Talkin' Bout My Generation

The affronts of punditry and the commentariat have left us bruised and battered. Assailed as the “dumbest generation” and a group of “narcissistic praise hounds”, under-30s suffer from regular assaults on their integrity, work ethic and intelligence. But how does the world look to someone born in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and how do conservatives appeal to “the generation that only takes ‘yes’ for an answer”? The fact is that these two questions are double-helixed: conservatives can only appeal to a segment of the population if they take the time to understand its circumstances. As such, I will be embarking on a series of articles that I hope will present some insight into the world of ‘the millennials’. One of the most distinguishing factors of the millennial generation is its demographic diversity. Today’s youth are increasingly multicultural, and are more likely to have grown up in racially-diverse neighborhoods. The once-universal nuclear family faces competition from an array of different childhood circumstances, such as single-mother households, single-father households and separated parents. In 1972, nearly 85% college freshmen reported that they grew up in a household with two parents. In 2006, that number dropped to around 70%. As a demanding age group, we figure that since we can customize our virtual profiles, cell phone ringtones and desktop backgrounds, our employment can be customized as well. Indeed, loyalty and lifelong employment are vestiges of the past, abandoned for flexibility, mobility and an insistence on perks. In a recent CBS interview, 20-something employment consultant John Dorsey summarized the generation’s employment outlook: “I remember my dad getting laid off… and that’s ‘cause [he] sacrificed for the company... I sure don’t want to do that. I’m going to be in it for me and I’m going to make it work.” As employees demand more and more while offering less and less, some large firms have hired people like Dorsey to tell them how to keep recent college graduates motivated and faithful. Not only are demands high, but fidelity is diminishing – 70% of youth under 23 are very or somewhat likely to leave their employer within the next year, whereas this figure was only 52% in 1977. For all the insults heaped upon my generation, the least I can say is that we’re not lazy. In fact, there is no significant difference in the number of hours worked compared to similar age counterparts in 1977. However, there is also no sign that we’re more earnest or diligent with our work. Instead, my generation is very particular about the type of work we would enjoy doing – jobs with few responsibilities. Today, only 60% of youth under 23 desire a job with more responsibility, a figure that was 80% just ten years prior. While our demands for the perfect job accumulate, the degree that was supposed to be our ticket there is rapidly diminishing in value. Over the past decade, the price of a degree approximately doubled, while the earnings of those with bachelor’s degrees have either become depressed or remained stagnant. Where once a college degree meant guaranteed employment, it is now seen as a basic requirement. With a college degree now necessary but nowhere near sufficient, it is no wonder that youth consider the improvement of the educational system as their top priority. David Frum argues that a defining feature of the 1970s was the collective abandonment of the taciturn American, replaced by a ‘let’s talk about me’ society. This, of course, lingers on today in the form of endless Facebook status updates and Twitter ‘tweets’. Intuitively, one would think that an individualistic ethos would align nicely with conservative values of self-reliance and less government intervention. However, conservatism means more than promoting one’s self-interest – after all, a corollary to individual freedom is a responsibility to give to private charity. And as we can surmise from my generation’s approach to employment, responsibility is not high on our list of priorities. On political attitudes, we’re a generation bred by Bono’s cries for government-led social justice. Gen-Xers clamber for international aid over charity, government transfers over voluntarism, and welfare over community. Youth are more than willing to engage in the cacophonous shouting and the whiny griping, but are far less interested in the ‘doing’. Only 38% of 18-25 year olds believe that good citizenship entails special responsibility, while on the other hand, about 70% prefer a “bigger government providing more services” over “a smaller government providing fewer services”. We believe that we should work for ourselves, but also think that government should take from us to work for others. Me first, but please, U2. Lest this article become pessimistic, there are some slightly more encouraging indicators for Republicans looking to woo millennials. While it’s true that youth are deserting our party in numbers not seen since before Reagan, it is good to know that they’re not becoming Democrats (at least not yet), but rather identifying as independents. In other words – the current situation is salvageable. Moreover, free market ideas have the potential to return Republicans to prominence amongst youth, especially since youth have the greatest propensity of any age group to think that ‘business strikes a fair balance between profit and the public interest’. Interestingly, while many see young Americans as ardent anti-war pacifists, 18-29 year olds were the most belligerent age group in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Much like in the late 60s, when youth in their twenties were the most likely to suggest that the U.S. government did not make a mistake by intervening in Vietnam, a March 2002 Pew poll showed that a substantial majority of youth (69%) were in favor of military action in Iraq. While ‘developing a meaningful philosophy of life’ was the dominant objective for college freshmen throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s (in 1967, nearly 90% of people considered this essential or very important), the number of college freshmen who feel this way have dropped by about half. In a nod to family values, raising a family has become the most important objective of college freshmen over the last five years, ranking above ‘being very well off financially’. Despite this, however, many of the of tenets of social conservatism are less applicable to a generation experiencing lower levels of teenage pregnancy, flat or decreasing levels of substance abuse and lower rates of crime. There is not much appetite for the criticism of permissive social elites or any calls for a crackdown on crime, since it’s less relevant to our current environment. Instead, any Republican appeals to youth will have to address the issues viewed as most pertinent to them: an improved and affordable education and, upon graduation, an economy that will allow for flexible jobs and social mobility.