This is something the Millenial generation shares as well..."have it too easy". My parents were of the "Work so hard so my child doesn't have to work as hard"...unfortunately, this has the side-effect of me having no clue how to "pay my dues" independently (Something I am actively working on now).
Speak for thine own self. I've been working since I was fifteen, and working full days since I was seventeen. I haven't had a single vacation in the past five years, and my "vacation" before that was the business I was employed at laying me off temporarily - so I went and worked for a lumberjack doing land clearing (yes, for money) for about a month before work came back after the crisis. It was certainly different, but it wasn't Tahiti.
There have been times I've wanted to try a relationship again, but I simply haven't had the time, or the (discretionary) money. But it's certainly not that I, a Millenial, was ever pampered.
[America-centric rant]
As for "paying my dues", or a "debt to society", or a "responsibility for the next generation", as far as I am concerned, all that can go fuck itself. And so can the idea that the current generation are wimps. I am a partner in a construction company. I run crews of guys to build and redo houses, commercial buildings, and industrial structures. You'd be surprised at the people you find doing that. One of the guys there has a Masters - he made it through college on scholarship, scored nearly perfect on his SAT, and completed his masters. He's been applying for Ph.d. programs. Another guy, who recently moved, had a degree in mechanical engineering. It's not that these people are stupid, or unwilling to work - they were told that if they got the education, there would be jobs for them, jobs that could support a family, jobs that would allow them to pursue their chosen interests.
That's all bullshit. The only thing that a college degree grants you today is a boatload of student debt - and no, you can't "work your way through" any particularly good college, unless daddy got you a cushy financial sector job or you found something truly special. Companies don't want to hire anyone who is new (no experience) or anyone who is smarter or older than necessary (overqualified). The idea that skill, hard work, and intelligence will get you somewhere is mostly untrue - the modern American company cares less about capability than connections, less about actual performance than standardized metrics. And the government is less interested in solutions than in buying votes.
Take, for example, the recent kerfuffle about Obama care. Yes, there's a thread for that. The really fun part is that a bunch of businesses are planning to cut people back to the strict limit of time required to maintain fewer hours than necessary to grant health benefits - but they will still require employees to be available to work, at the employer's choice, at any point during a week. So much for the new American standard of holding down two jobs to make ends meet. And this is perfectly legal. At the same time, while yearly inflation drives down the value of wages, government fees and taxes on the basic citizenry continue to increase.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a capitalist, and I love the competition and the crushing of a competitor. But the way things work now, we don't have competitive capitalism. We have a new feudalism, a system where the names change, rotating through positions which grant power, influence, and above all, wealth. Hell, look at what many companies are squabbling over now: who should get the largest payouts or privileges from the government. I don't even need to remark on governmental foolishness.
And one of the ways those who benefit from this institutional machine for creating futile misery maintain their position is to argue that we owe society, or that we "ought". Ought what? Ought to serve as the grease between the gears, that's what. Ought to raise the new generation, ought to always give more, ought to sacrifice one's own enjoyment for the sake of the nation, the company, the family.
I am not a fan of this ideal in any case. But one might argue that such things are owed to a nation which actually does offer opportunity and care to its citizens, a country in which the ruling classes have enough basic intelligence to realize that their interests ultimately must lie with those of the citizenry.
But imagine this: suppose, if you will, that the entire leadership (Congressmen, CEOs, etc) class of the United States was removed by some mysterious outside force. Yet, aside from emotional considerations, is it hard to argue that we could likely find people to do those jobs within a relatively small amount of time? And is it all that hard to conceive of them doing a much better job than has been recently evidenced? If this is even remotely plausible, the question must be asked: how is it that we have selected a class of people whose abilities to lead are less than noticeably useful? How is it that we are assured that the job of leadership is so difficult that it deserves enormous rewards, while those who assure of us of such things seem to be so mediocre, so incapable of looking three minutes into the future?
[/America-centric rant]
Let me tie this into Japan. Look at how their leaders have treated them. A ten-to-twenty year recession. A work environment that demands loyalty, but absolves the company of any need for the same. A culture that makes it economically necessary for women to work, but abhors the fact that they are equals. A business environment that praises family, but punishes having one. Leaders who are incompetent and disconnected from the realities of the situation. And the demand to sacrifice, sacrifice, work harder and longer, so that at the end of your toil and pain you can be told that you are excess, surplus to requirements.
It's not a wonder that more and more people aren't having families and relationships. It's a wonder that anyone ever
does.
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Topic: Food for Thought: Japanese Social Progression (Read 2882 times)