[quote=flu][quote=desmond]One thing that I have seen change over the years as a native Californian is the old “California laidback lifestyle” has long been forgotten even as a cliche. If you lay back in CA you will be trounced and passed over by the millions that have ended up here. CA is still a great place to live, is it worth working so hard you rarely get to enjoy it? I think it is better to actually be able to enjoy things in life without working ourselves to death in the short time that we are here.[/quote]
Desmond,
The issue though really isn’t just california. It’s the entire world.
* The entire world is smaller, it’s inherently more competitive, competing for resources… Twenty years ago, globalization wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it was before. Now people here compete not only with each other but abroad.
* In the U.S., while a lot of innovation still is happening and going to happen, the opportunities that are available these days to our younger generation are far fewer than probably your generation (I’m assuming you’re baby boomer or more..Sorry, but you said you had a kid that already graduated and working)…A lot of the stuff invented/assumed is from big corporations because they control the means and inventions and with deep pockets to both governements and W.S. to secure funding and legal teams to rightfully or wrongfully defend/squash ideas.
A kid born these days, call it a silver spoon or what not… These days, if you’re kids aren’t born with a significant financial seed, it’s really tough for them to make it on their own… I don’t consider my household poor, but I do need to watch where my money goes. Although my parents gave me a huge seed, I don’t have a trust fund or inheritance of money/resources to tap into that can allow me to kick back and do nothing.. Not saying there’s anything wrong with it, or that it’s something that I want… It’s just how it is…So I have different starting point that someone else. The saying that you need money to make money is true, especially in this country at this particular time, and depending on social/economic/cultural demographics, a lot of the outcome depends on, well timing, effort, and luck….
* We as a society have gotten more spoiled and want to spend more of our money on resources/things we really don’t need beyond the basic necessities of life. So as a result, we are slaves to the new materialism…Especially in Southern California.[/quote]
I don’t think today’s parents have to be “rich,” per se, and throw tens of thousands at their kids to help them launch if they don’t have it. I think to succeed in life today, a young person needs a work ethic and also the good sense NOT to indulge in student loans, credit cards and auto loans in their college years. This involves financial discipline and money-mgmt skills which are NOT skills that very many young people of today have, due to being overindulged by parents. Sometimes the solution is working their way through college. This is especially doable if they have a partial scholarship or grant.
If young adults today manage to bury themselves in debt early on, they will very likely be financially crippled for many years, thus unable to pay rent and live independently. This is true even if they land a good entry-level position with benefits because most of their salary will have to be deployed to debt service and the rest of their life (marriage/children) put on hold. Those who marry without retiring their student loan debt make their debt their new spouse’s problem, often end up deferring it due to “life happening,” and the debt grows instead of shrinks. At the age of 40+, those who took deferrals are often STILL burdened by college debt. This situation doesn’t help the couple buy a house and the non-indebted spouse grows tired and resentful of the problem, which could have been avoided entirely by better college planning.
Nothing has changed over the last few decades in this regard, except that college students can now borrow enough on a student loan to “subsidize their lifestyle” both on and off campus. In the past, colleges were paid directly for tuition, fees, bookstore, dorm and meal ticket, etc by the lender, grantor or scholarship fund and the student never saw any cash. Also, a college student of 20 years ago didn’t have a multitude of credit cards literally thrown at them on campus. However, I think this practice has stopped in recent years.
I think it’s the decisions that young people make for themselves that primarily determine how “successful” they will be down the road. LOTS of students whose educations have been funded by wealthy “benefactors” (parents/grandparents and other relatives) have never even used the (expensive) degrees they earned. Many of these “silver-spoon-fed” students ended up taking jobs unrelated to their major in order to be on their own. Some of the jobs they took didn’t require any college at all! And some of these “well-funded” students ended up working only PT after college or never worked in their entire lives due to being supported by someone else. Again, I believe work ethic DOES matter on whether you will be successful in life…moreso than having a college degree and/or wealthy parents.
