[jlisenbe]

WE HAVE A PROBLEM: This is a well written and thought out article written by a 26 yr old college student by the name of Alyssa Ahlgren, who's in grad school for her MBA. What a GREAT perspecitve...

My Generation Is Blind to the Prosperity Around Us!
I'm sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis (Florida) trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of presidential candidates calling for policies to "fix" the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around.

I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook's, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we've become completely blind to it.

Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose.These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don't give them a second thought.

We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty One Times!!!

Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful. ??

Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, "An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity."

Never saw American prosperity! Let that sink in.

When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I've ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided.

My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let's just say I didn't have the popular opinion, but I digress.

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country.

People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they've never seen prosperity, and as a result, we elect some politicians who are dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism.

Why? The answer is this,?? my generation has only seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn't live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, the Korean War, The Vietnam War or we didn't see the rise and fall of socialism and communism.

We don't know what it's like to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don't have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it's spreading like a plague." #pleaseshare

[tomder55]

Although being poor is a subjective measure ; Objective measures like disposable income are available. It is unquestionable that the US leads in disposable income compared to the rest of the world
10 Countries With the Highest Incomes

Where we are falling behind is in expectations for a better life. Things her parents and grandparent's generation took for granted like a single earner supporting a family or the ability to be a home owner has or is becoming increasingly out of reach. Too many people see their lifestyle threatened with the loss of a paycheck or 2 ;and/or having an unexpected debt of less than $1,000 for a vehicle repair.

So yes relative to the rest of the world American's wealth is unchallenged . What most Americans don't realize is how close we are going to being pushed into extreme poverty if we don't get a handle on the national debt.

[jlisenbe]

Your point about past generations being able to live on one income is fair enough, but you have to factor in the decisions they were making. They lived in houses about half the size of what we build now, many of which were not air conditioned and had no cable television with its attendant fees. There were no cell phones and thus no cell phone bills. Families carried much less debt and frequently owned only one car and not three. Families ate out much less frequently than now. Medical expenses were comparatively less than now. So a lot of our problems are self-imposed.

However, your point about the national debt is very well taken. It's like a terrible national coma has overtaken us in this regard. You cannot get very many people interested in talking about it.

[tomder55]

Had our parents had cell phones they would've been seduced too. When color TVs and A/C became available ,it did not take them long to get them. Cheap credit was not available and yes America became a post manufacturing nation.

My wife and I started house hunting in the mid-80s . We were not looking for McMansions . But even though we both had good jobs it took years for us to save up sufficient down payment.

I really can't blame the Gen Zers for thinking they have had gotten a bad deal even as the girl in the article is right in saying that in many ways this is the best of times .

[jlisenbe]

You're missing the point. Life is more expensive now because we are buying a great many more things now than in the past. Houses are bigger, medical care is a great deal more expensive, and we just love our toys. But if people were to live the way my parents lived for most of their lives, they could get by on a great deal less income.

My wife and I are in our third house. It is by no means a mansion, but it's paid for. I think the biggest mistake people make is buying more house than they can comfortably afford.

I blame the Gen Z'ers for being a pampered bunch of whiners who are living in a fantasy world. Not all of them by any means, but far too many.

[tomder55]

We sold them the expectations and handed them the bill of goods. There has never been a time when our generation looked to the future.

We ushered in drug abuse ;the sexual deviations that we complain about ;the expansion of welfare and dependency on the state.

We ushered in the expectation of bigger and more expensive goodies. Even as the housing market was busting we had elected leaders telling us we need more (see Barney Frank and Freddie and Fanni sub prime loans ) . The whole 2008 bust was caused by creating unrealistic expectations to those who could not afford it. When the bust was over we went right back to building bigger and bigger .

The college loans they have are just another variation of the same scam. We told them to succeed they need an expensive college education .

The only time we rebelled was when we were asked to put our a$$es on the line . Since then the defense of the nation is left to young volunteers . We spent our prime time hiding in college (when it was affordable ) .

It was no mistake that our generation took political power in the 1990s from the Greatest Generation; and proceeded to crown one of the worse families to have power in America.

Our greed ;not theirs ,has created the mountain of debt we expect them to pay .

[jlisenbe]

I would agree with most of that. If Gen Z is a pampered bunch of whiners, it's because the generation that raised them encouraged it. None of that, however, changes the reality of the current situation.

Perhaps the biggest failings of the past 75 years were the development and embracing of the concept of big government accompanied by the rejection of the authority of the Bible.