A recurring theme of this blog is the widening gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials in terms of wealth distribution and cultural inheritance. The data paints a stark picture: Baby Boomers, through a combination of historical windfalls and economic expansion, have accumulated unprecedented wealth, wielding significant power and influence that shapes the trajectory of society. Meanwhile, Millennials, often burdened with student debt and stagnant wages, find themselves struggling to attain the same financial stability and sense of security.
Don’t believe me? Just look at Baby Boomers’ net worth compared to Millennials’. 1980s Boomers were seven times wealthier than Millennials today. Moreover, the concentration of wealth among older generations has skyrocketed, with Baby Boomers now commanding nearly 60% of total US wealth. This economic imbalance not only impacts financial well-being but also plays a pivotal role in shaping each generation’s life path.
Compounding this economic divide is a broader crisis of identity and purpose among Millennials. That disillusionment is broadening and deepending as Millennials near middle age. Raised on the promises of boundless opportunity and meritocracy, fueled by media narratives of limitless potential, many Millennials find themselves blindsidsed upon entering the workforce.
Being raised with the participation trophy slogan “You can be anything you want!” in a world where people’s value is measured by what they produce created a perfect storm of mixed messages. Their contradictory formation set up Millennials for a rude awakening when faced with the real world. This clash between idealized notions and the facts on the ground has left Millennials existentially disorientated and unfulfilled. Boomers sowed the wind. Millennials are reapig the whirlwind.
Related: Millennials’ Generational Poverty
It’s no help that Pop Cult litanies about equity and diversity paper over disparities in ability. This generational gaslighting has ignited a crisis of self-worth, especially among Millennial men, who feel sidelined in a society that extols women at their expense.
As Millennials near middle age, these building pressures manifest as a multitude of disorders from rising depression rates to social erosion. 2016 marked a significant uptick in Millennial depression, reflecting a profound sense of disillusionment with their personal prospects and society’s instittuions.
Related: Millennials: Depressed and Disordered
So, what is the path forward for Millennials grappling with these crises of identity and meaning? It begins with a reevaluation of our priorities as a culture. Embracing humility—recognizing the truth about our abilities and limitations—is crucial to navigating the mine field of Current Year life. Wisdom, an honest appraisal of reality, offers a compass for aligning dreams with achievable goals.
And instead of generations being at each others’ throats, we desperately need some solidarity. Older generations, particularly Gen X and Gen Y, play a pivotal role in guiding and supporting Millennials through these tumultuous times. By sharing wisdom, providing mentorship, and fostering virtue, older cohorts can help bridge the gap between illusion and reality.
The path to reclaiming identity and meaning is paved with virtues that transcend generational divides. As Millennials confront the challenges of approaching middle age in a faltering cluture, they must seek support from their elder brethren. And one of the best places to do that is in the Mystical Body of the Church.
Because with economic collapse and social disintegration making success in Boomer terms obsolete, Millennials must redefine fulfillment. Twentieth century fables of instant gratification and effortless achievement must give way to embracing struggle and yes, suffering. For the indefinite future, progress will be incremental, requiring resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to learn from setbacks instead of dreading failure.
Related: How We Can Help Millennials
But every crisis presents an opportunity, and this one invites Millennials to shake off the hangover from the twentieth century. Instead of fixating on material wealth, Millennials are increasingly drawn to meaningful work, authentic relationships, and peer solidarity. That’s a foundation we can build on.
Which is good, because intergenerational dialogue is critical to passing on the good of the world that’s passing away and warning of its past mistakes. By leveraging the wisdom and experiences of older generations, Millennials can discover authentic purpose amid all this uncertainty. Meanwhile, older cohorts have much to gain from younger folks’ fresh perspectives and innovative thinking. We joke about Boomer tech, but failing to keep up with the rapidly evolving—and devolving—state of technology is a great way to lose.
At its core, the quest for identity and meaning transcends economic metrics and inherited expectations. It’s a voyage of self-discovery whereby we discover who God made us to be and cooperate to let Him shape us. Millennials must embrace the new challenges of Current Year adulthood as opportunities for growth.
As Millennials near middle age, the time is ripe for introspection and reevaluation. By embracing humility, wisdom, and fortitude, they can chart a course toward more fulfilling and purposeful lives.
The crises of identity and meaning faced by Millennials approaching middle age are complex, with myriad overlapping causes. They stem from economic disparities, societal pressures, and a shifting cultural landscape. However, these challenges also present chances for growth, reflection, and transformation; even holiness.
While they may be reaping the cultural whirlwind, it’s always worth remembering that a whirlwind carried Elijah up to Heaven.
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The crisis of identity will be easier to overcome than the crisis of self provision. With such wealth disparity, what is the right solution? What is a feasible solution?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs puts physiological needs as the foundation of the pyramid and Millennials are not even being allowed to have that. There’s a real possibility Millennials will be Boomer’s age by the time they can even get to what we’d consider a normal standard of living.
Reevaluating what’s considered normal will be a big part of the social realignment that’s already begun. This process won’t happen overnight, and things will look a lot different on the other end, but I’m confident that correcting the 20th century’s mistakes will leave us better off.
I think a good start to reevaluating what is “normal” is working towards being able to comfortably sustain yourself on a single income with a respectable paying job. Having a side hustle should be optional, not a requirement just to meet your bare minimum needs.
The case studies I constantly hear about with young millennials getting degrees for good jobs, but those good jobs are enough to afford a broom closet an hour away from where they work while living on a constant diet of bottom shelf ramen.
I’m all for bringing back everyday ascesis, lowering our standard of living, etc. but right now there are some non-trivial regulatory and industry barriers to doing that.
You can’t, for example, rent a two-bedroom house here, if you have three kids. The rules say no more than two people per bedroom. Doesn’t matter if the people are 3 years old. Doesn’t matter if the bedroom is 50 square feet. Two people per bedroom. Heaven help you if you have an awesome family with five or more kids and you’re not pulling at least 150k. Kids aren’t actually that expensive, but housing them legally is.
You can’t get a mortgage on a house that doesn’t have an HVAC system, even if all you want is to open the windows in summer and use a woodstove in winter like your great-grandparents. You can still buy that house for cash and go uninsured, but how many of us have that kind of money?
Plenty of people out there living in prefab sheds on the DL these days– they can afford the land, but not much else. But try it with kids and you’ll end up having an uncomfortable relationship with CPS.
Even in my own childhood, people were pretty casual about seatbelts. So what if your car didn’t have enough for everyone? The three extras just rode in the back of the station wagon with the spare couch cushions. No, it wasn’t safe. But my parents never had a van, even though there were six of us. We can’t do that, though. Totally illegal. If we have another kid, we’ll have to buy a much more expensive vehicle. Meanwhile, my friends in SE Asia can fit two adults and three children *on a motor scooter*. They even have infant seats for that. It’s not even that unsafe– nobody drives over 30 except on the highway.
Living standards will, of course, come down here. But right now we are dragging a lot of legacy regulation that isn’t suited to the economic situation we are actually living in. It’s designed for a world where everybody’s flush, and nobody has more than three kids.
We’ve already cut most luxuries out of our budget– all our clothes are secondhand, we cook everything from scratch at home, we don’t have smartphones or a TV or any streaming services– but all that is peanuts compared to what rent and health insurance are doing to us.
I wonder whether chucking Maslow entirely might be a good first step. Soldiers in combat and monastics in cloisters show us there’s an enormous difference between want and need. Some I’ll grant not everyone is called to the consecrated, of course. I’ll also grant my own upbringing might be making Brian’s call to virtue more of a call to arms than it is meant to be. All that being said, if we are being called to fight for our younger brothers’ souls as much as our own expecting to live on a war footing seems reasonable, complete with long nights and short rations.
My question on reading all this is: how do we also help the Zoomers and the Alphas? This is not strictly academic, as most of my students are now Zoomers. I have a few Ys and Millenials, but many of them are under 25.
This is a complex phenomenon, needless to say but there are some key element I think need to be addressed.
1) white men, especially young white men, are on their own and not just economically. Not just in terms of official sanctions, but informal yet essential relationships like mentoring see older white men mentoring not younger white men, but women and minorities. I hate that I have to disclaim this but I’m not a white supremacist or even really a nationalist of any kind in the modern sense. It’s also telling that I need to disclaim that, because anyone who addresses the problem of young white men is usually denounced as a Nazi.
2) Huge numbers of men have been locked out of marriage and family. There was a general thought that people would settle down as they got older as if that was “natural”, but the marriage market is refusing to clear. In some ways we need to shift our goals from getting young men married to keeping them from harming themselves and others, it’s basically that bad now.
So far the only balm on offer is some variation of what is called “tough love”. Men need to be “challenged”, to “toughen up”. The essence of a man is “sacrifice”. Sounds good and true in a partial way but the problem is the wages not just in money, but in respect aren’t what they used to be. We’re stingy with honor. And too many young men are noticing at the same time to be amenable to platitudes meant to pacify them.
“white men, especially young white men, are on their own and not just economically. Not just in terms of official sanctions, but informal yet essential relationships like mentoring see older white men mentoring not younger white men, but women and minorities.”
Yep. I’m both mad and equally snoody about this fact. Women and minorities get all this help and yet they still claim to be victims who are oppressed.