Woman Explains How Millennials Are Systematically Infantilized By Previous Generations And It’s Spot On
According to the Pew Research Center, today roughly 24% of young adults could be deemed financially independent by 22 years old, compared to 32% in 1980. It was also found that almost half (45%) the adults between the ages of 18 to 29 receive financial help from their parents. Pew Research Center further reports that young adults today are staying in school longer and marrying and establishing their own households later compared to the previous generations.
While it’s easy to jump to reductive claims and say that the current generation is lazy and entitled, the financial independence and other adulthood markers are not so easy to reach for today’s youth. The point was proven perfectly by a young woman on Twitter – Louisa shared her opinion on the so-called adulthood markers. According to her, the system is built to keep people just barely above water while at the same time bullying them for not conforming to the standards set by previous generations. Scroll down below to read Louisa’s tweets and don’t forget to tell us what you think in the comment section.
More info: Twitter
Recently, one woman shared her opinion on the ‘infantilized generation’
Image credits: Can Pac Swire
Louisa argues that today’s young adults are infantilized against their own will and then mocked for not being able to meet the expectations of adulthood. She says that people in power price the youth out of the aforementioned adulthood markers (a house, wedding, nuclear family) and makes them unreachable. Quickly enough, Louisa received praise for her on-point thread, but not everyone was agreeing with her. “Being financially independent is not hard. Pay off your debt. You can easily do this by living without using a credit card and living within your means. Then once your debt is paid off, build wealth. Budgeting will save your life,” one person wrote. Another man argued that the secret is, “kids as soon as you have room in your heart,” and then, “the money works itself out.”
Soon enough, Louisa’s thread on Twitter went viral
Image credits: LouisatheLast
Image credits: LouisatheLast
Image credits: LouisatheLast
Image credits: LouisatheLast
Image credits: LouisatheLast
People chimed in by offering a further extension of Louisa’s list
Image credits: AnonAnemone
Image credits: RealRyanWhorton
Image credits: MadvilNE
Image credits: BigGayYeen
People were particularly annoyed by the forced monetization of one’s hobbies and argued that “any hobbies or sources of enjoyment (i.e playing an instrument, drawing, photography, etc.) [are] only valuable if they are used as a source of income.”
“Don’t forget that the money spent on a said hobby, no matter how small, is a sign of our immaturity and the reason we can’t afford the things they had,” someone added.
People found Louisa’s thread relatable and some even responded with memes
Image credits: MarcCapeMay
Image credits: theladydharma
Image credits: MoriMole
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Share on FacebookGenX here and this article is correct. Except! These rules apply to ALL of us. Yes, my generation got a head start. I do have wealthy friends but most of my friends are like me: struggling to keep up and get by every month, and knowing the system is stacked against EVERYone but the wealthy. Many Boomers and Silent Generations are also feeling this pain, if they were working class, if they did not save enough, if they are ill or in an accident (in the U.S., where illness can make you homeless) if they were not rich to begin with. So it's idiotic for anyone to knock Millennials when we are all in the same boat that pits us against each other and is perfectly unbalanced to favor the rich. We need to join forces and take down the systems that harm decent, hardworking people.
Gen X was the beginning of the end, thanks to Reagan. I kept wondering when companies would realize that the less they paid their employees, the less money they spent at those companies. However, I didn't count on the same people not worrying about their companies making money, but just gambling with stocks prices & bailing with their golden parachutes. Individual CEOs were making money even as the companies were crashing & burning & laying off people. Then they'd start the next round. I was born in 1963, on the cusp between Boomers & Gen X, so I had a bit of insight on both & was affected somewhat by the financial crisis. I started out okay, then in the late 80's & early 90's, our basic 7% annual raise was changed to 3%. It's now 0%. I did get a pension, but since my salary hasn't gone up much, it won't be much, but I'm still better off than most millenials. However, it wasn't just Boomers who did this. Too many Gen X took the Reagan mythology & greed is good to heart.
Load More Replies...Every generation since Moses has complained about the generation before/after them. In about 25 years there will be 20-somethings telling GenX that they are old, out of touch and clueless. And GenX will be telling those 20-somethings how they are ruining everything with their attitude and ethics. To quote Sir Elton, it's the circle of life.
Powers that be do everything they can to upset us, and divide us. We have to fight off the impulse to succumb to that. Let's be supportive of young people. Life is hard and we need each other. Refuse to be made to feel like everyone else is "other" from you. We have WAY more in common than we do c**p that divides us.
Yep, people are so worried that someone will get something they didn't get that they don't want anyone to have anything.
Load More Replies...Did you know that the phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" was originally created to describe something that is impossible? So when someone talks about how the poor just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, even thought they MEAN it should be easy, they're actually using an incredibly apt description of the difficulty of the situation.
Thank you! I have always wondered about that phrase, as it seems akin to trying to sail a boat by blowing on your own sail. But that makes sense ^-^
Load More Replies...Subsequent generations of post-Boomers have been steered or even railroaded into tertiary rather than stigmatised trades, resulting in huge student debt for often unuseful qualifications, at the same time causing a shortage of tradespeople to build housing and manage the other nuts and screws of society.
My son complained about never having enough money to live on. I told him I could cut his budget by 25% in a few minutes... He's got a rolls royce cell phone plan costing $150/mo, refuses to have a roommate, refuses to drive a car more than 3 years old, eats out instead of at home at least 4-5 nights a week, has to have the top of the line cable channels, and wonders why he never has money? Not my problem once he's graduated college.
NOT Necessarily “Infantilised By Previous Generations”, but ordinary people definitely have been Systematically Controlled & Fooled by the Greedy Selfish Top 1% of the Wealthy at Their Disposal, so that they can Grow Wealth for themselves and their offspring ... generations to come! In other words, the ordinary people have become the Slaves to produce fortune only for the Wealthy [Masters]!
I don't believe in generation devision , we are more mordenise than our previous generations And I guess it's normal. I believe these generational divisions are made by some old stuck up guy who wants someone to blame on for all our collective failure and inability to solve a problem fought by our parents my older siblings and us (ahem media) . Cause it's not a competition to see who is more in hell(or was ) . And this competition like feeling is the biggest reason why we are not able to do anything about major problem is because it is easier stand tall alone but it hurts your ego when someone is on same level as you . So , more or less we don't know how to face a big problem because we are unable to communicate because of our egos . (I will be a genz by today's standards but I prefer to be a human ) And comeon we all have been a**e to each other forever irrespective of our generations.
Omg this is spot on and I'm crying inside. There's no hope for anything because the rulers are a small group of really rich people and they come up with any excuse to f**k the classes below them even going so far in government as to create obstical courses for anyone trying to climb the class ladder
Dear Americans, get degrees that are actually required in the job market, and stop whining. Also, some trades pay very well. Love, Dan
But who's to blame for their complete and total lack of personal responsibility for their actions and choices? Everything is automagically someone else's fault. But as a gen-x'er and certified nihilist, I don't really care. Disaster-g...24c002.jpg
Just wanna say a big thank to Robinson.buckler(@ yahoo.) com the great HERBALIST that helped me prepare home remedies that cured my herpes simplex virus (HSV1&2) 💕💖❤️💞💕💖❤️💞💕💖❤️
There is no way my husband and I could have paid $35,000 for a home in Sunnyvale in 1963. Family paid for the home. We moved back to SF; the home with a master bdrm and bath, two other smaller rooms, hall bath, LR with dining area, fairly large galley kitchen and two car garage just sold for $750,000. It was a standard tract home with a front patio and lawn. There was a back patio with a lemon tree and large lawn. It was suburbia on steroids; the local public school had no windows at kid level, because it would have been a distraction. Lockheed moved in and home prices went through the roof after we moved. We bid on a home in SF in an estate sale; our bid would have won except for a consortium from Chinatown bidding higher with a suitcase full of cash. This was in early sixties. The SF home was a lovely '20's building with cedar closets, master BR and bath; the family left a Steinway grand piano in the LR. it would no doubt go for well over 1M today.
Xer here. I think this is spot on, but I also think that in general the millennial generation lacks the work ethic of the past. I have seen several mils come and go from a company that pays a decent wage, offers good benefits (80% employer paid) the Monday after you start work, retirement plans, and a host of other perks. The first time they don't get their way or are asked to deviate from their schedule or their normal routine in any way, they quit. In speaking with many of my contemporaries, this is often the case. Just this week, we had a 26 year-old female that was hired in at 47K to do admin work and when she was asked if she could adjust her lunch hour (go one hour later) for ONE WEEK to accommodate some training, she threw a fit, refused and left without notice stating, "She was not going to be disrespected." This is not an isolated incident with Mils quitting over the smallest of slights or reasonable requests. This is where the bad reputation comes from.
Millennials are currently 24-39 years old. This is more apt for Generation Z.
A millennial is someone who became an adult in the last 20 years. Gen Zs are kids.
Load More Replies...The education thing is absolutely correct. I have a bachelor's degree and applied to get a job at my local state hospital and couldn't get the job. My mother said that the degree is probably the reason I didn't get the job because they don't know why someone with that level of education wants to work there. I have an answer for them: because it's a job and it pays well. However my local pizza place didn't think twice when I applied there. I got hired right away.
The whole argument is sad. It's ALL about money, whichever perspective is expressed. Who cares! Life is not a race. And you don't have to see it as one. Meaning - who cares who thinks what. Let them moan! Play your own game. Be as successful and healthy or not as you wish - it's an INDIVIDUAL experience.
Yes, I agree that this is our struggle, but I am also tired of hearing people complain about it. Sure there are a lot of barriers in our way, and I may never own a home, but we have different strengths and resources that our parents never did. Frankly Millennial are adults now. We have to figure our s**t out, even if it just means redefining success for ourselves.
A lot of them are not just complaining. They're getting active in politics. That's a good thing. It should have happened back it he Reagan days before deregulation went rampant. Why is Amazon as big as it was? You couldn't have monopolies when I was growing up. Heck, they split up Ma Bell & that was at least regulated more strictly since it was a utility. And now we pay less money for cell phones/mini-computers with unlimited long distance than we did for a landline. Thank competition.
Load More Replies...There is more to this story than the post. I know many Millenials who have a college degree who struggle to find a decent paying job. All of them, 100%, have a Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Communication or Art History or Sociology or similar. These degrees have never paid a decent salary... ever, even when Boomers were young. They chose these programs because they were easy to get a degree in compared to those that start out with excellent pay, such as Accounting, Mechanical/Electrical/Chemical Engineering and Risk Assessment/Actuary. These programs are more difficult but certainly not unattainable. On top of that, they go into deep debt because they want that major University experience instead of taking the bulk of their classes at a far less expensive fully accredited Junior College or Community College and transferring to the Major University. These are things I did while in college to keep my debt down and go for a degree that would pay me back on my investment quickly.
May I ask where you live? I know engineers in the UK, France and the Netherlands who struggled to find any kind of job. On the contrary, high-paying companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, the Big 3 (think: graduates on £55,000 pa) are mad about history, sociology and political science graduates.
Load More Replies...This sounds like a bunch of whining and complaining by a generation that, for some reason, think they get paid less than I got paid straight out of school...which was, by the way, less than $30,000 in the NYC METRO AREA!!!!! They are not special and they are not the only people today struggling with finances, life and the concept of adulthood. The difference is they think they are owed these things by the world because they got a trophy for spitting up and peeing on the potty.
Millennials were just returning the shade brought by Boomers. If Boomers didn't want to be critiqued they should have kept their mouths shut in the first place.
Load More Replies...why be thankful if you cant afford to live on your own because that job doesnt pay enough
Load More Replies...When you get run over by a car you'll be begging for socialism
Load More Replies...Wow, thanks for assuming that we don't work hard and that you somehow know how I'm spending my money. Way off base.
Load More Replies...GenX here and this article is correct. Except! These rules apply to ALL of us. Yes, my generation got a head start. I do have wealthy friends but most of my friends are like me: struggling to keep up and get by every month, and knowing the system is stacked against EVERYone but the wealthy. Many Boomers and Silent Generations are also feeling this pain, if they were working class, if they did not save enough, if they are ill or in an accident (in the U.S., where illness can make you homeless) if they were not rich to begin with. So it's idiotic for anyone to knock Millennials when we are all in the same boat that pits us against each other and is perfectly unbalanced to favor the rich. We need to join forces and take down the systems that harm decent, hardworking people.
Gen X was the beginning of the end, thanks to Reagan. I kept wondering when companies would realize that the less they paid their employees, the less money they spent at those companies. However, I didn't count on the same people not worrying about their companies making money, but just gambling with stocks prices & bailing with their golden parachutes. Individual CEOs were making money even as the companies were crashing & burning & laying off people. Then they'd start the next round. I was born in 1963, on the cusp between Boomers & Gen X, so I had a bit of insight on both & was affected somewhat by the financial crisis. I started out okay, then in the late 80's & early 90's, our basic 7% annual raise was changed to 3%. It's now 0%. I did get a pension, but since my salary hasn't gone up much, it won't be much, but I'm still better off than most millenials. However, it wasn't just Boomers who did this. Too many Gen X took the Reagan mythology & greed is good to heart.
Load More Replies...Every generation since Moses has complained about the generation before/after them. In about 25 years there will be 20-somethings telling GenX that they are old, out of touch and clueless. And GenX will be telling those 20-somethings how they are ruining everything with their attitude and ethics. To quote Sir Elton, it's the circle of life.
Powers that be do everything they can to upset us, and divide us. We have to fight off the impulse to succumb to that. Let's be supportive of young people. Life is hard and we need each other. Refuse to be made to feel like everyone else is "other" from you. We have WAY more in common than we do c**p that divides us.
Yep, people are so worried that someone will get something they didn't get that they don't want anyone to have anything.
Load More Replies...Did you know that the phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" was originally created to describe something that is impossible? So when someone talks about how the poor just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, even thought they MEAN it should be easy, they're actually using an incredibly apt description of the difficulty of the situation.
Thank you! I have always wondered about that phrase, as it seems akin to trying to sail a boat by blowing on your own sail. But that makes sense ^-^
Load More Replies...Subsequent generations of post-Boomers have been steered or even railroaded into tertiary rather than stigmatised trades, resulting in huge student debt for often unuseful qualifications, at the same time causing a shortage of tradespeople to build housing and manage the other nuts and screws of society.
My son complained about never having enough money to live on. I told him I could cut his budget by 25% in a few minutes... He's got a rolls royce cell phone plan costing $150/mo, refuses to have a roommate, refuses to drive a car more than 3 years old, eats out instead of at home at least 4-5 nights a week, has to have the top of the line cable channels, and wonders why he never has money? Not my problem once he's graduated college.
NOT Necessarily “Infantilised By Previous Generations”, but ordinary people definitely have been Systematically Controlled & Fooled by the Greedy Selfish Top 1% of the Wealthy at Their Disposal, so that they can Grow Wealth for themselves and their offspring ... generations to come! In other words, the ordinary people have become the Slaves to produce fortune only for the Wealthy [Masters]!
I don't believe in generation devision , we are more mordenise than our previous generations And I guess it's normal. I believe these generational divisions are made by some old stuck up guy who wants someone to blame on for all our collective failure and inability to solve a problem fought by our parents my older siblings and us (ahem media) . Cause it's not a competition to see who is more in hell(or was ) . And this competition like feeling is the biggest reason why we are not able to do anything about major problem is because it is easier stand tall alone but it hurts your ego when someone is on same level as you . So , more or less we don't know how to face a big problem because we are unable to communicate because of our egos . (I will be a genz by today's standards but I prefer to be a human ) And comeon we all have been a**e to each other forever irrespective of our generations.
Omg this is spot on and I'm crying inside. There's no hope for anything because the rulers are a small group of really rich people and they come up with any excuse to f**k the classes below them even going so far in government as to create obstical courses for anyone trying to climb the class ladder
Dear Americans, get degrees that are actually required in the job market, and stop whining. Also, some trades pay very well. Love, Dan
But who's to blame for their complete and total lack of personal responsibility for their actions and choices? Everything is automagically someone else's fault. But as a gen-x'er and certified nihilist, I don't really care. Disaster-g...24c002.jpg
Just wanna say a big thank to Robinson.buckler(@ yahoo.) com the great HERBALIST that helped me prepare home remedies that cured my herpes simplex virus (HSV1&2) 💕💖❤️💞💕💖❤️💞💕💖❤️
There is no way my husband and I could have paid $35,000 for a home in Sunnyvale in 1963. Family paid for the home. We moved back to SF; the home with a master bdrm and bath, two other smaller rooms, hall bath, LR with dining area, fairly large galley kitchen and two car garage just sold for $750,000. It was a standard tract home with a front patio and lawn. There was a back patio with a lemon tree and large lawn. It was suburbia on steroids; the local public school had no windows at kid level, because it would have been a distraction. Lockheed moved in and home prices went through the roof after we moved. We bid on a home in SF in an estate sale; our bid would have won except for a consortium from Chinatown bidding higher with a suitcase full of cash. This was in early sixties. The SF home was a lovely '20's building with cedar closets, master BR and bath; the family left a Steinway grand piano in the LR. it would no doubt go for well over 1M today.
Xer here. I think this is spot on, but I also think that in general the millennial generation lacks the work ethic of the past. I have seen several mils come and go from a company that pays a decent wage, offers good benefits (80% employer paid) the Monday after you start work, retirement plans, and a host of other perks. The first time they don't get their way or are asked to deviate from their schedule or their normal routine in any way, they quit. In speaking with many of my contemporaries, this is often the case. Just this week, we had a 26 year-old female that was hired in at 47K to do admin work and when she was asked if she could adjust her lunch hour (go one hour later) for ONE WEEK to accommodate some training, she threw a fit, refused and left without notice stating, "She was not going to be disrespected." This is not an isolated incident with Mils quitting over the smallest of slights or reasonable requests. This is where the bad reputation comes from.
Millennials are currently 24-39 years old. This is more apt for Generation Z.
A millennial is someone who became an adult in the last 20 years. Gen Zs are kids.
Load More Replies...The education thing is absolutely correct. I have a bachelor's degree and applied to get a job at my local state hospital and couldn't get the job. My mother said that the degree is probably the reason I didn't get the job because they don't know why someone with that level of education wants to work there. I have an answer for them: because it's a job and it pays well. However my local pizza place didn't think twice when I applied there. I got hired right away.
The whole argument is sad. It's ALL about money, whichever perspective is expressed. Who cares! Life is not a race. And you don't have to see it as one. Meaning - who cares who thinks what. Let them moan! Play your own game. Be as successful and healthy or not as you wish - it's an INDIVIDUAL experience.
Yes, I agree that this is our struggle, but I am also tired of hearing people complain about it. Sure there are a lot of barriers in our way, and I may never own a home, but we have different strengths and resources that our parents never did. Frankly Millennial are adults now. We have to figure our s**t out, even if it just means redefining success for ourselves.
A lot of them are not just complaining. They're getting active in politics. That's a good thing. It should have happened back it he Reagan days before deregulation went rampant. Why is Amazon as big as it was? You couldn't have monopolies when I was growing up. Heck, they split up Ma Bell & that was at least regulated more strictly since it was a utility. And now we pay less money for cell phones/mini-computers with unlimited long distance than we did for a landline. Thank competition.
Load More Replies...There is more to this story than the post. I know many Millenials who have a college degree who struggle to find a decent paying job. All of them, 100%, have a Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Communication or Art History or Sociology or similar. These degrees have never paid a decent salary... ever, even when Boomers were young. They chose these programs because they were easy to get a degree in compared to those that start out with excellent pay, such as Accounting, Mechanical/Electrical/Chemical Engineering and Risk Assessment/Actuary. These programs are more difficult but certainly not unattainable. On top of that, they go into deep debt because they want that major University experience instead of taking the bulk of their classes at a far less expensive fully accredited Junior College or Community College and transferring to the Major University. These are things I did while in college to keep my debt down and go for a degree that would pay me back on my investment quickly.
May I ask where you live? I know engineers in the UK, France and the Netherlands who struggled to find any kind of job. On the contrary, high-paying companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, the Big 3 (think: graduates on £55,000 pa) are mad about history, sociology and political science graduates.
Load More Replies...This sounds like a bunch of whining and complaining by a generation that, for some reason, think they get paid less than I got paid straight out of school...which was, by the way, less than $30,000 in the NYC METRO AREA!!!!! They are not special and they are not the only people today struggling with finances, life and the concept of adulthood. The difference is they think they are owed these things by the world because they got a trophy for spitting up and peeing on the potty.
Millennials were just returning the shade brought by Boomers. If Boomers didn't want to be critiqued they should have kept their mouths shut in the first place.
Load More Replies...why be thankful if you cant afford to live on your own because that job doesnt pay enough
Load More Replies...When you get run over by a car you'll be begging for socialism
Load More Replies...Wow, thanks for assuming that we don't work hard and that you somehow know how I'm spending my money. Way off base.
Load More Replies...
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