look mate, I ain't making this up ... there are tens of thousands of young English people in this situation ... maybe even hundreds of thousands ...
Sure, they should have taken on 3 part time jobs, married their high school sweetheart, saved and buy an affordable, cheap house when they eventually became 40 years old ... but, that's not reality ... previous generations have had it a lot easier when it comes to job market, living costs and house prices ... real talk.
This. Except i'm pretty sure its happening most places.
I finished high school right into the recession. My whole school life we had tertiary education slammed down our throats. I ended up working as a cleaner (and still do part time) because no degree = no career.
So I ended up going to uni. Then I saw my friends and family members graduate, and when it came to them, no work experience = no job. I dont think people realize the amount of educated young people working minimum wage, working for places like cleaning companies, and i'm not talking philosophy or art history. Im talking teaching, clinical psychology, criminology, personal trainers and commerce/business graduates.
Then I go on the internet and see people bitching about picking stupid degrees, not understanding there are people like me doing competitive degrees with nearly 2000 candidates with 200 spots available. Of those who knows where, when or if they will get a job out of it.
Meanwhile they are borrowing money just to feed themselves, just to have a chance at not working at a gas station for the foreseeable future. Also knowing that when they graduate, they are walking into a massive gap in economic equality. The dream of owning a house has become overshadowed by the hope that one day we can pay of the debt off we accrued for simply not ending up in some deadbeat job forever. Why wouldn't you ask what a job can do for you?
So many of us have come up with our workplaces being minimum wage jobs. Where often no matter how hard you work you dont get a pay rise, you dont get a promotion. And look at some of the comments in this thread "I wouldn't hire someone under 25" etc.
This generation is arguably the most competitive, and leans to the right in terms of economics and self responsibility.
But yeah were lazy, its all our fault right. We raised ourselves, we were the ones who decided that bartenders and people who make coffees should be qualified to do so. We took massively overpaid salaries and borrowed excessively for stuff we didn't need. Nope wait that was your generation wasn't it? Funny how we dont seem to generalize every other generation like this though, isn't it?
Like I said if you don't know someone don't judge their work ethic. I work 30 hours a week, study at uni full time and train BJJ to compete. What free time I have, I use to save and research ways I can help myself financially in the future.
Judge the man, not the date of birth. I think there are a ton of baby boomers who would crumble under the pressure most of this "lazy generation" is under.