There’s a great article here about three generations of an American family and the differences in the economy between then and now. The grandfather is a WWII veteran turned stock broker who became wealthy through connections and tenacity, and the father is a general manager in manufacturing who maintained the family wealth through connections and tenacity. The first grandson graduated a few years back before the recession and now makes $75k a year in finance. The second grandson Scott, however, is the subject of the story.
Scott graduated in 2008 from Colgate with a degree in poli sci. He lives at home, and he sends out 4 or 5 resumes a week, looking for employment. So far he hasn’t found the job that he wants–however…he did get at least one job offer. An insurance company offered him employment for $40k a year as an associate claims adjuster, but he turned it down, saying that it was a dead end job. He’s unemployed and was living with his parents, and is now living in a rented apartment where his parents pay his rent. If you look at the comments under the article, people are beating him up, saying that he’s spoiled by rich parents/grandparents who foot his bills (paid his whole way through college) and that he has an entitled attitude. The comments point out (correctly, imho) that $40k is a lot of money, and that some people would jump at the opportunity.
I’m torn on this one. I usually have an opinion on stuff like this, but so far…nothing. I guess I’m leaning towards thinking he should’ve taken that job–after all, 2 years of unemployment is a really long time, especially if you’ve never had a job. You never know where a job can take you, and unemployment breeds slothfullness, especially early in one’s career. Plus, with a job, you have money that is legitimately yours to spend, waste, or do whatever.
That being said, Scott seems to know what he wants, and he can afford to hold out. He doesn’t have a wife and kids to support, and his parents have the means to support him, so why not? I think my feelings about the situation might be different if he didn’t know what he wanted, but since he seems to have a goal, why not pursue it? (hmm…although he probably can afford to send out more than just one resume a day.)
Here’s another question–what would you advise him to do if he were your kid?
What do you think? Sound off like a WOWO, or vote in the poll!
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Wow, this must be what it’s like to have a sense of entitlement. Some day, I hope I can get a chance to really experience it. When I graduated from college, my first job paid $12 an hour and I was grateful. The real gain was in the experience, work ethic, and friendships that I built that last to this day. Plus, I have a clearer understanding of myself and what I want with my life. Getting a job you don’t like doesn’t mean you have to give up on your dreams. Life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. That’s the American dream.
Let’s be realistic here, most people don’t find work that is both fulfilling and pays well. It’s usually one or the other. I graduated from university in 2008 and promptly took a job I pretty much hate, it’s in the middle of nowhere, 21 day shifts, it’s dirty, I’m surrounded by rednecks, and there’s not an attractive girl for miles… But I bank enough money that (assuming the markets cooperate) I’ll be able to retire in my early 30s. My point is everyone has a price, I wouldn’t be doing this job if it paid any less than it does and The guy in the article clearly doesn’t feel that 40Gs is worth his time for a dead end job.
You work hard, go to college, get a degree, and can’t get a good, high-paying job when you graduate? Sounds like this guy is learning how life is like for many of us colored folks who never had his family’s wealth, connections, or white privilege.
A somewhat relevant article by Tim Wise:
http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/of-collateral-damage-and-roosting-chickens-reflections-racism-economy-and-high-cost-wh
I can understand not wanting a dead end job, specially if you have the choice of holding out. Still, there are benefits to getting in “on the ground floor”, such as work experience. That can make the difference between getting the job you want down the line, and losing it to someone…with more experience.
I would say he can do what he likes. If he wants to live at home and not work then he can do that. I think it is a mistake for his parents to pay his rent for more than a couple months. There is a difference between a helping hand and just plain encouraging laziness.
As for Gar’s link, Tim Wise is a bit self absorbed and is a divider not a a person who unites people. Like Lil Wayne said about Al Sharpton, “he gets off on getting off” (yeah I am quoting Lil Wayne). It easy to be against something and paint everything in black and white (pun intended) and call everyone a racist much harder to inform people in a non patronizing way that actually creates solutions and progress.
After my Dad was stricken with the cancer in my freshman year of college and had to quit his job, my mother suddenly found herself to be the breadwinner of this working-class family. It was an anxious time. I was enrolled in a private institution with a partial scholarship but my parents still had to pay several thousands in tuition each semester. As the firstborn, I figured the least I could do to help out is to, at least, not be a financial burden. So I transferred to CCNY, a NYC commuter school that offered a bargain basement education for a bargain basement price. A place that was once called “the Harvard for the poor” which produced graduates who would go on to earn 26 Nobel Prizes and was considered the crown jewel of the CUNY system, but had fallen from past glory and had seen standards slip dramatically since the misguided open-admissions policies of the 70s were put into effect.
As an engineering major, I shared space with remedial students who struggled with materials that should have been mastered in high school. But it was a place that still held vestiges of its past greatness, in the idealistic and driven professors who taught passionately and well despite the unworthiness of the environment and in the small pockets of excellence found here and there.
In the School of Engineering, which is pretty much a boot-camp for the mind, it was also a spartan, sober place where a vast majority of students also held full-time jobs. We took nothing for granted. There was no partying. There’s no “Animal House”. You put your nose to the grind. Eat, work, study, and, on occasion, sleep.
During my undergraduate years, I worked a grave yard shift as a mechanic in the USPS while I took class during the day. Altogether, it took me eight years to finish. Along the way, I also helped fund my little sister’s education at Cornell.
While I had zero social life, most of my friends were clubbing and enjoying the normal collegiate experience. I was a bit jealous of them at the time but afterward, I was the only one to emerge from college without a single penny of student loan debt and had a surplus to boot. Long before graduation, I was already up to my neck in the Real World.
What did I learn?
- Life is not fair. Sometimes you’re dealt a shitty hand.
- You deal with it. You go out and hussle and bust your ass anyway you can.
- All is not what it appears to be. Sometimes, I thought I was a loser for working in the Postal Service, a grave yard shift as a grease monkey no less, while others were partying and having fun. People made “he’s gonna go Postal” jokes. Turned out it was one of the best experiences of my life.
- A man needs to stand on his own two feet, be independent, and not rely on handouts.
You have an incredible, amazing story, kobukson. Thanks for sharing it. I think your obstacles have actually made you stronger. Props.
Mo Bettah,
Props to you too, man. You graduated the same year as that dude, and it sounds like you’re on the road to success.
Kobukson- mad props, man, and thank you for sharing. I really admire someone who has to overcome so many obstacles in his life and always keep his head up. I got my first part time job during high school as a janitor for an office complex. By then my parents have worked their way up to a pretty stable middle class so we were never in want of money to pay the bills. Partly because of that, I actually quite enjoyed the work because it provided me with my own spending money while most of my friends had to beg their parents for allowances. Although now I wished I saved and invested some of that instead of blowing it all like a sailor in port. Oh well, live and learn as they say.
I think one of the most important things I’ve picked up from having a blue collar job is it gave me an appreciation of the people who work those jobs. Now that I’ve moved up to working a cubicle in one of these offices, I never take those people for granted or look down or ignore them like many of my coworkers do.
I think one of the most important things I’ve picked up from having a blue collar job is it gave me an appreciation of the people who work those jobs. Now that I’ve moved up to working a cubicle in one of these offices, I never take those people for granted or look down or ignore them like many of my coworkers do.
And look what’s happened over the years.
Many “high-value”, “knowledge worker” jobs are being offshore outsourced to places while blue collar jobs are steady. A call center worker from Bangalore can’t fix your toilet over the Internet.
The last shall be the first and the first shall be the last.
As my grandfather used to say, “I can’t abide a layabout.”
There are probably 2 kinds of people when it comes to this kind of thing.
1) People who can sit around and be non productive.
2) People who can’t.
If you are #1, then the rest of your working career, you will always have to fight the magnetic draw of simply doing nothing, whenever you can get way with it. It will always be an option for you, sitting back there, in the recesses of your mind. In time, others will begin to notice, because even other layabouts don’t respect laziness (especially in those who make more money than they do.)
But this penchant is not genetic, it’s something that you train yourself to do. When I was in high school, I worked after school, for a trash service. I wanted to buy a moped to ride to school, so my dad wouldn’t have to drop me off every day. I worked all summer, digging ditches on the football field for a sprinkler systems (which was HARD work) and I had barely enough money to buy the moped at the end of that hot summer. I worked at U.P.S. as a loader/unloader and later as a Sorter to put myself though college. The trailers that we worked in got up to 130˚ Fahrenheit in the summer and you had to wear a dusk mask to prevent airborne cardboard particles from filling your nostrils.
But in the end, you just get used to going to work every day, and working hard. I feel sorry for people who never learn this lesson.
But this penchant is not genetic, it’s something that you train yourself to do.
Totally. From the article, it seems that the father and grandfather wanted him to take it. So it’s not the genes (not from the mother’s side either, since she works).
You all convinced me. He should’ve taken it. I’d understand if he just started applying for work and turned down the first job offer a week later, but it’s been two years. Two years is a really long time. $40k is a lot of money (especially compared with $0k).
By the way, your personal work stories are inspiring.
That guy needs to GTFOOH with that mess. If I were his parents I would have cut him off for turning down that job. There’s something to be said for actually wanting to support yourself and contribute to society.
What the second son doesn’t realize is that he is competing in a global labor market now. Don’t want to make 40k a year as an insurance investigator? Fine, the corporations will give that job to someone in the philippines, turkey, india, china or eastern europe who will work for 10k. Not saying it’s right or fair, but that’s the reality.
Scott could well be unemployed for life if he doesn’t change his view of work and labor.
If you read on to the end, there is a slight change in tone from Scott. (“I am beginning to realize that refusal is going to have repercussions,” he said.)
He is young, inexperienced, seemingly quite sheltered, and coddled by two generations of guardians, both his parents and grandparents, one paying his present $2,000 monthly rent, and the other having paid precious Scott’s way through university. That makes him naive and idealistic. So please cut him a little slack.