I'm tired of hearing, as well as reading in social media comment threads, that Millennials are entitled, over-privileged brats who expect a life of handouts.
I'm tired of hearing, as well as reading in social media comment threads, that Millennials are entitled, over-privileged brats who expect a life of handouts.
Where did this stereotype even spawn from?
For the record, Millennials are not people born after the year 2000. I could be wrong, but there seems to be the impression going around that that's the case. Perhaps some folks are confusing wireless Internet-ready, tablet-toting teens and tots with grown adults who are finding it increasingly hard to pay rent and mortgage.
The Millennial generation actually encompasses humans born between the years of 1980 and 2000.
As a 35-year-old born in 1981, I am a Millennial.
And while I am among the fortunate who are lucky enough to have supportive family and friends, I am far from not having had to work along the way to find myself in a position that I not only enjoy but can also make a living doing.
For starters, whereas post-secondary education used to be far more affordable — a full-time, minimum wage position over a summer could cover a year's university tuition mere decades ago — students today are graduating burdened with massive loads of debt that in some cases rack into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Many then cannot even find jobs in their respective fields because of saturated markets. Decades ago, service positions were the stepping stone to get through school and into a profession. Now, service jobs represent a large portion of the full-time workforce.
Meanwhile, minimum wage has over the past few decades barely kept pace with inflation. Some argue it has faltered behind.
This doesn't even take into account the fact that back in the '50s and largely through to the '70s, a single income earner could fairly comfortably pay the bills. A dual income earning couple? Forget about it!
But the reality today is that the average couple struggles to pay rent or mortgage and put food on the table despite both working full-time.
The Canadian Payroll Association has reported in an annual survey over recent years increasing numbers of Canadian workers reporting they would be in serious financial trouble if an unexpected expense befell them.
Less than a lifetime ago, top-paid CEOs of Fortune 500 companies made a few dozen times as much as their employees. Now, the billionaire tycoons of global conglomerates literally rake in hundreds of times as much, often rewarding themselves with countless millions while their own workers earn so little they find themselves in need of food banks.
So where does this idea that Millennials are pampered, lazy freeloaders who have it so darn easy come from?
Our generation has been granted the dubious privilege of paying for the failed right-wing policy experiment known as "trickle-down" economics — the idea that the more we allow the wealthy to insatiably gorge themselves at the trough, the more drops will splash out for us to squabble over.
In 2014, under the former Conservative government, the tax burden shifted for the first time in Canadian history away from the shoulders of the wealthy and multi-national corporations, who hoard billions in offshore tax havens, and onto those of the middle class.
And we're supposed to what, say thanks?
Nevertheless, most of us Millennials forge ahead and do what we can — as the British resolutely said during the blitzkrieg, "Keep Calm and Carry On."
It would just be nice for people not to assume that life is a pleasant, carefree stroll through the park for Millennials.
