I was born (no…not on a pirate ship) on the fence between Generation X and the recently coined (debatably) Generation Y, and can thus relate to both groups on many issues.
Gen X ->
- Music (Dinosaur Jr, Joy Division, Pixies, Elvis Costello, Pavement, and on and on),
- Movies/TV (Reality Bites, Before Sunset, Clerks (and not much in K. Smith’s repertoire thereafter), Singles, Cosby Show, Night Court, ALF),
- Pop culture (looking at my retired plaid and Doc Marten’s this topic is too widespread to list)
Gen Y ->
- Adaptation and proficiency with new technologies
- The trend of adopting previous generations pop culture (bell bottoms, Mr. T, Jem (princess of power), Scooby Doo, mullets & ironic moustaches, Starsky & Hutch, crafty/nerdy being the new ‘cool’, and various other adoptrends)
- Actually, looking at the previous bullet-point…I don’t really relate to Gen Y much on that issue. I don’t celebrate, I scorn.
Along with the pros, there are also some fundamental-philosophy cons in both groups that I reject.
Gen X –>
- disapproving of our parents’ way of life (marrying and baby making at a young age, getting an education that lends itself to a practical career)
Gen Y ->
- getting accustomed to (not to mention mooching off of) our parents’ way of life, disregarding all the years of hard work that it took to get there.
(Ed. Note: My pros & cons list are a good example of the False Consensus Effect in action. Note the use of “our” when I should be saying “my generation’s”)
Our (oops, I mean, “My generation’s”) mainly boomer parents rarely talk about money, (theirs or ours), and this seems like a legacy the Xers & Yers are happy to propagate. When the issue of money comes up, (at parties, and yes, it does occasionally come up), the general consensus seems to be a feeling of inadequacy, naiveté, in-over-our-headedness, call it what you will.
We have already accepted that social security (US) or social insurance (CAN) won’t be much help to us if we ever get old enough to claim it. But as for other retirement plans…Well, we know 401(k)s, or the Canadian (better than) equivalent RRSPs are good, but with all the hassle involved in investing it, saving it in our chequeing account seems to be the most-attractive (the lowest hassle) option.
The Dot com crash coincided with many of our university graduation ceremonies, and as such, the stock market is without-a-doubt risky, damnit. Besides, what is the point in investing when we have 10-20 years of student loan payments looming on the horizon? Our new (leased) car and our high rent eats up a good portion of our paycheques, and our expenses (the occasional dinner out, and daily caffeine/social exposure fix) are visa-charged, because (we tell ourselves) we like getting the cash-back reward at the end of the year.
The more fortunate of our peers without school debt (who sacrificed four years of university fun in trade for four years of living at home and watching Survivor with their parents in the family room), still have high credit card balances, but at least the student loan center leaves them alone.
And those of us with student loans have figured out the way to keep the center at bay…Master’s degree, and thus, more loans. Hell, maybe even a PhD. In Philosophy. That will pay for itself, won’t it?
We’ll save that discussion for next week – Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow.
