A few years ago Charles Schewe, a marketing professor at the University of Massachusetts, wanted to find out if people aged between 17 and 23 years “young millennials” were becoming more like the young adults who came of age during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Were they spending less money? Were they becoming more worried about their chances of succeeding later in life?
As it turns out …No!
As a matter of fact he found that they felt entitled and were more interested in overt displays of wealth than the upper edge of the millennial cohort, those aged between 27 and 31.
It is the word ‘entitled’ that disappoints and worries me at the same time.
To be honest many people today do not want to work. And if they do work, they don’t want to work too hard. Nor do they want to work in jobs that are beneath them, or aside from their personal interests.
Yes I do think that many youngsters and adults today feel the world owes them…but owes them what or for doing what I honestly can’t tell you.
Are we raising our children today in the wrong manner?
Are they too spoilt? Too protected? Too privileged? Too flaky?
Or…
Less competitive, less aggressive, less able to make decisions for themselves and with less room for failure?
Perhaps we are not arming them with the right tools to take on the world?
And some adults? Well they are under the assumption that the world owes them simply because they exist!
My brother-in-law in Scotland has had a job advertisement out for quite some time and not only did he only get two applications, but both asked not to work on weekends or shift hours.
He says people these days just don’t want to work and certainly have no work ethics as before.
“They are happy to sit at home and complain of boredom but at the same time want money to get this and that!” he says.
At the same time, there are youngsters who are just raring to go. Wanting to give as much as they want to get back.
I am hoping that there is a balance out there.
That people realise it is us who owe the world and not the other way round.
We owe it the care and respect to make it a better place for our children and their children.
We are not entitled to anything but our planet is entitled to everything – we owe it our being!
Recently on Facebook I came across an article that quoted a Colorado judge who dealt with juvenile offences in the 1950s.
Philip Brewster Gilliam grew up during the First World War, graduated from law and entered the juvenile court system during the Second World War.
And what he said in an open letter he wrote to teenagers in his era can actually be said to many in ours today…
“Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons, and after you’ve finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun.
“The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in sickness and lonely again. In other words, grow up, stop being a cry-baby, get out of your dream world, and develop a backbone not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are important, you are needed. It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday. Someday is now and that somebody is you!”
Reem Antoon is a former GDN news editor. She can be reached on: clanmun4@gmail.com