Things are so awful they can afford to take “gap years” and long breaks from the work world, work from home or work remotely. It’s the Baby Boomer’s fault that Gen Z/Millennials have these awful opportunities:
Taking a gap year before or after college is becoming increasingly common, and it can be very beneficial for those who have it as an option. But for many, a gap year isn’t possible for financial or other reasons.
Though I would’ve liked to take time off after college, and briefly considered it, it wasn’t an option for me financially. Instead, I chose the closest option I had, which was to take a fellowship abroad.
Now that I’m financially able to take a break, I’ve decided to take a gap year in my 30s. Here’s why I’ve made this decision and how I’m going to make it happen.
A boomer who left the Bay Area to travel around Asia and the Caribbean explains how it’s made his life cheaper and more peaceful (msn.com)
I strongly support young people pursing global experiences when young and I write in support of that, a lot, on my Travel blog. I strongly support what the individual in the above article is doing.
BUT – Baby Boomers generally did not have options like this, due to demographics and the economic situation: How to show you know nothing of history without saying you know nothing of history – Social Panic
These new options occur because today’s fertility rate is less than 2.1 – it’s about 1.78 in the U.S. right now – compared to a fertility rate just below 4 at the tail end of the Baby Boom generation. Today, labor is “in charge” (as illustrated by many labor strikes in 2023 and into 2024) because there are fewer young people entering the workforce than in past cohorts.
With peak births in about 1960, those born then were simultaneously entering the job market around 1980 – and competing with the largest young cohort, a large percentage of which were now college grads (as of the mid’1960s, about half the U.S. adult population had not graduated from high school – which also says a lot about how much has improved over the years.)
Thus, today’s cohort has many opportunities and options that were not available in the past; unfortunately, there is a social media meme that everything was rosy in the past and today’s Gen Z suffers immeasurably, even though the data (and surveys) do not support that contention. But it has become a media meme even though Gen Z disagrees with the media’s conclusion: Media: Gen Z has it worse, but Gen Z itself says they have it better – Social Panic
Chart- see the big bump in 1960? 20 years later, that huge bump was entering the job markets at about the same time. The thought of taking a gap year or a break from the work world was not an option as there were always dozens of others ready to take our jobs. Read this to understand the differences: How to show you know nothing of history without saying you know nothing of history – Social Panic (coldstreams.com)
