- A rising number of young Americans are disconnected from work, school, and a sense of purpose.
- Disconnection rates have been increasing since the 1990s, affecting young people’s futures.
- Poor mental health and a lack of a financial safety net contribute to rising disconnection.
I don’t think it’s just not getting a fair slice-- they don’t like the pie.
When I was 20, there was hope that technology was serving us better, we could (and would) fix pollution and global warming, people’s health around the world was improving, open space and protections for wildlife were increasing. Progress seems much less of a straight line now, and young people I know are skeptical of human effort in general. The easy solution seems to be just do less and have less, which doesn’t motivate you to work for rich people. I don’t agree with all of the gloom, but you can’t expect them to just snap out of it.
And now tech is used solely for marketing and surveillance of the people who created it. Back in the day we knew new ground breaking tech would be used for weapons, but at least those weapons weren’t mostly pointed at the residents of the country that invented it.
Foucault tried to warn us
Well, maybe he should have tried writing his conceptually simple points in a less pretentious and obscurantist manner. I hate Foucault so much.
Progress is well and alive for people in the top 10%. Lots of people I know are thriving, but they come from money and are making six figure salaries at 25.
But for the bottom 90%, we’re all fucked. As much progressive as I’ve made in my 15 working years, I’m not really any better than I was at 22 when i got my first job.