American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The article has generated some feedback online, as its subject turned down a job paying $40k.

For a New Generation, an Elusive American Dream

By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: July 6, 2010

GRAFTON, Mass. — After breakfast, his parents left for their jobs, and Scott Nicholson, alone in the house in this comfortable suburb west of Boston, went to his laptop in the living room. He had placed it on a small table that his mother had used for a vase of flowers until her unemployed son found himself reluctantly stuck at home.

The daily routine seldom varied. Mr. Nicholson, 24, a graduate of Colgate University, winner of a dean’s award for academic excellence, spent his mornings searching corporate Web sites for suitable job openings. When he found one, he mailed off a résumé and cover letter — four or five a week, week after week.

Over the last five months, only one job materialized. After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job.

Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder.

[mdmc]

1. The NEW American dream

1.Afford health care for your loved ones.
2.Afford shelter.
3.Afford food, clothing, and transportation.

If you can do these things YOU ARE MIDDLE CLASS..

[mike_c]

2. I see no reason why he shouldn't hold out for meaningful work...

...as long as he has that option. He isn't starving or living on the street, largely because of the generosity of his parents. I presume they could withdraw that generosity if they felt strongly enough about it, so I applaud them for supporting their son's efforts to find meaningful work-- meaningful for himself, on his terms-- rather than simply wages.

What's wrong with our society that makes people believe it's sinful to not do any work that's available? That's self enslavement mentality. Who would want to take orders at some fast food joint rather than doing fulfilling work in fields that interest them? Why do people think less of folks who don't, especially if they have other options?

on edit: to be clear, there are reasons for working "low end" jobs, including both lack of any other options AND a preference for work with little direct consequence or responsibility, presumably coupled with the ability-- or willingness-- to make ends meet on low wages. But this young man apparently has further options.

[NoNothing]

7. There's no reason he shouldn't if he can get away with it

But did you read the article? His parents clearly were not happy with it. And if you can afford to pick and choose, bully for you I suppose, but don't expect a whole ton of sympathy, you know what I mean? $40,000 should be enough money for a single guy to make a decent life for himself, find something he enjoys doing even if it's outside of his job. To use this as an illustration of the death of the American Dream is, well, insulting.

[SoCalDem]

14. "Many" young people want their lives to "start" where their parents' lives left off

they apparently were not told about how their parents struggled to GET where they are, and are not willing to live in crappy apartments & save up for things they want. Many want to move from Mom & Dads place into a place as good as or better..and at a high rate of pay, even though they have not "earned it"..

[mike_c]

18. by the same token, many parents would like to shield their children...

...from the same sorts of desperate struggles they endured. My ex-wife and I sometimes talk about this-- how happy we are to see our daughter NOT having to repeat some of the hard times we went through. She has her own struggles, of course, but in this day and time I'm pretty proud that she has already surpassed our standard of living in many respects, and that she never had to go through some of the crap that we did. Maybe it's just a measure of how rough her mother and I had it-- the kid certainly never got a silver spoon, but she didn't have to spend twenty years digging out of the hole just to see daylight, either.

[SoCalDem]

20. We have helped our kids too, but some parents take it too far

and then we have 35 yr olds still living at home, having Mom cook for them & do their laundry..

We let our kids know we would always help them when we could, but we would not make it too comfy either:evilgrin: By age 23 they were all out and on their own, and now into their 30's they are all self-sufficient (2 of them make more than WE do )

[melm00se]

33. ding ding ding

we have a winner.

I see this in the younger ones who join my company. they "expect" to be started at least half way up the career ladder (with the commensurate pay) without having to learn the necessary job skills on the way up. All because they hold a college degree. many of them come to "us" with being a grocery store clerk or some other low level service industry position and bringing nothing to the table other than that college degree.

Far too many have to be taught how to dress and act in a professional work environment.

there is a reason why these jobs are called "entry level".

[Darth_Kitten]

26. Exactly. +1

n/t

[bettyellen]

30. he moved into an apt where his rent share is 1K a month, so there;s a real good reason right there

[SoCalDem]

35. wow $1K for a share? My son had a 2k sq ft house with a pool

and his share (there were 4 roommates) was $400 a month. He got a break on rent by doing the yard-work & making sure the bills got paid on time. All of the guys had different schedules, and most of the time when we went to see him, he was the only one home.

Young unmarrieds need to learn how to share housing. Once a girlfriend/spouse comes into the picture, it's different, but while they are single, it makes so much sense to share a nice place and get out of Mom's house..Who wants their Mom knowing all their "business" anyway:(

[bettyellen]

38. I know, and he;s not even in NYC, the little idiot. his parents are paying the frst two months and

then, shudde to think... he's planning on looking for a bartender job. I bet it never occured to him. that they are harder to get these days too. Im beginning to think he;s not getting a job because he lacks common sense as wel as imagination.

[NoNothing]

3. Good lord

Here all along I thought "The American Dream" was about working hard to make a decent life for yourself, not passing on $40,000 white-collar jobs because they are beneath you while lounge about at your parent's house.

Here's a hint: if you're turning down decent pay for honest work,

[mike_c]

9. that is exactly the sort of attitude I'm talking about....

Why should he accept $40K or anything else for work that isn't meaningful to him? Just to work? Is that all that matters?

I used to be in the printing and graphics industry. I had something of a career crisis in my late twenties-- I dropped out of school and started full time work at 16-- when I realized that the only thing of any real worth I had to exchange for my wages was my time. MY time. My lifetime, pissed away at the rate of 40-50 hours per week in exchange for the least amount of wages that my employer could get away with paying me. I didn't particularly dislike my job, and I was damned well skilled, but it was just a job, just drudgery for a living, doing something that was meaningful to someone else, i.e. the folks who ran the companies I worked for, but was just going through the motions for me. The pay was decent. I made a living. But I was selling my lifetime away, and doing it for the least amount possible.

Where is the honor in that?

I concluded that there isn't any, so I quit my good printing jobs and went back to school to learn something that was meaningful and fulfilling to me. It's a risk, of course. The young man in the OP is experiencing that risk now. But without risks like that, life is little more than wage slavery. That's not something I'd wish on anyone, even if it probably is the norm in the U.S.

[NoNothing]

15. Why should he?

He shouldn't if he doesn't want to. But then he can't also complain about being unemployed, is all I'm saying, as if that's an indictment of the dream of working hard for a decent living. The American Dream is fair pay for hard work, nothing more and nothing less.

[mike_c]

17. the american dream is a meaningful and fullfilling life, IMO....

Decent pay for whatever hard work one can find is a slave's dream. Wage slaves hope for something in the middle: wages that will allow some semblance of fulfillment on the weekends, or at least once or twice a year.

About the time I had that career crisis I mentioned above, I read a history of western civilization written by Kevin O'Reilly. He points out that our present notions of "work" and "employment" are totally new in human history. "Employment" performs a service that was traditionally supplied involuntarily, i.e. by slaves or de facto slaves. It's a post-industrial revolution means for creating and maintaining huge, cheap labor pools.

And we embrace it lovingly, as this thread attests.

[NoNothing]

19. Well, we'll have to disagree

That may be your dream, but the "American Dream," historically, is a lot less lofty. Let's put it this way: when millions of immigrants came to the U.S. to do backbreaking work and called it the American Dream, it's not because they thought that working in a factory or a construction yard was fulfilling or life-affirming, it's because they thought they'd have a decent shot at a home of their own, with a family and some things to go in it.

[bettyellen]

27. he' not looking for meaningful, he wants to be handed a career track w/ guaranteed increases

instead of creating his own career, he want an executive training program to give him one.
and sitting on his ass for years sending out 4-5 resumes a wekk, LOL. he really doen't seem to have much creativity or taking much initiative does he?
after sittigng around two years doing nothing, maybe he should have taken that job. or volunterring or soething. inertia is settling in, and on top of the sense of entitlement he feels, it ain't going to help his "career" any.

[KurtNYC]

4. it is elusive for ALL generations right now

This is the NYT writing about their core demo -- upper middle class homeowners.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I am sorry kid, but 40K is GOOD PAY

and above the median...

ARRGGHHH

Especially for a FIRST JOB.

[rucky]

22. seriously.

I was earning that 3 years ago - after 16 years in the workforce.

[TwilightGardener]

6. I'll hold my sympathy for the less-employable who must support families, rather

than kids who can opt to live with mom and dad and turn their noses up at good white collar jobs.

[Lance_Boyle]

8. This Grifter from Grafton will wish he had taken that $40K job

when his parents wise up. What a fucking tool.

[Skink]

10. That's two and a half years pay.

with that kind of money I could afford to pay my deductible at the doctors.

[The_Commonist]

11. Another wanna be corporate weenie!

So that's the American Dream, eh?

[bighughdiehl]

12. OH. MY. GOD.

What a snot-nosed little shit!
I am a fairly recent grad making 25k, I could live quite well on 40k, so what's his problem?
The job not exactly to his liking? Suck it up! The one above poster was right, he will wish
he had taken that job when and if his yuppie dolt parents wise up to the fact they raised a spoiled parasite-a future GWB, even. My sister has a master's degree
and can't find anything full-time at all. I'll reserve my sympathy for those
who cannot find anything and those who have been laid off. What a sheltered little snot!
And what a waste of paper and bandwith on the part of the Times!

[MineralMan]

13. Can't say I sympathize much with this youngster.

Oddly enough, many insurance company executives start out in that associate claims adjuster position. It is the bottom rung of that corporate ladder. My father-in-law, may he rest in peace, started out in exactly that position and ended up as the VP of training for State Farm.

Besides, it's just a first job. For goodness sakes...who works where they started working? Anyone?

[marmar]

16. Elusive? Try a pipe dream.

nt

[LBJDemocrat]

21. Pravda-esque propaganda

This article has done a lot of damage to the unemployed by using casting young man as their representative. Ostensibly, it's sympathetic to Mr. Nicholson; but the reality is that this article sets him up as a straw man in order to paint a rosier picture of the economy than what the truth is.

The truth is that most young people can't find any work, that many of them suffer illnesses and dental infections silently for lack of health insurance, that many can't make the minimum payments on the loans they took on in order to do what society told them would lead to the means needed to live safely and start a family.

[DCBob]

23. Dumb. Take the job. What is wrong with 40K/yr? He can always quit later if he wants to..

Even if its not the plum job he wanted it helps pay the bills and I am sure it will look good on his resume. Dumb.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

24. I think he was offered a corporate position on the bottom rungs of a career ladder

And he's been out of work since 2008? 40K for a STARTING position?

He should have taken it. He's right at the point where he is about to be aced out by graduates behind him or people older with more experience above him.

I was part of the last generation that graduated college into a recession. We did become a lost generation and it took many of us years to climb corporate job ladders that were initially unavailable to us. What happens is you start taking sustenance postions in restaurants, retail, etc. and then you are sidetracked, if not permanently, at least for some period of years.

[Darth_Kitten]

25. He turned down a starting position of $40,000?

Problem with the upcoming generation is that they seem to think the world owes them something.

I guess that's what happens when Mommy and Daddy spoonfeed Junior until he's 25.

[bettyellen]

29. only because his older brother is making 70K and thatls his benchmark,his parents now pay 1K rent

for him. Wow, doesn't he have a shred of pride?

[TheKentuckian]

28. My problem is the daily anecdotes of the unemployed turning down 40k or won't accept less than 100k

The stories of electing to live on a pittance because it's a free ride and all similar crap.

Some of the tales seem to stretch all credibility and none seem representative but each day there is an interesting little anecdote used as evidence that somebody is getting over, refuses to accept good pay, is a lazy bastard, or whatever meme de jour is to justify a senseless cut of benefits.

Every day there is one of these bullshit little stories to undermine the safety net and everyday new tents pop up in Bushvilles around the nation, more homes are lost, the line for each opening gets longer, more savings are tapped out and retirements are raided just to keep up in "productive" years, and more lives fall apart.

Shit like this is custom built to support pulling the rug out from under hard pressed people by putting the focus on extreme outliers just like Reagan did with his "welfare Queens" and union busting crap.

[DCBob]

32. The article was not criticising him.. they were sympathising with him..

The basic premise of the article is that this generation is not going to do as well as the previous. Some on this board are criticising him.. and I think correctly given the circumstances.

[TheKentuckian]

34. I understand the perspective of the article but it still plays to the same meme as the negative ones

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. It's not elusive; it's that the jackanapes want to start near the top

and aren't willing to work their way up.

Maybe the spoiled brat in the article should look around and go "Hey, no one wants me for the jobs I'm applying for - maybe I'm not fucking qualified yet. Maybe I ought to look for the types of jobs that 24 year olds just out of college would normally look for".

If I were his parents I'd be kicking his ass. Though I have a feeling that his parents are enabling yuppie shitpots who think their precious is just too delicate and awesome to start at anything less than a senior VP.

:eyes:

[Rabrrrrrr]

36. This deserves a kick because of the slacker hand-me-everything-NOW asshole in the article

I read it earlier today and it's still pissing me off.

Living at home, grubbing off his parents, and he's sending out an utterly laughable 4-5 resumes a week!

Oh my God, poor kid!!! Addressing those 4-5 envelopes each week must make his precious hand just oh so awfully tired.

And his parents put up with that bullshit?

He could at least get a job at a McDonalds or Shopko or something (start a lawn-mowing business, dog-walking business, or something) to help the parents pay some rent, show that he's capable of working, and act like a goddamn adult.

Holy shit - and all he's doing is searching corporate websites for job openings? Why isn't he searching... Oh, I don't know... the fucking classifieds, or working through his college's job placement office, or job listing websites, or doing other stuff? Where's the networking? Why isn't he calling all his college chums to see if their places of employment have openings?

4-5 resumes a week.

What a fucking asshole.

"No, I want a corporate level job that's right here in my shitty hometown, and until i get it I'm going to hold my breath and stamp my feet and mommy will make me feel all better!"

Asshole.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

37. I'd kill to make 40K, and I'm a little older than he is.

This little shit needs to realize how lucky he is.