Why can't millennials find jobs?

[gla22]

There is some truth to both sides of the debate. In the past liberal arts majors could become investment bankers and the boomers rode the growth of the U.S. economy to unprecedented prosperity. Those who ended up wealthy likely worked hard. However hard work isn't necessarily enough in this economy, there is less opportunity nowadays and it is more competitive. The smart and hardworking will still be OK, it just won't be as easy as it was previously.

[exploited]

[Stratego]

[eynon81]

[The Comrade]

[The Comrade]

[Hyperion]

To each their own, but I don't want to make a lot of money, and I definitely don't want to sacrifice 10-15 years of my life so that I potentially have a comfortable life when I'm a mummy. Being the wealthiest man in the graveyard doesn't really inspire me. I truly don't understand people who try to make others feel bad for not working 60 hours a week. I work that much during the school year, and by the time summer comes around, I'm burned out. I don't play it off. I get exhausted! And veteran teachers tell me it wasn't always this way. The snide remarks about teaching hours used to have some truth to it, but now I'm leaving work at 7 PM feeling unaccomplished. To devote your life to that just sounds strange to me. It's pedantic to blow off the fact the average work week has INCREASED since the 1980s. Earnings have stagnated, opportunities are running dry, and millenials/Generation Y'ers are being told to accept 50 as the new 40?

God, the market is just gross.

Perhaps at one point in time the rat race wasn't so bad. You had pensions, affordable health care, and only needed to rely on a single income to make your bills. But the times have changed.

I make about $50,000 a year right now - more than all but two of my friends (an actuary and a computer science engineer). I enjoy my job, and I worked hard to both attain my job and my physics degree, but I'm really questioning this mentality people develop once (if) they land a 'moderately comfortable' job. That's why I'm actually contemplating taking a cut in pay. I want to enjoy life, and for me that does not mean possessing the coolest gadget or house. I have certain things I like to upkeep (my car, my bedroom, my home electronics) and other things I could care less about (clothes, mobile devices). It's just a sad prospect to face because teaching has as many intrinsic rewards as medicine.

[The Comrade]

it's because americans are brainwashed to believe, from an early age, in the american dream. and no one says it, but everyone knows it, that the american dream is just the rat race. own a home. the biggest home! gotta have a huge car too, and all the gadgets, all the amenities. gotta have a pool, and a huge yard, and a nice fence, and your kids need all the most expensive shit.

buy buy buy. keep buying, and keep working so you can buy more. don't be a person, be a consumer. that's american culture in a nut shell and it's f**k destructive.

[Hyperion]

[spacemonkey]

If possible, do what you enjoy. In the long run, thats worth more then the money.