Both my parents grew up in large families with little money. There were few luxuries and many hard times.
Over their lives, they did well for themselves, built a business and have earned a good life.
This was a relatively common story for their generation; growing up poor and becoming wealthy through hard work. There were many things missing in their early years, but what they identified as the key solution was financial success.
The story of my generation and the generation after is different. On the whole, we grew up in wealthier families with more luxuries and fewer hard times.
But life still isn’t perfect.
Young people in my parent’s generation saw their parent’s struggles and took away the lesson to work harder and earn more. They were afraid of ending up in the same financial situation that they saw their parents struggle with.
Young people in the current generation, see their parent’s comfortable middle-class lives, and they see that they still aren’t happy. Instead of being afraid of ending up poor like their parents, they are afraid of ending up with a big house and an unfulfilling life.
They are terrified of ending up in the same situation as their parents, only now that worst case scenario is a comfortable middle-class life.
As a result, a lot of good jobs that could help lead to a meaningful and fulfilling life fill young people with terror. They are afraid of getting stuck in a comfortable, but empty life, in the same way, an 18-year-old 40 years ago would have been afraid he couldn’t transcend his parents, economic class.
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