One in three millennials wish they had grown up in parents' era

[SolarpunkFan]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/one- ... 30926.html

A third of millennials wish they had grown up in their parents’ era, new research has found.

Despite the technological and social progress in recent decades, Brits of all ages and across all sectors of society no longer believe today’s young people will be better off than their parents in the future.

Economic issues such as owning a home, job security and funding retirement were all major concerns among youngsters, the research from think tank Resolution Foundation found.

The organisation, which aims to improve the lives of low and middle income families, found nearly half (48 per cent) of the 2,179 people surveyed felt the future was gloomier for young people today than it was for their parents.

Only 23 per cent of those polled said young people could hope for a better standard of life and the proportion of people who think their children will have a better standard of life than them has halved in the space of 15 years.

Graduates and high earners are the most pessimistic about the future. Among those with a degree, 57 per cent believed young people will have a worse standard of life than their parents, while 55 per cent of people earning more than £55,000 per year shared those views.

The figure was still high among those on low incomes, with 44 per cent of people earning £20,000 or less believing the future would be tougher than the past.

Young people are now so anxious about their prospects that many now say they would rather have grown up at an earlier time, despite the advances in technology and social and economic progress.

One in three millennials - people born between 1981 and 2000 - agreed that they would prefer to have grown up when their parents were children, compared with 32 per cent who disagreed.

Among older generations, just 15 per cent said they would rather be a young person growing up today.

Laura Gardiner, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said in a statement: "That such an anxiety has taken hold despite decades of economic growth, technological advances and growing social freedoms suggests we have failed to ensure that these gains have fully fed through into young people's living standards and prospects.

"Of course, cheaper flights and smarter phones are great, but they're no substitute for a secure income and a home of one's own."

She said that concern over falling living standards was one of the key factors driving the high turnout of young people in June's general election.

Additional reporting by Press Association.

[Dragon Angel]

No Internet, nary a functioning microcomputer in sight, no racial / sexual / orientation / identity equality (and no actual, serious acknowledgement of homosexuality or trans people!), several wars happening where I could've been drafted into ..... nah. My dad's time is definitely not for me lol.

Despite our current economy and other modern problems, this time really is much better than times of old...

[Lord Revan]

I seriously wonder how many of those people actually have clear picture of "their parent's era", the 1950s-1970s (when my parents were children/teens) would sound like a paradise if I only had picture of it thru people being nostalgic about the "good old days".

[The Romulan Republic]

No Internet, nary a functioning microcomputer in sight, no racial / sexual / orientation / identity equality (and no actual, serious acknowledgement of homosexuality or trans people!), several wars happening where I could've been drafted into ..... nah. My dad's time is definitely not for me lol.

Despite our current economy and other modern problems, this time really is much better than times of old...

I agree with that. For all our problems, we probably are living in the best era of human history. I don't know if that's very reassuring, very depressing, or both.

Now, I might choose the past generation, but only because I know with the benefit of hindsight that the world got through it without a nuclear war or a fascist US/American Civil War, and I can't yet definitively say that for the current generation. Presuming we continue to dodge those bullets, I dare say I'd probably choose the present.

[Solauren]

Actually, if kind of makes sense, from a Financial /Lack of Common Sense perspective.

My Dad was born in 1946, my mom in 1956.
My Dad and his brothers, once they were done school, applied for a job at GM, and had good paying jobs very quickly.
Since my Mom married my Dad when she turned 19, it's hard to say if she could have done the same thing, and her younger brother had issues which prevent using him as a good example.

But, on a single income, they put good houses over our families head (first house was 4 bedrooms in an older area of town, second one they are still in since 1986 is three bedrooms with a much bigger yard in what was at the time a brand new neighborhood). They never had to purchase a second hand car, and easily afforded have two teenagers with braces. Dad worked overtime when he could/wanted to, and they had the house paid off 10 years early. Dad retired about 12 years ago, they built and addition onto their house, and have been living off RRSPS, TFSA, and my Dad's pension ever since. They have to budget, but no serious problems. They were even able to afford caring for my grandmother during the last 2 years of her life (which involved driving over to her house about 40 minutes away by highway every day).

So, from a financial point of view, yeah, much better era to live in for your average joe. (I can imagine how things would have gone if my Mom had a similar paying job to my Dad....)

Now, from the Lack of Common Sense perspective.....

many of the elements that are not part of everyday life didn't exist. These are also the same things people "can't live without" and also cause stress.
i.e Facebook, mobile telcom/computer devices, etc. And that might be the entire point.

You have no idea how many people I know at work that complain that they can't seem to get away form their cellphone/facebook etc, that are literally shell shocked when I say "Well, you know, you could always block facebook on your cellphone, and when people need to get a hold of you, like your kids or parents, they could actually CALL and speak to you". I literally have to explain to them that's the entire reason that even if I had a cell phone, it wouldn't have a data plane or anything fancy on it. If it's not important enough for you to actually pick up the phone and talk to me, then it's not important enough for me to be stressed over, and it doesn't need to be acknowledged at work.

And others were like "but, if my kids can't text me, doesn't that make me a bad parent?". What, your kids can't pick up the phone?
And why are you kids texting you, when they should be in freaking school?

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah... the financial advantages are really the only serious reason to grow up in the "parents' era". And even then, it depends on how old your parents are. Mine graduated college right around the turn of the 80s, right in time to get smacked in the face by Reaganomics.

[Broomstick]

The only way most of these kids can think that growing up in a prior era would be preferable is because they're looking at history through rose-colored glasses.

[Simon_Jester]

Now, from the Lack of Common Sense perspective.....

many of the elements that are not part of everyday life didn't exist. These are also the same things people "can't live without" and also cause stress.
i.e Facebook, mobile telcom/computer devices, etc. And that might be the entire point.

You have no idea how many people I know at work that complain that they can't seem to get away form their cellphone/facebook etc, that are literally shell shocked when I say "Well, you know, you could always block facebook on your cellphone, and when people need to get a hold of you, like your kids or parents, they could actually CALL and speak to you". I literally have to explain to them that's the entire reason that even if I had a cell phone, it wouldn't have a data plane or anything fancy on it. If it's not important enough for you to actually pick up the phone and talk to me, then it's not important enough for me to be stressed over, and it doesn't need to be acknowledged at work.

And others were like "but, if my kids can't text me, doesn't that make me a bad parent?". What, your kids can't pick up the phone?
And why are you kids texting you, when they should be in freaking school?

This. So, so much this...

The only way most of these kids can think that growing up in a prior era would be preferable is because they're looking at history through rose-colored glasses.

People tend to crave what they lack and devalue what they have.

This may be an overgeneralization, but what I think a lot of millenials crave includes:
-stability in their personal lives, especially financial stability, as said millenials enter their thirties and realize how many of them may never be able to have a home and family life of the sort most people aspire to.
-the belief that hard work will actually pay off in a concrete, nonrandom sense,
-a sense that society is proceeding according to a recognizable plan that will make things better over time.

Many if not most of the millenials have spent their whole lives living in the precariat, they expect to spend ALL their lives in the precariat. And they don't like it.

There is a perception that this was less of a problem thirty to fifty years ago. Which creates a perception of people thinking "I could have been successful and happy if I'd been born thirty or fifty years earlier, and instead I'm trapped in this rat race for benefits that may not emerge, in a society that seems totally incapable of getting its shit sorted out and dealing with its own corruption."

Thus, nostalgia.

The generation that actually WAS born thirty years earlier had much less incentive to do this about THEIR parents' generation, because if you were born in 1955, it was pretty obvious that people born in 1925 had to work like a dog to survive and had to suffer through the Depression and the Second World War. Envying them just din't make as much sense.

[K. A. Pital]

Could be fun to witness something like the first human spaceflight and believe there is a brighter future for us all, like Star Trek, instead of the cyberpunk, the long shadow of which has finally descended upon the world and will certainly define several decades, if not the remainder of the century.

Maybe being born in the 60s or 50s is not such a bad idea. Although cyberpunk will still come, but to an old person the prospect might not seem as daunting.

No internet might actually be a positive thing - a more social life, more outdoors activity, more adventures in the real world instead of behind the screen.

[Broomstick]

Remember that when the US was landing on the Moon, as hopeful and as uplifting as that was, we were also all still worried about dying in a world-wide nuclear war that would abolish civilization if not wipe us out entirely.

Earlier times had their good points and bad points, just like today.

Of all the times in history I'd rather live now than in the past... and keep in mind, I was born in the past! Maybe I'm just a cock-eyed optimist but I'm still eager to see the future.

But when I was 20-30 years old I bitched a lot, too. It's partly an attribute of being that age. There are also some very unfair things people in that age group are subjected to these days. Back in earlier times there were different unfair things people had to deal with.

[Simon_Jester]

Remember that when the US was landing on the Moon, as hopeful and as uplifting as that was, we were also all still worried about dying in a world-wide nuclear war that would abolish civilization if not wipe us out entirely.

Speaking as one of those millenials who at least occasionally wishes he'd been born thirty years earlier... The counter-argument looks like:

"Yes, you had to worry about global thermonuclear war, and that was terrible, we agree. We worry about civilization gradually rotting away from global warming, and sure it may not happen in our lifetimes but it can still make everything we do pointless. Moreover, global nuclear war required someone to be dumb enough to push a nuclear button. The bar of sanity for "don't blow up the world on purpose" is pretty low. The bar for "don't let global warming wreck all the Earth's environments" is higher, and a LOT of our leaders are actively smacking into it. It's as if all the Cold War nuclear doctrine had been set by Douglas MacArthur or someone similarly bonkers on the subject."

And yes, your counter-counter-reply can be "I'm sorry, Simon, but I don't speak Whine." I get that, too. I'm not even saying you'd be wrong to say so. Just trying to make the opposing point of view accessible.

[Broomstick]

Nope, I wouldn't counter with "don't speak whine", I'd point out that back in the times of the First Earth Day our concerns were with water so polluted rivers would catch fire (see "Cuyahoga"), impending extinction of many species (hence the passage of the Endangered Species Act, among others), and a real fear we'd all run out of food - within our lifetimes. We fought many battles for the environment, climate change is the current generations' battlefront.

As I said - every generation has its battles, its inherited problems, its own troubles. I get that "kids these days" have some legitimate grievances (I admit their legitimacy far more than many in my generation). I'm just saying that the past wasn't as rosy as it initially appears to be.

[Bedlam]

I guess part of it is also that if you want to live x years ago, you know how those years turned out.

Your parents might have lived in fear of nuclear war, but you know it didn't happen.

Maybe in thirty years it will look silly that we were worried of a nuclear exchange now, or even that global warming was an issue since someone invented the *technobabble* in 2022 which solved everything.

[The Romulan Republic]

I guess part of it is also that if you want to live x years ago, you know how those years turned out.

Your parents might have lived in fear of nuclear war, but you know it didn't happen.

Maybe in thirty years it will look silly that we were worried of a nuclear exchange now, or even that global warming was an issue since someone invented the *technobabble* in 2022 which solved everything.

Of course, its possible that if you were transported back to your parents' time, it would end up leading to nuclear war via butterfly effect.

[Civil War Man]

I'm personally one of the 2 in 3 who don't. There is little chance that I would be negatively impacted if I was, seeing as how I'm a straight white cisgender male from a solidly middle-class background, but I know too much history to actually want to live in that time. Hell, just look at how relevant the social commentary in a 40-year-old movie like Network still is today, and it belies the idea that things were much better back then, or even significantly different. I'll take what progress we have made, as meager as it is, over a time without that progress.

Plus, I do have a pretty stable job, one that I've been able to hold onto for the past 7 years. It can be a pain in the ass at times, but that can be said of even the best jobs. And one major advantage of my job now that I wouldn't have in my parents' time is the more casual atmosphere. I do not even have to wear a tie, much less a suit, and it's not considered unprofessional for me to have a beard and hair longer than a buzzcut. That's actually a surprisingly big perk over the 50s and 60s.

[Flagg]

I'd like their economy. Other than that, pfft.

[Zaune]

No internet might actually be a positive thing - a more social life, more outdoors activity, more adventures in the real world instead of behind the screen.

You speak for yourself. Before I had regular internet access, friends and a social life were things that happened to other people.

[Dragon Angel]

No internet might actually be a positive thing - a more social life, more outdoors activity, more adventures in the real world instead of behind the screen.

You speak for yourself. Before I had regular internet access, friends and a social life were things that happened to other people.

Same. I'm actually very withdrawn in real life, sometimes to a clinical degree, and the friends I have now (aside from the ones I have kept from college) have mostly originated from the Interwebs. There are reasons behind why I'm that withdrawn but, outside the scope of this thread.

[Gandalf]

I'd like their economy. Other than that, pfft.

Pretty much. Outside of the relative surety of nearly lifetime employment, I wouldn't be too keen to return to my parents' era.

[JLTucker]

I like my parents economy and pop culture, but nothing else.

[Starglider]

The 1960s had far too many drawbacks to seriously consider. You have to do a lot of cherry picking to ignore all the possible ways you could be screwed over or just stuck in a bad situation, that have been alleviated now. In the west, the only period that I could make a case for preferring is 1991 to 2001. Internet existed in somewhat basic but rapidly progressing and exciting form, Soviet empire had fallen and EU still seemed like a good idea, relatively modern medicine and education. Civil rights less developed than now but much better than 60s and making rapid progress, and it was duing a lull in far-left and far-right excesses. Good movies and new music trends, extremely innovative period for gaming (video and roleplaying). Environmentalism was making strides without being completely politicised, doomsday scenarios were limited, politics was less dysfunctional. I'd say it was the last time society as a whole felt generally optimistic.

[Civil War Man]

I like my parents economy and pop culture, but nothing else.

I'd personally be leery of even going with pop culture, because our modern context warps our perception of it. For the most part, we only remember the outstanding examples from that time period (mostly the good, but also sometimes the exceptionally bad) because they were the only pieces worth preserving. And choices were much more limited back then, as well. Fewer channels on TV, fewer movies at the theaters, etc, so if you didn't like what was showing on the screen you were shit out of luck. You also had even more moral watchdog groups or government entities, like the Legion of Decency or the House Un-American Activities Committee, than we do now preventing certain shows or movies from showing in certain areas, or even being made at all. Also, with no tools like the internet, it takes considerably more effort to find the stuff that is not in the mainstream.

One of the benefits of today is that we still have access to the good stuff from back then, plus the good stuff from today if we are willing to sift through the dross to find it.

[Broomstick]

I have to agree with Starglider that the period 1990-2000 was pretty decent.

[Flagg]

No internet might actually be a positive thing - a more social life, more outdoors activity, more adventures in the real world instead of behind the screen.

You speak for yourself. Before I had regular internet access, friends and a social life were things that happened to other people.

Same. I'm actually very withdrawn in real life, sometimes to a clinical degree, and the friends I have now (aside from the ones I have kept from college) have mostly originated from the Interwebs. There are reasons behind why I'm that withdrawn but, outside the scope of this thread.

Same here.

[Zaune]

I have to agree with Starglider that the period 1990-2000 was pretty decent.

Pity it all went completely to shit in the space of, arguably, a single day.

And that's the problem with wanting to go back to the good old days, isn't it? They don't stay good, and you get to watch the process firsthand instead of just hearing about it afterwards.