Sucks-To-Be-Spoiled is More Like It

As a fellow "twentysomething", I'm not typically one to rain on our parade, yet I am inclined to agree with twenty-plus writer Daniel Gross in his recent critique, The It-Sucks-To-Be-Me Generation:Twentysomethings who can't stop whining about how the economy is screwing them. The article reviews two new books about why 20-30-year-olds in America are facing unprecedented economic disadvantages and how they deal with the angst and woe those disadvantages inevitably create. As the unsympatheric Gross writes here:

...twentysomethings, by contrast, have their whole lives in front of them. Want a cheaper house? Quit Manhattan and move to Hartford, Conn. Want to make more money? Pick a different field.

In Kamenetz's book, there are plenty of poor, self-pitying upper-middle-class types, disappointed that they can't have exactly what they want when they want it. Sure, it's tough to live well as a violinist or a grad student in New York today; but the same thing held 20 years ago, and 40 years ago. To improve their lot, twentysomethings have to do the same things their parents should be doing: saving more, spending less, building skills that are marketable, and aligning aspirations with abilities. It's tough to have a bourgeois life at 26.

It sounds heartless to admit, but I endorse Mr. Gross's assessment. There are certainly economic difficulties and challenges to being young, no doubt. However, I think the far greater challenge for up-and-comers lies in how we equip those of us who are well-trained in the art of instant gratification for the lifelong endeavor of building sustainable and fulfilling lives.

The reality this article (and presumably the books) fail to explore are the incredible opportunities that are uniquely available to our generation, particularly for women who have the greatest access to education and professional advancement than in any generation prior. I learned a long time ago that ingratitude is the root of envy, so rather than dwelling on all the things that are out-of-reach in our immediate twentysomething futures, I think we'd best embrace the opportunities at our fingertips and leave the economic conspiracy theories to the fogies.