[Tycho]

Luckily the soil is fertile: All over the world, the hittistes and shabab atileen, NEETs and freeters and boomerang kids are hungry for a chance to thrive.

Hmm, but how hungry? Compared to say people who came of age in the 40s or 50s? I'm not sure hungry is the right word. Restless maybe. Peckish.

[_delirium]

The Americans at least that I know who came of age in the 50s as anything close to middle-class weren't very hungry at all. They lived in a world of corporate jobs for life, defined-benefit pensions, comprehensive employer-provided health-care with no deductibles/copays/exclusions, low unemployment, etc. Even blue-collar workers had quite strong unions, high pay, and great pensions/healthcare in the 50s.

Granted, if you meant coming of age in 1947 in Poland, that'd be another matter.

[yummyfajitas]

Unfortunately, the jobs paid for a much lower standard of living than today, the health insurance would pay a doctor to tell you "you have terminal cancer", and all of this was only available to white males.

(Meanwhile, a terrorist group with millions of members was setting off about 20 bombs a year plus assorted lynchings and other acts of violence. The response by law enforcement was mainly gun control targeted at the victims of the terrorist group.)

The world of Mad Men is awesome if you get to be Don Draper. For everyone else, it sucked.

[kjhgfdfgh]

There is a famous film set in my home (small mining) town about dissafected youth in the 60s. At one point the teacher says that if the kid doesn't start working hard he will end up just working down the mine. In the 80s the mines closed, unemployment is 30% and a good job now is illegal minicabbing.

[Tycho]

I can believe that there were more/better careers on offer. But what about the consequences of not working, how do they compare to today?

[jhamburger]

Do you have anything substantial behind this or is it just general "worst generation ever" talk?

[Tycho]

Well, even my mother, who came of age in the 70s, shared a small home with 8 other siblings and two very over-stressed parents (who would have had things even harder). She was literally desperate to leave and start living much more comfortably (ie. independently). Nowadays kids come from much smaller families, and have numerous cheap distractions/entertainments like the internet, cellphones, tv, games. Living independently would probably mean facing up to a lot of problems, just for a little more freedom. How could they possibly be just as hungry/desperate? Plus many people conduct their entire jobsearch from their laptop, and get benefits paid directly into their bank.

[jhamburger]

If people were really comfortable spending the early stage of their adult life with Xbox and mom's cooking, they could have skipped going $100,000 in debt for six years of post-high school education that your mother's generation couldn't be bothered with.

[Tycho]

That perhaps makes sense where you live, but in my country going to university is free and is simply the done thing. Having vague long term goals for your life is one thing, having practical concerns forcing you into action vs. letting you laze around and enjoy pastimes, is another.

[throw02082011]

Jason Calacanis? Is that you???

Part of the problem is cheaper young workers are laid off to keep fatcat management of an older generation. The workers remaining at the company then get "more productive." Fire the old and bring in 2 young workers(or more) for each of their salaries and things get much better.

[jasonmcalacanis]

average age at mahalo is 27... nuff said