Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy

[CallMeWilliam]

http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-gener ... happy.html

Having worked with / interviewed them for jobs / having two in my family and met many of their friends; I can honestly say this article pretty much nails it.

 

[AmberCutie]

That made a lot of sense. Though I feel a bit opposite since my parents reality in their careers didn't make them the optimistic teachers the article describes, and I think my personal expectation - reality ratio has put me on the happy side of things.

I saw my parents struggle and feel very unhappy and slump through not very successful career paths. I expected to endure the same thing when I got older. I'm very happy that my life's path has led me away from that. Better reality than expected.

Lucky me!

 

[LiLredhairedgrl]

You got me intrigued and googling...I found this article amusing and so I shall I share it with y'all.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...eration-y-probably-no-worse-than-baby-boomers

:hello2:


*edit to add series The Guardian did recently on and by "Generation Y"...

Next week the Guardian is handing over control of its features content to 10 young trainee journalists. While they don't presume to speak for a generation, they have chosen a series of topics to explore and debate – media, bare necessities, sex, global and culture – from their perspective of a difficult economic climate and a rapidly changing world.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2014/mar/14/generation-y-takeover-trailer-video

Generation Y takeover index.

 

[LuckySmiles]

This is why I hate facebook. I don't really fit my generation specifics though "because I'm special" :lol:

no but really. My parents are a bit older than Baby boomers and were already working, married, and making babies by the time the hippies were abound. My siblings are the Generation Xers or whatever so maybe I'm more of a cross between them and the hippy my parents never got to be :-D . I don't equate money or career with personal success I never have. Many moons ago I'd quit a job that looked good on paper or FACEBOOK but was miserable to make the same money waiting tables. Graduating college was the big deal in my family and I did that. Low expectations :-D. But I'd always catch shit from my friends over it. Like a lot of shit. More than one time I've said something like "my parents aren't even on my back like this? why are you like this?"

And I can see how social media adds to the pressure of this mentality. No one usually posts a pic from the first time you got fired. you know?
People forget you can turn that shit off if it bothers you though. Some people don't realize it gets to them on some level.
When I graduated college a semester after a lot of my friends back in 06 and had to work restaurant jobs to move back to a major city for "real work." I didn't mind, no big deal, but when I logged on to my facebook account it was like "so and so just started another job wayyy cooler than yours" and I'd get all bummed for no reason. So I would deactivate it. Felt better. It's dumb.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

This actually explains a lot of what I see every day from many of the younger students I'm in college with right now.

 

[motherbrain]

SO TRUE.
Growing up, my grandpa always told me to learn foreign languages and aim to work with the Chinese because some day it would be a good business move.
My mom gave me no direction whatsoever, just told me to go to college, even though I had no idea what I wanted to study or what I wanted to do. She said it doesn't matter, I was "beautiful and smart" so all I needed was a degree to get a good job. She encouraged me to lie on my job applications and try to make myself sound as perfect as possible. I even remember making up all sorts of shit on a resume, getting to the interview, and completely bombing because I was caught in so many lies. It was humiliating.
I tried going to college a couple years after high school but flunked out weeks before my first semester was up. I had no motivation, no direction. Growing up I was always told I was some super intelligent special snowflake who had all the opportunities in the world, but I found myself working two jobs 16 hours a day on my feet with little to no sleep and only making about $900 a month. My mom is rich as fuck and takes vacations around the world every couple months while I was living in a shitty 445 sqft apartment in the shittiest part of town, electricity getting shut off, eviction notices, car getting repossessed, starving etc. for the last year. She still doesn't understand why I sell amateur porn on the internet for a living, she thinks things are just as easy as they were when she was my age.

 

[SexySteph]

One thing they left out though is outside expectations. Many baby boomers seemed to just fly through the process, being comfortable and affluent by mid to late 20s and having a career right out of college. Clearly the economy is different and it doesn't work that way anymore, but the parents of Gen Y's stand their baffled "why aren't you working harder? When I was your age I already owned my first home!" So they continue to to instill the idea that it should be a far faster process. Which just continues to enlarge the gap between expectation and reality.

 

[VeronicaChaos]

Where the Baby Boomers wanted to live The American Dream, GYPSYs want to live Their Own Personal Dream.

Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's almost easier to create your own dream than to live one that doesn't exist anymore?

I find it hilarious that Gen Y are accused of feeling "too important" after the inflated sense of purpose that the hippies had just before starting their corporate suit careers.

We're overcomplicating this, as usual. Elders always think the new generation is lazy and full of ego. Young people generally are until they grow up.

 

[RainyDayGuy]

I would agree with the general premise that a large majority of the youths have unrealistic expectations. I do think there are a lot of other factors that are contributing to that and the baby boomer generation needs to take some responsiblity for creating those expectations and then not delivering on them. The baby boomer generation has been in charge of the country for the most part since Clinton which just happens to be about the time our economy started down the road of being fucked. Not a coincidence in my mind. They got theirs and now they seem puzzled as to why the next generation is struggling.

 

[LilyEvans]

Exactly what Veronica and Steph said.

Can we also talk about how our generation grew up being TOLD we're better than certain jobs, we're too good and deserve better? Anyone remember being told in highschool, "Better do your homework or you'll end up working at McDonald's!" or having someone in a menial or blue-collar job pointed out, someone saying, "See? THAT'S why you go to college, so you don't end up like that." But then when we put in all the hard work and the only jobs left are manual labor and minimum wage jobs, older generations scoff at us for thinking we're too good for them. Guess what? YOU TOLD US WE WERE TOO GOOD. You told us our hard work and dedication would pay off, and it didn't.

So yes, many people think that they thousands of hours they put into school and the thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of dollars in debt they were told to accrue entitles them to better job and better futures.

 

[Red7227]

But then when we put in all the hard work and the only jobs left are manual labor and minimum wage jobs, older generations scoff at us for thinking we're too good for them. Guess what? YOU TOLD US WE WERE TOO GOOD. You told us our hard work and dedication would pay off, and it didn't.

I missed out on that. I was always told that I would be lucky if I got a job I actually liked. These days I do have that, and its funny to look at all of the over-achievers who get paid twice what I do, but have to work 70 hours a week, half of it unpaiod, to keep their place in the cut-throat role they have chosen.

 

[KayleePond]

Really interesting article!

This reminds me of "Old Economy Steven".

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/old-economy-steven

 

[VeronicaChaos]

^ These are all gold! http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/old-economy-steven/photos

 

[kinkiboi4fun]

I was born on the cusp of the Gen-X/Gen-Y transition, and I actually had Depression-era grandparents with whom I had a very close relationship. Good, salt-of-the-Earth Americans all of them: my paternal family were farmers, and my maternal family was 100% blue collar. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII (paternal was captured in Italy and spent two years in a POW camp, and my maternal grandfather landed and was wounded on Utah, and fought straight through to the Battle of the Bulge), and my grandmothers did their jobs on the homefront skimping, saving, and rationing their way through the war. After the war my paternal grandfather went back to the farm, and my maternal grandfather became a truck driver, Hell's Angel, and pretty prominent member of the local Klan.

Not too proud about that last part, but there it is.

Their advice to me was to get the hell out of the country as soon as I could and not look back. They didn't take the Boomers' BS in the '80s too happily -- in fact, my paternal grandfather went to his grave saying (among other things) the US will be a third-world country within twenty years of the Boomers taking over the government. Considering the thirty-year trend of wage stagnation but exponential productivity growth, outsourcing of skilled labor, unemployment rates (especially in skilled fields), an unsustainable boom-bust cycle with naught but political will to maintain the status quo, and a GINI coefficient somewhere between "central Asian kleptocracy" and "sub-Saharan failed state"...can't see where he's gone wrong.

 

[Sevrin]

I was born on the cusp of the Gen-X/Gen-Y transition, and I actually had Depression-era grandparents with whom I had a very close relationship. Good, salt-of-the-Earth Americans all of them: my paternal family were farmers, and my maternal family was 100% blue collar. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII (paternal was captured in Italy and spent two years in a POW camp, and my maternal grandfather landed and was wounded on Utah, and fought straight through to the Battle of the Bulge), and my grandmothers did their jobs on the homefront skimping, saving, and rationing their way through the war. After the war my paternal grandfather went back to the farm, and my maternal grandfather became a truck driver, Hell's Angel, and pretty prominent member of the local Klan.

Not too proud about that last part, but there it is.

Their advice to me was to get the hell out of the country as soon as I could and not look back. They didn't take the Boomers' BS in the '80s too happily -- in fact, my paternal grandfather went to his grave saying (among other things) the US will be a third-world country within twenty years of the Boomers taking over the government. Considering the thirty-year trend of wage stagnation but exponential productivity growth, outsourcing of skilled labor, unemployment rates (especially in skilled fields), an unsustainable boom-bust cycle with naught but political will to maintain the status quo, and a GINI coefficient somewhere between "central Asian kleptocracy" and "sub-Saharan failed state"...can't see where he's gone wrong.

That's bullshit. The fact is that for most Americans, especially women and minorities of all types, life in the U.S. is a lot better now than it was back in that fantasy Golden Age your hick grandfathers remember. The biggest difference is that people can learn more about all the things that are wrong with the country, not that there are more things wrong with it. The American Dream may be bullshit now, but it was bullshit then, too. Death of a Salesman was written in the late 40s, not the 80s.

Of course, you're still welcome to leave, if you think it sucks that hard. There are a few billion people who would love to take your spot.

 

[KamikaziKitty]

I was born on the cusp of the Gen-X/Gen-Y transition, and I actually had Depression-era grandparents with whom I had a very close relationship. Good, salt-of-the-Earth Americans all of them: my paternal family were farmers, and my maternal family was 100% blue collar. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII (paternal was captured in Italy and spent two years in a POW camp, and my maternal grandfather landed and was wounded on Utah, and fought straight through to the Battle of the Bulge), and my grandmothers did their jobs on the homefront skimping, saving, and rationing their way through the war. After the war my paternal grandfather went back to the farm, and my maternal grandfather became a truck driver, Hell's Angel, and pretty prominent member of the local Klan.

Not too proud about that last part, but there it is.

Their advice to me was to get the hell out of the country as soon as I could and not look back. They didn't take the Boomers' BS in the '80s too happily -- in fact, my paternal grandfather went to his grave saying (among other things) the US will be a third-world country within twenty years of the Boomers taking over the government. Considering the thirty-year trend of wage stagnation but exponential productivity growth, outsourcing of skilled labor, unemployment rates (especially in skilled fields), an unsustainable boom-bust cycle with naught but political will to maintain the status quo, and a GINI coefficient somewhere between "central Asian kleptocracy" and "sub-Saharan failed state"...can't see where he's gone wrong.

That's bullshit. The fact is that for most Americans, especially women and minorities of all types, life in the U.S. is a lot better now than it was back in that fantasy Golden Age your hick grandfathers remember. The biggest difference is that people can learn more about all the things that are wrong with the country, not that there are more things wrong with it. The American Dream may be bullshit now, but it was bullshit then, too. Death of a Salesman was written in the late 40s, not the 80s.

Of course, you're still welcome to leave, if you think it sucks that hard. There are a few billion people who would love to take your spot.

Just a devil's advocate moment, not disagreeing or agreeing with either side here BUT

In the vanilla world I left the Marine Corps while in Japan a year and a half before my ex-husband left the Corps. I found working in Japan was MUCH more enjoyable than any vanilla job I have had in the states. Yes I may have just worked at Starbucks (just like I did back home) but the atmosphere was completely different. Instead of arguing with co-workers about actually doing the job they were hired to do, my Japanese coworkers went above and beyond expectations EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. We worked as a team instead of against eachother and when someone slacked instead of asking what the hell their problem was, you knew there really was a problem and could work with them to fix it.

That is only my experience and I do not speak for all or consider this an absolute. Just posing a real life scenario.

 

[Sevrin]

Just a devil's advocate moment, not disagreeing or agreeing with either side here BUT

In the vanilla world I left the Marine Corps while in Japan a year and a half before my ex-husband left the Corps. I found working in Japan was MUCH more enjoyable than any vanilla job I have had in the states. Yes I may have just worked at Starbucks (just like I did back home) but the atmosphere was completely different. Instead of arguing with co-workers about actually doing the job they were hired to do, my Japanese coworkers went above and beyond expectations EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. We worked as a team instead of against eachother and when someone slacked instead of asking what the hell their problem was, you knew there really was a problem and could work with them to fix it.

That is only my experience and I do not speak for all or consider this an absolute. Just posing a real life scenario.

I don't think that's an illustration of the U.S. being a worse place now than it used to be, or Americans being more whatever than they used to be. The Japanese have always been more collectivist by nature than Americans or even Europeans.

By the way, I'm not suggesting that things in the U.S. are perfect. The world is changing and the standard of living of the West will continue to sink as it runs out of people in other parts of the world willing to finance it with their labor and resources.

 

[HiGirlsRHot]

I have a much simpler explanation the millennial/y generation are unhappy because they are young.

I am reading a book on happiness, one of the things the authors point out is the older people are happier than younger people. This was true even back in the 50 and 60, before Social Security and Medicare made older people far less likely to live in poverty than young people. I believe every generation has had to balance their expectations with the reality of the real world.

To be fair, I will say that between two wars and particularly ugly great recession, young people in this country have a had tougher time than any generation since the greatest generation. Way tougher than a tail end boomer like myself.

 

[Sevrin]

I have a much simpler explanation the millennial/y generation are unhappy because they are young.

I am reading a book on happiness, one of the things the authors point out is the older people are happier than younger people. This was true even back in the 50 and 60, before Social Security and Medicare made older people far less likely to live in poverty than young people. I believe every generation has had to balance their expectations with the reality of the real world.

To be fair, I will say that between two wars and particularly ugly great recession, young people in this country have a had tougher time than any generation since the greatest generation. Way tougher than a tail end boomer like myself.

I think our generation was selfish. To gain *our* approval, governments put our countries into debt. We have no right to look down upon this Generation Y. If you think student debt is scary, government debt is going to have a much greater impact, and we won't be the ones suffering most because of it.

It would be a kind of poetic justice if the younger generations decided to float us out to sea once we are no longer of use, and I'm not talking cruise ships.

 

[Bocefish]

Government is meant to serve the people, not the other way around.

Gen Y cares more about Beiber and Lohan, Beyonce & Hollywood than how their government is raping them and their future.

Hope & Change... Obamacare will save the average family $2500...

People get the government they deserve.

 

[Deleted member 16664]

I love this post because it's basically how I feel except my parents didn't have it that easy. My father went to a technical school for a year or two and my mother was a waitress for the majority of her life and didn't finish high school. My parents and teachers told me "just go to college and get a job," thinking my life would work out for me. It wasn't until semi-recently I was eligible for grants (my parents made more income making me not eligible for grants previously) and the government expected them to pay for my schooling, which they didn't (maybe 1 total semester). It's so easy for them to say, "Go to college, get a career, do the right thing," when they have no idea what college is like, how much it costs, aren't helping, etc. I've seen so many people from school who have 40k in debit and still work at Starbucks. On the other hand, I have friends whose parents have paid their entire way through college including their rent while in school, which is total heaven to me. I would have been done with school working on my master's degree now if that were the case. I always felt so terrible feeling so "behind" when my friends were graduating from college or putting a loan down on a house. I felt, in many ways, that things would be looking different for me now because I was always a good kid and worked hard in school. I am still in college (who knows how long it will take me to finish), but I honestly think creating my own job/business will be more fulfilling in the long-term. I'm currently doing camming so I can afford to buy myself a piece of land and a small home so I'll have at least something to call my own….

Biggest advice I've been given, "Being successful is not about being smart. It's about utilizing your energy wisely. I've failed at many projects and I've been successful at some. I keep trying." This advice was given to me from someone well-known I worked for and I worked very close with him and his family. I never knew how he could spend time with his family, make over 1 million a year (at least), and still have time to do all of the crazy projects he did. Of course, he gave me this advice when I was crying and felt lost in my life, but I remember it because I know it's true.

 

[Sevrin]

Yeah, the value of higher education is way overblown. Far too many are educated in areas where there is little prospect for employment that pays well enough to justify the expense. The bigger pity, though, is that there is not more respect for trades.

In Europe, tradespeople go through apprenticeships which include an academic element. They go through a period as a journeyman and work toward becoming masters, who will, in turn, train future apprentices. This includes tool and dye makers and electricians, as well as hairdressers and florists. They're held in higher regard in Europe than in North America, even though they have to get their hands dirty to make a living. Even the cam studio has the potential to help models earn more, but they're mostly run by people who are out to make a quick buck.

 

[AryaRoses]

I think it would be lovely if minimum wage was a livable wage and if entry level jobs didn't have ridiculous requirements and unpaid internships/exploiting people for free labour didn't exist. I can dream :love2:

 

[kinkiboi4fun]

...The fact is that for most Americans, especially women and minorities of all types, life in the U.S. is a lot better now than it was back in that fantasy Golden Age your hick grandfathers remember...

The biggest difference is that people can learn more about all the things that are wrong with the country, not that there are more things wrong with it. The American Dream may be bullshit now, but it was bullshit then, too.

Well shit, I never thought of it that way. Our society has always had issues, so there's no point in trying to do anything about it. May as well live it up while we can and throw the economy down the toilet for the next few generations, right?

Yup, that sounds about right for a Boomer/Gen-X mindset.

Death of a Salesman was written in the late 40s, not the 80s.

Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906. Does that vindicate right-to-work laws and de facto union-busting, capturing executive agencies created to enforce occupational safety and labor standards law, or outright deregulating those two things?

Of course, you're still welcome to leave, if you think it sucks that hard. There are a few billion people who would love to take your spot.

"Love it or leave it". How quaint.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I think it would be lovely if minimum wage was a livable wage and if entry level jobs didn't have ridiculous requirements and unpaid internships/exploiting people for free labour didn't exist. I can dream :love2:

It would be the same or worse if it was. Minimum wage being low (as set by the government, not the workforce itself) is a good thing, it's usually bad every time they raise it.

It's simple economic laws of supply and demand. Let's take McDonald's for example. There are more than 14,000 of them in the U.S. (more actually) employing around 761,000 workers. Let's also assume that for the most part McDonald's has figured out what the equilibrium selling price of their food is to stay in business. And also that they aren't hiring a lot more employees than they need to do the work. In other words they've got the costs and prices all figured out so they can keep their doors open.

Now if they raise the minimum wage to their employees what would happen? They would be paying out more than they are bringing in to stay in business, so one of three following things would have to happen.

1) However much extra they are paying out in wages, they would have to cut peoples hours equal to that to maintain the same profit. In other words more people would have to be fired. So now the hike in minimum wage has led to less people making that increased salary they all demanded. As example, let's say each employee right now makes the minimum $7.25. That's $5,517,250 in wages every hour by McDonald's in America. Now suppose the minimum wage is hiked to $10.10 as proposed by Obama currently. That would mean an increase to $7,686,100 paid out every hour. Where would that extra $2,168,850 come from? In this scenario McDonald's would have to fire 214,737 employees just to maintain the same total wages paid out.

2) The stores that raise the wages they pay out, and do nothing else to counteract that, simply go out of business because they are stupidly operating at a loss. Also results in more employees losing all wages.

3) They raise the price of the food they sell to the consumers to pay for the extra wages.

That third option is the most likely outcome and is also the most hurtful to everyone including the employees themselves.

Think about it, if they raise the price of their food then it costs people more for the employees themselves to buy their Big Mac's. So that increased wage now doesn't go as far. And this increase spreads to every aspect of life, not just McDonald's prices. Every other person and business now has to pay more for their food. So in order to stay in business and make a living, they also have to raise the price of the goods they sell to cover that extra expense. And, as you may start to figure out, that cyclically comes back to the McDonald's employee in everything they buy.

In reality what happens when minimum wage is raised is a subtle combination of all three scenarios. Some stupid business owners will fail to see the changes that need to be made and will go out of business. Most that do make changes will cut 'some' hours and then only have to raise prices a little to meet the new total cost in wages. But for the whole group of minimum wage employees you'll have fewer of them working and more on unemployment. Because of that the the overall demand for the jobs that do remain will grow. The stores hiring will recognize that more people want the job and so they will now force the workers they do have to do more work or risk losing their jobs to someone else who is willing to do it. In other words your work day just got a whole lot shittier.

Raising the minimum wage, every single time it has been done, sets a new equilibrium standard of living that is higher than before for everyone. So honestly, I'm not for the government raising minimum wage.

Price floors artificially set by the government are a bad thing, so are price ceilings for that matter. In every case it leads to more inefficiency in the system and deadweight* loss overall.

McDonald's, and other fast food type jobs, were never meant to be careers outside of a few managers and franchise owners. They are there to get young people some experience in the work force, get them some part time extra income, and maybe help pay some of their college expense. They are a stepping stone to a job that does pay a better wage.

*Basically deadweight loss is an overall loss of 'economic efficiency' that no one benefits from: we as a society spend more money for less goods in return. It occurs every time the government steps in to set a minimum wage (among other things).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadweight_loss

 

[AryaRoses]

McDonald's, and other fast food type jobs, were never meant to be careers outside of a few managers and franchise owners. They are there to get young people some experience in the work force, get them some part time extra income, and maybe help pay some of their college expense. They are a stepping stone to a job that does pay a better wage.

I really disagree with this premise, actually. There will always be people working jobs that pay minimum wage (not just fast food, but janitorial, various service jobs, etc.) we need these people. A lot of these workers aren't teens, they are adults, often with dependents.

If you are busting your ass putting in 40 hours a week mopping floors or whatever, you deserve to be compensated fairly and not dismissed because the CEO is like welp, maybe you should go to college (LOL doesn't always help) because this is a ~stepping stone~ to a better life. I agree it's more complex than simply raising wages, but the system as it is is not working either and many hard working people are scraping by.

 

[kinkiboi4fun]

It would be the same or worse if it was...It occurs every time the government steps in to set a minimum wage (among other things).

Except, everything you just described is already happening. The US is a decisively post-industrial economy, and the service industry is a growing plurality, soon to be majority, among employment sectors. The blue and white collar career-track jobs upon which the economy relied in past decades have long since left for greener pastures abroad.

The difference is that by paying food service and retail industry employees a below-living wage, federal and state governments are having to make up the difference, and that cost is socialized; i.e. born by the taxpayer. Who do you think pays for the housing assistance, food stamps, unemployment when and where applicable, and various tax credits upon which people in those industries rely just to get by? It ain't the McDonaldses and Walmarts of the world -- the overwhelming majority of that comes out of payroll taxes.

 

[SexySteph]

I think it would be lovely if minimum wage was a livable wage and if entry level jobs didn't have ridiculous requirements and unpaid internships/exploiting people for free labour didn't exist. I can dream :love2:

It would be the same or worse if it was. Minimum wage being low (as set by the government, not the workforce itself) is a good thing, it's usually bad every time they raise it.

It's simple economic laws of supply and demand. Let's take McDonald's for example. There are more than 14,000 of them in the U.S. (more actually) employing around 761,000 workers. Let's also assume that for the most part McDonald's has figured out what the equilibrium selling price of their food is to stay in business. And also that they aren't hiring a lot more employees than they need to do the work. In other words they've got the costs and prices all figured out so they can keep their doors open.

Now if they raise the minimum wage to their employees what would happen? They would be paying out more than they are bringing in to stay in business, so one of three following things would have to happen.

1) However much extra they are paying out in wages, they would have to cut peoples hours equal to that to maintain the same profit. In other words more people would have to be fired. So now the hike in minimum wage has led to less people making that increased salary they all demanded. As example, let's say each employee right now makes the minimum $7.25. That's $5,517,250 in wages every hour by McDonald's in America. Now suppose the minimum wage is hiked to $10.10 as proposed by Obama currently. That would mean an increase to $7,686,100 paid out every hour. Where would that extra $2,168,850 come from? In this scenario McDonald's would have to fire 214,737 employees just to maintain the same total wages paid out.

2) The stores that raise the wages they pay out, and do nothing else to counteract that, simply go out of business because they are stupidly operating at a loss. Also results in more employees losing all wages.

3) They raise the price of the food they sell to the consumers to pay for the extra wages.

That third option is the most likely outcome and is also the most hurtful to everyone including the employees themselves.

Think about it, if they raise the price of their food then it costs people more for the employees themselves to buy their Big Mac's. So that increased wage now doesn't go as far. And this increase spreads to every aspect of life, not just McDonald's prices. Every other person and business now has to pay more for their food. So in order to stay in business and make a living, they also have to raise the price of the goods they sell to cover that extra expense. And, as you may start to figure out, that cyclically comes back to the McDonald's employee in everything they buy.

In reality what happens when minimum wage is raised is a subtle combination of all three scenarios. Some stupid business owners will fail to see the changes that need to be made and will go out of business. Most that do make changes will cut 'some' hours and then only have to raise prices a little to meet the new total cost in wages. But for the whole group of minimum wage employees you'll have fewer of them working and more on unemployment. Because of that the the overall demand for the jobs that do remain will grow. The stores hiring will recognize that more people want the job and so they will now force the workers they do have to do more work or risk losing their jobs to someone else who is willing to do it. In other words your work day just got a whole lot shittier.

Raising the minimum wage, every single time it has been done, sets a new equilibrium standard of living that is higher than before for everyone. So honestly, I'm not for the government raising minimum wage.

Price floors artificially set by the government are a bad thing, so are price ceilings for that matter. In every case it leads to more inefficiency in the system and deadweight* loss overall.

McDonald's, and other fast food type jobs, were never meant to be careers outside of a few managers and franchise owners. They are there to get young people some experience in the work force, get them some part time extra income, and maybe help pay some of their college expense. They are a stepping stone to a job that does pay a better wage.

*Basically deadweight loss is an overall loss of 'economic efficiency' that no one benefits from: we as a society spend more money for less goods in return. It occurs every time the government steps in to set a minimum wage (among other things).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadweight_loss

But the owners of most of the places are ROLLING in the money. They could simply take a slight pay it themselves to increase everyone's wage by a few bucks. The only person that'd be hurt by minimum wage increases would be them, and heaven forbid the owner of McDonald's not be able to afford another new car next year.

Minimum wage is worth much less now than it was worth in the 70s.

 

[SaffronBurke]

But then when we put in all the hard work and the only jobs left are manual labor and minimum wage jobs, older generations scoff at us for thinking we're too good for them. Guess what? YOU TOLD US WE WERE TOO GOOD. You told us our hard work and dedication would pay off, and it didn't.

I missed out on that. I was always told that I would be lucky if I got a job I actually liked. These days I do have that, and its funny to look at all of the over-achievers who get paid twice what I do, but have to work 70 hours a week, half of it unpaiod, to keep their place in the cut-throat role they have chosen.

I was raised with that mindset, too. My grandpa was probably the biggest influence in that - his dad died when he was 17, so he had to manage the farm AND work 2-3 other jobs to support his family. So I was just happy to have A job when I started working. I actually stuck in food and retail for a while because I didn't think I was qualified or good enough for an office job. After stalling forever, I applied with a temp agency on my mother's recommendation and happily proved myself wrong.

 

[Sevrin]

Well shit, I never thought of it that way. Our society has always had issues, so there's no point in trying to do anything about it. May as well live it up while we can and throw the economy down the toilet for the next few generations, right?

Do what? The tide is going out. Empires used to last a lot longer but change is accelerating. The U.S. will hang on for a good while, but it has peaked, and it is headed downhill. In other parts of the world, life for the average person is improving dramatically. They're not even afraid to attack U.S. interests as much as they used to be, and they will become less afraid as time goes on. Hand wringing won't change that, so what's the point?