[sp332]

Ever wonder why people in third-world countries generally don't grow up to be successful like boomers did? Did you always think it was because they weren't tough enough? Actually, it's because the boomers had an awesome environment to grow up and have a career in. That environment doesn't exist anymore because the economy has tanked. Boomers literally have no idea how good they had it.

[abduhl]

Yes, and the millennials have an awesome environment to grow up and have a career in. The tech industry has one of the lowest barriers to entry ever seen. The more advanced science fields are making dramatic strides, all you need is the education and motivation to get into the industry.

Quit looking backwards with green tinted glasses and consider how good you yourself have it right now. Take some goddamn responsibility for your own life decisions.

[rjbwork]

I'm in tech, and am not really complaining for myself. But non-STEM folks are having a pretty tough time. The digital age has devastated non-STEM fields and majors. There was a time when getting an English or History degree from a respectable university opened a wealth of opportunities. Now they're more likely to be found selling shoes or making my coffee. My mother, a sweet 55 year old woman who never attended college, is the accounting manager for a business with tens of millions per year in revenue.

How? She was given secretarial work in the 70's and slowly clawed her way up while raising 3 kids, and was even lucky enough that her 7 years out of the work force in the early 90's when we were young didn't affect her career trajectory very much.

The possibility of this happening nowadays is slim to none. You need a degree to even be looked at for a lot of office work these days, and you can be sure you're not going to be promoted when they can bring in someone younger, with a degree relevant to their business sector, willing to work for less to fill any positions you could potentially be considered for. This also applies to lots of liberal arts majors as well as just high school students.

It also doesn't help that for as long as I can remember, my teachers, parents, and counselors have told me, my siblings, my friends, my classmates, and my generation that we should follow our passions and dreams, and success will follow. Luckily I like math, science, computers, and I've been a bit of a geek since I was a toddler, so I fell into my, coincidentally, highly-in-demand CS degree quite naturally. The same cannot be said of the bookish history, literature, or philosophy nerds I know.

There is blame all around, but from my perspective it seems like a lot more of it lay at the feet of our forebears than us.

But hey, at least us computer geeks have it good, eh?

[wambotron]

At what point in history was it ever easy for liberal arts folks? Unless you were commissioned by someone to do something lucrative, you're pretty much shit on your entire life. Whether it's undervalued or not is debatable, but I will say that nothing has changed as far as perception of liberal arts other than some broader acceptance.

What has changed is that pretty much everyone goes to college now, and many of them go for liberal arts degrees. You can't have 1000 people going for 1 job and expect them all to get it.

[dllthomas]

I worry a bit that you might be confusing liberal arts and fine arts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Liberal_Studies

[philwelch]

> There was a time when getting an English or History degree from a respectable university opened a wealth of opportunities.

Unless it was Harvard, no, it didn't. People always joked that a liberal arts degree left you prepared to work in fast food and little else.

[sp332]

The tech industry has one of the lowest barriers to entry ever seen

Why does no one tell the millenials then? If I wasn't already in tech before college, I would have no idea that it was a good career move (Computer Science is a very small department). Where do you get information to make a good decision?

[res0nat0r]

So you are stating that the hardships of a college student in the USA right now even remotely comparable to a poor person trying to get along in a third world county?

[sp332]

Nope, I'm saying you have to have a really good environment (i.e. "help") to be that successful.

[sesteel]

What does successful mean to you?

[sesteel]

This is conjecture and hyperbole on your part. The economy has grown substantially and rather consistently over the past 40 years (except for manufacturing).

It seems silly, but I feel compelled to remind today's youth that we all stand on the shoulders of giants. Also, none of us know as much as we think we do.

[maxerickson]

There are some interesting confounding factors though. Between 1970 and 2000, U.S. workforce participation increased by about 8%, while the population grew by 80 million people.

And while lots of manufacturing jobs have moved overseas or whatever, automation has had at least as much impact. If you look at it in terms of production, U.S. manufacturing has grown over time. Even something like the steel industry is pretty much at par with the output of 40 years ago, they just do it with a lot fewer people.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000 (fiddle the dates)

http://www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table

http://minerals.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/#steel