More...
"60+ years of liberals in charge may just backfire"
It always has backfired, the problem is that people just keep thinking it was the wrong people implementing those liberal policies and that surely they've got the right people doing it this time. They refuse to admit that the policies are fundamentally false in the first place.
The other problem is that there is no longer a "moral majority" which holds any fixed standards - they are now a minority of about 35%. There is a sizable block of about 35-40% who go wherever the political winds blow.
You have the right to life, so long as that life isn't an unborn child.
You have the right to liberty, so long as that doesn't include you choosing not to associate with some people (only those that the left chooses, btw), choose not to support certain social or political causes, and choose to disagree with how politicians teach your children, spend your taxes, or provide favorable treatment to some over others.
You have the right to pursue happiness, well actually you don't, unless it is via mind altering drugs or from being a non-US human that sneaks into the country so as to try to pursue some happiness, in that case, more power to you.
No idea where you're going with the "even more basic principle" line, so you'll have to just surprise me.
Value is the association of outcome with decision-making but always predicates the existence of at least two options - even if the options are simply to participate or not. Value is only present where an agent of change is present.
you are showing some perceptiveness, i congratulate you for that.
your parents generation products of the 60's were idealists and then they learned that they had to work so the ventured towards capitalism, but stayed liberal. even though liberalism has blatantly shown that it is not good they persist in their thinking hence the delusional one living at 1600 what ever street. on this web site we all have read some of Ayn Rand, and I think that there are volumes of her writings to read however, I also strongly recommend BASTIAT. He to in my opinion was a genius when it came to economics and government interference. As for you becoming a politician I did not expect you to accept the idea. Good luck with your endeavors and avoid the governrnent as much as possible.
I had to get out of that state. Went to school in NY and never looked back.
Well, I'm not that far away anymore, being just north of Milwaukee.
Jan
I have not have everything handed to me, I've worked for mostly everything that I've gotten. I will say that a lot of my cohort is pretty entitled, but keep in mind that we are a product of a generation that consistently told us that as long as we "go to college" that we will "find good work".
No one anticipated the effect of the recession and how that would impact the retirement plans of Baby Boomers who suddenly couldn't afford to retire but instead had to delay it just long enough to stabilize some of what the recession had taken from them.
The unexpected consequence is that now, because of a lack of entry level positions (from the lack of retiring managers/supervisors/executives), millennials began to put off entering the workforce and continued to get more educated to their detriment. That, I will agree, is partially our fault.
Now, instead of just facing the problem of no entry level positions; millenials were now overly educated, and in loads of student loan debt.
I don't believe this generation is totally entitled as it is partially so, but also partially jaded. But the upside to this cynicism is a general distrust in government (which arguably can be equated with a sense of libertarianism).
Because of this, I would reject your original premise on two fronts. We're too "educated" and it causes perceived liberalness, but in reality, we're just as angry as most people who don't believe government is the solution to the problems. In fact, government is the problem.
I am a business manager. I have managed entry level technology oriented positions for 15+ years. At least 50% of the people I manage today over the last 5 years that are entry level are in India rather than the US.
Costs are lower in India, but why? Compliance with government regulation is the biggest reason. To put some numbers in that are purely fictional
US person starting pay 10k a year
India starting pay 6.6k a year.
India overhead (building, harddware, lights... regulation taxation...) 12%.
US overhead 48%
US costs 14.8k
Inidia costs 7.2k
Its a bit simplified but it illustrates a point often not brought up. Many of our entry level positions are overseas, with a very large part of the driving force to put them there taxation and regulation expenses.
Even with the recession had we not passed things like Sarbanes Oxley back all the way to affirmative action there would be a great deal more entry level tech jobs in the US today.
Affordable Health Care Act is aggravating this even further. I thought we would see jobs start to pull back as the Indian economy improved and wages increased. Its not happening because as fast as the wages are going up in India, the cost of regulation and taxation are going up nearly as fast to make up the difference.
America is a debt and service economy. It would be better served by being a manufacturing economy again. This too is overly simplistic, but I think my point is made.
Trade schools use to train Plumbers and Electricians. I would make the argument that in addition to that Trade schools should train Web designers, IT staff and most skilled services and nearly all other programmers. The vast majority of the jobs that exist in the tech industry would benefit from a apprenticeship and trade school approach.
Much of the 'Manufacturing" in the world is now manufacturing "stuff" in a virtual world rather than a physical world. While the exact discipline is different the learning process that is needed is similar.
FYI: I grew up the son of a general contractor. I loved computers and ended up managing technical teams. I have exposure to electrical work but not plumbing. Those are about the two most knowledge intensive trades I have been around. I would put either up against the knowledge intensity of a web designer. Very different application of very different knowledge but the same basic system of apprenticeship and trade school would work for all three.
They need to do something most of his guys are in very bad health and pushing 60, it is only a matter of time.
And don't get me started on health care! We went from paying $165 a month in 2010, to 185 in 2011, 365 in 2012, 485 in 2013, and over the last 2 years we've been paying close to 800 a month! How can anyone afford this? On top of that your insurance company can just decide not to cover certain things. Deductibles are ridiculous too. $5000 before they will even help with a large bill. Then they decide if you paid too much, you still have to pay more! And if you choose not to get insurance they charge you!
As for being educated, my father teaches remedial college math and there are a lot if people in his classes who can't make change for $1. About 50% can't even do a simple interest calculation. He averages about 5% who come to class and do nothing but play on their phones, but complain when they get failing test scores. I'd love to believe you, but I haven't seen enough evidence yet to persuade me that a change for the better is in the air. If another Democrat gets elected President - as this article seemed to indicate was likely - I'll consider that an unfortunate confirmation.
There is a lot of entitlement attitude, but I do believe that there is a lot of really impressive people in my generation that just haven't been recognized because it is taking a little longer than usual for us to make it through the ranks.
Keep in mind that we are a generation that is notorious for procrastination. We are putting off marriage for longer, having children for longer, because I think we value choice. I was married at 25 and that is unheard of in my age bracket.
As far as your point about math, I can tell you my wife has little to no use for it because she has me. I was blessed with parents who really pushed the need to be well-grounded in the STEM academic areas, namely mathematics. I took six years of high school math (Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, Trigonometry, Calculus I & II) in four years of high school as a matter of fact.
I think too few people in my generation fail to realize two monumental consequences of neglecting mathematics. (1) If it's hard to do, it pays well. (2) If you don't learn it, someone else will.
As far as your quip about a Democratic President, I whole-heartedly agree. But at the risk of sounding like a pinko, I sometimes will watch old speeches from Presidents and have always been fascinated by the tenacity and "can-do"-ism of Kennedy's speech about America going to the Moon at Rice University. It's really what Democrats in my mind should strive for. I could be off base though.
I don't see how this gets better considering kommon kore is now being enforced.
voting;;; it is just about 4th on my list of essentials
after food, water, clothing and shelter. -- j
1. Baby Boomers decide institutional need to be liberalized and create liberal institutions.
2. Gen X (me) reject the liberal institutions and create ways for people to create their own institutions, e.g. wikis.
3. Millennials reject institutions altogether. They have kids without getting married, not b/c they follow a radical ideology but b/c they're not about institutions. They're not fired up about voting. They're creating their own worlds, own little gangs of people getting stuff done, on their phone apps.
In that case: 'beam me up, Scotty. NOW!'
There were no recognizable institutions in Brave New World. No marriage, no families, no religion.
60 marked the end of your life, but no one complained (thanks to soma), and there wasn't any relatives to mourn.
"All children are educated via the hypnopaedic process, which provides each child with caste-appropriate subconscious messages to mould the child's lifelong self-image and social outlook to that chosen by the leaders and their predetermined plans for producing future adult generations, as well as stopping the lower caste citizens from wanting to be more than they were grown to be."
Sound like our public school system? And our social welfare programs?
Our children can text while driving, but can't write a comprehensible essay no matter how long they sit at a table.
I reject your "optimistic scenario"...profoundly!
OTOH it had strict state-set hierarchies of Alphas, Betas, etc, that I'm saying people reject more and more.
People live on product...not services and few of these young people have basic survival skills. Our government wants it that way. It's the fastest road to complete dependency.
But it is a good opportunity for one who writes phone apps that distract the slaves from their shackles.
I think that Snoogoo has elegantly described a crucial dichotomy in liberal thinking: They work daily at building the temple to business, but they kneel at the alter of socialism.
Out of 17 employees at our Calif office, 6 are pure liberal (demog: 4 are Millennial; 2 are older). All of them are brilliant (Cal Tech level brilliant). All of them work for a bootstrap company whose business is run pretty transparently - so our travails in clawing our way up the business ladder are obvious. This has made no philosophical impression on them - in spite of the fact that they are producers in a small company, struggling with the reality of business...their ideology is intact, untouched by their experience.
On the happier side, we have a closet Randist, three fiscal-conservative/social liberals (who happen to be the Director of Finance, President, and me) and a bunch of people who have had a lot of contact with reality during their lives...though I am not sure of their political alignments.
But the compartmentalism that Snoogoo describes is interesting and enigmatic.
Jan
But for everyone else, well they can't be trusted to do the "right thing" or to "behave with the best interests of everyone in mind," so they must be controlled.
Those are fundamental aspects of socialism. It was best exemplified in Animal Farm. All animals are equal, only SOME animals are MORE equal.
What gets me, Snoogoo, is that one of these very liberal Millennials won a composition prize from the Rand institute when he was in HS. It is a study in conditioning by his college and peer group. I can think of no other explanation.
Jan
They went to the LA opening of AS2 with me - we were all guests of another friend who is not in the Gulch but who is a long time Objectivist. So Los Angeles seems rife with Objectivists and Randists who are not in the Gulch and who keep their heads down.
Jan
Approached from a rationally economic standpoint, why work when you can reproduce and achieve the same standard of living?
Liberalism sounds so pleasing and so wonderful. Unfortunately the reality is it is not, and never will be until 100% of the entire population of the earth are absolutely perfect sin-free humans, concerned with nothing but the benefit and welfare of everyone else everyone working at 100% to benefit everyone else regardless of their abilities, never taking 1 iota more than is needed. and always contributing any potential excess to the collective good.
Good luck with that. Until then I just wish they would get out of my face and worry only about themselves and their actions.
This government is not delivering for the millennials.
Worse yet, this government is asking them to pony up. And now they don't have anyone to sponge from.
What. Do. They. Do. Now?
Or do they become reachable?
"A conservative is a liberal who got mugged."
Or who signed up for a government benefit and didn't get it.
http://youtu.be/3h8O7V-WxWQ
Reagan schools Obama
Violence is unavoidable unless there is support for the 'revolt' from within the fedgov.
imo
Currently, China seems to be struggling between the forces of newfound personal wealth created by a strong industrial sector vs. totalitarian/commie leadership. But, most others are just simply following that trend line down to collapse, right? Why should we be any different? We aren't so special (any more). We care more about the poorly-dancing shark on the left than what Thomas Jefferson believed. The NeoCons aren't helping because they, by virtue of their actions, are very statist. That's all we got? Jeb Bush? Haha...where's my popcorn?...
comes to mind. -- j
Instead of voting for the lesser or greater of two evils support anything except Republicans and Democrats - the right and left wing OF the left.
You'll find better choices using the old Constitution as intended. The real center. Constitution? What's that got to do with the Government Party?
Exactly.
Voting is irrelevant.