I wonder if this is due to young people feeling like the status of previous generations (house, cars, kids, vacations, etc.) seem so much further out of reach than ever?
I was that young once. Even back then, the stock market was "obviously" worthless. If I have a hundred bucks, what the fuck good is having a hundred and five bucks in a year? I needed tens of thousands of dollars in order to fell like my life had changed.
So I ignored the stock market, and gravitated to poker. Same shit, different day. Chasing big returns because they're the only kind that would've moved the needle.
I don't think it's that bad or good, just natural, even in a more exuberant-feeling time. Everyone in parallel comments is talking about "it's because they don't think they can get a 9-to-5 and a house like their parents" as if having a steady job and being like your parents was ever an aspirational goal. Parents are boring! Nine to five is boring! Actors, athletes, rock stars, billionaires - that's the real goal. This wasn't created by social media, it wasn't created by 2008, it goes back decades at least.
Picture yourself being 15-20 years old. There are basically zero non-lottery-ticket opportunities available to you to make serious money. Your opportunities to exercise full-on adult agency are still fairly limited.
* Your immediate employment opportunities are things like fast food and pizza delivery
* You won't have a college degree for years even if you think you'd graduate into a middle-class type of job
* Even if you doubled down on your schoolwork, you won't generally be separated that much from the rest of your class. And grades aren't directly translatable into money and popularity, anyway.
It takes money to make money, and you don't have money. Looking for moonshots is a somewhat rational action in that situation - it's the only one with any chance of producing the desired outcome.
There is more and more pressure to signal fame & success...
It's a big act that needs constant reinforcement via social media.
Our narcissism has reached a fever pitch while the traditional methods of success no longer support the aspirational narrative.
It's no longer work hard, goto college, get a house and family..
Everyone needs to be a motivational / spiritual / business guru with a million followers, "passive income" and a schedule of traveling the world to exotic locales.
That lifestyle is also required now, not in 50 years, so fake it till you make it and bring on the debt / Airbnb / Lyft "sidehustle".
CryptoCurrency is the only lottery ticket left that provides any appearance of hope of covering people's bets and supports the current narratives of unbounded wealth with little to no work.
That and the trend that the avenues frequently cited as ways to achieve this status (hard work, education, dump your money into the stocks and pray) are increasingly being exposed as obvious bullshit.
> dump your money into the stocks and pray) are increasingly being exposed as obvious bullshit.
I'm not exactly sure how stocks have been exposed as
bullshit given they've produced above average returns, especially for young people who have gotten in after 2008.
Because they all remember 2008? The depression had a lasting influence on the people who lived through it, they hoarded, kept money under their beds, stuff like that because they knew what it was like when the banks failed. The great recession is obviously much milder but it did expose to many young people that stocks aren't as safe as they think.
For me the takeaway has been the exact opposite. I was skittish about putting retirement money into the stock market circa 2010 cuz I saw ten years of no net gains and feared that was a new normal. But I was doubly wrong - I hadn't factored in dividends, and a few years later stocks were double their pre-2008 peak. The bottom ended up being a rare chance (for the still-employed majority) to quadruple those upcoming returns. Even now, another 50%-bottom from peak would be double the previous bottom. The fundamentals behind the expectations of capitalistic returns seem less shaken than ever.
So I ignored the stock market, and gravitated to poker. Same shit, different day. Chasing big returns because they're the only kind that would've moved the needle.
I don't think it's that bad or good, just natural, even in a more exuberant-feeling time. Everyone in parallel comments is talking about "it's because they don't think they can get a 9-to-5 and a house like their parents" as if having a steady job and being like your parents was ever an aspirational goal. Parents are boring! Nine to five is boring! Actors, athletes, rock stars, billionaires - that's the real goal. This wasn't created by social media, it wasn't created by 2008, it goes back decades at least.
Picture yourself being 15-20 years old. There are basically zero non-lottery-ticket opportunities available to you to make serious money. Your opportunities to exercise full-on adult agency are still fairly limited. * Your immediate employment opportunities are things like fast food and pizza delivery * You won't have a college degree for years even if you think you'd graduate into a middle-class type of job * Even if you doubled down on your schoolwork, you won't generally be separated that much from the rest of your class. And grades aren't directly translatable into money and popularity, anyway.
It takes money to make money, and you don't have money. Looking for moonshots is a somewhat rational action in that situation - it's the only one with any chance of producing the desired outcome.