On this Episode of the Podcast, We Discuss the Millennial Generation.

The Story of Poverty Burdened Millennial Generation

Hey paper chasers, it’s your host Jeff Jackson here to take you on yet another podcast adventure.

For this particular episode, it’s all aboard the poverty express for a trip down memory lane where we will be examining how and why the vast majority of the millennial generation is flirting with or is below the poverty line. A whopping 13.5 million Millennials, or 1 in 5, live in poverty, and 18 percent have been or are currently on food stamps. Call it the unsexy pink elephant in the center of the room, but being broke is something that we can all most likely relate to, having known why the saying “the struggle is real” hits so painfully close to home.

REALITY BITES

So let’s begin by addressing all the hype and stereotypes surrounding the generation known as the “Millennials.” Demographers William Straus and Neil Howe define millennials as those born between 1982 through 2004, proceeding “Generation X,” although there is no widely accepted date range used to characterize this often-misunderstood generation.

As the offspring of the baby boomers and older Gen Xers, the Millennials are often characterized by an increased proclivity for digital technologies and communications. One would think that this direct exposure to the age of information would translate to a distinct advantage for this generation to “get ahead” in life, but alas, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, ignorance could not be more abundant in this age of information. With the power of the World Wide Web at our fingertips, how does a generation come out with such staggering levels of unemployment? Two words immediately come to mind: GREAT RECESSION, i.e. the period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000’s and early 2010s.

Older generation’s trickledown decisions have caused many Millennials to take it on the chin during the alleged recovery from the Great Recession. Consequently, this generation is unfortunately saddled in debt, constituting a vast part of the $1.3 trillion in outstanding student loans. Yes, that is TRILLION with a capital “T” as in terrible, tumultuous, and truly traumatic. So this leaves many a millennial stuck with no other option besides finding a job in the lower paying service sector of our economy even with college degrees. This cause and effect cycle has furthermore prevented them from making a down payment on a home, and because of this, they are stuck living at home with their parents even after college.

But there’s way more to this story.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the sentiment why life is arguably so hard for Millennials. Just open your web browser of choice and Google keywords like “millennials+poverty” and you’ll see that there is indeed a litany of complaints coming from disgruntled Millennials and even sympathetic Baby boomers and GenXers on this very topic. There is a glaring reason that Millennials get generalized the way they do – they take up way too much of the public discourse as everyone worries about what the hell to do with them.

Frankly, I’m languishing in a sort of economic and political purgatory of sorts with all this incessant digital chatter that can essentially be summarized like this, “we should all complain more because…it makes us feel better.” Well, sorry to burst your bubbles because – spoiler alert- this isn’t an effective impetus for achieving true societal change.

With that being said, this podcast won’t follow that trend of whining about how reality bites without digging a little deeper… Rather, this podcast will present a stimulating discussion regarding why Millennials should complain more and thus what said complaining could actually accomplish.

THE COMPLAINT CYCLE- LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT INSANITY

A wise man by the name of Albert Einstein once posited that insanity is doing the same things over and over again while expecting different results. If this clichéd expression is true, then one can certainly argue beyond a reasonable doubt that we’re all mad here. As a favored phrase of journalists commenting on political and economic news, it’s become a zeitgeist of the endless complaint cycle plaguing American society. So without further ado, let’s deconstruct this lather, rinse, and repeat insanity cycle. And so the story goes…

Millennials complaining is in no way, shape, or form a new thing, and it’s so well established now that it’s become the hashtag of this generation. But tack on the older generations complaining about Millennials complaining, and we’ve got one helluva vicious meta-complaining cycle on our hands.

I suppose complaining is all the rage these days. And the boomers aren’t immune to the whining factor. Their parents also shared a similar sentiment that they were lazy and felt entitled all the while preaching “free love” while being doped up on a mind-numbing cocktail of LSD, marijuana, Quaaludes, and cocaine. They protested the Vietnam War and hid under their desks waiting for the nuclear apocalypse which was nothing compared to the atrocities their parents faced during The Great Depression or World War II or walking fifteen miles to school during a godforsaken raging snowstorm.

There seems to be a glaring pattern here. And while it’s healthy that each generation feels an urgency to strive and overcome what is perceived as extreme obstacles left behind by prior generations, it has never put an end to this crippling cycle once and for all. Tale as old as time, song as old as 20th century America.

So why are Millennials getting such a bad reputation for being lazy, entitled so-called “special snowflakes” when they are, in fact, raising such painfully legitimate complaints? Perhaps ultimately every generation has the right, nay – the duty, to complain about the previous one and the big, bad mess they inherited. It’s simply a matter of human nature, and albeit a daunting one at that.

The real challenge at hand is to see if they can do any better. Can they rise up like the phoenix out of the ashes of the sins of the past and overcome the damn near suffocating adversities that have managed to impede our progress as a whole? In this game of life, what’s at stake here? The simple answer is: everything. So now is the time to know and truly understand what challenges we are facing before we march forward unafraid. To put it bluntly, we must sink or swim. The choice is yours.

CHOOSE YOUR PARENTS WISELY

So let’s shift our focus exclusively on the legitimate millennial complaints on the table to better understand their headspace. We all know that the current economic climate has provoked the ire of this generation, but now we must deconstruct each tentacle of this monstrous Cthulhu-esque abomination that controls nearly every aspect of our overall quality of life.

This evil monstrosity is essentially the invisible hand of financial abuse that dictates our place on the economic food chain. It is responsible for the wide array of horrors burdening our society time after time: the corruption of governments, the financial mistreatment of the poor, and even the cover-ups of the murder of innocent, normal citizens all for the sake of profit. As some wise men once quipped, “Cash rules everything around me. CREAM. Hit the money – Dollar dollar bills, y’all.”

It’s a hard knock life all right, but not every millennial is singing that tune. Quite the contrary, some Millennials are sitting pretty on their figurative monopoly board’s property on the Boardwalk and Park Place while others are left to suffer daily anxiety attacks over how to afford their next dollar menu meal.

While the vast majority of Millennials are barely surviving in an economy that feels like it’s still in a recession, there’s a percentage that are actually thriving. How are they escaping mountains of student debt and gaining their golden ticket access to down payments to purchase luxurious homes?

How can such an injustice prevail generation after generation? The answer resides within one of the evil monstrosity’s many tentacles, and it’s called a “funnel of privilege.” This describes the process by which young adults with rich parents soon become rich themselves.

It generally takes around 8 years just to save up for a down payment on your typical American household. Let’s juxtapose this hypothetically with the Millennials who are able to receive immediate assistance from their affluent family and ta-dah! You suddenly find yourself in a place where you can own your home 8 years quicker. This is a major issue because most Millennials don’t fall into this category. Thus, the overall home ownership rate has been plummeting substantially.

Too bad this isn’t some mommy market where we’re given three magical tokens and told to choose our parents wisely. Otherwise, the “funnel of privilege” would cease to exist, and we’d all be hosting catered housewarming parties to show off how on point our “adulting” skills really are.

AMERICAN DREAM?  MORE LIKE AMERICAN SCHEME

Now, let’s move on to another tentacle of this evil Ctulhu-esque monstrosity – the pressure to receive higher education. We