Thing is, we had heard the word NO in our childhood...You Yers tend to look at the world and think, "Other generations had it so easy, and look at us now!" This is false.
Your post is divisive, dismissive, condescending, and entirely wrong all at once! Congratulations!
Your generation has not fought a war.
O rly?
Your generation has never been without technology on a very modern scale.
That's tautological. Your great grandparents could have said the same thing to your grandparents.
Your generation has never lived without modern comforts such as air conditioning.
Many of us have. And again, modern is tautological. Your mom's generation could have bitched that you never lived without running water, and her mom's generation that her children never lived without the automobile, and her mom's generation that her children never lived without the telephone.
Your generation has always known a fairly high minimum wage.
A cursory use of Google (which apparently your generation doesn't have the benefit of) would show you that we've had it the worst of anyone, and you grew up with nearly the highest minimum wage in modern history, while the job I worked in high school was literally the lowest. And that's before you take into account that the things that young people buy, like college educations, have been growing much faster than inflation. When my dad cleaned fryers in Hardee's in 1982 he made several times what I did in terms of purchasing power. You could always ignore that when it inconveniences your argument, though.
More of you will finish high school;
That's an interesting opinion. Have any facts to support it, or counteract the two long-term historical studies just published that say otherwise? It looks awfully flat to me.
Thing is, you're the first generation not to have much of a sense of previous generations' struggles, and that's a big part of why you think the world is so tough on you.
Do you have any evidence to support that assertion other than all the patently untrue things you just said?
Your post and your dismissal of anyone older than yourself reminds me of a mistake that I made when I was 9-10: I was having significant trouble grasping the concept of fractions. Math had always come easily to me, so I was doubly frustrated that this new idea just didn't make sense. I asked my mom for help, and she told me to ask an elderly relative who was staying with us at the time. I complained to my mom, "She's 80-something. What would she know about fractions? They weren't even invented when she was in school." My mom assured me that the aforementioned relative would be of great help to me, so -- left without options -- I asked her help. She explained the concepts to me, and I went away understanding fractions. However, the biggest lesson had nothing to do with math, and I was ashamed that I had acted foolishly. What I really learned was that I shouldn't be so quick to judge who's capable and who's intelligent based upon age.
I was fortunate to learn that lesson early. I didn't have to be spanked in public to learn to value all my fellow students and co-workers, but I've seen other people suffer because they didn't pick up on it. Sure, you'll find an occasional individual who is behind, but age isn't often the determining factor.
I teach 17-18 year olds (Gen Yers, only a few years younger than you). When it comes to technical ability, they seem to be divided into thirds:
The top third is very comfortable with technology. They can manipulate files, troubleshoot for problems, might even understand a bit of programming. Many of them are attracted to my tech-heavy class. They see computers as wonderful machines, and they understand that they must approach them logically and follow every step, or things will go wrong -- but they see themselves as the masters of these helpful tools.
The middle third can operate computer programs . . . as long as they work properly, but when something goes wrong, they are lost and must ask help. They view computers as useful tools, but also as complicated machines beyond their comprehension. When they can't make the computer do what they want, they tend to try the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.
The bottom third is woefully ill-equipped with all things computer-related. They can use Google and surf the net, but they fall short on simple things like printing only the first page of a multi-page document, installing a scanner to their computer, formatting a page in a word processing program.
Frequently they simply don't bother to read the instructions on the page because they figure it's all just too hard anyway. They have no problem with texting and surfing the net, but even slightly complicated tasks such as attaching a file to an email or setting up an Excel file confound them.
As I look at my co-workers (who are mostly 25-55), 100% of them are in the top two-thirds: all of them are able to use computers proficiently. Few of them are at the bottom of the "lost when things go wrong" category. The difference here is that 100% of my co-workers have college degrees. The variable here isn't age; it's intelligence and education.
As for minimum wage, I'm not sure why you're bringing up a chart about poverty levels. That doesn't address how many people were employed at minimum wage vs. how many were in poverty. From personal, antidotal experience, I disagree with the idea that purchasing power has decreased. To give just one example, when I was in college and minimum wage was $3.35, a McDonald's value meal was about $3.50 -- so a meal cost about one hour's labor. Today minimum wage is $7.25 in my state, and a value meal is about $5.50, meaning that it can be earned in about 45 minutes. I can think of dozens of other examples.
The chart you shared doesn't reflect the reality of my state's graduation rate. A full third of my high school class dropped out; today our graduation rate hovers around 88-90%. Part of this is that special ed students tend to stay through high school, pregnant girls who choose to carry to term now finish school at a greater rate, and the manual labor jobs that existed in the past are disappearing, so what worked for someone in the past is no longer effective. That's the difficulty with averages. They can mask the big picture.
Yes, every generation has experienced an increase in technology -- you're repeating my point. But many GenYers are "blowing off" their benefits, as if they're not useful to you. You're ignoring your generation's perks, while expounding upon your negatives.
My big point, again, is that every generation has had perks. And every generation has had its challenges. You are not unique in this.