The majority of current US children do not want to be doctors or professors or plumbers or coders or truck drivers or electricians… they want to pursue a career path that has something like a one in a million odds of making them stupidly wealthy.
Because that’s what they see. All the time. A constant super, uber version of a reality tv show of wealthy idiot assholes doing and saying whatever they want and almost never facing any consequences.
And to some extent, who can blame them?
Every other career path has exceptional upfront costs of time and money, involves much, much more challenging work (either physical, mental or both) and are seen as basically just as risky in terms of actually working out.
Fuck it. YOLO. Only got 10 or 20 years until the water wars or WW3 or climate change breaks everything anyway.
Is there a room for humans in those garages? Why does every house these days need to dedicate so much of their square footage to cars.
Also, I’m aware there are substantial price differences in different markets - I’m in Canada and, specifically, Vancouver - our market is insane… but gone are the days of a modest home for under 200k.
I agree with your entire comment, but from this point on, you really nailed it.
Who knows what my attitude would be if I was in my teens or early twenties? I would be old enough to understand that I have almost no chance of building a “good” life. Everything’s fucked. Political systems, the labor market, and worst of all, the environment. Might as well earn money by being an idiot. At least then I’d be my own boss.
The majority of current US children do not want to be doctors or professors or plumbers or coders or truck drivers or electricians… they want to pursue a career path that has something like a one in a million odds of making them stupidly wealthy.
I, too, had dreams of being a rock star when I was a kid.
Different in some ways? Sure, maybe, but go watch the videos of people at the Beatles concerts, or Michael Jackson concerts, etc. etc. They look like they’re losing their minds just while he is standing on stage looking around before the performance. Humans have incredibly sick relationships to any ‘star.’ Look at athletes and their incredible influence on kids. Holy hell, for a recent one just look at taylor swift and getting people to register to vote.
How many kids did anything toward that goal, such as forming a band, learning how to play an instrument or sing, actually landing that first gig at a local bar or something…
… vs how many kids nowadays … have a social media account they post to religiously?
Forming a band? Tons. You couldn’t drive down a neighborhood block without hearing someone banging on drums in a garage, or an amp pealing its notes out from an open window.
I would bet the amount of ‘bands’ that formed and the amount of kids that post videos to become influencers have a pretty similar number.
Influencer.
That’s what he does.
We have failed.
You are aware that the majority of kids aspire to be social influencers as a desired life/career path, yes?
https://pro.morningconsult.com/analysis/gen-z-interest-influencer-marketing
The majority of current US children do not want to be doctors or professors or plumbers or coders or truck drivers or electricians… they want to pursue a career path that has something like a one in a million odds of making them stupidly wealthy.
Because that’s what they see. All the time. A constant super, uber version of a reality tv show of wealthy idiot assholes doing and saying whatever they want and almost never facing any consequences.
And to some extent, who can blame them?
Every other career path has exceptional upfront costs of time and money, involves much, much more challenging work (either physical, mental or both) and are seen as basically just as risky in terms of actually working out.
Fuck it. YOLO. Only got 10 or 20 years until the water wars or WW3 or climate change breaks everything anyway.
The majority of kids dream of eventually owning a home… it looks like that’s unrealistic unless you can get 4-5 million together in some markets.
These are down the street from me. They are 1.3 million dollars.
Is there a room for humans in those garages? Why does every house these days need to dedicate so much of their square footage to cars.
Also, I’m aware there are substantial price differences in different markets - I’m in Canada and, specifically, Vancouver - our market is insane… but gone are the days of a modest home for under 200k.
psst… don’t look now, but it’s less than ten years.
Pssst, we all wish, this shit is going to circle the drain for decades. Think it’s bad now? Just wait.
I agree with your entire comment, but from this point on, you really nailed it.
Who knows what my attitude would be if I was in my teens or early twenties? I would be old enough to understand that I have almost no chance of building a “good” life. Everything’s fucked. Political systems, the labor market, and worst of all, the environment. Might as well earn money by being an idiot. At least then I’d be my own boss.
I, too, had dreams of being a rock star when I was a kid.
Money for nothin’. Chicks for free.
Checks for free. He’s talking about writing personal checks, like in the beforetimes, and them having no impact on his bank account later.
It’s a damning account of 80s hypermaterialism.
Yes, I know, history rhymes and Socrates was right about the youth being out of control.
That’s not what any of the lyrics sites I can find are saying.
https://genius.com/Dire-straits-money-for-nothing-lyrics
Pretty sure that line is about women throwing themselves at rock stars.
My bad, always had the other version because of the music video.
For real. Youthful day dreams are nothing new.
This is really different though. In so many ways.
Looking up to rock stars was different from parasocial relationships with people you watch hundreds and hundreds of hours of.
The volume of content dictates so many differences between rock stars and influencers just on its own.
Different in some ways? Sure, maybe, but go watch the videos of people at the Beatles concerts, or Michael Jackson concerts, etc. etc. They look like they’re losing their minds just while he is standing on stage looking around before the performance. Humans have incredibly sick relationships to any ‘star.’ Look at athletes and their incredible influence on kids. Holy hell, for a recent one just look at taylor swift and getting people to register to vote.
How many kids did anything toward that goal, such as forming a band, learning how to play an instrument or sing, actually landing that first gig at a local bar or something…
… vs how many kids nowadays … have a social media account they post to religiously?
Forming a band? Tons. You couldn’t drive down a neighborhood block without hearing someone banging on drums in a garage, or an amp pealing its notes out from an open window.
I would bet the amount of ‘bands’ that formed and the amount of kids that post videos to become influencers have a pretty similar number.