Millennials have no mobility, or purchasing power

originally posted by: Jakal26
a reply to: intrptr

Most people on the internet can afford expensive devices and the spare time to dawdle on them.

LOL
You really are all about the assumptions, aren't you?
If you actually listened, you might learn something. JS

There are MANY of us out here in "computer land" that barely have a dollar to our name, nor do we have much "spare time to dawdle them". But keep on with the generalizations.

Hey man, for all we know, this guy could be friends with most people on the Internet, and know personal details of most people on the Internet.

Before we jump to conclusions, we need to consider that he does, indeed, know most people on the Internet, and since he does know most people on the Internet, he is in a perfectly valid position to make claims regarding most people on the Internet.

After all, he does know, and is friends, with most people on the Internet.

Or he is making crass-assumptions and over-generalizations that a blind frog could jump over.

a reply to: Jakal26

There are MANY of us out here in "computer land" that barely have a dollar to our name, nor do we have much "spare time to dawdle them". But keep on with the generalizations.

This is dawdle central, thanks for bearing that out.

originally posted by: SpaDe_
What do you expect from a generation that was raised with no motivational drive or work ethic? Always being given what they wanted and even the failures received participation prizes. The PC crowd screwed an entire generation and they are only now realizing it. The real world is a cruel place where you have to earn what you want and there are no more participation prizes for just showing up.

ya know, I think that most of what you said would describe a portion of every generation that's ever been. heck I graduated with kids that went through life getting just about everything they wanted from mommy and daddy, didn't mean we all did... I certainly didn't. and, not everyone fits into your description of the millennials, there were many that don't. most of them that I knew while they were growing up don't. I don't think the PC crowd, or the parents, or anyone else you want to blame screwed these kids over nearly as much as the economic geniuses and wall street gurus did! the attack on the middle class started a couple generations ago and well, we are seeing the result of the losing battle that they've been fighting since the 70's! we're seeing the end of the game.

a reply to: RomeByFire

Or he is making crass-assumptions and over-generalizations that a blind frog could jump over.

Nothing personal, but the world got along just fine before the interwebz. Most people actually accomplished things. Being well known on the web is akin to being a celebrity on TV, meh.

Having a skill in computerese is valuable only until obsolescence. Or the power goes out, whichever.
I worked in computers in the early daze. Got boring, wears on people.

Unless you're a hi order geek with pale skin and hemorrhoids, pulling down paychecks for writing code that keeps everyone amused, then you're just surfing the waves. At the end of the day we aren't curing anything, just talking about it.

We used to call that idle talk or chit chat around the water cooler or coffee machine. I worked in computers for 15 years, quitting when I realized they were going to be used to kill (with military precision) and enslave untold numbers of people to the state through monitoring. I knew this back in the late 70's and early 80's.

Now go back to writing another NSA program or targeting software for the newest whiz bang.

originally posted by: SpaDe_
What do you expect from a generation that was raised with no motivational drive or work ethic? Always being given what they wanted and even the failures received participation prizes. The PC crowd screwed an entire generation and they are only now realizing it. The real world is a cruel place where you have to earn what you want and there are no more participation prizes for just showing up.

I couldn't agree more...younger generations are the "want" generations...they want everything but don't value their time or how hard you have to work for a dollar and save for the future buying power of the dollar.

I know what it is like to work hard...have been doing so since I was a kid on a farm. I find it very easy sometimes to think and do nothing but then I get very depressed if I am not doing something...this to my insight was called boredom. My dad told me once there is no such thing as being bored. It is called laziness.

a reply to: intrptr

Now go back to writing another NSA program or targeting software for the newest whiz bang.

Funny. I've actually "liked", and agreed with, some of the stuff you've posted to ATS.
...but when you use this same line on this person that you did on me......LOL

What was it, "go back to making WMD for the MIC" that you pulled the other day.

(Some of us have memories)

........

I don't believe a word you posted....JS

a reply to: RomeByFire

Hey man, for all we know, this guy could be friends with most people on the Internet, and know personal details of most people on the Internet. Before we jump to conclusions, we need to consider that he does, indeed, know most people on the Internet, and since he does know most people on the Internet, he is in a perfectly valid position to make claims regarding most people on the Internet. After all, he does know, and is friends, with most people on the Internet.

You're right.
I'm sorry.

The obvious escaped me.

Forgive me?

a reply to: Jakal26

You left out this part, as usual, focusing on the wars or control aspect I post about.

Unless you're a hi order geek with pale skin and hemorrhoids, pulling down paychecks for writing code that keeps everyone amused, then you're just surfing the waves.

Writing amusing apps to lure people into the internet is comparative to making better tv programming to attract more people to advertising.

Ultimately, TV and the internet are a marketing and monitoring ploy. Right now, headers and side ads are flashing and blinking across the screen… and everything you type is being stored.

It doesn't really matter to me anyway, I'm poor.

originally posted by: onequestion
This is more evidence of our disconnect from source and one another. Evidence of our sick culture.

And there's even more evidence from the grumpy old fart replies about how the kids today just don't understand work ethic.

What a load. Today's young generation is up against a disintegrated middle class, a plutocracy hoarding most of the wealth in the upper 1%, and intense competition from each other to survive this mess.

When I finished school I had to work an unpaid internship for 6 months just to get my foot in the door, and I'm one of the lucky ones - some people have been working these sort of internships for years. There is an unpaid internship epidemic out there right now because employers get away with it and are abusing the situation for every last drop.

Meanwhile there are also entry level jobs in my field now asking for a PhD. Entry level. Why? Because they can - that's how intense the competition is.

All this means that the kids today are working harder than ever to get the same opportunities as before. They're stuck in school longer which means they rack up more debt before they can even get out the gate.

All the while the rich are getting richer off this system, but whenever someone complains about it the bat-phone goes off at FOX News and we get another round of blaming the poor, the immigrants, the kids today, anyone except the plutocrats at the top of the food chain exploiting this situation for what it is.

a reply to: intrptr

You left out this part, as usual, focusing on the wars or control aspect I post about.

No...I saw it.

Writing amusing apps to lure people into the internet is comparative to making better tv programming to attract more people to advertising.

While I agree, it has nothing to do with the fact that you were generalizing....and you know it, as well as I do.

Ultimately, TV and the internet are a marketing and monitoring ploy.

Meh....burned out, generalized argument.

Right now, headers and side ads are flashing and blinking across the screen

No, they're not. See, some of us know of "that of which we cannot speak on this site" (I know, I got a warning for even speaking the name of that which makes sure that "side ads and flashing/blinking" crap isn't on my screen........also, "zoom"...works wonders here, js)

and everything you type is being stored.

I could care less.....let them store it and understand I will not submit.
You can kill a man......well, you know the rest.

It doesn't really matter to me anyway, I'm poor.

Yeah, well, me too.
Shall we enter a pissing contest about that, too?

a reply to: mc_squared

Why can't us peons here applaud a post?

a reply to: onequestion

You want to know what's sick? A poster corrected me here the other day on a stat I was absolutely sure about - that of student loan debt surpassing credit card debt. I thought this was a huge sign of the problems we're facing, having such a huge debt on the shoulders of my generation. Little did I know however, this stat was from 2012 when student loan debt hit 1.1 trillion and credit cards were at 1 trillion. 3 years later credit cards regained the lead at 3.5 trillion.

Credit card debt more than tripled in just three years. What the hell happened? Is it the Millennials trying to pay rent? Is it the middle class, trying to stave off actually being poor? I just don't get it.

After that revelation, depending on who it is with all that credit card debt the Millennials might not actually be the worst off group right now.

originally posted by: SpaDe_
What do you expect from a generation that was raised with no motivational drive or work ethic? Always being given what they wanted and even the failures received participation prizes. The PC crowd screwed an entire generation and they are only now realizing it. The real world is a cruel place where you have to earn what you want and there are no more participation prizes for just showing up.

Do you know how most of us view those prizes? They're insulting and outright derogatory. They specifically call you out for not doing well enough to get a real prize.

originally posted by: mc_squared
When I finished school I had to work an unpaid internship for 6 months just to get my foot in the door, and I'm one of the lucky ones - some people have been working these sort of internships for years. There is an unpaid internship epidemic out there right now because employers get away with it and are abusing the situation for every last drop.

Meanwhile there are also entry level jobs in my field now asking for a PhD. Entry level. Why? Because they can - that's how intense the competition is.

Unpaid internships are common. I've done two. Typically (atleast in the US) there's a law that says an unpaid intern can't be made to perform real work that's vital to the company. Which is a fancy way of saying that if you do anything you can learn from or that produces value, you're violating your terms. The first company had no programmer so they had me build them a website, virtual storefront, database, and point of sale system... for free. Obviously, it didn't turn into a job since they had already gotten the work they wanted. The second story is similar. Expect to do a few of these before landing a minimum wage entry level job, because every company out there is abusing them, and violating the law in doing so.

Big business has destroyed America, just like it's destroying the rest of the world.

When they own 85% of the money how exactly are the rest of us supposed to live?

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: onequestion

Just because the system can do some limited self-programming doesn't mean it will ever be completely autonomous. A single flaw will create more flaws.

The only way it would have a prayer of working would be with fully autonomous AI, and then if we had that, we would be creating slaves out of our tools.

You are describing some humans I know..

originally posted by: SpaDe_
What do you expect from a generation that was raised with no motivational drive or work ethic? Always being given what they wanted and even the failures received participation prizes. The PC crowd screwed an entire generation and they are only now realizing it. The real world is a cruel place where you have to earn what you want and there are no more participation prizes for just showing up.

lol productivity in the workforce is higher then it has ever been. Work ethic what a joke! most jobs require wearing multiple hats and having multiple skill sets in today's workforce with less time off and less overall perks. Learning on the job which you would consider a staple of the previous generations ability to get higher paying jobs has been fazed out making it hard for people with degree's to even get in the door because ^ this guys generation expects years of experience plus a degree. The "ME" "ME" "Me" generation or generation x cant be hassled with actually training someone to do the job. To make matters worse they talk about the world being a cruel place and how their generation is all work ethic and drive lol get real how hard was it to find a job during the 80's and 90's one of the most prosperous times in American history. Which was setup by your parents generation for you! Now when confronted with failure of leaving nothing to your children you blame your failure on them.

Maybe because it is me being almost over the hill, but I seen a rise in people complaining about the 1% and doing a woe is me act.

I realized at a young age while I was in the Service to this Nation that Hand outs are rare when your looking to get a leg up. And hand ups only happen when your really working for it. Most people do not hit their stride on their earning potential until their late 30's early 40's. By then they have messed things up enough to realize Personal Debt is bad and have began digging their way out of it.

I was looking at the wealth problem and realize there are some ways to Get around it.

Look at the truly wealthy not the glamorati but the self made lower level upper class how did those guys get there. They either came up with an idea that made them money, they climbed a ladder and would not let glass ceilings stand in their way. They lived lives you would not wish on poor people. That is one of the ways.

Then you got your old Money. Someone in their family took the route above once upon a time and the following generations benefited and many of them spent the principle and are edging closer to where their elders started. The ones that did not live by a very simple rule "Don't Touch your principle use the interest only."

The Next way to redistribute the 1% is Tax them to death, the unfortunate side effect is every time this is tried it backfires hard. The rich find ways to shelter their principal and make it grow and in all fairness the raise in taxes attacks the next ones down the ladder.

Of course there is the French Royal way of doing it, that was a bloody mess in both the figurative and literal meanings. So that may not be an option.

Then you got the wonder kid stories, Big clue most of them are using the first method coming up with a product people may or may not want but making them realize they need it... aka your googles and facebook...

So it seems the best way you break the 1% is emulate their tactics... And you try to figure out how to do it before you hit your stride ages. Remember Reaching for the stars may only net you the moon, but heck the moon may be enough.

Personally I want a piece of that 1% pie and I know government will do everything it can to keep people out of that club So obviously they are not the answer.

Btw on the programming thing forget the entertainment things look instead at the replacing human things, If you can automate the cotton picker then the guy who can program the cotton picker gets the part of the pie the cotton pickers use to get. And of course the AI is already here, your looking at it Herbert The Machine Lifeform (HTML), but for now it is subject to the older languages at its core, understand those you can control the box that the beast lives in .

Something to Chew on while enjoying a


CoBaZ

a reply to: mc_squared

When I finished school I had to work an unpaid internship for 6 months just to get my foot in the door, and I'm one of the lucky ones - some people have been working these sort of internships for years. There is an unpaid internship epidemic out there right now because employers get away with it and are abusing the situation for every last drop.

Meanwhile there are also entry level jobs in my field now asking for a PhD. Entry level. Why? Because they can - that's how intense the competition is.

Sorry about that, it is tough. Of course, paying your way by opening your own practice and developing a satisfied patient clientele is impossible. Not illegal, you just can't afford the paperwork and insurance costs, let alone real estate, W2 for assistants and expensive equipment.

They have monopolized you out of business for yourself. Of, by and for you is replaced with, of, by and you for the corporation.

Edit: So sad. There was a time when private citizens could start a private practice and run it from their own home.

a reply to: Jakal26

Shall we enter a pissing contest about that, too?

Enough dawdling.

If you don't start pissing in my cheerios, you won't be wasting my time either.

a reply to: CoBaZ
I guess it is serendipitous that I stumbled on this thread. My mother just yesterday said to me, "You are going to think I am crazy, but I have a craving for a fried potato sandwich." She went on to tell me when she was a child the majority of their meals were sandwiches. Her mother made sandwiches out of what was available, then she stretched it further with any complimentary item she had in the kitchen. She said another favorite of hers was a Lima bean sandwich. Her mother would take cold beans, mix them with chopped pickles and made them sandwiches. They were very poor so her mother stretched everything. The eggs were stretched with milk, if things were bad enough a little baking powder was thrown in to the mix.

I grew up poor, but with a lot more than my parents had grown up with, so I didn't realize I was poor until I left home and was informed by the world of my lowly status. So I made all the mistakes a poor bumpkin from the country makes on her journey forward in life. The first step is always a doozie on that climb up. It almost always lands you face down in the gutter. I didn't know it then, but it is etched indelibly in my mind now, "the world's primary goal is to deceive you and ensnare you". My only saving grace was my father's obsession with education. He was convinced the only weapon available to us to fight against poverty, was education, and he pushed it hard on us.

I bought every lie the world threw at me, hook line and sinker, and sink I did. I got some of the worse advice I could have ever received, and now that I look back on it, it had to have come straight from Satan himself. When I asked a wealthy friend, when I was green as newly seeded grass, how he got his money, he told me that he never uses his money, that I should always spend other people's money. He led me down a path of debt so steep that I nearly drowned. I had only one way out and it was to swim for my life.

I ate chicken wings, pork and beans and Ramen noodles for breakfast lunch and dinner for five years. Back then you got five pounds of chicken wings for a dollar, 10 packages of Ramen noodles for a dollar, and 10 cans of pork and beans for a dollar. I came up with some weird concoctions in my quest for meal variety, but I survived. I still like Ramen noodle and chicken wings, but pork and beans are on the list of foods that I eat only if there is nothing else.

I got out of the mess I made by being honest with myself. I wasn't just poor I was hopelessly poor, and as long as I kept trying to pretend that I wasn't, I was going to sink only further. I embraced being poor because that was the only way out for me. I was working and I had a darn good job, that paid good money, but I had allowed myself to get sucked into the big lie, the dress to impress, you are what you drive, and my value was determined by what I owned. Sick thing about that way of thinking is, you buy a bunch of stuff that you don't need, you don't use, you have to pay to store, and it is all an illusion. You don't own things. Things own you.

So once I became a minimalist, rerouted all my income that was not going towards the basics, to paying off my debt, starting with the biggest moving down, I was finally able to free myself. I had no desire to live that way, so I turned into a moderate miser.

I think I suffer from a form of Chrematophobia. I don't buy anything for myself that I have not run through my "Do I Buy It List?". Do I need it "now"? Will I use it? How often and how long will I use it? How long to its landfill date? How many hours will I have to work to pay for it? Can I find it someplace cheaper? Is there an alternative that can be utilized? Oddly enough though, I have no reservations when buying for others, especially friends, and family.

Life has a way of throwing a monkey wrench into the works, so unexpected debt will still raise its ugly head when you least expect it, and are least prepared for it, but I think the secret to success starts with learning that while your life path may run along the path of another's, you will surely stumble and fall, if you try to walk your path while concentrating on the path of another's, and lose sight of your own life's path.

The world is a cage we live in. The closer to the middle you get, the harder you will have to fight to survive. If you make it to the middle, you will have to be ruthless to stay there. The only sane and safe places to be is above the fray, or far from the edges.

It is not impossible for future generations to beat the beast. They just have to be willing to accept that to be a contender in the game of the world, you are going to suffer a lot of black eyes and will be knocked down until you are down for the count.

Or they heed the words of @Sociopath

All you really need in the material sense is food, clean water, and a place to sleep outside of the elements. All the other things (a new car, a nicer apartment/house, new appliance, cable, addictions (sports, food, drugs, alcohol, internet)), have become idols.

Get rid of your idols, when it is just you and god, and the other life forms around you all of these things do not try to make you feel like you lack anything. And increased mobility as less money needed for paying to these idols.

Oh and I almost forget, another life lesson that is rarely shared: If you chase happiness, you will never catch it. Happiness is a gift. It is not a gift you receive from others. It is gift you can "only" receive from yourself.