Millennials are suckers.
This has been the narrative in mainstream media for the last three years. It started with a 2020 Washington Post article titled “The unluckiest generation in U.S. history.”
As a millennial, by the end of the piece you feel like slitting your throat. “What’s the point of even living? Life is so damn hard,” you think to yourself.
This entire narrative is wrong though. Millennials are actually the *luckiest* generation in history.
Layoffs and job challenges
Much of the talk about us millennials being unlucky little buggers centers around supposed issues with getting a job or the recent tech layoffs.
This is a blessing though.
The world of work is changing, and millennials are changing it. We don’t believe in bullsh*t “we are family” corporate culture anymore.
The bat virus of 2020 showed us. The 2022 recession proved it.
Economy gets hard, jobs gotta go. Even if company has record profits.
So we’re making our own luck with side hustles, internet money from writing online, social media, Youtube … whatever the f*ck we can think of.
It’s not a luck problem, it’s a transformational opportunity. In 10 years we probably won’t have salaries anymore. The way we get paid and work will be different.
I’d say that’s a blessing compared to the assembly line factory worker model driven by bad bosses that used to dominate.
Comparably low-ass interest rates
My boomer parents got their first home with a 19% interest rate. They thought that was cheap.
All the unlucky talk in the media focuses on how interest rates are rising. But what they forget is they were 0%!!! Yes, they’ve gone up. But historically interest rates are bloody low and will likely stay low.
All the money printing (read quantitative easing) that started back in 2008 forever changed our monetary system. They can’t raise interest rates too high anymore or they’ll break the financial markets.
Then the powerful people who own all the financial assets will scream like babies to their local politicians and …. wham … bam … thank you, mam … interest rates will go down again. The playbook is set.
Enjoy low interest rates my millennial sexys.
The financial opportunity no one saw coming
Previous generations could make money on stocks or real estate.
We millennials got old at exactly the right time. Blockchain technology created digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Yes, they’ve fallen hard like a boat anchor out at sea, but that’s only temporary.
A recession drags down asset prices of everything. Even crypto, bro.
Just like the dot com bubble of the early 2000s, good assets will rise in price again when the recession storm passes as it always does.
The difference is gains in blockchain businesses are enormous. This opportunity never existed before. Normally you had gatekeepers. Or all the money in tech got made by venture capital vultures who had exclusive access.
Now finance has been decentralized and democratized. That’s bloody lucky for us millennial mofos.
Work from home forever that pisses dictator bosses off
Bosses used to rule the world.
They could squeeze your head in a torture device and put your food and shelter at risk. They’d sit in their executive chairs on their fat cat salaries and watch us work like the dogs that we are.
Not anymore.
The bat virus of 2020 blew up surveillance workplace culture. It’s had another nice little side effect: the need for middle managers is being questioned.
“Do we need their huge cost?” CEOs are asking themselves.
All the watching, performance culture, and taking credit for other people’s work is under the microscope. Middle managers are struggling because their main job is to have meetings.
Now that everyone can work via Zoom and use Slack the need for all the pointless meetings has faded. They don’t feel so important anymore.
I’d say this is a huge win for millennials. We hate being told what to do. We just want to get on with the job and stop listening to Hollywood leadership speeches about nothing.
“Revenue growth is strong. It’s all about the customer.”
Millennials: “Blah blah blah … shut up.”
Cars are optional
Past generations worshipped the automobile.
If you owned a Detroit muscle car you were a hero. The problem is cars cost a lot of money and most of us don’t get our money’s worth.
With car-share hire services and apps like Uber, the need to own a car is diminishing. We’d rather spend time with our families and go from A to B without having to think about our image.
This is another huge win. We got lucky friends.
The gift of social media from up above the sky so high
In the old days it was hard to meet people.
Back in the 90s, I used MSN Messenger and MIRC to try and meet people. It was hard work. Everyone used fake names.
Every second person was a hacker trying to lure you to a porn site for a happy-go-lucky good time.
Now we have LinkedIn and the magic of tweets. We can say what we want when we want. We can express ourselves. And we can use content as a way to recruit people to our mission. Or to find new opportunities.
You literally don’t need to apply for a job anymore.
You can just hit up potential hiring managers on LinkedIn. Or if you want to start a business you don’t need a $100K Yellow Pages ad budget anymore.
You can just go on Reddit and say howdy. Or you can build an email list. It’s never been so easy to find people, and the internet gives you access to billions of beautiful peeps.
What this all means for you
This hard luck victimhood story we millennials are being told is bullsh*t.
It’s never been easier to live. The standard of living is great. We’re drowning in opportunities. It’s easier to get rewarded for your hard work.
In this new era, we live in the permissionless economy — it used to be the permission economy. I’d say that makes right now the best time to be alive.
Get out there, get amongst it, and build your empire.
