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On Crushing Student Loans, Worthless College Degrees And The Millennials
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
The existing social and financial order is crumbling because it is unsustainable on multiple levels. The central state is not the Millennials' friend, it is their oppressor.
No generation of young people is ever politicized by hunger in distant lands or issues of the elderly. It's no rap on youth that self-interest defines what issues have the potential to radically transform their political consciousness; the transformative cause must reveal the system is broken for them and that it intends on sacrificing their generation to uphold the Status Quo.
The Millennial generation, also known as Gen-Y (Gen-Y comes after Gen-X), is generally defined as those born between 1982 and 2004.
The oldest Millennials were children during the first Iraq War in 1991 (Desert Storm) and just coming of age in 2001 (9/11 and the war in Afghanistan) and the start of the second Iraq War (2003).
The Millennials have entered adulthood in a era characterized by permanent low-intensity wars and central-bank/state managed financial bubbles--2001 to the present. In other words, the only experience they have is of centralized state mismanagement on a global scale.
The gross incompetence of the government and central bank--not to mention the endless power grabs by these centralized authorities--has not yet aroused a political consciousness that the system is irrevocably broken, not just for older generations but most especially for them.
Anecdotally, it appears the Millennial generation is still operating on the fantasy that all they need to do to get a secure, good-paying job and a happy life is go to college and enter the Status Quo machine of government/corporate America.
There are two fatal flaws in this fantasy: the $1+ trillion student loan industry and a transforming economy. The higher education industry in the U.S. operates as a central state-enabled and funded cartel, limiting supply while demand (based on the fantasy that a college degree has critical value) soars. This enables the cartel to keep raising prices even as the value of its product (a diploma) sinks to near-zero.
Since the Federal government issues and guarantees all student loans, the higher education cartel is (like sickcare, national defense and the mortgage industry) effectively socialized, i.e. funded and managed by the central state.
If you understand the student loan system is predatory, parasitic and exploitive, you have reached first base of a meaningful political awareness. If you understand the central state (Federal government) funds and enforces this system, you've reached second base. If you understand the vast majority of college degrees do little to prepare you to be productively employed in the real economy, you have reached third base.
If you understand the Status Quo is unsustainable and does not operate according the the fantasy model you've been told, congratulations, you're close to home base.
I have covered all the salient issues repeatedly:
The Fatal Disease of the Status Quo: Diminishing Returns (May 1, 2013)
College Grads: It's a Different Economy (May 3, 2013)
Bernanke's Neofeudal Rentier Economy (May 7, 2013)
Degrowth and Anti-Consumerism (May 9, 2013)
Centralization and Sociopathology (May 21, 2013)
Present Shock and the Loss of History and Context (May 22, 2013)
Generation X: An Inconvenient Era (guest post) (May 23, 2013)
The Nearly-Free University (November 15, 2012)
The central state is not your friend, it is your oppressor. The loan shark that won't let you discharge your student loan debt without appealing each ruling against you three times is the government (and its hired-gun proxies).
The oppressor who demands you work your entire life to pay interest on public debt squandered on neocolonial wars and various cartels (sickcare et al.) is your central state.
The entity who demands you pay higher taxes so the generation entering retirement gets all that it was promised, even though the world has changed and the promises are no longer sustainable? The central state.
The oppressor that will devote its enormous resources to investigate and crush you if you actively resist the bankers and financiers who pull the political lackeys' strings? The central state.
At some point, the Millennial generation will have to awaken to the fact that the only way to change its fate is to grasp political power and redirect the policy and mindset of the nation. Centralization is the black hole that is destroying the nation's social and economic vigor. Decentralization, transparency, accountability, adaptability, social innovation, a community-based economy--these are the key features of a sustainable social order.
The existing social and financial order is crumbling because it is unsustainable on multiple levels. The Status Quo will cling to its false promises and corrupt centers of power until the moment the whole thing implodes.
Related links of interest:
Dear Class of ‘13: You’ve been scammed How the College-Industrial Complex drove tuition so high
Overdue Student Loans Reach Record as U.S. Graduates Seek Jobs
Bureaucrats Paid $250,000 Feed Outcry Over College Costs
Welcome, Robot Overlords. Please Don't Fire Us?
Podcast with Mike Swanson of WallStreetWindow.com on student loan debt and the Nearly Free University: Charles Hugh Smith On the Forces of Centralization and Soaring Education Costs. I always enjoy discussing issues with Mike, a polymath with a wide range of interests and experiences.
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How darest thou. I live quite well going to college to obtain my degree. How else do you suggest I survive? Work. Hell no we worn't go. Hell no we won't go. I swear we'll march on the Hamptons.
I’m bored of this constant parade of what’s wrong with the system, how the Central State is our oppressor, our debt will be the death of us, blah blah blah…
I AGREE WITH EVERY DAMN WORD!
But I’m bored of reading the interminable modifications of the same message.
No one cares.
The only solution will occur upon catastrophic crisis.
Think about that last sentence.
Think about your position in relationship to what a catastrophic crisis looks like.
Are you ready?
(Apologies fellow ZH’ers - Maybe I just got hold of a bad glass on a Friday night.)
in vino veritas
I've sharing that glass with you, Slick.
The unhappy forecast: It sucks and it's not going to change until it gets a lot worse.
When I was going to college, late 80's, most kids had a summer job and worked their way through school. Today, most kids just take out a loan. They don't even realize what being a debt slave is. All that matters is that they can make the minimum monthly payment. Who cares if it ends up costing 2 or 3 or more times as much. Kids today only think in terms of payments they can afford, not what something actually costs after they have made those payments. And they roll one debt to the next to the next.
that's exactly the mindset. Same with many people taking on mortgages. They're focused on 'can I make the interest payment' instead of the ability to actually make a legit down payment. So what if you locked in a low rate? What happens if interest rates keep rising, and then house prices go down? You may have locked in a low rate (if that, since ARMs often) but now you're underwater.
What you're describing is a short horizon payoff. Anything that has a payoff many years down the road won't cut it. Why drive a shitty car now and miss out on all that quality pussy that will flock to my hot leased car? You think they actually give a shit about your career and your college and your IQ? Pulllleeeezz. They can't get likes on facebook with your career and your mensa badge. Which is why there will never be a housing recovery, or a marriage recovery, or a recovery recovery.
Gen X was the last generation that was able to develop brains without the 3 second cutaway that MTV developed at around age 13-14 in our lifespan. Anyone born after us was immersed in 3 second cutaways in TV from birth. Anything longer than 3 seconds and you lose the youngins.
Actually, the dumbing down process started with GenX and was perfected in GenY. I was perfectly able to get through high school in the late without doing a damned thing, but the colleges hadn't been dumbed down yet. Thus, I was forced to atone for prior indiscretions. Now, the whole thing is a joke and your average new college grad doesn't know his ass from third base.
At some point, the Millennial generation will have to awaken to the fact that the only way to change its fate is to grasp political power and redirect the policy and mindset of the nation.
-uh. Any grasp for political power becomes grasping for personal power. The only revolution is overthrowing the tyranny of selfish sin in your own soul.
Why go to university and bankrupt yourself listening to tenured radical windbags, when a good reading list and a trades apprenticeship would give the goods in a tenth of the time, while making $ instead of becoming an indentured servant.
I wish I followed your advice. I bought the lie and now live a nightmare. Wrong planet.
Looking back on it my degree was pretty worthless financially but I was able to work and pay the tuition cost and books. I paid $30 per semester hour and grad school got up to $100 per hour but I was able to stay out of student loan debt hell.
I have no idea how I would do that today.
Sad the government fucks up everything it touches.
The one thing that was good about college was I got away from the pressures of the day, and reality, and thought what I was doing would lead to a better life. It was a lie but I enjoyed fantasies and the interactions I had with students and teachers. I guess for me it was worth it.
Why is it the GenY,Z fault that they are being charged up the ass by the GenBoom that is controlling the tuiton rates and Gov. purse strings? Sure, they are partaking and should likely throw a middle finger salute but what options do they have outside of getting a job at the local strip mall.
And don't tell me...'well, I did it'...its a different time, place and price.
And don't tell me...'they could just start a revolution'...as you sit in your squishy chair on your big ass.
They don't understand the dangers of gov+finance and how it inflates and destroys cause no one even gets close to teaching them this shit. They get trained to sit like a drone in front of a screen like you and me both but everyone is so fast to ridicule.
The "Greatest Generation" & the Baby Boomers made abortion a choice.
Generation X and The Millenials will make euthanasia a choice.
So what if you are "underwater"? It is all funny money anyway. Think of it as tax deductible rent that will not go up for 30 years. Cheaper than rent in many cases. If the Bernanke will lend at 3.75% for 95% LTV fixed for 30 years, take it. Minimize the down payment, and pay it off after hyperinflation for a couple ounces of gold.
it was starting in my generation....shortly after college, i had a friend with a normal paying job, but lived in a nice house, drove 2 nice vehicles, had a boat, etc.
i asked him how he did it and his reply was....
Fucking Finance It!
The moto of the late Gen Xers and beyond...thanks The Nixon Shock....
not to be confused with The Shocker.
Apologize for what? Being angry? It is your right, and shows you have a pulse.
Soon we shall see survival of the fittest in action......even 2,000 years ago, Aesop wrote about what is happening today:
The Squirrel and the Grasshopper
The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the
winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.
The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in
the cold.
Don't be a grasshopper with a Liberal Arts major.
And most people hate squirrels. Where do these kids get their grasshopper mentality? Can't blame it all on MSM/video games/etc. If they're in college, they got thru their pap public education and if they don't see any way besides taking out loans, they probably have their parents to thank, at least in part, for that hobbled mentality.
Ready? Nahhh. That's for survivalists. Live now -eat, drink, be merry. If my food ran out I'd come for yours though.
Nice. I just wished I knew the exact moment when hyperinflation begins so I can max out my credit cards and front-load some gluttonous eating, drinking and being merry.
I couldn't enjoy myself if I thought I wasn't prepped and should be. But after that, it's full fun. I'm physched today because I'm picking up my 2013 motorcycle tomorrow.
Exactly. Luckily we can still do that, for now. Just got my first red dot last week.
RED DOT, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?
Someone put it well on ZH a while back. When it begins, I'll max out my credit cards and assume dischargable debt to pay off my non-dischargable student loans.
@Big Slick: you called?
(Sorry, couldn't resist :-) )
"I’m bored of this constant parade of what’s wrong with the system, how the Central State is our oppressor, our debt will be the death of us, blah blah blah…
I AGREE WITH EVERY DAMN WORD!
But I’m bored of reading the interminable modifications of the same message.
No one cares.
The only solution will occur upon catastrophic crisis."
That's just about how they ALL end, really. People are just too blind, stupid, afraid, and/or part of the system so much that the system simply has to collapse. And that may be over the course of several decades in fits and starts....not just a blinding flash and the whole thing dissapears.
Once the year 2020 hits....shit starts to get REALLY real and noticable to all....even the mouth breathing dumbasses of the planet.....and there are BILLIONS of them worldwide.
"But I’m bored of reading the interminable modifications of the same message."
But we need to keep checking actual data with what we believe is going to happen.
In case that adjustments have to be made.
"But I’m bored of reading the interminable modifications of the same message."
But we need to keep checking actual data with what we believe is going to happen.
In case that adjustments have to be made.
Collage paid off for me alto I may be exceptional. I recieved SSD while I go to schools on my computer!
I now have a degree in computer repairs with minor in Comparitive Phrenology! All for 70,000 in studant loan!
I come to your house, pull new motherboard in your HP and read your head, same session! Thanks you very much, Universotie of Pheonix!
Fucking HP's laptops, what a piece of crap they were...
"Fucking HP's laptops, what a piece of crap they were..."
WERE !!???
Still are. I sold these things back in the middle "oughts" 6-7 years ago.....the only thing worse were Sony laptops...and that's saying something.
My wife got a fairly new (year old) HP laptop from her mother.....still a piece of crap. She had used one of my Thinkpads for about a year. After getting used to that keyboard (still the best of any laptop around) she HATES that HP....and she didn't even pay a dime for it. LOL !!!
Good luck Meg in turning that dinosaur of a company around....LOL!!!!
At some point, the Millennial generation will have to awaken to the fact that the only way to change its fate is to grasp political power and redirect the policy and mindset of the nation.Centralization is the black hole that is destroying the nation's social and economic vigor. Decentralization, transparency, accountability, adaptability, social innovation, a community-based economy--these are the key features of a sustainable social order.
Oh, please. As a college professor, I work with these kids on a daily basis. Thanks in large part to my "colleagues", they have been brainwashed into believing that Government is the answer to everything. These kids support the very policies that are suffocating them. Obama is their G-d whose edicts you may not question. They have been anesthetized by cheap entertainment, Facebook, celebrities, smart phones, and the most biased education money can buy. The only way they wake up is if there is a real Depression where people are allowed to feel the pain. We have a depression now, but its a painless one because no one goes hungry and disability is an easy way out. If you try to explain how current policies are robbing them of a normal future, they look at you like you're a space alien. In a way they deserve what they get--along with the rest of America.
fuck you--- I don't deserve it-
And that says it all, "I don't deserve it"
The world is and has always been a brutal place.
You get what you get, how you control that which you can is what sets you apart or makes you just another herd beast.
look to no other. for in the end its your own stokes that will decide if you sink or swim.
Nah man. There are tens of millions of people lying in graves today who were powerless to prevent what happened to them. You can stroke it the right way all day long and when these brainwashed kids come for you they come for you. In the end all you can do is live right. During times of massive upheaval the decision on your sinking or swimming is most likely not your own. If comrade student puts a bullet in your head you are dead. If he doesn't you get to live.
Waiting to see what happens is the problem here. All need to actively engage the people we see in real life and educate them. Maybe you only reach 1/10th but 10% is much better than none. Start planting seeds so trees can grow.
"Start planting seeds so trees can grow."
Better to exchange as much of your fiat money into gold and silver.
That will make a difference.
You're just seeing the bad parts of the generation if you're teaching at a college. Especially among the raw recruits, (those kids just getting out of high school now), the high dropout rate is a good sign. Everybody I know with talent is awake and not supporting the system anymore. They've reached peak everything, and won't be able to shut down the internet without their own systems collapsing, so we are the future. Things are so bad people are realizing that being principled is the only way out, not a sacrificial martyrdom.
We at Fakenation believe that humor and mockery will sustain us through these dark hours. It's a joke, and the more people we have laughing at it the sooner it will all be over. The people on top are idiots, and only get away with everything because nobody calls out the ridiculous culture they've created, not because of any political genius anybody believes them to have.
For instance, try going to Spencer's at the mall and see the supposed retail clothing business of the future. Send us your pics and captions. Public shame and ridicule are very powerful things, and it's high time all the nonsense that passes for daily life in Fakenation gets called out so people feel some shame in destroying their society.
http://www.fakenation.info/please/spencers-the-orgy-at-the-end-of-puritanism
I got news for ya man: Spencers wasn't much different in the 1970s.
Yeah, maybe nothing has changed. Spencer's went away for a while, and it seems to be making a comeback.
But maybe that's the point. Nothing has changed. It just keeps getting faker and faker. What may have been radical in 1960 or 70 (are you listening Baby Boomers?) is just an sad old joke at this point.
They've finally created the Perfect Consumer. GenY is Amerika's first disposable generation.
'Americanism' at work. A real depression opposed to a depression... The way 'americans'.
It wont change anything, it will only toughen the resolve of the 'american' y generation to use every opportunity an 'american' society can provide through its State.
.
...said this guy employed by 50 Cent Party spouting tofu-dreg propaganda.
We in America are "depressed" over all of the dead cows, chickens, pigs, fish...etc,etc,etc floating down cHinEeSe rivers. We realize that we can never match cHinEsEe results in animal husbandry. How come all flu diseases seem to come out of peoples paradise???
Wait until July and stop by the Bridgehampton Polo Club. I'll join you during halftime.
When can I go long an ETF that tracks 3x College tuition and fees?
The appearance of the law must be upheld, Especially when it's being broken
We're gonna need a lot more unicorns over here........
And for even more Friday humor, here's the Debt Brother's speech today on keeping student loans 'affordable':
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/politics/obama-student-loans/index.html
I am a Millennial. Thanks Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog, for acknowledging our existence.
We have never lived a day on this earth to see interest rates going anywhere but down.
This is what brought me to Austrian economics and this site.
Die bond bubble die.
How can you have interest rates go up when GDP is weakening relentlessly.
Everywhere.
Oil scarcity eats up joules to get what you can get from the ground. The net joules input to global GDP is in freefall.
That's forever, btw. Thank the preceeding generations for burning it to the point of scarcity.
Sir.
When South East Asia's GDP fell in 1997, their interest rates went up. Way up. Not down. Same thing happened in all of South America, European and Russian contractions since the beginning of time.
Interest rates are not supposed to fall when there is GDP contraction.
Since you have managed to find ZH, you know that rules of macro economics have been deverted by the FED and the government. As such, we are all living in a controlled bubble. We are off the economic map and into uncharted territory. Your fellow millenials will have to come up to speed very quickly, in the future. Question is: Are they capable of it.
Economics is economics. Rid yourself of the garbage "macro" designation. It's kind of like saying mass human action. LOL
"How can you have interest rates go up when GDP is weakening relentlessly."
EASY, just have the Federal Reserve stop buying bonds, or even cutting back on how many bonds they buy.
And when interest rate go up you will get a bonus, the bond bubble will burst and there will be panic selling in the bond market.
Its just liberals paying liberals to make more liberals, that all the education system has become...........
Tenure=welfare
And the professor doesn't even teach the class anymore. Its some TA with a bad accent that does.
Anybody else what that STUDENT LOAN SUICIDES documentary?
lets see it ..
Linky linky please
The Millenials will one day wake up and realize the crap they have been voting for has left them hosed, but they strike me as much too meek to ever do anything severe about it, such as stick a finger in someone's face, or raise their voice, etc...
Remember when they sang/chanted 'Obama, Obama', starry look in the eyes. They actually believed in the fucking boob against all evidence. Now they're looking at debt slavery or breakdown/chaos/pain/bad times.
The naive Millenials supported the wrong candidate.
The other candidate woulda started a war for them by now.
ArenT the Millennials supposed to be cannon fodder for the next war? The Heros who make it back can set national policy later.
If the Gen Y group voted like the seniors the govt would have already written of students loans. By the way, write offs will come and then the last of irresponsible group of debtors will be bailed out.
Voting blocs do not evolve, they are created.
Look at the work of the AARP. Their organizing of seniors has brought a massive, governmentally delivered windfall to AARP.
What Gen Y needs is its own AARP. Americans Are Really Pissed.
This would politically motivated "not for profit" that offers discounts to Millenials. Behind the scenes works to get student loan forgiveness and require accountability from universities whose sheepskins would be more useful if put back on the sheep.
Too bad there isn't some large online platform, where technology proficent Y'rs could come together to discuss today's issues and rally for change. Oh wait....
There is.
Go to the College Board (yes, the test people in Princeton New Jersey) and they will provide you will all sorts of baseline information (knowledge) that is expected/required of a High school freshman, high school grad, college grad etcetera.
It's called a test. Testing is how one establishes a baseline of knowledge, effective to productive communication and living.
A motivated high school student can study for, and take, AP tests in nearly every subject, and for a couple hundred bucks per class, TEST OUT of nearly two years of college! But you have to give a shit, sit your ass down and stuff your nose in the books.
There are thousands of people doing it every week in the USA....you just don't hear about it!
Never heard of such a thing (testing out of 1/2 of college)--I took some AP courses and they were accepted as credits, but colleges don't make money letting you get credits that way. Mine made it as hard as posible to transfer credits from other schools, even in their own state system.
I looked for a college
which would accept my credits
before they got their 1st dollar from me.
This article contains multiple idiotic statements/false assumptions.
"Anecdotally, it appears the Millennial generation is still operating on the fantasy that all they need to do to get a secure, good-paying job and a happy life is go to college and enter the Status Quo machine of government/corporate America. "
This could not be any further from the truth. This is in fact the number 1 piece of advice given by idiot baby boomers who are unable to fathom the reality of the modern world. The spoiled baby boomer generation who lived through the golden age of American prosperity think that it's still 1950-1990. They fail for some odd reason to understand that America is not what it once was - socially, economically, politically, etc etc. Nixon resigned for what is now just politics, public schools actually teach marxism is a good thing vs the class - America ideals vs Soviet Communism, or whatever all you hippie faggots took to graduate from high school, Fannie mae, QE, 2 banker bailouts, etc etc. For some reason the depression era/WW2 'grandparents' see it clearly and can converse about what's going on, although they have mostly died off, but try explaining or dissecting any current issue with most boomers and your a - conspiracy theorist, a pessimist, brainwashed, a nazi, etc etc. " Always leave your money in the stock market" ; " get a good job and start putting money away for retirement " hahaha, they always give such rational, applicable advice.
At some point, the Millennial generation will have to awaken to the fact that the only way to change its fate is to grasp political power and redirect the policy and mindset of the nation.
Grasp political power ? You are fucking kidding me right? You mean like voting in a diebold machine for a red or blue team candidate? Maybe you were alluding to something else, maybe you explained, I stopped reading. Look guy/buddy/sir, it's toooo late my man. The fix is in. The fucker i.e. you and your global-banker-pedophile-corporate-slave system that made you comfortable and rich has to fall/end and be replaced. It cannot be salvaged. The debt isn't re-payable. The money doesn't exist. You missed. The system is the opposite of advancement of the human species. It is extinction and death. The murder of the human spirit. Post-human. The millennial generation needs to awaken and abdicate all the nonsense and stupidity.
The millennial generation needs to fully endorse non-participation, refuse to be a tax donkey. Let the boomers eat themselves like rats.
Not to mention losing some of its self defeating loathing of the other "bloc" of idiots called Boomers who are merely older expressions of the same human failings.
they would have to put down the playstation/xbox ontroller first....
and the bong.
RE: jugdish
A very rational reply. Your comments on the boomers are spot on. Unfortunatly they do have most of the political, economic and military power. They along with their counterparts in Europe and Asia do not know anything but keeping the current system going.The major problems in the world will not be solved by the boomers.
For Millenials, harping on the failure of student debt is not the major problem. The major problem is tha millennials (in my opinion,) do not have a "base" from which to understand their place and role in our country and indeed the world.
With the exception of those who have served in the military since 2003, they have little understanding of the military corporate protection business. They have not been tempered by the "school of hard knocks," and are not even ready to ask the questions concerning change -much less to bring on that change.
Bread and circuses in the form endless AAPL gadgets, reality TV and drifting from one job to another are not recipes for success. Political power never surrenders. It must be grasped and changed. Altough not exclusevely a Millennial event - the "Occupy" movement was a failure. You dont ask for power, you grasp it. At least a lot of boomers understood that when they were young. Rightly or wrongly, they took to the streets and forced an end to the Viet Nam War and the Nixon Presidency.
This is something for the millennials to contemplate as we hear the endless conplaits of the unfairness of the current education funding system. So... Get off your "politicaly correct" butts, open your minds and voice your opinion on what needs to change. Your humanity is defined by your human interactions, not the number of gadgets or the number of friends you have on social media.
We need to starve the beast that seeks to enslave us. Reduce our contact with international financial institutions, shop locally ownned stores and restaurants, reduce the amount of taxes we pay. Nullify the influence of the fascist government/ corporate beast at the local, county and state level.
Buy those big screen TVs from Mom & Pop stores.
Get our gasoline from independent stations.
Make sure the McDonalds we buy from is owned by a local and not some out of town entity.
Ensure that our S&L doesn't do its financial clearing with some national bank.
Refuse to let our employer withhold federal income tax and FICA from our paychecks.
Let's face it, we're too late to save the farm. The barn doors are gone, the building has been foreclosed, the land underneath was seized for back taxes and the escaped horses have been ground up into frozen lasagna dinners.
Spoken like a good broken slave. I bet you know exactly what your credit score is.
Being choosy about your McDonalds consumption and big screen retailers is fucking radical behaviour.
Ditched my cable service and got rid of my TV in 2006. A small step in the right direction, I suppose.
"Community-based economy" sounds like a fancy word for a local soviet. If community-based economy is forced onto people at the barrel of a gun, it is the opposite of decentralization.
I have not been able to perceive any significant increase in the "mean IQ" of the nation's negroes .... but they sure have got a lot meaner ! Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad Meaness Monologue World Tour
I'm sorry as a 29 yr. old I can say my generation is a bunch of idiots that are dependant upon their families and the systems. The fact that life sucks, people kick you when your down, you aren't going to have it as good as your parents did.....my generation just can't handle it. No one will focus and grow a pair to stand up to it and create new ideas, challenge the Quo. I have been speaking at events and parties trying to get ideas flowing and people to question things, fucks sake most just do as their parents or friends do and are incapable of thinking for themselves and accepting what makes them feel uncomfortable, or thinking in a way that may make them outside the Quo.
When I orate questions that don't divide a party by republican or democrat, but rather by logic and illogic with what is happening in the world, the only answers or statements people make are blaming Bush or Obama. They have never taken the time to look in history books, read books by renowned authors, study market trending, and see that this has been going on for ages before us, that alone should enrage my generation but alas it doesnt.
Don't depend on this generation, unless their parents are helping them along the way.
(FYI i have done my journey on my own, and don't classify myself in that group of dependents)
::rant off.
every generation has its deadbeats, its sheep, its criminals and rapists, don't think your generation is alone and without merit. you understand, so that says so do others your age and as a 46er i still think there are some smart young fuckers (maybe like you) out there lying in the weeds waiting because they realize that TPTB are going to do just fine burning this shit down all on their own. Don't get caught in a tank battle with a gun, stay low, wait, help those who truly need it and when its all said and done;
don't let the fuckers get ahold of the reins again and start this fucking ride again, put your energy there, rebuild it right
To be honest I am not a gun person, lol, I found my brother with his head blown off from suicide and vowed to never handle a firearm by choice, not because i'm against guns but because of CHOICE. My choice has also lead me to know the strongest weapon of all is ortation and dictation (not in the dictator sense), but learn and become smarter every day. knowledge is the strongest weapon around, if you can win by standing up and speaking out you have won by a long shot. When I look at all of these politicians today, i have went to their rallies and speeches, they are soulless, they have never been in the struggle on the outs. People today need someone to represent them that has had trouble, that is not perfect, someone that can understand the common person. I don't seek a fiat money payment, I seek acceptance and fighting for the common good of our country.
I was laid off after 22 years with a Govt telcom agency that was "never going to fold". They shut down all operations in 09, 3 months after obama was sworn in. I had an active ccna and the best I could do was lease my credentials to the outfit that replaced us . Nobody and I mean nobody was hiring in 09 after obama went in. I went to school instead and aquired student loans. I graduated last year as an RN. I was hired 2 weeks prior to my state boards exam.I paid off my student loans in one payment. College was a bitch, but thanks to the stupidity of my much younger colleagues I never faltered or looked back while my peers walked about with a phone glued in front of their face constantly texting about kardashian or some other bs..Half my class flunked.
Yep I am a registered nurse and I am currently employed providing data circuits for wireless carriers.
I could give a rats ass about all the idiots getting a degree in arts or music or education etc...
Nope, I am drinking beer and prepping for another successful deer season while the supply lines run.
I need another mo fo beer bitch !!
Millenial here. Sold my soul to the navy to go to college. All in all, a good idea. Once you realize you're not defending anything, just go with it. Get by and get out. No employer cares about your military experience. It's a joke. I hardly tell anyone I was in.
I've never voted. And I can only think of 3 people my age who ever have. They're embarrassed to tell their parents but laugh at the silliness amongst friends.
I also only have two friends that ever bought a house. Both say it was a mistake and not for financial reasons. Really it's the anxiety that it causes. Mortgage payments, repairs, taxes, liability, nasty neighbors, and the commute.
Jobs: after being in the navy, I couldn't be happier not waking up at 5 am to get yelled at for something someone else did. Show up at 9am, play on excel all day and read ZH and peace out at 5. Where do I sign up? It's not like anyone gets fired in corporate America. Even the marketing wenches who wear ridiculous outfits and can barely sign on let alone get any real work done.
I do notice that my friends who done have the cajones to find other jobs have a tough time keeping their heads above water and are not saving money. No way to get promoted. Got to move out to move up.
I understand some of your frustrations by your comments. Yours is not the first genertion to suffer such doubts. Your genration may however, be the first generation not to attempt to do something about it. Concerning voting and short of other means, it is the only way in the current systme to grasp governing power. You use this tool or stay sheep forever. By the way, I dont see a lot of millenials able to change the system by other means. You really dont have much choise. You change the system or the system will change you.
Just think about this for a second. Since I've been eligible to vote, here's what I've had to choose from:
Bush vs Gore: an idiot versus a charlatan. Idiots wins by default. Biggest issue? Lockbox for social security; an issue so stupid that it baffled the mind that no one picked up how broke the system was
Bush vs Kerry: Kerry was like a piece of toast. Going against the least popular person in history, he doesn't call for the end of the war in Iraq. Embraces his military past that he previously had shunned. "Reporting for duty". A campaign so fuvked up, they fired most of the election staff and brought in the Clinton faction to prevent it from being a route.
Obama vs McCain: an empty suit liar who won by default in every election up to that point versus the embodiment of neoconservative insanity that was/is murdering the country. Oh and that shit show Sarah Palin: a cheap parlor trick that no sane person would allow to run a tailgate, let alone the country.
Obama vs Romney: the empty suit versus the hedge fund Mormon who had been running for president for half decade.
Voting grasping governing power? Hardly.
The best things I've seen in my lifetime that give me any hope and have been truly innovative: Napster, torrenting, and food trucks (decentralized, low capital intensive, Food innovation businesses).
Your summation of our recent presidential choices is excellent, however, I believe he was talking on a state and local level.
+1
God damn that was beautiful. Maybe you are Catullus reincarnated. I'm with you brother. 26. Astonished at this shit swirl ever since I graduated in spring of 09'. Bambi Soetero got elected and the housing bubble blew. I wasn't going to drink tonight because last night an illegal immigrant (senor lope) paid for 6 rounds of cervaza after a prior 6 rounds of cervaza, work at 6am, but after reading your post I need two glasses of scotch and some copenhagen. Senor Lope works 10hrs a day washing dishes 7 days a week and misses his family back home. He was willing to toss out some bernake money for me and sit and talk using only 5 mutually understandable words. I was appreciative of that and it gives me hope for the tenacity of man stuck in a heap of shit, that and my insatiable appetite for pussy is motivating. The boomers, fuck-em, don't attempt reason or logic, keep the dialogue on the surface with them. I can't help but recall the boomer hippie idiot I spoke with a week or so ago, railing against corporations and capitalism who is a millionare and owns two apartment complexes. He accused me of being racist cause I mentioned the 'blackout' at the superbowl in New Orleans. Food trucks are banned where I live. The marxists at city hall can't figure out how to tax them yet.
Yes, a very witty and valid characterization of the races. But that still gives the nod to the idea that they were on different sides. A misguided trend of thinking.
Maybe a more accurate description would be "The Harlem Globetrotters vs the Washington Generals" A entertaining game to watch but everybody officially knows in advance that they get their paychecks from the same account.
Or maybe "The Gambinos vs the Genevieves" Different families but they both will break your kneecaps if you don't pay protection money.
The carve out "Different Districts of Control" and both work together to make sure no new groups cut in on their business.
You pick. I like the second one.
OK Catullus,
I do get it. You dont think that voting will provide any change. You may be correct, for both parties are opposite sides of the same coin.
Please understand my point however. And by the way I am not advocating this, just saying...........
You grasp political power within the system (how you start is up to you) with strategy and tactics, local vs national OR be prepared to bring change though other means. You define what those means are. If you are not prepared to go there, then what else is there? I leave the answer to you.
Hussein Obama convinced them otherwise. If they're that easily fooled, they'll get no sympathy from me.
"Obama convinced them otherwise"
Yes, the belief of 'going to college and getting a good education' is such a new dream that just started in 2008.
Stellar observation. It was different in the old days of 2005 or 6 or 7 when people grew up and went out to learn a trade to earn their living...
brilliant post.
Job Wanted:
I have a dual major in Womens Studies and Medieval African Poetry. I can bark out a stanza on a hollow log with zebra bones and bitch all day like 10 motherfuckers.
Only offers of six figure income need inquire.
At least you are not of those 'american' crack geniuses who have been trying to sell the idea that their technological majors will do anything else but speed up the depletion of resources.
You know, the kind that want to force the idea that they can produce more than they consume.
As 'americans' run a business of farming the poor, extorting the weak, you want those technological geniuses to work on the implementation of coercion means (weaponry, surveillance, financial scheme etc), you know, somewhere they can secure the 'american' position to the top of the extortion and farming ladder.
Other than that, they only work to deplete the world even faster and bigger...
Are Chinese citizenism citizens in love with scolding wind mills?
It is known since ages that farming the poor, extorting the weak works. It is not a miracle but a well proven method to grow richer. That is the story of Chinese citizenism.
And if there is a miracle that extorters or farmers can not achieve, it is the one of promoting extorted and farmed to the ranks of farmers or extorters.
An extorted only exist if there are extorted to extort. As learned by Uighurs, Tibetans, other non-Han ethnies.
a waste of a pair of chopsticks 3 times a day
Why can a college collect nearly a quarter of a million dollars "educating" a kid who's then not prepared for the world and yet not be on the hook financially?
If the kid wasn't college (or job) material, why didn't they flunk the kid out?
Why do the colleges get to keep their (inflated) fees for delivering a flawed student/product? The people making the loan should claw back at these heavily endowed and insured institutions rather than lay it off on the taxpayer.
Seize political power. It sounds so easy.
It is NOT easy. The alternative however, is infinately harder.
Ahhh mannn this is sooo depressing... How the fuck am I supposed to make any sort of long-term planning when impending doom is practically mathematically guaranteed to occur sometime during the next 10-20 years???...
I'm one of those Gen Y's who been reading ZH since about September 2008. I'm in College (mostly wasting my time there), I feel lost, the uncertainty is paralyzing.... At least in Canada tuition is not nearly as expensive as the US but I'm still racking up some student debt, which doesn't bother me too much since I know I can probably get debt relief anyway.. What does bother and worry me however is the thought my degree may end up literally being worthless after busting my ass studying and wasting time, energy, and ressources.
Fuck I don't know what to do... I sure as hell not going to attempt the impossible of saving and preparing for the RESET with a shity minimum-wage job. Fuck I sometimes see job ads for office work REQUIRING a Bachelor's Degree for a entry-level $13/hour admin-assistant. WTF?! 4 years busting balls learning useless shit for $13/hour really???
I wish the RESET would happen NOW.. The wait is killing me.. >_< At least after the dust settles we can start building from scratch without all the uncertainty!.....
I work in a factory. the economy has suffered since I graduated H S in 1976, except for the 1990s during greenspan's exuberance period. I work with hourly laborers who have degrees and are smart people. they had no better opportunities than to take a good paying manufacturing job. now there are hardly any of those left. however there are trades jobs, try to get into a trade or something with practical use. thre are jobs for technical people with skills. electrician, plumber HVAC are all good welding is pretty good but not real lucrative. check with the railroad they will train you to be an engineer or electrician. even advance to management from union hourly. good luck.
Amen. You are not alone.
Learn a goddamned skill. Now. Something that people will value in bad times and good. Machining, nursing, electrical and mechanical trades are a good start. If this bubble blows, nobody is going to give a fiddler's fuck how good you are at APA citations or making PowerPoints.
Don't Bug Me. I'm busy getting my online degree in 18th Century Oriental Aromatherapy (with a minor in Advanced Burmese Herbology) while at home in my PJs sipping a Bud Lite so I can earn thousands more thanks to that $482,676 student loan Sallie somebody or other handed me.
I mean, like, you can't put a price on a epic college degree, Dude, can you.
"At some point, the Millennial generation will have to awaken to the fact that the only way to change its fate is to grasp political power and redirect the policy and mindset of the nation"
-CHS, statist shill par excellence
This genius verbiage is a tautology, whenis the last time a generation failed to develop (almost entirely moronic, self-destructive, ignorant, myopic, stupid, futile, dangerous, greedy, self-righteous) political beliefs, and 'become politicized', e.g. Fall under the delusion that politics offers solutions (not just excuses and false promises, and outright lies)? Never. Yes, please, by all means, show us some more political "solutions", that will fix everything.
+1 Toten.
Self reliance is the first and most important step. Everything else follows as it should.
"At some point, the Millennial generation will have to awaken to the fact that the only way to change its fate is to grasp political power and redirect the policy and mindset of the nation"
-CHS, statist shill par excellence
This genius verbiage is a tautology, whenis the last time a generation failed to develop (almost entirely moronic, self-destructive, ignorant, myopic, stupid, futile, dangerous, greedy, self-righteous) political beliefs, and 'become politicized', e.g. Fall under the delusion that politics offers solutions (not just excuses and false promises, and outright lies)? Never. Yes, please, by all means, show us some more political "solutions", that will fix everything.
What a bunch of whiners. Go Boomers!!!
More "leg-spreader" charts.
Someone needs to teach these charts some lady-like manners.
Tar, feathers and a rope is a good start. Do you get the picture, or do you need clarification, biktches?
Even in very small countries like in Finland centralization is pushed and pushed by government. People should move to one capital where prices go up and up (of course) and large areas should be left empty just for some pack of wolfs and bears. Ridiculous and stupid politics
This article sold by this 'american' propagandist calls for an impossibility: a change in the 'american' nature.
Gen y is a generation of 'americans'. It is the overwhelming trait to characterize this generation. As such, they will make the most out of any situation in an 'american' way.
There is no cause to change the rule of measurement.
For example,'american' gen Y has been lining up at the military recruitment bureaus since they are old enough to do it, knowing they could kickstart their life living off blood money.
Parameters have been changed though: there is no more conscription now in a country like the US, so the story of the big bad 'american' government forcing its citizenry into paths the citizenry did not want is just a tale it takes an 'american' to believe in and spread. So the propaganda of this 'american' author about a socalled harm due to centralization, or the government falls flat.
'American' gen Y has been joining any war out of their free will, pressing the government to provide them with easy war opportunities.
This is another change in parameters. Due to extreme asymetry and technology making war looking like a video game, it opened up the door to the 'american' nature dominating to the extreme.
Recent generations were engaged in wars where they could be brought back to reality by the 'enemy' but at this point, the 'enemy' is just lame ducks who rely on 'americans' to be provided with the gear they need to take their part in the show.
It gives scenes as that 'american' gen Y, shouting for getting an authorization to open fire on a family of four, salivating in anticipation to the murder he was about to commit.
That 'american' author can not take 'americanism' for what it is. So he must invent.
He must invent scapegoats, the government, centralization, the elite, the corporations etc
The 'american' gen Y is fully awake and makes and will keep making the most out of any situation the 'american' way. That includes taking advantage of any opportunity for them provided by the state apparatus.
What a lot of AnAnonymous hogs wash. What a rewriting, uninspired and all...
Maybe time though to realize that the Chinese citizenism propaganda has sunk so low nobody gets bamboozled by it. Too old, not good enough quality, already debunked, not enough renewed...
Time for propagandists to spend resources to build up a better propaganda. But they would conflict heads on with a fact they know: it would be spending rarer and rarer resources on something unreal. Big, big troubles for 'AnAnonymystical' propagandists...
On the student loan stuff: education is in global demand. And this is an 'american' world.
The inflation in the cost of educating people ensures the education processes are consumed in 'american' nations. Just like the housing bubble.
Housing is also in global demand and in order to ensure that resources would be allocated to their housing demand, 'americans' inflated a bubble. Houses were built in large numbers in 'american' nations thanks to money they never had. It is the same for their student loan thing.
Now, how old is the 'american' trick on pushing a housing bubble to make sure world resources go to 'american' nations? Less than ten years and the world is feeling the consequences right now. But this does not prevent 'americans' from insisting that the student loan bubble is different, that the student loan works against them. It is always funny to read and hear 'americans' harping on dumbing down. It is 'americanism' that requires dumbing down. Just as a trick is being played, 'americans' insist the trick is not played once again.
'Americanism' is all about submission.
The ropes today are too thick for anyone to pretend not to see them. It is what 'americans' call governing by the consent of the governed. 'Americans' keep creating their own fantasy world in order to avoid telling they know of the real world. 'Americanism', the best thing to ever happen to humanity. So 'americans' say eventually.
Chinese citizenism citizens support inequality. They hate on equality because it is tractable, straightforward and far from easy to manipulate. Equality is counterproductive to their duplicitous approach and propaganda action.
Maybe time to admit (big effort I know) that some stuff can not be covered up.
It's the other way round: the government is the "hired gun" and what drives debt isn't "centralization" but private banks.
Millenials and the next generation are like indoor cats. If they have never seen the outside world they have no idea it exists so will not miss it
The "teaser" paragraph perfectly sums up the gov't train wreck we now see unfolding.
Unforturnately, the only "reset" will be a collapse of the current system and after the dust settles a return to the basic goverment tenets of the constitiution (IMHO).
Everything's corrupt.
Gads. How can you put a price on knowledge? Four years of training in Gender Studies can only reap a lifetime of benefits. And what about a degree in Diversity Management? Priceless.
They need to wake up and seize control of the system? Yeah, maybe they should Occupy Wall Street or something? Oh wait, they tried that and the cops beat the shit out of them while the fusion centers spied on them and the media made fun of them for having the temerity to sit next to and share their sandwich with the homeless.
When government spends money, or creates a law, it's really to benefit their friends, not the economy, or the general public while making some percieved moral justification. The same thing green energy, and other government initiatives. Government is the ultimate corruption of power. If you want state socialism and central planning, and see how successful it is with the greatest utopian intent, go visit a Indian Reservation. Indian Country is wards of the state. Poorest parts of America, high alcoholism, free food, education, healthcare, housing, segregated, even free straight forward money for beind a indian, you will see how central planning of socialism looks. It's not pretty, or impressive. Yes, and this is in America. This is what government is when it puts it's hands on things.