After reaching the age of 80, there are certain duties that need fulfilling. After all, someone needs to make sure the neighborhood kids get their share of raisins on Halloween. And without old people, who would inform the young people that their generation is more self-absorbed, lazy and lacking in morals than ever before? Oh, right — 40-somethings, 50-somethings, and Time Magazine. Even some of us lazy and self-absorbed Millennials have taken it to heart. We grew up playing on those sports teams where everyone got a “Most Valuable Player” trophy, but now we’re constantly told how much we suck.
The teen pregnancy rate in the United States is lower than it has ever been since 1946. The violent crime rate among young adults ages 18-24 has been steadily falling since 1994, while high school graduation and college enrollment have been climbing for about 40 years. Overall college graduation rates are staying where they are, but when taken into account that more people are attending college in the first place, there are more people completing college degrees every year. So what’s the reason for all this Millennial hate?
Common criticisms: we have no work ethic, we’re bad with money and we spend all our time Snapchatting selfies when we should be drafting a résumé and checking our bank account balances.
“Low work ethic” is thrown around because Millennials have a tendency to go job-hopping and, to older employers, don’t seem interested in moving up on the ladder. I’d argue that such behavior does not indicate low work ethic — rather, it’s a sign that millennials are just trying to survive with what they have. We’ve all heard the horror stories of people who work hard through high school, get into college, work hard through college, graduate and move in with their parents. Every college student is terrified of becoming one of those people, but the fate of recent college graduates doesn’t give us a lot of hope.
Despite the positive statistics I presented earlier, there is one looming negative — after-college employment rates have plummeted. College graduates find that they can’t get the amazing job they were promised if they just made it through college with reasonably good grades. So they settle. Disillusioned, they pick up minimum-wage jobs they could have had straight after high school. They can’t pay the bills, and they’re uncertain that what jobs they have will last. They’ll take a better offer if they can. They’re still holding out hope that maybe, just maybe, they can have a job closer to the one they wanted originally.
Some are quick to jump to conclusions that Millennials are bad with money because they aren’t buying houses, cars or any of the other required equipment to be a “real adult.” But it’s not necessarily because our generation is wasting money on electronics and luxury goods, or that anyone actually wants to live with their parents after college. In 2012, 284,000 college graduates were working minimum wage jobs. Combine this with student debt, and it almost seems that people who just graduated college are worse off than those who are still in it. Millennials aren’t bad with money. They aren’t spending it on houses and cars they can’t afford. That’s a sign of being good with money.
Millennials are in a bad situation, but they’re trying to make the most of it. Who brought us the recession that started in 2008, or the recent housing bubble? Who were the majority of the voting population in the years of debt increase? Dare I ask — if Millennials really are so entitled and lazy, who raised us? Baby Boomers, you are not in a place to criticize.