Is it just me or are young adults under the age of 25 just plain lazy?

Not all Millennials. If so, Parents get what they deserve for not teaching them different and allowing it.

 

I applaud you for helping your teen succeed in school. I truly hope he succeeds in every way.

that said, I’m an employer, and high achievement in school does NOT equate to successful employees. As a matter of fact, my worst hire (and I’ve had a few doozys), was a 4.0 student and a state track champion. He really thought work was about sitting around and talking about it.

Research shows that the earlier the kids are required to do chores at home, the more successful they will be in life. Academics are great, but WORK is a skill that ALSO needs to be taught.

see for example the results of the Harvard Grant longitudinal study:

Kids Who Do Chores Are More Successful Adults

or this TED talk by the former dean of students at Stanford:

 

I think crappy jobs build character. I honestly believe everyone should be required to clean a public restroom at least once. Lol. Good motivation. I look back at some of the tough jobs I had in my youth. Makes me grateful for my current Occupation.

 

I agree chores are important holding a child to commitments is important. Having a child enter the workforce is completely different.
This is a little off topic now but for the past several years there has been an attack on higher education. These 2 charts tell a different story.

 

Can’t sleep if you are not tired

Also don’t do this for fun, so getting paid is important, especially if I am owed money….

 

I dont need to switch words, I would NEVER say that about anybody based in color, gender etc, your argument is apples and oranges.
And I didnt say millennial, just kids in general, and I dont blame them, they just were not taught responsibility or work ethic. And, as always, there are the exceptions.

 

I had 0lenty of time to work, lots of doctors lawyers scientists etc etc, WORKED while they were in school. They had to. MANY emigrants come to Canada and the US and work their butts off at the local super market, fast food etc etc and put themselves thru university. Seems they are the only students that want to work.
A part time weekend or a couple nights a week job will NEVER hurt a student, and, as per the information in my previous post, it will help them.

 

Service industry. The worst day of truckin is still better than being a waiter for a room chocked full of fat morons. Don’t let a waitress be cute. On one end, she has to deal with that cheap non tipping buzzard who smells like sour arse, yet is trying to flirt. And on the other end of the spectrum, she has to be nice to some ugly broad who makes it her mission in life to make a pretty girl’s life just as unhappy as hers.

Ive done the janitorial gig. I didn’t have to speak to any of those leaky short hosed bastiches that couldn’t help pissing on the floor and down the fronts of their trousers.” And for that, I could tolerate the job.

 

I'm NOT anti education. I have a master's degree, and I believe it was a good investment, for me.

I do NOT agree that there has been an attack on higher education. There has been an attack at the (Boomer) notion that any education is good, and should be pursued. That is just nonsense. There are good reasons to get an education, from personal development to increasing earning potential.

The other side of that coin is that for SOME majors, there is ZERO return on the investment of either time, or money. Become a journalism major, an archology major or an art history major..... and you will simply NEVER make the money back you paid for the education. Become a mechanical engineer or a logistics major, and the return will be very substantial.

In my line of work, I can hire master's level wildlife biiologists for about $10K per year more than McDonalds pays a shift manager. In my business, the highest paid employee (and it's not even close) is the truck driver -- and I have master's degreed folks with 10 years experience on staff.

Now, the same thing is true for people without higher education. A journeyman electrician will make good money, as will a diesel mechanic, a plumber, or even a car salesman. The poor sap cutting up chickens all day, not so much.

My point being that looking at the AVERAGE of income is relatively meaningless. You can only truly compare the options for an individual. Is a young person starting out better off running team truck for seven years, living in the truck, and coming out of the experience with $700K in the bank at age 28, or is the better choice to have essentially no income, and no life, until age 28, and be $300K in debt with an MD? No one can make that choice except the person faced with that choice, based on the way they want to live THEIR life.

But imagine a young couple teaming for six years at the start of their marriage, and living in the truck. By age 30, they'd have well over a million dollars in the bank, and they could do whatever the -blank- they want for the rest of their life. Not a choice everyone would make, but neither is going $300K into debt and doing 80 hrs a week during residency for med school for very little pay. It IS an illustration that higher education is not the only way, nor even necessarily the BEST way for someone to succeed in life.

 

Coming from fifteen years in the oilfield, the vast majority of "kids" were younger than me. (I'm 40) Great group of guys that were never afraid to bust their butts. You can find laziness everywhere, if you go looking for it.

They say the next generation is going to be the one that ruins the country. Thing is, the people in question aren't the guys that are going to be running it. Those guys are currently burning the midnight oil at Harvard.