[maerF0x0]

> It’s not surprising that when it comes to their investment strategies, that the “you only live once” philosophy and a preference for high-risk high-return investments is preferred. What has this generation got to lose?

That is pure irrationality. IMO The real issue is a crap education system which gives neither opportunity, nor good advice-- instead of training rational actors w/ valueable skills it focuses on building activists before they have any life experience and smacks of marxism.

What's the path out? Free education for socially profitable degrees might be a fix (ie STEM). Not wasting the first 18 years of a person's life might be an alternative (eg: why are we memorizing dates permanently recorded online, why arent we teaching (personal) financial and programming expertise?).

Edit: by financial I meant personal financial skills, not wall street skills. My apologies for the imprecision.

[skulk]

> Not wasting the first 18 years of a person's life might be an alternative

It's not an alternative, it's strictly necessary. People look around and wonder how 70 million Americans voted for a certain someone, and the clear-cut answer isn't farther than their local public high school.

A system designed from the ground up to mold nearly everybody into obedient manufacturing drones in a economy that doesn't rely on manufacturing anymore is bound to create huge issues.

[mrslave]

> IMO The real issue is a crap education system which gives neither opportunity, nor good advice

The nihilism of YOLO has little to do with schooling. A broken education system is well after the fact of the economic and social reality constituting their environment. The young today have impossible economic hurdles: unaffordable shoebox apartments, high student debt, no incentive to save, no good jobs for modest tasks. And society is generally incoherent: "communities" are activist and political minority groups, or online, and not your actual neighbourhood; in-person communities are fractured by many different spoken languages; plus the cultural promotion of pornography, sex, and drugs.

[maerF0x0]

> no incentive to save

I highly disagree with this. The S&P 500 has returned 400% since the crash in a mere 12 yrs. If doubling your money every 6 years does not sound excellent to you, the it's a financial education that is lacking, not real opportunity.

> in-person communities are fractured by many different spoken languages

I actually have found this really enjoyable, to have lots of opportunity to speak/learn Spanish.

> cultural promotion of pornography, sex, and drugs. Given how these affect the reward centers of the brains, IMO these should all be reserved as post success rewards. If someone wants to smoke weed all day and do nothing, that sucks. But if they're high achieving and want to relax _after_ killing it, who are we to tell them no?

[mrslave]

> The S&P 500 has returned 400% since the crash in a mere 12 yrs. If doubling your money every 6 years does not sound excellent to you, the it's a financial education that is lacking, not real opportunity.

This is rich in hindsight bias and selective reasoning. Picking returns since the minimum is intellectually dishonest. Also the inflation fueling this is also fueling the economic disillusionment of the YOLO Gamestop "investor."

The greater problem I have with your comments is you are focused only on potential high achievers, and seem to have little sympathy for the common man. We don't only need a nation of high achievers with the good education you advocate. We need a nation where the average (really median) person has a future to look forward to, and can achieve at least a modicum of accomplishment and self-respect, if not wealth and prosperity too. YOLO investors as per Gamestop are not the people you are discussing. They are very average people who have very little to look forward to.

[solosoyokaze]

> If someone wants to smoke weed all day and do nothing, that sucks. But if they're high achieving and want to relax _after_ killing it, who are we to tell them no?

Why does it suck? If people want to self-medicate, why judge them? A society where everyone must be “high achieving” sounds like a dystopia. We’re practically already post-scarcity on a lot of goods and automation is going to further eliminate the need for workers.

[UncleMeat]

And the Nasdaq only matched its 2000 peak in 2017.

Investment can be powerful, but you are cherry picking.

[scsilver]

And why are teachers teaching liberal ideas? Maybe because the rationality of non liberals and non progressives leads to a pissed off and subversive underclass. If we are being rational, why not fix the system to produce "more rational" teachers.

Programmers and financiers are not the best at shaping childrens minds, its not like those fields teach about childhood development.

[maerF0x0]

> its not like those fields teach about childhood development.

I agree, Pedagogical science fits in STEM and I think it's very important we deeply invest in childhood development. I mostly think the subject matter of school is questionable, not the fact we go to school (hence why I suggested we also fund STEM degrees for anyone smart enough to finish it)

[scsilver]

I agree, however, I do think liberal arts is essential to being a humanist engineer. And personally, I want to be producing engineers who's main focus is improving quality of life.

People I talk to who dont have the range of wide education miss a lot of context for the world they are living in, temporaly, politically, and socially. And would push to keep it a necessary part of that stem education.