Look To Your Elders.

"As the present now, will later be past: The order is rapidly fading." - Bob Dylan

I'm tired of these old-heads and their empty rhetoric. Millenials, look to your elders: We, in our youth, cannot be blamed for the state of things when the past two generations never provided an economic platform for us to stand on in the first place. They had the G.I. bill, they had the factory jobs that only required a High School diploma, they had the opportunities: We have the unpaid fucking internship, and we're criticized because we feel our labor should be paid for in a capitalistic society.

By the time we came into adulthood, the generations in power had outsourced every goddamn thing and then refused to make room for the upcoming generations by hogging up all the jobs that were left over and playing "seniority" games in their favor that would take a lifetime to compete with, all-the-while as they lacked behind on productivity in comparison to younger generations that were being paid exceedingly less for more work.

Older folks love to push the idea that education is synonymous with success, but it's an absolute lie considering that Generation Y, in terms of higher education and graduation criteria, are the most educated generation of all time. We have skills, in our early and mid-twenties, that other generations couldn't compete with in their youth and still cannot comprehend to this day in their fifties and sixties and seventies, yet they still expect to hold the most rewarding positions while lambasting us for our so-called "entitlement" - a trait, in fact, that THEY instilled in us! As children, Generation Y were taught by the same older generations that now judge us negatively, to look down upon menial work; We were taught to aspire and expect the best in ourselves and "never settle" in the words of Steve Jobs, and now that we're older and working in an obsolete-modeled workforce and we're practicing those very same tenants that they taught us, we're constantly lambasted for taking pride in ourselves and refusing to do the jobs that they, themselves, don't want to.

Sure, older generations flipped the very same burgers that they demonized to Millenials while they were children, but at the same time the Baby Boomers and Generation X weren't paid, in terms of inflation, anywhere near as badly as we are today when we're forced into those low-paid positions to make ends meet, which is barely possible on one modern paycheck. The Baby Boomers and Generation X were able to pay rent and move out on their own, straight out of High School mind you, with a McDonald's paycheck anywhere before two decades ago. Us? Not the same deal by far. We're not even realistically able to go to College without the threat of being in debt for the rest of our lives. So, when all is said and done, the next time you're called "lazy" or "entitled" by a member of any living previous generation, be sure to remind them of their history and shortcomings too.