Myths and Reality: Young people have been lied to (unemployed, salaries, generation)
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When you talk to some young people in this country, it makes you wonder how they formed their world views, their perceptions of reality, and how unprepared they are for the global economy. It makes you wonder how they will face the obstacles in life, what kind of life they will have.
Young people have been lied to. It is partly parenting styles, partly school education, and partly the media. Let's quickly run through some of the myths they were taught to believe in and reality they face in the future. I would like the peers here to add on to this list of Myths and Reality.
Myth 1: Everyone gets a reward. There is no first place and last place.
Reality: There is always a first place and last place. Rewards are often given to people who have the merit, background, social network, smart/dominant personality, and sometimes luck. Rewards are not reversely related to how much you have.
Myth 2: You can do what you love.
Reality: It has never been truly possible to simply do what you love. Humans must work to provide shelter, food, and medicine for themselves and their family. The financial concerns trumps most other things. People need means to survive. A much better strategy is to do what makes money for work, and then take that money to do what you love outside work. As you generate more finnacial security, eventually even independence, the ratio between work and life changes. You work more when you are young, and you live more when you are older. Eventually, you will be able to do what you love. The difference is that doing what you love isn't the means to get to the destination. It is the destination in itself, provided that you have the means.
Myth 3: Get a college degree, get a middle class job, make six figures.
Reality: A college degree's worth is determined by its scarcity. The college degree worths much less when more people have it, even less when your degree doesn't have much marketable skills. The expansion of college education enriched wealthy university administrators, produced an army of hopeless phds and adjunct labor they have become, and fed the loans industry.
Myth 4: Educate more people, and jobs will come (build it and they will come)
Reality: Jobs are created when demand for products and services increases. The number of jobs is unrelated to the number of college degrees. More college education has led to more college-educated unemployed people, who have college-educated expectations and the reluctance to do jobs they see beneath them.
Myth 5: The more you know...
Reality: It is true that the more you know, the more you, duh, know. But it's just that. It doesn't necessarily make you more employeable, doesn't give you better salaries. You must possess marketable skills in order to get that career and salary you want. This means you should not simply "know more." You must identify what it is you must know in order to achieve your career and life goals. You must pick and choose among many subject matters to focus on those that are most efficiently at helping your career success. There are way too many subjects. A broad 4-year education without a focus is a disaster for most people without trust funds. It has neither the breadth nor the depth. Many degrees tend to be this way. They are merely a collection of a few classes on A, one class on B, and little snippets of subjects that hardly product any type of robust marketability. In the short period of seeking employment and starting a life, most people simply do not have the time to waste on being distracted and unfocused.
The system foisted upon us is not a benefit to us.
History shows that exhausted systems are replaced by new experiments
once their benefit to the masses is lost, and the original perceived benefits
of that system become perverted.
I see more and more people dropping out of the system.
Everywhere is suffering environmentally and economically due to
tyrannical structures and globalist policies.
We need to re-establish local control and local living, local production
and sustainable communities.
I like your list OP. Since it is in the Political forum when I read it all I could think of is the Myths come from the Democrats and the reality is the Republicans.
Life is not easy despite what the Dems have been telling us for years now. They give out free money to everyone but when it comes time to pay the tab the Reps need to give a reality check. This could be why the Republicans are not popular.
They are required to make the hard decisions.
HA! I just thought of something the Republicans are like parents and the Democrats are the kids.
American kids have it very easy compared to most other kids in the world yet all they want is more and more that is until they get out into the real world. Myth V. Reality.
The fantasy is that you will get a great six figure job, just by virtue of attending college. The truth is most college graduates are ignorant as a box of bricks, with no experience or skills in the real world. They come out of college with the basics building blocks, and need to be trained by their employer to do the work they were hired for.
How can people be lied to if they are not listening? I find very few young people even care beyond who they think they will vote for. Most don't even understand the candidate they are choosing to vote in. Some do seem to be paying attention.
The fantasy is that you will get a great six figure job, just by virtue of attending college. The truth is most college graduates are ignorant as a box of bricks, with no experience or skills in the real world. They come out of college with the basics building blocks, and need to be trained by their employer to do the work they were hired for.
90% of what people learn in college is worthless. They are paying huge amounts of money for studies that will in no way help them in any later endeavor in life.
I am 67 and just going to college because I can. I am in my 4th semester and have a 4.0 GPA. Nothing that I have learned in college would have helped me in my earlier years working.
Myth: What you major in matters. Unless you are majoring in a field with government restricted licensing (e.g. medicine, nursing, engineering), your major has very little impact on your long term job prospects. 2 years of relevant work experience will turn someone with the most ludicrous area studies major into a better job candidate than someone fresh out of school with a directly relevant major and zero work experience. Do internships and get work experience while in school and your major is essentially meaningless as long as you graduate.
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