Gen Z Culture Roundup

 

Gen Z is facing early 'mid-life crisis' due to social media, US Surgeon General warns  

Gen Z Rudest Generation Ever  

Gen Z: bad office etiquette might be holding you back at work

I’m Gen Z and proud NOT to work – I’ve quit three jobs because bosses don’t give me gym breaks… I won’t be a victim

Survey Says Gen Z Workforce Is Toxic, 'Least Reliable' — And That's Just The Start

Bidenomics: Financial Difficulties Causing Fewer Gen Zers to Get Engaged

 

Marriage is a key life milestone and engagements are a step towards married life.  However, the economic state of young Americans is so poor that fewer Gen Zers are choosing to get engaged.  

Signet Jewelers, the parent company of Kay Jewelers and Zales reports that the upswing in engagements that they predicted post-COVID is not working out as planned.  

Signet Jewelers Ltd., the parent company of Kay Jewelers and Zales, had previously signaled to investors that there would be an upswing in US engagements this year as dating patterns returned to normal. But that forecast was downgraded on Wednesday as the jeweler warned that persistently high inflation and job market uncertainty have forced some young folks to delay engagements. 

"If right now they're worried about their jobs or they're still paying a little bit more for rent or for gas, then they might wait a few months for that engagement," Gina Drosos, the CEO of SignetSignet, explained in a Wednesday interview quoted by Bloomberg.

Drosos said 2.1 million couples were engaged last year, the lowest in years, but recovered from the dating dry spell during Covid. Still, the number is well below the 2.8 million level seen pre-2020. 

The downshift in the outlook comes after three years of elevated inflation, which has strained consumers' finances. 

 

Share of Young Adults Living with Parents Highest in 80 Years

 

The percentage of young adults that live with their parents is higher now than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Almost one in two now live with parents.

The inability of young people to form their own households is a long-term negative for American society.

Moving out of one’s parent’s home is an important marker on the road to independent adulthood.

But today, young people are finding it difficult to strike out on their own. 

Young people were harder hit than older Americans from job and income losses from the COVID lockdowns.  Now they’re facing an unstable job market, the hangover from the high cost of college and student debt, and falling income in real terms.

However, the biggest barrier to independent living is probably sky-high rental and housing prices.

Marriage and family are for most people a source of personal happiness and a fulfilling life.

The inability of young people to form their own households will inhibit marriage and birth rates.  Married couples want their own space and to live their lives outside of parental authority.  Unaffordable rents and home prices are causing young people to delay getting married and having children.

Though marriage rates and average family size have declined over the past fifty years, Americans still want the joys of family life. 

In fact, the percentage of Americans that view three or more children as ideal in 2023 is higher than at any time since the start of the 1970s.  According to Gallup, almost 50 percent of Americans view three or more children as ideal.  Only 2 percent of Americans view zero children as ideal.

The early years of adulthood are a critical time in our lives.  Until now, it is the stage of life in which so many important life decisions are made.

High housing costs and a bad economy limit the flexibility of young Americans to explore life’s possibilities including those concerning marriage and family and to make those choices that produce the greatest happiness and fulfilment in the long-run.

 

America’s Core Problem: Those with The Least Pride in the USA Control All its Major Institutions

 

Gallup recently asked about pride in America.  The results show a large gap between the parties with Republicans having much more pride in America than Democrats.  So isn’t it a problem that the people with the least pride in the USA control all of our major institutions?  You bet it is. 

The fundamental rule of management is that you want the people at the top to be dedicated and enthusiastic about the organization and its mission.  If you are in business, you want the CEO to be a relentless optimist, a cheerleader for the company.  How confident or dedicated would you be in your work if the CEO of your company were constantly running down the organization?  Not too much I suspect.

Or consider your house of worship.  You wouldn’t want your parish priest, rabbi or pastor to be a non-believer or atheist.  Unless it’s clear that the leader passionately believes, followers won’t believe or follow either.  The pews will be empty. 

However, when it comes to America’s major institutions, the fundamental rule of management is turned on its head.

The people that control all the major institutions of American life are the people that have the least pride in the United States of America. 

Below are the results from Gallup regarding pride in America.  Barely half of all Democrats are very or extremely proud to be American versus 84 percent of Republicans.

Or looked at it another way, 48 percent of Democrats are just so-so on the country we live in.  They say “meh” about the USA.  

Yet the Democrats that control all our major institutions: Hollywood, the media, higher education, primary education, the arts, administrative government and in the last few years the military and big business too. 

Ponder this: In the 2020 presidential election, Democrats received 92 percent of the vote in the District of Columbia.  That percentage is far higher than in any state (next was Vermont at 66 percent).  If DC Democrats are like Democrats nationally (if anything, DC Democrats are more liberal) then it’s likely the case the bureaucrats that run our national government have less pride in the country than any comparably sized group anywhere in the United States.  How messed up is that?

The reason that most Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track is that the wrong people, the people with the least pride in the USA, are the ones running every major institution in America. 

We need to get back to management rule number one; have people that believe in and take pride in America be the ones in control of our major institutions if America is ever to be a great country again.   

 

Wide Support Among Young Americans for Ending the Use of Race in College Admissions

 

The media and Democrats portray young Americans as firmly behind affirmative action.  This isn’t true.  Young Americans are ready to put racial discrimination behind us. 

Don’t believe the media and Democrats on the Supreme Court decision to end racial discrimination in college admissions.   

Democrats and the media portray Gen Z and Millennials as fully behind the use of race in college admissions.  The truth is much different. 

A plurality of Americans oppose the use of race in college admissions.  A survey by the Pew Foundation found that 50 percent of all Americans opposed the use of race versus only 33 percent that approved.  Hispanics were equally divided, 39 percent to 39 percent.  Less than half of blacks (47 percent) approve of affirmative action.

Still, universities cling to the use of race.  This demonstrates how out of touch higher ed has become with middle America. 

Young people are at best split on the issue of affirmative action.  Just as many young people disapprove of using race for college admissions and hiring as do. 

Harvard University’s Youth Poll regularly asks Americans between the ages of 18 to 29 whether “qualified minorities should be given special preferences in hiring and education.”

In the most recent poll, only 30 percent agreed with affirmative action.  33 percent disagreed.  This that held strong opinions were more unfavorable toward affirmative action.  Only 12 percent strongly agreed with affirmative action while 18 percent were strongly opposed. 

Given that young people are at most evenly divided on the issue, the predominance of young backers in the media reflects not reality but instead the media’s preferred narrative. 

Instead of attacking the ruling, President Biden should stop dividing Americans based on race.  His own record on racial matters is a dismal one.    

Polling by Harvard shows that most young people don’t like the way Biden is handling race relations.  58 percent of 18–29-year-olds disapprove of Biden’s handling of race relations, only 38 percent approve. 

55 percent of blacks and 38 percent of Democrats between 18 and 29 disapprove of how Biden’s handling race relations.

 

 

Slouching Towards 1984: Shocking Numbers of Young Americans Embrace the Surveillance State

 

One wonders whether they still teach Orwell in schools these days.  Almost one in three members of Gen Z says that they would accept government surveillance cameras in their home.    

A new survey from the Cato Institute asked Americans about their view on government surveillance and central bank digital currencies. 

The survey found that large numbers of young Americans would be happy having Big Brother watching them. 

Almost one third of 18- to 29-year-olds said that they would favor having the government install surveillance cameras in their home to monitor them for illegal activity.    Only 6 percent of Baby Boomers would allow Big Brother into their homes.    

It’s not just their homes.  Gen Z also is happy having Big Brother in their pockets.  32 percent of Gen Zers support CBDCs.

In fact, 24 percent of Gen Z would support CBDC even if it meant that government could freeze the bank accounts of political protestors. 

That’s exactly what happened in the Canadian trucker protests in which the government ordered banks to freeze the accounts o truckers and other protesting the government’s authoritarian (and unnecessary) COVID lockdown. 

History shows that when governments have the ability to squelch dissent they will do it. 

Whether it is the East German Stasi, the Chinese Communist Party’s social credit system or the National Security Agency’s domestic bulk data collection program (for which they lied to Congress about its existence), the tools of government surveillance are the tools of totalitarianism. 

 

Deaths of Despair Growing Among Young Americans

 

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent piece pointing out that death rates among young people have been rising.  here's a quote from the article:

Between 2019 and 2020, the overall mortality rate for ages 1 to 19 rose by 10.7%, and increased by an additional 8.3% the following year, according to an analysis of federal death statistics led by Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, published in JAMA in March. That’s the highest increase for two consecutive years in the half-century that the government has publicly tracked such figures, according to Woolf’s analysis.

Other developed countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Norway also saw a rise in some death counts among young people during that time, though the upticks were often concentrated in narrow age groups or one gender, according to global death counts provided by Christopher J.L. Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

Here is the graphic from their article: 

One of the comments made reference to how homeless or living rough should be considered a cause.  I agree.  That's not well captured in the medical data--it's hard to attribute a specific cause.  However, watching videos of homelessness, especially places like Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood,. one gets the sense that there are too many young lives off course in our country.

Good News: A Majority of Young Canadians Support the Right to Protest of the Freedom Convoy Truckers

A new poll by the Angus Reid institute, a non-profit public opinion research organization, shows that a majority of young Canadians support the right of Freedom Convoy truckers to express themselves.

Support among young Canadians is much higher than among the old. 

The survey asked Canadians whether they felt that the right to protest outweighed the economic disruptions from the protest.  Results by age and gender appear below:

The results are both surprising and encouraging. 

Surprising because young people are often viewed as more supportive of authoritarian measures than the old. 

Encouraging because, at least on this issue, a solid majority of young Canadians support freedom of expression.  In that context, the results of the Angus Reid poll are very good news indeed. 

The authoritarian crackdown of the Trudeau should be revulsive to anyone who believes in free expression and individual rights.  Trudeau is revealing himself as nothing more than a pretty, elitist dictator. 

The Trudeau regime has instigated violence against protesters, trampled innocent civilians with horses, and frozen the bank accounts of thousands of supporters of the protests.

And then there is the blatant hypocrisy of Canada’s boy Prime Minister who swooned for Black Lives Matter but uses the jack-booted power of the state to crush peaceful protests by ordinary working-class Canadians.  

Hopefully, young Canadians will lead the charge for freedom in Canada.  Unlike their elders, young Canadians appear to have their heads on straight.

Victor Davis Hanson on the Demonization of the Past

Brilliant essay by Victor Davis Hanson at Real Clear Politics.  Read the whole thing, download and save.  Here are some of the best parts.  

Critics assume their own judgmental generation is morally superior to those of the past. So, they use their own standards to condemn the mute dead who supposedly do not measure up to them.

Yet 21st-century critics rarely acknowledge their own present affluence and leisure owe much to history's prior generations whose toil helped create their current comfort.

And what may future scolds say of the modern generation that saw over 60 million abortions since Roe v. Wade, even as fetal viability outside the womb continued to progress to ever earlier ages?

What will our grandchildren say of us who dumped on them over $30 trillion in national debt - much of it as borrowing for entitlements for ourselves?

What sort of society snoozes as record numbers of murders continue in 12 of its major cities? What is so civilized about defunding the police, endemic smash-and-grab thefts, and car jackings?

Was our media more responsible, professional, and learned in 1965 or 2021? Did Hollywood make more sophisticated and enjoyable films in 1954 or 2021? Was there less or more sportsmanship among professional athletes in 1990 or 2021?

Was it actually moral to discard the "content of our character" and "equal opportunity" principles of the prior Civil Rights movement of 60 years ago? Are their replacement fixations on the "color of our skin" and "equality of result" superior?

Are we proud that most standardized tests of student knowledge and achievement continue to decline, despite record investments in education?

Do we ever pause to consider that we enjoy our modern standard of living and security because we were once a meritocracy that quit judging our workforce by tribal affinities and ancient prejudices?

Our generation talks of infrastructure nonstop. But when was the last time it built anything comparable to the Hoover Dam, the interstate highway system, or the California Water Project - much less sent a man back to the moon or beyond?

If prior generations were so toxic, why do we continue to take for granted the moral and material world they bequeathed to us, from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to our airports, freeways, and power plants? Did we ever defeat anything comparable to the Axis powers or Soviet communism?

New Harvard Youth Poll Out

Results of the fall 2021 Harvard Youth Poll are now out.  I'll be commenting on the results in future blog posts.  

Many young Americans are in a pessimistic mood.  

Approval of the Biden Administration is down.  Young people are divided on whether the Biden Administration is a failure or if it is too early to tell.

This round of the poll asked a large number of questions concerning the level of anxiety that young people feel regarding the future of our country and whether democracy is working.

Researchers also asked about the willingness of young Americans to serve in the military if they were called up.   

The Harvard Survey provides an extremely useful tool for taking the pulse of young Americans.  

He’s Not Wrong: Vladimir Putin Knocks Woke Culture

 Social justice warriors in the modern West are no different that the Bolsheviks of the old Soviet Union says Russian Leader Vladimir Putin. 

If Putin is right, modern progressives are ushering in a world that is very dark indeed.  Young people should take note.    

Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin laid bare the parallels between the old oppression of the Soviet past and the now oppression of the woke progressives in the modern West.

Putin calls out the erasure of the great works in art and literature: 

“Looking at what is happening in a number of Western countries, we are amazed to see the domestic practices, which we, fortunately, have left, I hope, in the distant past. The fight for equality and against discrimination has turned into aggressive dogmatism bordering on absurdity, when the works of the great authors of the past – such as Shakespeare – are no longer taught at schools or universities, because their ideas are believed to be backward. The classics are declared backward and ignorant of the importance of gender or race. In Hollywood memos are distributed about proper storytelling and how many characters of what colour or gender should be in a movie. This is even worse than the agitprop department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”

Citing Martin Luther King, Putin call out the obsession among the left in dividing people on racial lines:

"Countering acts of racism is a necessary and noble cause, but the new ‘cancel culture’ has turned it into ‘reverse discrimination’ that is, reverse racism. The obsessive emphasis on race is further dividing people, when the real fighters for civil rights dreamed precisely about erasing differences and refusing to divide people by skin colour.”

Putin also cites the parallels between modern progressive ideologies on sexuality and gender and those of the old Soviet Union:

“Zealots of these new approaches even go so far as to want to abolish these concepts altogether. Anyone who dares mention that men and women actually exist, which is a biological fact, risk being ostracised. “Parent number one” and “parent number two,” “'birthing parent” instead of “mother,” and “human milk” replacing “breastmilk” because it might upset the people who are unsure about their own gender. I repeat, this is nothing new; in the 1920s, the so-called Soviet Kulturtraegers also invented some newspeak believing they were creating a new consciousness and changing values that way. And, as I have already said, they made such a mess it still makes one shudder at times. Not to mention some truly monstrous things when children are taught from an early age that a boy can easily become a girl and vice versa. That is, the teachers actually impose on them a choice we all supposedly have. They do so while shutting the parents out of the process and forcing the child to make decisions that can upend their entire life.”

It has often been said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  Putin’s discussion of the parallels between the old Soviet Union and modern Western progressive ideologies is a good one.  One question remains.  Is it that modern progressives have failed to learn from the old Soviet Union or are using the old Soviet Union as a “how to” manual?