Marc Danziger met one girl in an elevator in NYC. That doesn't qualify him to disparage an entire generation. What an ass!

I think Marc Danziger gets out a bit more than you think. He has a kid in this generation, FYI.

Have you not heard of helicopter parenting? This generation is rife with the effects of it.

> Literally was bumped into by a young woman getting on the elevato

I hope she didn't invite him back to her room for coffee. That would have been evidence that she was a rapist.

Well, there's always prostitution.

That would have been evidence that she was a rapist.

Hah. Love that.

Well, there's always prostitution.

I was thinking the same thing. But I doubt she'd be good at it, otherwise she would have several living arrangements to choose from.

Note the "JOB" in "blow job."

I think they should be labors of love... ;-)

I'm betting she was a prostitute and trying to sob story him into a trick.

Even back in '95 when I graduated from college it wad well known that any decent job required either an engineering or an advanced degree. Why is this shocking news now?

Then parents wonder why their adult kids live at home! Amazing! When did this start? What regions/demographics are more prone to this?

Few pursue S.T.E.M. careers. Are high school & college counselors just collecting paychecks?!

Being a hipster is hard.

When did this start?

With saftey enhanced playgrounds, requiring meeting the arent half a dozen times before your kids could even play together in public, when parent stated mircomanaging ever fact and oment of their child life.

The thing helicopter parents fail to realize until it is far too late is, if you spend everyday over 18yrs ording your kids in every single activity from brushing their teeth to wiping the ass they aint going to at the moment they urn 18 become magically endowed with self reliance and the ability to think for and fend or themselves

I'm from this generation. I'm 27. I would say that about 1/3 of my acquaintances are like this gal. Not exaggerating.

I'm not criticizing those who move home to save money. That can actually be a smart move. And I'm not criticizing those with liberal arts degrees -- if you're able to live lean on a small salary, go for it!

But I know a lot of people who are in their mid to late 20s whose parents are paying for them to do unpaid internships in expensive cities for years at a time. These parents honestly think that this is what needs to be done to help their kids get a "leg-up" and land their "dream job" or whatever.

I know one 25-year-old who went to art school in Europe and has never had even a part-time job. Her parents are now SHOCKED that employers state-side are not desperately trying to hire her. They are paying her bills while she lives it up in NY "searching for a job."

I know another who, at 27, got her first job in DC. It pays less than $30,000 per year. Her parents are paying her $2,500/month rent because it's important to them that she lives in a "safe area."

Parents are entitled to spend as much on their offspring as they want. I'm more worried about the offspring and what they'll do when they're not being supported.

Lujlp: I couldn't agree more. Some homeschooling parents are particularly rife with this behavior and I find it blackly comical that they don't realize how badly they are crippling some aspects of how their children will be able to cope with the stresses of everyday life.

Valiant,

You don't know enough home schoolers. My 11 year old can cook spaghetti and meat balls, brownies and a whole host of other things. My just about to be 17 year old and her 15 year old brother.. Lord have mercy I could abandon them here for weeks and they would be just fine. My kids are scrambling their own eggs by the time they are 7. Thats the thing about not spending from 5 in the morning till 4:30 in the afternoon either waiting for, sitting in or leaving a government institution. You have all day to cook, clean do work, research and enjoy your day. I personally believe regular schools are cubicle training. I have chosen to not submit my children to that.

If you know homeschoolers who are not teaching their kids how to live when they leave home then they are doing it wrong.

I'm not so sure it's a generational thing.. I just turned 26, and have worked straight out of college, owned a home for a little over two years, am saving for retirement, and paying more on the mortgage than I need to so it's paid off early (save on that interest). Several of my friends are in the same position. In fact, only one of my friends is still in college, and would fall into this category of not knowing what responsibility is. I think it's a matter of how you're raised.

My husband works for a financing business, and he sees people of all ages just plain not paying on their loans and other bills, and living like they've never had a plan or a budget in their lives.

I have to agree about the degree thing though.. I think younger generations are urged to spend too much money on schooling that does absolute jack shit for them. I know I could do my job without the college degree I have. The problem is that most employers won't even look at you unless you've got one, and when you spend four years in college, it's hard to gain the "experience" that people want you to have on top of the education. It is different from what people tell you, that's for sure, but that doesn't mean you have an excuse to leech off of others, or that your dream job is going to fall into your lap if you just wait for it!

This is one of my fave topics to talk about, because I'm also from this generation (like sofar & Angie) and I'll warn you that my post is lengthy.

>>"Are high school & college counselors just collecting paychecks?!"

To put it bluntly, yes. I went and saw those much-vaunted counselors multiple times to get some ideas on what I could do when I got out of college. On how I could use my degree to open doors, or how to look for jobs or what my degree qualified me for. I can tell you that the usual response was to give me a book entitled "What Jobs are there for English Majors" or told that I could go into journalism or teaching. No thanks, I would say, I don't like journalism and I would make a shitty teacher (I don't have the patience to deal with their parents and the red tape). When I finally settled on becoming a librarian, the counselor couldn't even tell me how to pursue that goal. This - from a CAREER counselor!

>>"I have to agree about the degree thing though.. I think younger generations are urged to spend too much money on schooling that does absolute jack shit for them."

Amen! This comes from a couple of things. Our parents' generation thought that college was everything. I know that my parents thought that college basically guaranteed me a solid job. That through the miracle of having a degree, jobs would simply appear through the ether. When I was in my junior & senior years, desperately trying to figure out what to do now that I was coming to the end of my schooling, my parents were no help. And my high school teachers only reinforced that belief.

It also stems from the bit Amy was blogging about a couple of days ago, on requiring ridiculous amounts of training to do a job that could be just as easily learned on the job. An official librarian needs a Masters Degree. Amazingly, I do the exact same job with a Bachelors. My volunteer, who is only in her second year of college, has learned to do most of the tasks that I do. If she did it every day, instead of merely every other week , she'd be just as adept as I am. And yet, I can't earn the same salary as some of my coworkers cuz I'm not willing to fork over a huge amount of dough for grad school to do the *exact same* work as them. The other day I was nosing around looking at secretarial work, and some places required Certification for that!

Sofar also mentioned how many of her peers fit the image of the girl in the blog post. Most of my peers are in the same spectrum. They work retail, and can't figure out how to break out of it. They're all grateful to have jobs (even those that live with their parents, still), but they know they can't work for $8-10 an hour forever. But they don't know what else to do.

Sorry for the long post, like I said, it's a pet peeve of mine.

Notice this difference?

When a laborer is singing about "Ah owe mah soul to the company sto'!" - it's about robber barons and sweatshops and indentured servitude.

But when it's a "loan", to get an "education" and "certification" to "protect the public", no expense is too great.

You don't have to be illiterate to get taken.