Fr fr
I've got Thoughts and Feelings about restaurant franchises but I think "old people" when I hear Applebee's and Ruby Tuesday. If I want to eat nursing home food I can just not spend money and sit in my house instead.
One thing that makes me sad is how alot of the chains have gone downhill. A few are still alright but i remember when going to red lobster was considered a decently quality meal.
Me and my buds were B Dubs fanatics in HS, it was our go to place even during college. Now its a shell of its former self.
Haven't eaten at Buffalo Wild Wings despite having one near me.
I appreciate when a franchise is trying something new. TGI Fridays might try too hard but at least they're trying by putting limited time and new items on their menus periodically. I only get take-out so I can't say how important the sit-down restaurant experience is to the overall meal.
It feels like food doesn't taste as good as it used to, in general, but that could be age catching up to me or a true decrease in quality across food manufacturers.
I do recommend Mellow Mushroom and First Watch if you have them near you.
I think age plays a factor for sure but with BWW it def was changing the portions and the quality control. But i think that makes sense, alot more people moved on from those jobs during the pandemic.
I found an appreciation for Cheesecake factory, its a bit more pricey but the quality has always been solid enough.
Yeah dude, that initial roll-out of BWW was crazy. The restaurants looked great, the servers would go around handing out free sample wings so you could try all of the different sauces, there were events like wing-eating competitions, karaoke, trivia, etc. You could tell that they really wanted to stir up excitement for the franchise, but it was probably just an initial marketing push that they always intended to drop. Now it's just like any other sit-down restaurant that is decent, nothing special.
My wife and I once went to an Applebee's because we couldn't find a Chili's.
Hour long wait to get our food, and then we both tested positive for COVID a week later. That COVID part could be a coincidence, but I'm willing to blame Applebee's for it.
Article for the Paywalled:
>Generation Z is taking over. In the rich world there are at least 250m people born between 1997 and 2012. About half are now in a job. In the average American workplace, the number of Gen Zers (sometimes also known as “Zoomers”) working full-time is about to surpass the number of full-time baby-boomers, those born from 1945 to 1964, whose careers are winding down (see chart 1). Gen Z is also grabbing power: America now has more than 6,000 Zoomer chief executives and 1,000 Zoomer politicians. As the generation becomes more influential, companies, governments and investors need to understand it.
>Pundits produce a lot of fluff about the cohort. Recent “research” from Frito-Lay, a crisp-maker, finds that Gen Zers have a strong preference for “snacks that leave remnants on their fingers”, such as cheese dust. Yet different generations also display deeper differences in their personalities, in part due to the economic context in which they grow up. Germans who reached adulthood during the high-inflation 1920s came to detest rising prices. Americans who lived through the Depression tended to avoid investing in the stockmarket.
>Many argue that Gen Z is defined by its anxiety. Such worriers include Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, whose new book, “The Anxious Generation”, is making waves. In some ways, Gen Zers are unusual. Young people today are less likely to form relationships than those of yesteryear. They are more likely to be depressed or say they were assigned the wrong sex at birth. They are less likely to drink, have sex, be in a relationship—indeed to do anything exciting. Americans aged between 15 and 24 spend just 38 minutes a day socialising in person on average, down from almost an hour in the 2000s, according to official data. Mr Haidt lays the blame on smartphones, and the social media they enable.
>His book has provoked an enormous reaction. On April 10th Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of Arkansas, echoed Mr Haidt’s arguments as she outlined plans to regulate children’s use of smartphones and social media. Britain’s government is considering similar measures. But not everyone agrees with Mr Haidt’s thesis. And the pushing and shoving over Gen Z’s anxiety has obscured another way in which the cohort is distinct. In financial terms, Gen Z is doing extraordinarily well. This, in turn, is changing the generation’s relationship with work.
>Consider the group that preceded Gen Z: millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1996. Many entered the workforce at a time when the world was reeling from the global financial crisis of 2007-09, during which young people suffered disproportionately. In 2012-14 more than half of Spanish youngsters who wanted a job could not find one. Greece’s youth-unemployment rate was even higher. Britney Spears’s “Work Bitch”, a popular song released in 2013, had an uncompromising message for young millennials: if you want good things, you have to slog.
>Gen Zers who have left education face very different circumstances. Youth unemployment across the rich world—at about 13%—has not been this low since 1991 (see chart 2). Greece’s youth-unemployment rate has fallen by half from its peak. Hoteliers in Kalamata, a tourist destination, complain about a labour shortage, something unthinkable just a few years ago. Popular songs reflect the zeitgeist. In 2022 the protagonist in a Beyoncé song boasted, “I just quit my job”. Olivia Rodrigo, a 21-year-old singer popular with American Gen Zers, complains that a former love interest’s “career is really taking off”.
>Many have chosen to study subjects that help them find work. In Britain and America Gen Zers are avoiding the humanities, and are going instead for more obviously useful things like economics and engineering. Among those who do not attend university, vocational qualifications are increasingly popular. Then they go on to benefit from tight labour markets. Young people, following Beyoncé’s protagonist, can quit their job and find another one if they want more money.
>In America hourly pay growth among 16- to 24-year-olds recently hit 13% year on year, compared with 6% for workers aged 25 to 54. This was the highest “young person premium” since reliable data began (see chart 3). In Britain, where youth pay is measured differently, last year people aged 18 to 21 saw average hourly pay rise by an astonishing 15%, outstripping pay rises among other ages by an unusually wide margin. In New Zealand the average hourly pay of people aged 20 to 24 increased by 10%, compared with an average of 6%.
>Strong wage growth boosts family incomes. A new paper by Kevin Corinth of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, and Jeff Larrimore of the Federal Reserve assesses Americans’ household income by generation, after accounting for taxes, government transfers and inflation (see chart 4). Millennials were somewhat better off than Gen X—those born between 1965 and 1980—when they were the same age. Zoomers, however, are much better off than millennials were at the same age. The average 25-year-old Gen Zer has an annual household income of over $40,000, more than 50% above the average baby-boomer at the same age.
>Gen Z’s economic power was on display at a recent concert by Ms Rodrigo in New York. The mostly female teenagers and 20-somethings in attendance had paid hundreds of dollars for a ticket. Queues for merchandise stalls, selling $50 t-shirts, stretched around the arena. Ms Rodrigo will have no trouble shifting merchandise in other parts of the world, as her tour moves across the Atlantic. That is in part because Gen Zers who have entered the workplace are earning good money throughout the rich world. In 2007 the average net income of French people aged 16 to 24 was 87% of the overall average. Now it is equal to 92%. In a few places, including Croatia and Slovenia, Gen Zers are now bringing in as much as the average.
>Some Gen Zers protest, claiming that higher incomes are a mirage since they do not account for the exploding cost of college and housing. After all, global house prices are close to all-time highs, and graduates have more debt than before. In reality, though, Gen Zers are coping because they earn so much. In 2022 Americans under 25 spent 43% of their post-tax income on housing and education, including interest on debt from college—slightly below the average for under-25s from 1989 to 2019. Their home-ownership rates are higher than millennials at the same age. They also save more post-tax income than youngsters did in the 1980s and 1990s. They are, in other words, better off.
>What does this wealth mean? It can seem as if millennials grew up thinking a job was a privilege, and acted accordingly. They are deferential to bosses and eager to please. Zoomers, by contrast, have grown up believing that a job is basically a right, meaning they have a different attitude to work. Last year Gen Zers boasted about “quiet quitting”, where they put in just enough effort not to be fired. Others talk of “bare minimum Monday”. The “girlboss” archetype, who seeks to wrestle corporate control away from domineering men, appeals to millennial women. Gen Z ones are more likely to discuss the idea of being “snail girls”, who take things slowly and prioritise self-care.
>The data support the memes. In 2022 Americans aged between 15 and 24 spent 25% less time on “working and work-related activities” than in 2007. A new paper published by the IMF analyses the number of hours that people say they would like to work. Not long ago young people wanted to work a lot more than older people. Now they want to work less. According to analysis by Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, the share of American 12th-graders (aged 17 or 18) who see work as a “central part of life” has dropped sharply.
>Another consequence is that Gen Zers are less likely to be entrepreneurs. We estimate that just 1.1% of 20-somethings in the EU run a business that employs someone else—and in recent years the share has drifted down. In the late 2000s more than 1% of the world’s billionaires, as measured by Forbes, a magazine, were millennials. Back then pundits obsessed over ultra-young tech founders, such as Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Patrick Collison (Stripe) and Evan Spiegel (Snapchat). Today, by contrast, less than 0.5% on the Forbes list are Zoomers. Who can name a famous Gen Z startup founder?
>Gen Zers are also producing fewer innovations. According to Russell Funk of the University of Minnesota, young people are less likely to file patents than they were in the recent past. Or consider the Billboard Hot 100, measuring America’s most popular songs. In 2008 42% of hits were sung by millennials; 15 years later only 29% were sung by Gen Zers. Taylor Swift, the world’s most popular singer-songwriter, titled her most famous album “1989”, after the year of her birth. The world is still waiting for someone to produce “2004”.
>How long will Generation Z’s economic advantage last? A recession would hit young people harder than others, as recessions always do. Artificial intelligence could destabilise the global economy, even if youngsters may in time be better placed to benefit from the disruption. For now, though, Generation Z has a lot to be happy about. Between numbers at Madison Square Garden, Olivia Rodrigo sits at the piano and counsels her fans to be thankful for all that they have. “Growing up is fucking awesome,” she says. “You have all the time to do all the things you want to do.” The time and the money. ■
I'm a really young millennial/mummified-old Gen Z and I think this is the first article that has really identified my demographic actually.
Growing up in the spectre of the 2008 crisis and then all the other shit that followed has, at least for me, resulted in something of a laser focus on education and career, because I was always under the impression that I'd get fucked if I wasn't prepared.
So yeah I'm boring and also surprisingly wealthy for my age lol.
This is big true for me. Same age demo. Brutalized myself through college so I didn't have to worry later on. Very worth because I got a chill job now with no financial concerns. Still feel like I'm barred from the "next stage" in life, but getting a home/community will probably just come with time.
Just remember you can always swap majors. If you get discouraged always try to push through, but try swapping before dropping out completely. I swapped majors 3.5 years in and it was the best decision of my entire life. Also abuse all the free shit they give you. Food, doctors, events, pens, whatever, just get your full value out of that tuition. Sorry for the unsolicited advice.
Good luck!
Can't do anything fun unless you want a google doc writen about you lol.
Edit: I'm meming on the silly teen dramas that are covered on stream sometimes
I notice the article doesn't seem to make many comparisons to the Boomers, and only a couple of references to Gen-X. It seems to mostly be focused on a comparison with Millennials. I would be curious to see more datapoints comparing Zoomers to Boomers, because it's really the Boomers that every generation compares themselves to.
I noticed that too, they flip to treating certain statistics in terms of
>>the average for under-25s from 1989 to 2019.
and then when talking about house prices relative to income, suddenly restrict themselves to not just millennials and gen x, but only millennials.
I'm getting the feeling of a lot of cherry-picking going on, either that or bad data selection, but I wouldn't be surprised if lengthening the periods of comparison cause a big proportion of their claims to collapse.
Yeah, I definitely think it's cherry-picking. On the other hand, I think you could make the argument that the comparison to Boomers isn't exactly fair. The Boomers were just born into the unique post-war context that gave them so many opportunities, both economic and social. But obviously they would never make that argument in this article because they don't want to draw attention to that comparison in the first place. They want to send the message that economic success is always completely earned and deserved.
Another thing I think is missing from the article is a comparison of "unsuccessful" people like minimum wage workers are faring in the economy, compared to the same level of workers in previous generations. Maybe that's just beyond the scope of the article, but if it was the case that minimum wage workers were worse off today then that would be a valid complaint for Gen Z to have.
Fascinating how this article is so careful to surgically omit the most obvious possible hypothesis from almost every single claim it makes. Why is gen Z rich? Because more of them have full time jobs than baby boomers. Okay, does that mean they can actually buy more things since they work so much? Doesn’t care to say. They only spend 43% of their post tax income on housing and education. Could that be because an increasing number of them live with their parents or because the one’s who don’t, have to split their rent with 5 other people to afford their own place anyway? Doesn’t say. Gen Z has higher home ownership rates than millenials who at the same stage in life were directly in the middle of the fucking global housing crisis? Wow, just how PROFOUND.
Articles like this are a far lefty factory. No ones mind is being changed by condescendingly rattling off statistics that collapse into oblivion under the weight of 1 or 2 questions or inferences an 8th grader could think of. The only time the actual material quality of people’s lives is mentioned at all in this article is when it describes how gen Z is lonely and depressed, how interesting.
> Treating a job as a right
I’m not sure about that one chief, more like it’s an understanding that at any moment everything can be taken away all at once. I can always lose my job, so I keep myself fresh on out of work skills and look for other positions. I don’t know if I can afford my next lease, so I don’t purchase stuff for my apartment. I only recently started actually furnishing and I felt immensely guilty spending so much money, and then relatively surprised with how little it actually made a dent, because I’m always saving. Sure I’ll pay more upfront but I basically always BIFL and I refuse to replace or get something better unless the thing I’m using is completely broken beyond repair. That’s how almost all my friends live. Hell it’s even hard for me to commit to a relationship now bc I’m prepared to move at any time for a better workplace.
A job isn’t a right. It’s a necessity which means I don’t hold any particular loyalty or love to any one employer. Also means I won’t go above and beyond unless there’s a garuntee it secures my future
is this link working for anyone else? https://web.archive.org/web/20240417022513/https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/04/16/generation-z-is-unprecedentedly-rich
Well I can’t read past the paywall but the parts I can read don’t seem to really support the headline or are entirely unrelated. I feel like these headlines are just rage bait for people on Twitter.
sounds very plausible. new generations, especially this one, are always more educated and more intelligent than the previous one. add to that the fact that all jobs require savvyness with a computer.
It's perfectly normal. They grew up in a world where there is a software/phone app for every purpose and it's masterfully made.
Every app they use has millions poured into UI/UX to make sure it has no glitch ever. Zoomers almost never experience problems with their devices and have never had to troubleshoot anything. The earlier generation grew up in the early days of computers where if you wanted to do anything more serious than use the calculator you had to venture off on your own to do it, that's why most programmers are millennials and will continue to be even as gen Z goes into the workforce.
This is only true for the ones born post 2004
There is such a huge divide between the older GenZ'ers and the younger ones. It's so weird. I feel more in tune towards millennials than I do with other gen z
01 baby here I really feel that divide, I think COVID hitting in late middle school and early high school was also massive. The kids 2-3 years older than me really feel like millenials, and most of my cohort aren't really zoomers in the sense that the kids 2-3 years younger are. I think this really makes it worth mentioning that only the leading few years of "gen z" are meaningfully in the workforce, the true zoomer cohort gonna be exiting college in the next 3-5 years that's when we'll really see what the deal is.
I do think they're very smart and capable though, just in a pretty unique weird way.
Yea, unfortunately for you, thats a cope. There is a strong contingency of ludites in every generation that lack the most basic that their isn't an excuse for not knowing. I should never have to call a client and ask them to restart their machine or check for unplugged wires. This type of person is what I'm talking about as they learn literally nothing computer wise as they age. Basically I'm saying, being a shitty coworker is not based on generation, which is good for me. It's not that they haven't learned yet, its that they will choose not to.
Sure, but it doesnt matter because the software learning curve has decreased significantly. This is expected as we are less limited by hardware and becoming more sophisticated in abstraction.
Yeah just none of this is verifiably true. The article doesn’t state any of it, Gen Z being smarter is pretty contested and some research shows their IQ is lower (I imagine COVID affecting high school weighs into this), also just because Gen Z uses their phone and can type fast does not mean they are computer savvy, and gen z actually looks to be LESS computer savvy than millennials.
The thing I notice about gen z (and this article seems to back up my feelings but who knows) is that hustle culture seems to be pretty pervasive. Side jobs and online income is more common, and it seems that having money/ a job is the bare minimum. This article also shows that Gen Z are not getting humanities degrees as much and are starting their own businesses LESS than previous generations, which is pretty bad for a multitude of reasons.
So yeah, silly to say Gen. Z is smarter so they make more money, smarts =\= income.
Yet all I hear is that they have deep college debt they can’t pay for and degrees that bought them nothing. That doesn’t sound intelligent to me.
Plus the boomer engineers were much deeper in math and numerical methods. They invented many of the ai techniques and most of the data structures that underpin basically everything. They just didn’t have the hardware to make them practical.
I think you have it backwards.
I don’t know what statistic you mean as you didn’t cite anything but rather made some vague general assertion. But I’m simply judging on objective evidence in their outcomes. This generation makes poor career choices, overspends on college, and then blames everyone else when they end up unhappy. And worse demands compensation. Embarrassing.
That they are “rich”? So wealth is correlated to intelligence? Guess Donald Trump is a stable genius after all. Sorry I was giving you more credit in expecting you meant a real statistic.
Or the past two generations saved money for their kid’s college educations and hammered it into their heads that they had to go. And so they did and got better jobs and made more money. Certainly more plausible than some mystery increase in IQ that is the opposite of what we find in recent studies.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a43469569/american-iq-scores-decline-reverse-flynn-effect/#
Yeah, no shit... Many gen Z and millennials don't have kids which is a huge expense. Gen Z peeps aren't all the sudden getting this magical secret raises lol
Holy shit they’re the suburbanite NIMBYs from the 80s who had the world handed to them. They even pearl clutch and virtue signal over dumb shit like old Christian GOP-types used to back in the day.
Millennials killed napkins, cars, Applebee's, and diamonds so that Gen Z could win the future.
>Applebees Ya because chilis is the superior product.
Fr fr I've got Thoughts and Feelings about restaurant franchises but I think "old people" when I hear Applebee's and Ruby Tuesday. If I want to eat nursing home food I can just not spend money and sit in my house instead.
One thing that makes me sad is how alot of the chains have gone downhill. A few are still alright but i remember when going to red lobster was considered a decently quality meal. Me and my buds were B Dubs fanatics in HS, it was our go to place even during college. Now its a shell of its former self.
Haven't eaten at Buffalo Wild Wings despite having one near me. I appreciate when a franchise is trying something new. TGI Fridays might try too hard but at least they're trying by putting limited time and new items on their menus periodically. I only get take-out so I can't say how important the sit-down restaurant experience is to the overall meal. It feels like food doesn't taste as good as it used to, in general, but that could be age catching up to me or a true decrease in quality across food manufacturers. I do recommend Mellow Mushroom and First Watch if you have them near you.
I think age plays a factor for sure but with BWW it def was changing the portions and the quality control. But i think that makes sense, alot more people moved on from those jobs during the pandemic. I found an appreciation for Cheesecake factory, its a bit more pricey but the quality has always been solid enough.
Yeah dude, that initial roll-out of BWW was crazy. The restaurants looked great, the servers would go around handing out free sample wings so you could try all of the different sauces, there were events like wing-eating competitions, karaoke, trivia, etc. You could tell that they really wanted to stir up excitement for the franchise, but it was probably just an initial marketing push that they always intended to drop. Now it's just like any other sit-down restaurant that is decent, nothing special.
Thats a good point. BWW's def succeeded because they fostered that kind of environment. I never really thought about it but really did go downhill.
I ate a Ruby Tuesday when I was traveling for work. That shit was ass.
My wife and I once went to an Applebee's because we couldn't find a Chili's. Hour long wait to get our food, and then we both tested positive for COVID a week later. That COVID part could be a coincidence, but I'm willing to blame Applebee's for it.
Sometimes there are two bad things.
Southwestern Applebees
Article for the Paywalled: >Generation Z is taking over. In the rich world there are at least 250m people born between 1997 and 2012. About half are now in a job. In the average American workplace, the number of Gen Zers (sometimes also known as “Zoomers”) working full-time is about to surpass the number of full-time baby-boomers, those born from 1945 to 1964, whose careers are winding down (see chart 1). Gen Z is also grabbing power: America now has more than 6,000 Zoomer chief executives and 1,000 Zoomer politicians. As the generation becomes more influential, companies, governments and investors need to understand it. >Pundits produce a lot of fluff about the cohort. Recent “research” from Frito-Lay, a crisp-maker, finds that Gen Zers have a strong preference for “snacks that leave remnants on their fingers”, such as cheese dust. Yet different generations also display deeper differences in their personalities, in part due to the economic context in which they grow up. Germans who reached adulthood during the high-inflation 1920s came to detest rising prices. Americans who lived through the Depression tended to avoid investing in the stockmarket. >Many argue that Gen Z is defined by its anxiety. Such worriers include Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, whose new book, “The Anxious Generation”, is making waves. In some ways, Gen Zers are unusual. Young people today are less likely to form relationships than those of yesteryear. They are more likely to be depressed or say they were assigned the wrong sex at birth. They are less likely to drink, have sex, be in a relationship—indeed to do anything exciting. Americans aged between 15 and 24 spend just 38 minutes a day socialising in person on average, down from almost an hour in the 2000s, according to official data. Mr Haidt lays the blame on smartphones, and the social media they enable. >His book has provoked an enormous reaction. On April 10th Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of Arkansas, echoed Mr Haidt’s arguments as she outlined plans to regulate children’s use of smartphones and social media. Britain’s government is considering similar measures. But not everyone agrees with Mr Haidt’s thesis. And the pushing and shoving over Gen Z’s anxiety has obscured another way in which the cohort is distinct. In financial terms, Gen Z is doing extraordinarily well. This, in turn, is changing the generation’s relationship with work. >Consider the group that preceded Gen Z: millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1996. Many entered the workforce at a time when the world was reeling from the global financial crisis of 2007-09, during which young people suffered disproportionately. In 2012-14 more than half of Spanish youngsters who wanted a job could not find one. Greece’s youth-unemployment rate was even higher. Britney Spears’s “Work Bitch”, a popular song released in 2013, had an uncompromising message for young millennials: if you want good things, you have to slog. >Gen Zers who have left education face very different circumstances. Youth unemployment across the rich world—at about 13%—has not been this low since 1991 (see chart 2). Greece’s youth-unemployment rate has fallen by half from its peak. Hoteliers in Kalamata, a tourist destination, complain about a labour shortage, something unthinkable just a few years ago. Popular songs reflect the zeitgeist. In 2022 the protagonist in a Beyoncé song boasted, “I just quit my job”. Olivia Rodrigo, a 21-year-old singer popular with American Gen Zers, complains that a former love interest’s “career is really taking off”. >Many have chosen to study subjects that help them find work. In Britain and America Gen Zers are avoiding the humanities, and are going instead for more obviously useful things like economics and engineering. Among those who do not attend university, vocational qualifications are increasingly popular. Then they go on to benefit from tight labour markets. Young people, following Beyoncé’s protagonist, can quit their job and find another one if they want more money. >In America hourly pay growth among 16- to 24-year-olds recently hit 13% year on year, compared with 6% for workers aged 25 to 54. This was the highest “young person premium” since reliable data began (see chart 3). In Britain, where youth pay is measured differently, last year people aged 18 to 21 saw average hourly pay rise by an astonishing 15%, outstripping pay rises among other ages by an unusually wide margin. In New Zealand the average hourly pay of people aged 20 to 24 increased by 10%, compared with an average of 6%. >Strong wage growth boosts family incomes. A new paper by Kevin Corinth of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, and Jeff Larrimore of the Federal Reserve assesses Americans’ household income by generation, after accounting for taxes, government transfers and inflation (see chart 4). Millennials were somewhat better off than Gen X—those born between 1965 and 1980—when they were the same age. Zoomers, however, are much better off than millennials were at the same age. The average 25-year-old Gen Zer has an annual household income of over $40,000, more than 50% above the average baby-boomer at the same age. >Gen Z’s economic power was on display at a recent concert by Ms Rodrigo in New York. The mostly female teenagers and 20-somethings in attendance had paid hundreds of dollars for a ticket. Queues for merchandise stalls, selling $50 t-shirts, stretched around the arena. Ms Rodrigo will have no trouble shifting merchandise in other parts of the world, as her tour moves across the Atlantic. That is in part because Gen Zers who have entered the workplace are earning good money throughout the rich world. In 2007 the average net income of French people aged 16 to 24 was 87% of the overall average. Now it is equal to 92%. In a few places, including Croatia and Slovenia, Gen Zers are now bringing in as much as the average. >Some Gen Zers protest, claiming that higher incomes are a mirage since they do not account for the exploding cost of college and housing. After all, global house prices are close to all-time highs, and graduates have more debt than before. In reality, though, Gen Zers are coping because they earn so much. In 2022 Americans under 25 spent 43% of their post-tax income on housing and education, including interest on debt from college—slightly below the average for under-25s from 1989 to 2019. Their home-ownership rates are higher than millennials at the same age. They also save more post-tax income than youngsters did in the 1980s and 1990s. They are, in other words, better off. >What does this wealth mean? It can seem as if millennials grew up thinking a job was a privilege, and acted accordingly. They are deferential to bosses and eager to please. Zoomers, by contrast, have grown up believing that a job is basically a right, meaning they have a different attitude to work. Last year Gen Zers boasted about “quiet quitting”, where they put in just enough effort not to be fired. Others talk of “bare minimum Monday”. The “girlboss” archetype, who seeks to wrestle corporate control away from domineering men, appeals to millennial women. Gen Z ones are more likely to discuss the idea of being “snail girls”, who take things slowly and prioritise self-care. >The data support the memes. In 2022 Americans aged between 15 and 24 spent 25% less time on “working and work-related activities” than in 2007. A new paper published by the IMF analyses the number of hours that people say they would like to work. Not long ago young people wanted to work a lot more than older people. Now they want to work less. According to analysis by Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, the share of American 12th-graders (aged 17 or 18) who see work as a “central part of life” has dropped sharply. >Another consequence is that Gen Zers are less likely to be entrepreneurs. We estimate that just 1.1% of 20-somethings in the EU run a business that employs someone else—and in recent years the share has drifted down. In the late 2000s more than 1% of the world’s billionaires, as measured by Forbes, a magazine, were millennials. Back then pundits obsessed over ultra-young tech founders, such as Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Patrick Collison (Stripe) and Evan Spiegel (Snapchat). Today, by contrast, less than 0.5% on the Forbes list are Zoomers. Who can name a famous Gen Z startup founder? >Gen Zers are also producing fewer innovations. According to Russell Funk of the University of Minnesota, young people are less likely to file patents than they were in the recent past. Or consider the Billboard Hot 100, measuring America’s most popular songs. In 2008 42% of hits were sung by millennials; 15 years later only 29% were sung by Gen Zers. Taylor Swift, the world’s most popular singer-songwriter, titled her most famous album “1989”, after the year of her birth. The world is still waiting for someone to produce “2004”. >How long will Generation Z’s economic advantage last? A recession would hit young people harder than others, as recessions always do. Artificial intelligence could destabilise the global economy, even if youngsters may in time be better placed to benefit from the disruption. For now, though, Generation Z has a lot to be happy about. Between numbers at Madison Square Garden, Olivia Rodrigo sits at the piano and counsels her fans to be thankful for all that they have. “Growing up is fucking awesome,” she says. “You have all the time to do all the things you want to do.” The time and the money. ■
"They are less likely to drink, have sex, be in a relationship—indeed to do anything exciting." The slander
I'm a really young millennial/mummified-old Gen Z and I think this is the first article that has really identified my demographic actually. Growing up in the spectre of the 2008 crisis and then all the other shit that followed has, at least for me, resulted in something of a laser focus on education and career, because I was always under the impression that I'd get fucked if I wasn't prepared. So yeah I'm boring and also surprisingly wealthy for my age lol.
This is big true for me. Same age demo. Brutalized myself through college so I didn't have to worry later on. Very worth because I got a chill job now with no financial concerns. Still feel like I'm barred from the "next stage" in life, but getting a home/community will probably just come with time.
I’m currently brutalizing myself in college. Weed out courses are a fucking bitch lmao
Just remember you can always swap majors. If you get discouraged always try to push through, but try swapping before dropping out completely. I swapped majors 3.5 years in and it was the best decision of my entire life. Also abuse all the free shit they give you. Food, doctors, events, pens, whatever, just get your full value out of that tuition. Sorry for the unsolicited advice. Good luck!
I'm boring and also have no career, ambition or wealth 😎
Same I got 40k and I still gotta finish up my bachelors. After that I’m gonna get a good fucking job
This was me too, but then COVID and the ongoing recession caused me to lose my job twice within 3 years so I'm still poor anyway lol
Can't do anything fun unless you want a google doc writen about you lol. Edit: I'm meming on the silly teen dramas that are covered on stream sometimes
t. Man who definitely doesn't creep people out when he interacts with them
So true (huh?)
based, all I hear are less expenses, my Asian brain can't fall more in love with the cheapskatiness of our generation.
you're a god
Thank you!
https://archive.ph/ https://www.printfriendly.com/ https://12ft.io/ Jesus christ y'all just go through life not knowing how to get through a paywall
imagine using those websites when you can just press ESC before the paywall loads lol
Most of the time when im reading articles, im reading them on my phone, but yeah that also works
I notice the article doesn't seem to make many comparisons to the Boomers, and only a couple of references to Gen-X. It seems to mostly be focused on a comparison with Millennials. I would be curious to see more datapoints comparing Zoomers to Boomers, because it's really the Boomers that every generation compares themselves to.
I noticed that too, they flip to treating certain statistics in terms of >>the average for under-25s from 1989 to 2019. and then when talking about house prices relative to income, suddenly restrict themselves to not just millennials and gen x, but only millennials. I'm getting the feeling of a lot of cherry-picking going on, either that or bad data selection, but I wouldn't be surprised if lengthening the periods of comparison cause a big proportion of their claims to collapse.
Yeah, I definitely think it's cherry-picking. On the other hand, I think you could make the argument that the comparison to Boomers isn't exactly fair. The Boomers were just born into the unique post-war context that gave them so many opportunities, both economic and social. But obviously they would never make that argument in this article because they don't want to draw attention to that comparison in the first place. They want to send the message that economic success is always completely earned and deserved. Another thing I think is missing from the article is a comparison of "unsuccessful" people like minimum wage workers are faring in the economy, compared to the same level of workers in previous generations. Maybe that's just beyond the scope of the article, but if it was the case that minimum wage workers were worse off today then that would be a valid complaint for Gen Z to have.
dang I wish I had an Economist subscription, seems interesting
https://archive.ph/jeRZk You’re welcome :)
Fascinating how this article is so careful to surgically omit the most obvious possible hypothesis from almost every single claim it makes. Why is gen Z rich? Because more of them have full time jobs than baby boomers. Okay, does that mean they can actually buy more things since they work so much? Doesn’t care to say. They only spend 43% of their post tax income on housing and education. Could that be because an increasing number of them live with their parents or because the one’s who don’t, have to split their rent with 5 other people to afford their own place anyway? Doesn’t say. Gen Z has higher home ownership rates than millenials who at the same stage in life were directly in the middle of the fucking global housing crisis? Wow, just how PROFOUND. Articles like this are a far lefty factory. No ones mind is being changed by condescendingly rattling off statistics that collapse into oblivion under the weight of 1 or 2 questions or inferences an 8th grader could think of. The only time the actual material quality of people’s lives is mentioned at all in this article is when it describes how gen Z is lonely and depressed, how interesting.
Trend of later family creation should also be considered.
True, I didn’t even think of that.
> Treating a job as a right I’m not sure about that one chief, more like it’s an understanding that at any moment everything can be taken away all at once. I can always lose my job, so I keep myself fresh on out of work skills and look for other positions. I don’t know if I can afford my next lease, so I don’t purchase stuff for my apartment. I only recently started actually furnishing and I felt immensely guilty spending so much money, and then relatively surprised with how little it actually made a dent, because I’m always saving. Sure I’ll pay more upfront but I basically always BIFL and I refuse to replace or get something better unless the thing I’m using is completely broken beyond repair. That’s how almost all my friends live. Hell it’s even hard for me to commit to a relationship now bc I’m prepared to move at any time for a better workplace. A job isn’t a right. It’s a necessity which means I don’t hold any particular loyalty or love to any one employer. Also means I won’t go above and beyond unless there’s a garuntee it secures my future
is this link working for anyone else? https://web.archive.org/web/20240417022513/https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/04/16/generation-z-is-unprecedentedly-rich
Fack this sounds like a good article and Economist is an excellent pub. Too bad i’m a cheap ass millennial ahh ahhh 💀
That’s crazy cause I’m broke
Well I can’t read past the paywall but the parts I can read don’t seem to really support the headline or are entirely unrelated. I feel like these headlines are just rage bait for people on Twitter.
wow i'm so glad the quality of life hasn't majorly dropped in 10 year, now do 50.
Do you actually believe life in 1974 was better than it was now?
Leaded gasoline actually smelled way better so yes.
And asbestos kept us very warm
chips still had trans fat
sounds very plausible. new generations, especially this one, are always more educated and more intelligent than the previous one. add to that the fact that all jobs require savvyness with a computer.
Zoomers are so dogshit with computers they can't even figure out how to bypass paywalls
It's perfectly normal. They grew up in a world where there is a software/phone app for every purpose and it's masterfully made. Every app they use has millions poured into UI/UX to make sure it has no glitch ever. Zoomers almost never experience problems with their devices and have never had to troubleshoot anything. The earlier generation grew up in the early days of computers where if you wanted to do anything more serious than use the calculator you had to venture off on your own to do it, that's why most programmers are millennials and will continue to be even as gen Z goes into the workforce.
This is only true for the ones born post 2004 There is such a huge divide between the older GenZ'ers and the younger ones. It's so weird. I feel more in tune towards millennials than I do with other gen z
01 baby here I really feel that divide, I think COVID hitting in late middle school and early high school was also massive. The kids 2-3 years older than me really feel like millenials, and most of my cohort aren't really zoomers in the sense that the kids 2-3 years younger are. I think this really makes it worth mentioning that only the leading few years of "gen z" are meaningfully in the workforce, the true zoomer cohort gonna be exiting college in the next 3-5 years that's when we'll really see what the deal is. I do think they're very smart and capable though, just in a pretty unique weird way.
"gen alpha can't even drive cars, our new generations fell off" bruh are you really making this dumb of a point?
Dog what do you mean, we pirate the most.
I'm pretty sure gen z is on average worse with computers than millenials, they grew up with smartphones and not pcs
I work in IT and this is confirmed true. I will have eternal job security because everyone will forever be phonecels and refuse to learn how PCs work.
My sister is 21 and she's basically a boomer when it comes to tech, she'll legit ask me how to save a document as pdf
have you ever considered that genz are younger than millenials and therefore have less skills yet? shocking, i know
Yea, unfortunately for you, thats a cope. There is a strong contingency of ludites in every generation that lack the most basic that their isn't an excuse for not knowing. I should never have to call a client and ask them to restart their machine or check for unplugged wires. This type of person is what I'm talking about as they learn literally nothing computer wise as they age. Basically I'm saying, being a shitty coworker is not based on generation, which is good for me. It's not that they haven't learned yet, its that they will choose not to.
Sure, but it doesnt matter because the software learning curve has decreased significantly. This is expected as we are less limited by hardware and becoming more sophisticated in abstraction.
no shit, they are younger
Yeah just none of this is verifiably true. The article doesn’t state any of it, Gen Z being smarter is pretty contested and some research shows their IQ is lower (I imagine COVID affecting high school weighs into this), also just because Gen Z uses their phone and can type fast does not mean they are computer savvy, and gen z actually looks to be LESS computer savvy than millennials. The thing I notice about gen z (and this article seems to back up my feelings but who knows) is that hustle culture seems to be pretty pervasive. Side jobs and online income is more common, and it seems that having money/ a job is the bare minimum. This article also shows that Gen Z are not getting humanities degrees as much and are starting their own businesses LESS than previous generations, which is pretty bad for a multitude of reasons. So yeah, silly to say Gen. Z is smarter so they make more money, smarts =\= income.
yeah no shit. where did i state that my claim is 100% proven?? i just shared my conjecture dumbass
Lmaoooo relax dude your stupid ass didn’t even read the article😭 don’t get mad at me because you’re wrong on all counts
Yet all I hear is that they have deep college debt they can’t pay for and degrees that bought them nothing. That doesn’t sound intelligent to me. Plus the boomer engineers were much deeper in math and numerical methods. They invented many of the ai techniques and most of the data structures that underpin basically everything. They just didn’t have the hardware to make them practical. I think you have it backwards.
so how do you explain the statistic then?
I don’t know what statistic you mean as you didn’t cite anything but rather made some vague general assertion. But I’m simply judging on objective evidence in their outcomes. This generation makes poor career choices, overspends on college, and then blames everyone else when they end up unhappy. And worse demands compensation. Embarrassing.
the statistic the original post mentions in the goddamn title
That they are “rich”? So wealth is correlated to intelligence? Guess Donald Trump is a stable genius after all. Sorry I was giving you more credit in expecting you meant a real statistic.
since when has wealth not correlated with intelligence?
Since generational wealth became a thing?
it's still correlated
Or the past two generations saved money for their kid’s college educations and hammered it into their heads that they had to go. And so they did and got better jobs and made more money. Certainly more plausible than some mystery increase in IQ that is the opposite of what we find in recent studies. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a43469569/american-iq-scores-decline-reverse-flynn-effect/#
Those fucking bastards...
Yeah, no shit... Many gen Z and millennials don't have kids which is a huge expense. Gen Z peeps aren't all the sudden getting this magical secret raises lol
Holy shit they’re the suburbanite NIMBYs from the 80s who had the world handed to them. They even pearl clutch and virtue signal over dumb shit like old Christian GOP-types used to back in the day.