I'm poor and a member of Gen-Y. Please tell me how useless I am again.

Originally posted by dbarnhart
Here's the difference between you and me, kid: There are two kinds of people. Those that make things happen and those who complain about what's happening. I'm in the first group. You talk like you are in the second group.

When I was your age I had two jobs so I could pay the bills. Both jobs were part time. I wanted to cut out the second job and getmore hours at the first job. I did that by spending my free time hanging around the first job site. When thry needed somebody fast bam i was there.

Learn to hustle. Learn to solve problems. If you do both of theose you'll never lack for work.

Actually, the difference is you didn't have an internet chat forum to post your complaints on. I guarantee, you complained a-plenty. He is obviously young and dealing with the same crap all of us dealt with when we were out of high school or college and on our own. bills and jobs and whatnot.

Don't be all high-and-mighty on the poor kid. He is actually asking for help, in the form of advice. He is venting. You did it, I did it, he is doing it.

People born before 1946 were called The Silent Majority.
People born between 1946 and 1964 are called The Baby Boomers.
People born between 1965 and 1979 are called Generation X.
And
People born between 1980 and 2010 are called Generation Y.

Why do we call the last group Generation Y?
Y should I get a job?
Y should I leave home and find my own place?
Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?
Y should I clean my room?
Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?
Y should I buy any food?
But a cartoonist explained it very eloquently below...


It's Really Not Your Fault Your Generation Is Classified as Stated Above,,,,, I think the above group of Gen. Y's are kids from wealthy or really well off families that gave the kids anything and every thing they could to keep the Kid Quite and to show off.
Don't get me wrong.
My grand kids are 20'ish and starting families and much like their parents, working two jobs and just making ends meet if at all.
I worked two jobs until I went into the Army.
Hang in there, Nov. 2012 is Coming and there will be a change!

I strongly believe that "INTENTION CREATES REALITY", therefore if you are saying and believing that you are poor... you will be stuck with it.

If you are saying " I am rich and will only get better , both materialistic and with a good heart".... than that is what is going to happen.

You are useless.

Useless to yourself and society as long as you have an attitude like that.
Quit whining and pick yourself up and do something about your life. I know it's easier for people to hand it to you but it is more satisfying if you do it yourself.

Even though I don't know you it is impossible to respect anyone who has such a defeatist attitude.

Good luck, Your going to need it with your outlook.

Your not poor because you are rich with knowledge and you will find your way, things like this happen for a reason and it's to make you strong and build character and when your children arrive you will show them that life is not all roses. If you look at it you are richer than most of the millionaires in the world today and that's what will set you apart and you will succeed.

Okay dude, OP, how old are you? I am 24, I was born in late 87 into an uneducated poor family. My father is illiterate and my mother quit high school all because she was told she couldn't do her "dream job." I grew up in pretty much your typically white trash family. My dad would come swinging with his leather belt and didn't care where it hit whenever he had a bad day at work, then I gt to go to school to be made fun of because of how poor and trashy my family was, I did get both verbally and physically harassed often. I followed in the path of many as a teen growing up in the environment that I had and made a lot of mistakes of my own.

My first child was born when I was 17 years old, my wife - girlfriend at the time- went through her last year of high school pregnant, and she wasn't one of those "I need to have a baby cause it's cool" type, so guess how much fun finishing high school pregnant was for her. I gt into far too much trouble in school so like my mother before me, I quit, the only difference is that I got my ged right after quitting and she still doesn't have one. I'm not looking for pity but suffering from borderline personality disorder didn't help much.

We lived in project housing for like 3 years til she got pregnant again - apparently the shot birth control got canceled out by some antibiotics, would have been nice if the doc gave a heads up about that - yeah I know, our mistake and I take responsibility for it, live and learn and all that. Well she had to quit work because of complications from pregnancy, I still couldn't find a job - we lost our place. Now I know what many are thinking. "You lived in the projects, how do you lose your place because you don't have a job.." Well simple answer for that; we're white. Now don't get me wrong here, I am in no way racist, but facts are facts, whites are expected to do better than blacks and hispanics in the poorer communities, especially those who aren't getting into trouble with the law. Anyway we got kicked out because we couldn't pay rent. Pregnant wife and kid went to live with her mom, I wasn't allowed there. It's been like 3 years now and we still haven't been able to find a place of our own, I have went here and there between time, currently stay with my mother in the projects she's living in.

Both my wife and I go to the local university, we just finished our 2nd year. She has over a 3.5 gpa and I have somewhere around a 3.0 which will hopefully be coming back up next year - failing Japanese class didn't help. I think I have decided to major in electrical engineering and aim for a minor in management, my wife is going for a business degree with possibly a minor in Japanese. We both grew up poor, she didn't grow up with as bad of a lifestyle as I did, but we both were poor. Now government assisted housing of any sort wont seem to allow us in because we are college student, even though we have two young children and are by all rights homeless. Its not like we desire to live in those places, but we want a damn place to be able to live under the same roof again.

We will each owe over 60k in student loans when we finish school. Now I don't know you but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you're life probably isn't quite as bad as mine. I suffer from borderline personality and major depression and have no money to see psychs and wouldn't take meds if I could afford them. My wife and I are both busting our @sses to move up in the world. And you know what. Not many at school want much to do with us, I mean we're a married couple, we have children, and the worst of it all we're poor. Oh and as a member of your generation I hear the same stuff, you know I'm from the entitlement gen and whatnot, Iv'e always had everything handed to me on a silver platter, I'm lazy. Well guess what, that is all just a load of crap, a bunch of idiots making excuses for their own insecurities.

Do you think I let that crap bring me down? Yeah, I have depression and sometimes it can get pretty bad and I feel like just saying f**k it and blowing my brains out the back of my head, but I don't, I keep pulling on that rope, one of these days I will get up there. So as a fellow gen Y that is certainly not one of those "entitlement" little B*t*h*s, the only thing I have to say to you is; Quit your b*t*h*n and do something about it. There are others who have had experiences much worse than your own in life, stop whining about your problems and come up with a solution, don't let the naysayers bring you down, they are just a bunch of monkeys that contributed to screwing up a country, who cares what they think...

reply to post by sirhumperdink

hummm...you have political skills.

reply to post by nagabonar


I know what you mean. I say I'm poor all the time but not to be that way..a wish fulfillment. Being older,
I know that your words do have power but also know the traps and scheme of things and that you can't
always get out there and do stuff..not without backup and/or transportation etc.. I have heard that the
successful person whatever that means often has foresight or can see the trends and acts upon that.
But again, you need help to start a new business such as cna service ( taking care of the infirmed )
or laundry or whatever. Know yourself, the law and your own tolerances and skills and likes. I believe
that is why many of us are not "successful" we are too laid back to do the work..mental or physical.
If we work for ourselves there are high risks of failure from the beginning.

Why adopt a label that is not clearly defined?

I keep hearing this "generation X/Y/Z" being thrown around like it means something, but in all my googling, no one can agree on what it means.....hell if you were born in the 90's it looks like you are all of the above.

so I say.....
- Be lazy, or be productive.
- Be a prude, or be promiscuous.
- Be rich, or be poor.
- Be scum, or maintain your integrity.
But don't blame others for your choices. Own them.


I personally do not care what anyone thinks or calls me, but then again, I did come from the "F*** you, I don't care" generation

reply to post by doomedtoday



You sound like a damned good person to me.. owning your mistakes and taking personal responsibility for your own success. Good on you!!

reply to post by Goldcurrent


I have 2 choices:

Pay my loans or pay some rent. I've been looking for another job for months and can't find anything. Do you get that? I either default on my loan or I am going to be homeless, and I cannot find a way to make more money.

It's bad when you're called spoiled and lazy because you're frustrated that you can't work.

reply to post by doomedtoday


My solution is to walk away. I'm not going to be homeless and paying student loans, and choosing to skip the loans will just bring about being declared in default and my life being ruined anyway.

I refuse to live with the constant hassle of debt collectors at work and home while my debt is ballooning out of control because I took a risk trying to better myself. Forget that.

If I can't even have enough slack to have a roof over my head, then I'm just not going to take responsibility for anything.

reply to post by mwood


I would love to do something with my life. Unfortunately, I'm about to be a hobo.

That's not a defeatist attitude. That's accepting the reality that I cannot make money appear out of nowhere and that the consequences of it will be severe.

Like I said, the older folks think I'm useless, stupid, and lazy. So I think I'll go be useless, stupid, and lazy outside of this abomination they call a society.

reply to post by dbarnhart


The difference between you and me is that you could actually find two part-time jobs in the first place.

If I could do that, I would be fine. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like it did even ten years ago.

Originally posted by AnIntellectualRedneck
reply to post by dbarnhart

 

The difference between you and me is that you could actually find two part-time jobs in the first place.

If I could do that, I would be fine. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like it did even ten years ago.

Youre right that the world doesnt work like that. In areas like mine.. we have an incredibly high unemployment rate, welfare/sec 8 "rate", and adults with college educations competing for what used to be kids summer fast food and mowing lawns openings. Our crime has gone through the roof. If you dont have an advanced degree in a specialized field, work for the feds or are enlisted.. youre one check away from homelessness here.
I think the time for extended family units and additional resource pooling amongst fam members and friends will be making a real comeback in the immediate future.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck

Have you made any effort to contact the appropriate people about the issue? If you have not, than shut up and go do so immediately.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck


Dude, what you need is a smack of reality to the face. With an attitude like this you will never be successful. The only thing you are currently doing is making our generation look bad. Yeah, sure, the world sucks right now, crying about it isn't going to change anything. Quit your whining and figure something out man. Then again, if you would rather be homeless, I have been by the way, it isn't as fun as it might be sounding right now, then just give up man, by doing so you are simply making a little more room for those of us who are actually willing to step up to the plate and accept true responsibility and all of the hassles that it may entail.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck


I'm a redneck and been through hard times too, however, I'm generation X. How you really measure a man is how that man comes out the other side of bad situations. It doesn't matter what gen. you're from. Don't listen to the negativity. Focus and become. Never lose determination because it's your friend here. You should try being a young redneck working in the middle of Washington, D.C. 23 years ago. Almost everyone was racist against me but I taught a lot of those people a lot of things. I think I changed a lot of minds and in the meantime I supported myself nicely. My dad, a coal miner, would say that if I couldn't find a job then that means I'm not looking hard enough and there is some truth in that. Nothing is going to come to you and fall in your lap. You have to get out there--out & about--and if you're not finding it where you are then look ahead to greener pastures. Hope this helps.

Okay, why is it that anytime someone has a supposed "solution" or proper attitude.. it usually ends up being trite platitudes such as "be a man", "step up to the plate", "get yourself in gear", "grab the bull by the horns". I hope people realize such fortune cookie-esque advice really isn't helpful at all.

I agree that self-defeatist attitudes don't work and don't accomplish anything. But neither does pop-psychology and inspirational cheerleading. They are equally uneffective. How about some real advice for us generation Y's that are really putting forth a solid effort.

By the way, I was told I was not qualified to work an entry-level position in a casino because I have never held that particular job before. How exactly do you prepare to handle a situation like that? How exactly can you get experience in a job that doesn't hire without previous experience (entry-level, folks). Now, I'm trying my best not to whine. But how do you react to stuff like that?

OP, God bless and good luck. From a kindred soul to another, I suspect. And turn on your filter for bad advice. This is ATS, after all.

Originally posted by orbitbaby
People are losing their jobs, homes and life savings faster than ever before. The cost of food,
gas and other necessities are skyrocketing. Who's fault is that? Hmm.....must be the OP's fault.

cost of food/necessities goes up because the entire monetary system is debt and required to pay back, business needed more and more profit just to survive in the future.. try search zeitgeist addendum video on youtube