There's a huge cultural shift happening right now that isn't being discussed nearly enough.
It's the effect that our educational system is having on work ethics. I hear older people talk a lot about how gen z is lazy, entitled, soft etc. but there's never much talk about why that might be the case.
The answer I think has to do with the way kids were raised in the last few decades. It's been accelerating since sputnik shook American elites to radically invest in public education.
Schools pump out young people who are programmed to think of themselves as intellectuals. This is especially true of college and higher education, which the lower grades are geared towards setting kids up for. The average Starbucks barista or McDonald's employee has spent about 15 years of their lives learning all kinds of things that don't immediately apply to them. Imagine the investment. The long hours spent in a classroom instead of playing with friends. The hours and hours of studying, homework and frustration. Now imagine after all of that your life consists of repeating the same menial tasks every day for barely enough to afford gas. That's the world young people face today. No wonder people aren't giving a shit.
Giving everyone access to a broad education has unforeseen consequences. It endows each person with an identity that doesn't mesh with the outside world of adulthood, where most people find themselves with "unfulfilling" jobs. Kids spend the first quarter century of their lives being encouraged to dream, develop self esteem and think highly of their own abilities. Then they run into the brick wall of adult work culture and become depressed and disillusioned. Many turn to socialism or self destructive behaviors to cope with the loss of their perceived status. They feel unrecognized and abused by the system.
I don't know what the solution is here, but I've been thinking about this a lot and felt like typing this up. I'm wondering what everyone else thinks of my hypothesis.
The real problem is that Gen Z has been led to believe this is somehow different than previous generations. Nothing is less affordable than in previous generations. Previous generations were able to afford housing etc. by forming relationships. People paired up with roommates or romantic partners to be able to afford to live on their own. The biggest difference is in the past young people had to move away from their parents' home at age 18. Most people who went to college did so to fulfill a real career purpose.
That's simply not true. Housing and rent costs are much higher today than they were when I was a kid. A new vehicle these days costs as much as a nice home for a family of 3 or 4 did when I was a kid.
We need to stop blaming the people that are being abused by this system. It's not a matter of working harder, the solution to slavery is not to be a better slave. People are realizing that the amount of fiat currency they need to live keeps increasing while the amount they get for all their hard work and lifeblood barely amounts to shit. They end up stuck in a cycle of barely scraping by and living pay check to pay check, while other people scoff at their struggles and tell this exhausted and miserable person that their issue is that they just arent trying hard enough.
When you attack the people, you defend the system that preys on them. You want to talk about complicity? Accountability? Maybe it's time we all stop blaming the younger people and start taking a look at the beast we've created that chews our young people up and shits them out when it's done with them.