
How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation - paulpauper
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work
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Yaa101
What I read in this article are 2 things, the urge of getting all you can get
out of life and risk aversion. These 2 things are a sure way of getting stuck
with a real depression/burnout. My generation (gen-x) has learned to let go of
things that you are not able stear, things like corrupt structures around you
that try to manipulate you to participate in it and play along. At the same
time my generation (gen-x) has learned to try to do yourself things that are
interesting even when those structures around you tell you that those things
you persue are not relevant to the world. I say my generation in this case
because of recognision that my peers of the same generation generally feel the
same as I do with this. Myself and my peers have very much the punk ethos of
taking care of things ourself without being overtly reliant on society and
when society tells us we are wrong then we very much raise our middle finger
against society. With younger people I mostly see the oposite, they too much
play along and do what they are told to do by society and are afraid to "not
fulfil the way that others see them as they should be". To millenials I would
say, take more (calculated) risks, and stop being afraid to make mistakes as
they enable one to learn and become a better version of oneself (at least a
version that is not afraid to look into the mirror).

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esotericn
This article seems like a really long-winded way of stating "people need to
take control of their lives more".

It's alluded to in the article but not really explored well enough - basically
the idea that you don't need to be always busy, you need to pick your battles,
recognise when you're in a rut, and get out of it.

Looking at generalities like "the average X does X" is just not interesting.
It's not a goal to aim for. The average person has never had a good life, and
probably never will unless we have a massive reduction in population or
something.

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s4vi0r
The average person doesn't have the ability to do that because the average
person doesn't really have agency.

>the average person has never had a good life, and probably never will

Because our society doesn't care about people, only capital. There's nothing
wrong with the average person, its that the average person is born into an
environment where everything is working against them.

And I think it's pretty clear that as we reach unprecedented levels of income
inequality - especially with climate change being a thing - that the inherent
contradictions of the system are becoming more and more obvious. The yellow
vest protests are a clear example of this. If we're lucky it'll end well, but
whether or not the ruling class will take control of the situation and steer
us towards fascism remains to be seen.

~~~
esotericn
I agree, to an extent. But it's not "our society". It's physics.

A person (singular) can grab as much as they can (and wish to) hold. An
individual in good health in a country like the USA has a hell of a lot of
agency.

But the people (plural) cannot. The economy relies on it, sure, but so too
does the health of the environment, the physical amount of space available,
energy limitations, and the hierarchical nature of status.

What works against them is the fact that we simply cannot have 300 million
wealthy folk in big houses with cars (in the US) as a physical impossibility.
Add on to that the societal aspect of the fact no-one is the
binman/waiter/whatever in this scenario and it becomes even more obviously
nonsense, yes, but it's not the largest problem by a long shot.

Oh, and then there's the other 6.5+ billion.

If you wish to work in charitable endeavours; there is nothing wrong with
that, at all. Admirable, in fact.

But it must be recognised; and I don't think a lot of article writers, or
indeed people in general, realise that this is what they are doing when they
obsess over 'averages'. They are tying their success to that of society as a
whole, which does indeed reduce their agency; because they are powerless to
affect society as a whole in more than a trivial sense unless they rise to a
position of great power.

Support those around you. Be a good citizen. But focus on yourself first.

~~~
CptFribble
With respect, I disagree on both points:

1) "it's physics" \- Texas alone receives more solar energy than our daily
planet-wide power consumption, like hundreds of times more. Given a plant-
based building material, basic needs for all humans, including "large" homes,
could be reduced to just an energy supply problem. There's enough resources
for all people be live well, if we would work together to use them
effectively.

2) "focus on yourself first" \- I believe this is what got us into this mess
of global inequality (not just USA, consider difference between average
American and average African) and global warming. We need not to focus on
ourselves, but work together to elect leaders that will align economic
incentives with the good of all humans, not just the owners of capital.

The problem is, the entire system we have is pretty much the opposite of this
right now. I get that what I'm saying amounts to little more than saying
"let's have a wand and pray," but I believe there is a path out of the next
100 years that leaves us all better off than where we are now. I just haven't
figured out exactly what that path is yet.

~~~
esotericn
Your answer is about "how to improve the average". It might even be right. I
don't know.

But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how an individual improves
their own situation.

Double the median salary in the UK, and any individual would still be way
better off just ignoring the advice of "what an average person should do" and
doing well for themselves.

Trivially provable - the median income is ~3x the minimum, incomes of 10x the
minimum are eminently achievable, and obviously billionaires exist (of course,
any individual has a low likelihood of making that happen even with extreme
effort).

Again, you're always better off trying to improve your own situation _even if_
you have charitable goals. Especially if you have charitable goals... it's
generally easier to make an impact if you're not poor.

Society does not work in this sort of averaged collective way because
individuals exist. It's pretty much that simple. Things aren't equally
distributed. If you produce a model for society that is based on equal
distribution of resources - you've created a wonderful work of art, but it's
abstract, not real.

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romwell
This is an excellent article that describes and explains many of the symptoms
I and the people I know are experiencing.

Granted, it was written by someone who went through graduate school (a PhD
program, specifically), so our experience might not be representative of the
entire generation - but it resonated with me.

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davidf18
Millennials, compared to older generations, have to pay more of their income
towards housing, have higher student loan debt to manage, are getting married
later and are starting families later as they feel they don't have the
financial resources.

Moreover, thanks to automation and globalization, good paying jobs in many
disciplines can be harder to come by -- perhaps greatest in the working class.

They feel they have to work harder than older generations to keep up and that
is because they do.

The reasons for the higher cost of housing and of education has to do with the
older generations using politics to take created wealth for themselves and not
to help younger generations has been done in the past.

For example, in NYC, DC, Boston, Seattle, SF, LA, London, there are zoning
laws that restrict zoning density creating an artificial scarcity in housing
while benefiting primarily wealthy landlords.

States are paying smaller and smaller proportions of public university budgets
with the remainder having to be made up of student loans.

Special interests stopped a bill in committee in the Senate of California that
would have allowed construction of 5 stories buildings near mass transit
stops.

Japan realizes the harm of zoning density restrictions and thus has federal
laws overriding any local laws. The result: in 2014, there were 140,000
housing units were built in Tokyo vs. less than 90,000 for all of California.

Ultimately, Millennials need to focus and prioritize these issues in order to
have a future -- becoming politically involved to help lower housing costs and
university education.

Specifically, both Democrats and Republicans are focused on so many issues
instead of focusing on what is important: Fixing local zoning laws so that
there is affordable housing for Millennials and taxpayer money contributing
proportions of public university education that had been spent in the past.

