I've heard this same song and dance from boomers for years. My grandfather -- whom raised me -- was that young generation that was too young to go to World War II, but grew up in the height of the post-war boom. While he wasn't nearly as condescending as some, he still had that "bootstraps" attitude that just infuriated me to no end. "Go to college, get a good education, pursue your dreams and you'll succeed in life with a lot of hard work."
Yeah...I went to college, worked my ass off paying for it with a combination of grants, scholarships, student loans and work study. I busted my ass to get an internship, working two jobs and going to classes 18 hours a semester and come out in debt with a full-time job making a grand total of $9/hour, which they said was a great wage for "someone like me" -- even though I was working there for the previous three years. Eight years total at the job and they bumped me to $10/hour and congratulate me on a job well done.
You can't do this job without a degree, but good luck paying for it with menial wages and the attitude of the management, which was fortunate enough to work in the 80s and 90s and earned those ridiculously high wages, that us "cubs" want the world handed to us on a plate without sacrificing is downright fucking insulting. Meanwhile, they continue to hang onto those high paying jobs as long as possible because they either didn't save worth a fucking damn -- the same fucking thing they blame us for -- or because they simply want to accumulate more wealth.
So yeah, we take to social networks or messageboards a lament the bullshit that we're saddled with and that somehow makes us entitled?
