
Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled - mahipal
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118358476840657463.html
======
warwick
"But on the other hand, when a child calls an adult Mr. or Ms., it helps him
recognize that status is earned by age and experience. It's also a reminder to
respect your elders."

The absurdity of reading how young people feel so entitled from an article
written by someone who thinks age influences status in mind boggling.

Status is a function of achievement. Experience is a rough proxy for
achievement, so I can accept that they might be referencing the same thing
here.

But if you ask me how your earn status, age doesn't factor in. I don't care
how many hours you've put in on this planet. You earn my respect by doing
things, and the best way to earn my highest respects is by doing something
great.

~~~
philwelch
Among adults, what you're talking about makes sense. But I don't know many
children who have earned much status.

~~~
jacquesm
I know three, one aged 16 now and two aged only 11, they impress the hell out
of me.

The one holds his own in a community where the average age is at least three
times his own and half the people there never clued in to his age, he's been
there since he was 12 or so, the other two are so smart and wise for their age
that the adults around them look like they're the children.

Here's to Angus, Jeremy & Raffi, if you find this comment in 20 years or so,
know that I'm insanely proud of you guys, I'm pretty sure you will go very
far.

------
Qz
_"Because everything is child-centered today, we're depriving children of
adults," he says. "If they never see us as adults being adults, how will they
deal with important matters when it is their world?"_

My parents always kept the 'adult' things to themselves (usually in Spanish,
which they neglected to teach me or my siblings). It was basically a disaster
and I've been spending the years since high school educating myself on tons of
those adult things that I never learned from them. I just hope I can avoid the
same mistakes with my children.

------
wynand
Black kettles and pots come to mind.

While I cannot be sure that Jeffrey Zaslow is a Boomer or Gen Xer (the fuzzy
dates around those eras makes it difficult to decide), this accusation of
entitlement seems to be a Boomer message.

We're talking about a generation that, although its members had much less
material amenities than us, they had an easier time getting ahead. Try buying
a house as a young person now. When my dad was my age, he could support a
family on his salary.

And given that the Boomers (and early Gen Xers) have just wrecked the world
economy, I think there's more than a little hypocrisy here.

If the later Gen Xers and Gen Yers have a sense of entitlement, it's because
they do as their elders do.

~~~
TomOfTTB
I'm sorry but this...

We're talking about a generation that, although its members had much less
material amenities than us, they had an easier time getting ahead. Try buying
a house as a young person now. When my dad was my age, he could support a
family on his salary.

Is a myth.

First, mortage rates haven't gone up they've been going down for 28 years
(though in fairness they shot up before that):
<http://mortgage-x.com/trends.htm>. If you're a Gen Xer your father was having
to contend with rates double what you'd pay today.

As for career you could probably move up the ranks faster but that's because
it was a much steeper climb. Think about it. You're talking about an era where
there was no Excel. There had to be people who actually did those calculations
by hand.

As for money the average income of an American household has not only gone up
but has gone up sharply...

[http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2006/08/15/average-
incom...](http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2006/08/15/average-income-in-
the-united-states/)

(The graph is in inflation adjusted dollars)

While the cost of goods has gone down due to technology improvements. The cost
of a Gallon of Milk in 1967 was double what it is now
([http://www.census.gov/Press-
Release/www/releases/archives/fa...](http://www.census.gov/Press-
Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/007276.html))

The average house size has doubled since 1950
(<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283>). Yet the
average price only went up about 60%
([http://www.lesjones.com/2008/11/25/inflation-adjusted-us-
hou...](http://www.lesjones.com/2008/11/25/inflation-adjusted-us-house-
prices-1975-2008/))

The reason most people have less money these days is because there's so much
more to spend it on. VHS didn't even exist until 1976 much less computers,
xboxes, iTunes, etc... U.S. population went up around 46% between 1967 and
2006 yet the number of new car registrations grew by 139%
([http://www.census.gov/Press-
Release/www/releases/archives/fa...](http://www.census.gov/Press-
Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/007276.html))

Gen Xers and beyond have a much higher quality of life, even in a recession,
than their grandparents did and to say otherwise is an example of the very
self involvement that's being criticized here.

Oh, and P.S., Jeffrey Zaslow was born in 1958
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Zaslow>) so there's no chance he is a
Gen Xer and it has nothing to do with fuzzy dates and everything to do with
you being too lazy to do a simple Google Search

~~~
philk
_Gen Xers and beyond have a much higher quality of life, even in a recession,
than their grandparents did and to say otherwise is an example of the very
self involvement that's being criticized here._

Humans readily adapt to changed circumstances [1]. It's not "self
involvement", it's just human nature.

Also, above a certain threshold[2] absolute wealth is less important to people
than relative wealth in terms of happiness. Hence "having more stuff than
their grandparents" doesn't make people feel any happier because their peers
all also have more stuff.

[1] For example, people who win the lottery are really happy at the time but
six months later have reverted to the baseline level of happiness they had
before the win.

[2] ie: having enough to survive reasonably well.

~~~
TomOfTTB
Self involvement is human nature. It's our nature to be concerned with
ourselves because it was an evolutionary imperative to our ancestors. That's
why we, as evolved people living in a modern society, have to force ourselves
to put things in perspective.

The very existence of the phrase "put things in perspective" proves the point
that our instinct is to over inflate those challenges that we face.

------
mattdw
Correlation is not causation :P. Mr. Rogers is more likely just another
symptom of the "everybody is special" culture underlying this. Personally, I
think it's less to do with upbringing and "positive self-esteem" and more to
do with a (globalised western) culture of celebrity and narcissism. Less Mr.
Rogers than American Idol, in my opinion.

------
timcederman
If it's because of Mr Rogers, how do you explain the same phenomenon in
countries which didn't have Mr Rogers?

~~~
Qz
In my experience of traveling to many non-US countries, I didn't really
encounter the same kind of attitude. Which countries do you find also have the
'same phenomenon'?

~~~
timcederman
Seems reasonably prevalent in Australia and the UK.

------
philk
All of these articles bemoaning "kids these days" are starting to get really
tiresome.

------
daleharvey
I wonder if every generation of youths / young adults promise to themselves
that they wont spout these pointless truisms "kids these day" when they are
older.

~~~
sabat
They do, and then they forget it later and start ranting about how kids today
are so screwed up.

