The Wall Street Journal printed an interesting essay on “What Happens When a Whole Generation Never Grows Up?” The problem is, they got a lot wrong. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m as frustrated as any employer who has tried to hire young people – in terms of trying to understand them and get a commitment out of them. Hell, mostly I’d just like to know what the hell they’re passionate about, if anything. (They don’t seem to know that either.)
The paper said that 30-somethings increasingly are bypassing the traditional milestones of adulthood, and that they have a permanent state of arrested development. Well, the author of the essay ought to be arrested, for false advertising. She blames the generation instead of the
real causes of the problem. Let’s walk though this mess.
The author cites steep declines in homeownership (ok, yes) and marriage and birth rates (can’t argue with that), but she also says that Gen Z are choosing this path for themselves, which I disagree with. They didn’t choose this life for themselves; it was chosen for them. Example – did they choose COVID and the stupid liberals in government shutting down their jobs and declaring them non-essential?
Yes, the author correctly states a lot of statistics about young adults and housing, marriage and having children. (Would you have children today if you were under all the burdens that Gen Z is under?)
She also correctly states that Gen Z entered the job market during the Great Recession – when there were no jobs available. Let me tell you from first hand experience – that can set young people back many years in their adult development. No job = no money = no house = no marriage = no children. It’s real simple math. I also graduated into a real estate depression in 1989, when there were no jobs, but admittedly, I hustled and worked my ass off. I didn’t move home; that wasn’t even a choice.
But then that depression only lasted a brief period unlike the Great Recession which lasted four long depressing years. Surviving the first one for a young person was easy, surviving the second one was much harder.
The author cites evidence that counters the wisdom that Gen Z is suffering, citing a 16% wage increase (adjusted for inflation) from 2000 to 2024. Hello, the general CPI doesn’t reflect the real costs that people have to pay. For example – the median home price increased by 318% over the same time period. The point being that the cost of living for a real person was enormously higher than what the CPI or wage growth statistics show.
She also cites the wealth of “30-somethings” having increased from $62,000 to $103,000 from 1989 to 2022, which is a 66% increase, but she leaves out that between that same time period, inflation ran 236% ! Holy crap, batman! So their net wealth in terms of purchasing power actually decreased substantially, and not just by a minor amount.
The author went on to say that “this age group is in a better place financially” than their parents. Really? She arrogantly says that the real problem is that they don’t know it. That’s like Biden saying that we just don’t know how great his economy is, because we’re all just a bunch of
boobs, morons and deplorables.
The author later cites student debt as one issue for Gen Z; well, no shit Sherlock. Student debt is really just a sickening wealth transfer scheme put on by liberal, big government babyboomers who are never satisfied with their massive six figure salaries for working 8 months a year, part-
time at the university. They constantly lobbying for higher pay – and more taxpayer support – and therefore, more and more tuition. They never shut up. They’re never satisfied. The UW could pay them $1 million each and they’d still bitch about not being paid enough. (Never mind their free offices, the massive pension plan, and their Cadillac health insurance. We should value all of that as part of their compensation package.)
Meanwhile, young kids just coming out of high school, (high school!) are brainwashed into taking on huge student debt to earn a degree that won’t even pay back that debt, not to mention the crappy education they are receiving. They can’t even write a letter or balance a checkbook when they graduate, let alone calculate the debt service on a home mortgage. Having counseled many of them, their college degree didn’t even show them how to calculate the debt service on their student debt or how long it will take them to pay it off.
For the last four years they’ve also been told they don’t have to pay it back, so that debt grew in size; for most of them, their debt has actually increased!! Yes, increased, due to accruals, but they don’t even know what that means, because their professors never bothered to tell them! (If you don’t want them to know how dumb a decision to take on debt to attend a university is, the universities certainly aren’t going to tell you that or how to analyze the decision.)
And home ownership is out of reach due to massively higher interest rates than the 2.5% rate that I locked in. Just because Gen Z was younger and hadn’t reached the point of buying a home doesn’t make them the problem. These high interest rates were forced on them. And with the run up in interest rates, home owners with low rates don’t want to sell, leaving a very tight housing market. Then there’s the NIMBY crowd, ahh, yes, you guessed it again, babyboomers who are against every new development – even ones that are no where near their own home! (I can testify to that!) Massive new restrictions, fees, and roadblocks to development of new housing that the babyboomers have passed over the last 25 years has led
to a severe shortage of housing and therefore, skyrocketing housing prices. Dah. Then throw in the iphone. Computers were a fine addition, even email was ok so long as it was to a computer that you left at the office at 5:00 pm each night. But the iphone ruined society and sacked Gen Z with a non-stop, continuous loop of pointless information.
Then add in social media on top of that, constant, never ending, phony one-upmanship, and we, yes, we – the babyboomers and Gen X addicted them to their iphones. It’s no different than a drug dealer who gives out free cocaine – to get users hooked, and then he raises the price to the point of
bankrupting his ‘customers’. The whole point being to steal all the wealth from the golden goose until the goose dies. Then move onto the next victim. It’s insanity on steroids. When will our elected officials ban social media from minors, hell, even everyone under 21? You can’t drink until you’re 21, why should we let a different form of drug destroy young people before their brains have fully developed?
But I don’t want to be the guy who just bitches about all this. Let me lay out a few solutions for Gen Z, should they accept the challenge.
I challenge you to – put down your phone from 5pm to bedtime each day; turn off all your social media accounts; to find what your passionate about and go after it; to skip college and start a business or attend a less expensive tech school and learn a real skill; to spend less and start saving or instead pay down your student debt (stop listening to the liberals trying to convince you that they will waive your debt, they won’t and they can’t); to get outside for a walk every day and hikes or other outdoor exercise on the weekends; to work your ass off like I did when I was
in my 20’s and 30’s to build your future, your career, your income; and lastly, to talk to people – in person, not by email or texting. Actually speak to someone, every day. Oh, and stop taking drugs. No more anxiety drugs, or MJ or anything else. Cut them out. Clear your system and your mind so you can think clearly.
If you think your life is hard, consider my grandfather who was one of only 8 out of 500 in his Army Air Corp. class to graduate as a pilot. He fly a bi-plane with canvas on the wings! The damn things kept crashing. Most of his buddies died from accidents, not being shot down. Or my dad, who flew as a rear gunner in a Helldiver. Do you know what that means? It means his pilot flew that plane straight down towards a ship, in the face of overwhelming enemy fire from the ship and nearby planes, until he could drop his bomb and hopefully pull out before he crashed into the sea or the ship. Talk about anxiety – and my dad didn’t take any drugs for that; he didn’t smoke or get addicted to alcohol. He dealt with it. He did his job, and when the war was over, he got out and went to work.
You’re worried about supporting yourself; get over it. My dad had to support 13 people! 11 kids and his wife and him, and later his mother, and oh, yea, he also had to help out his brother too. He was responsible for over 650 employees and their families too, so quit your whining. Your
problems are nothing compared to past generations.
The big difference is this. Those guys couldn’t choose not to fight fascism and communism, but you can choose not to engage in social media, not to look at your iphone very minute, not to take drugs. Your anxiety is nothing compared to theirs. They had real people shooting at them!
Do you? No. So get over it.
Make a real change in your life and get on with it, because it will take some time. But in the end, it’ll be worth it. Tough love, yes, but worth it.
Wisconsin Right Now is a news organization focused on covering the news from a conservative point of view, in particular on politics and policy issues through analysis and opinions, and is protected by the first amendment of the United States constitution. WRN does not make endorsements of candidates or direct readers to vote for or against any candidate or issue. On October 18 and November 23, 2023 Donald Trump tweeted out on Trump’s Truth Social account T. Wall’s October 6th column on Trump’s property valuations. T. Wall has appeared on Fox News, Jesse Waters Show on Fox, Newsmax, CBS, NBC, Spectrum News 1, USA Today, X.com, YouTube, and numerous Madison and Milwaukee news programs and local newspapers (Wisconsin State Journal, Capital Times, Middleton Review, Middleton Times Tribune, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a dozen other Wisconsin papers) and previously wrote a column for InBusiness magazine and the Middleton Times Tribune for five years each. T. Wall holds a degree from the UW in economics and an M.S. in real estate analysis and valuation and his full time career is as a real estate developer. Disclaimer: The opinions of the writer are not necessarily those of this publication or the left!genera
