I liked it better when we were Gen Y, that was a thing right? I just try to draw comparisons to my parents and siblings that are 20 years older than me (32 atm) and find most of my/generational gripes can be reduced to 4 things:
1. Jobs were mostly abundant - I have 15 years experience in Pharmacy with the same chain and had to bust my ass to get my Pharmacist job. There are just too many well qualified employees that you have to outshine everyone. My siblings, albeit hard workers, had little difficulty finding jobs in the 90s and could bounce between them at a whim depending on what they wanted to be paid. Now they're all stuck at their jobs for fear of losing them, because they understand the marketplace is crap.
I know many people that haven't found positions after getting a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, but that's probably due to over saturation of the market. I think it's just common belief among Millennials that its very difficult to find a job that pays well enough to live off of. Maybe our lifestyles are too lavish? (iPhones, Cars etc.) - I don't know.
2. Housing was inexpensive. My parents bought their first house many years ago when neither had colleges degrees or high paying jobs. My older siblings all purchased houses before 30 with jobs that pay far less than mine. I can barely afford a **** apartment in NH on a six figure salary with student loans and saving for retirement.
3. Schooling cost is a joke. Because my father eventually earned a lot of money I was ineligible for most student assistance sans loans and scholarships. No familial help meant a high debt burden that I'll have to have for the next 20-30 years. 45k-60k a year for 6 years while my choice might have been the worst decision of my life. When I look at my siblings they're educational costs are a fraction of what I paid in a year of my education. The high cost of education must be directly tied with the ease to get loans. If it's easy to get loans then colleges will raise tuition, its a feedback loop. The bubble will burst soon, and it's going to be scary for our economy. I have a BS and a PharmD and owe ~450k.
4. Healthcare is nice to have but I would have rather rolled the dice than pay what I did during school. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act the cost of health care for students doubled at my university putting a massive burden on my wallet. While not the perfect picture of health I would have rather gone without it and rolled the dice or had just catastrophic coverage. My deductibles were so high that it made it useless to bother going to a PCP or have any work done unless I wanted to go to the university's NP, who provided the most basic of care for free. The way health insurance is setup right now is a tax on the young and healthy. It makes sense but the burden is very high. I don't think there is a simple answer to fix the situation, there are just so many elderly boomers to support in the system and given the de novo therapies present it raises healthcare costs to a astronomically high level. With that said I'd rather have these people alive and cost more than dead. Yes, I'm human.
5. The costs of everything has risen higher than inflation. This should be self explanatory and puts greater burden on newer generations not just mine.
With all these gripes it just puts more emphasis on having to stand out. I wasn't the best student growing up and had to bust my ass to earn my doctorate, job and life today. I think that is lost on many in my generation (all generations have them) but they certainly have gripes that are worth listening to.
Now let me get back to my snowflake life of listening to baby boomers complain that they NEED the brand name of a medication because it works better, regardless of what numerous studies state.
