Fun Fact #24: I don't want to get burned

The upcoming election has caused a lot of attention to be focused on my generation, the Millennials (ages 18-29), as we make about 20% of the registered voters. People are saying that our participation in the election could make or break a candidate like Obama. And while that is certainly a notable fact, I find the articles that seek to analyze the various attributes of the Millennials to be far more interesting. I like to compare the overall analysis of the group to myself and other Millennials that I know; it's almost like reading a horoscope, some parts seem right on but other parts just are just painfully off base or seem like idealistic thinking.

One of the better articles I've read was one MSNBC, "'Youthquake' Shakes Up Electoral Politics". I personally feel that the article does a nice job of looking at the various anxieties that seem to shape our generations views. People often wonder why our generation is not taking to the streets to protest the war, but I think that the lack of extreme protesting (at least relative to the social movements of the '60s) can be partially attributed to the growing focus on domestic problems that we're just watching get worse. We've seen our parents get burned by the economy and we don't want that to happen to us. These excerpts from the article summed up a lot my personal feelings about the current state of affairs.

They grew up during the greatest period of wealth creation in modern history, but watched their elders consume resources and run up deficits as if the party would never end. Then came the dot-com crash, terrorism, war, climate change. Epic uncertainty informs their world view. When asked to name the issues they care most deeply about, bread-and-butter concerns such as the economy, health care, and education routinely rank high.

As the government and employers shift more responsibility for benefits like health care and retirement onto the shoulders of individuals, many Millennials see themselves as unwitting victims. Although that trend has been building for decades, this may be the first generation to fully feel the great shift of risk in their bones.

Millennials, like many Americans, may have lost faith in the political Establishment, but they have utter faith in themselves and their wiki-inspired abilities to get things done.

People often ask me why I'm so "obsessed" with getting everything done so quickly and taking the most practical route (often at the expense of something more fun or exciting). A lot of people with a year to kill will travel Europe or do something exciting, I chose to work for a real estate company in Pittsburgh where I'd make good money but live a dull life. The article above discussed many of my reasons.

I've watched people get burned when they're too idealistic. I believe that I can achieve my dreams, but my dreams are based in reality. I'm not pretending that I could magically become a Supreme Court Justice, that just isn't in my reality. I want to do great things in my life, but everything is just so full of uncertainty.

People jokingly mock me for saying that I'd be willing to work for various "evil corporations", but I totally would assuming they offered me a benefits package and salary that would allow me the financial security that seems to be becoming more and more of rarity in today's world.

I consider myself to be a Democrat. I believe the health care and educational systems in our country are in dire need of repair and that we need to do something to revive the middle class. But I also believe we need to watch out for our own well-being because it looks like we're not going to have anything to fall back on but ourselves when the going gets tough.