Work for your own future

Gen-Yers say they are willing to make financial sacrifices to make the world a better place. How very ‘generous’ of you. How long can you really expect to work less, volunteer more--and count on your aging parents to push back their retirement?

Too many twenty-somethings are still living with Mom and Dad. Too many twenty-somethings think they can just quit their jobs because they are not having fun. Too many parents have instilled in their children that ‘you can be anything you want to be’ without instilling in them the fact that they have to actually work for it.

In a study released this summer, global employment agency Manpower found that across the developed world, under-30s would overwhelmingly rather "pursue their passions" than "make lots of money," with 73 percent of young Spaniards and two-thirds of Americans and Canadians backing that statement.

I think it is necessary for every person to pursue their passion, and I certainly do not advocate the very unhealthy, stroke-inducing, all-out drive to earn as much money as you can before you die mantra. You don’t have to push yourselves into an early grave to earn more than anyone else. What I am saying is get out there and earn something for your future. Earn enough for the basics and a little extra for vacations and, if you like, for charities. But for God’s sake put some in savings and stop living off of your parents. They are trying to survive too. They have worked long and hard for it and now that you are old enough to support yourselves they should spend it on themselves.

The main thing that these twenty-somethings have failed to realize is that inevitably they will be too old to work and they will need a ‘nest egg’ to help them survive because Mom and Dad are not going to always be there for them.

Another thing, it is very selfish for these twenty-somethings to drain Mom and Dad’s retirement savings because they don’t like their jobs. Well guess what, Mom and Dad most likely did not ‘like’ their jobs either but they had the work-ethic to stay with the job because they also were very aware that they alone would have to support themselves when they retire.

Now, that work-ethic is disappearing, or maybe it is being put off until later, I don’t know, but one thing I do know, the less you work the less money you have for retirement.

The Social Security Administration was created by the government because people were not saving enough money to fund their retirement. Now we are reverting back to that same inability to support ourselves in retirement due to lack of savings.

Why do you twenty-somethings think you don’t need to work towards a financially secure future of your own? Here is how the Social Security system is set up to work: Mom and Dad’s income feeds the fund with the promise of supporting them in their retirement. That money went to help fund their parents generation so they could retire. Your income goes to support your parents retirement. When you don’t work you are not putting anything into that fund and therefore your parents are not going to have any money for their retirement. This is extremely selfish of you. But you go ahead and have your fun, just keep putting off the inevitable collapse of your dream world until the day you suddenly realize you have no income because your ATM, your mom and dad, have passed on, or, more appropriately, spent it on themselves.

How much ‘fun’ is life going to be then?

Where is the stigma that used to drive ‘adults’ out from under their parents roof? Why has it become acceptable for ‘adults’ to continue to live with their parents and be supported by their parents long after they have reached the traditional age of maturity? Why has it become acceptable for you to continue to go out and play instead of work for your own future?

This may come as a shock to you but trust me when I say that your parents, who have worked steadily at their jobs (jobs that they did not always find ‘fun’) so they could afford vacations from that ‘boring’ job and so they could afford to retire in some relative comfort, was not planning on supporting you for the rest of their lives. And now that you are ‘forcing’ them to do so by not pulling your own weight, you are sucking them dry of every dream they have worked for. Can you not see that this must be a very difficult and depressing realization for them, that their hopes of retiring have gone away because you are too self-involved and narcissistic to support yourself?

What are you going to do when your world comes crashing down around your ears because you did not get that big inheritance from your parents when they die? What are you going to do when you find out that the family house that you thought was going to support you has been heavily mortgaged to help support you while your parents were alive because you refused to grow up?

Your parents likely feel an embarrassment that they did not do a good enough job at raising you to be an asset to this society instead of the money-pit you have become. Since they love you they will continue to sacrifice to help you, even when they know there is no prospect of you helping them, because how can you, you have not been earning any money to support yourself, how are you going to help your parents when they need it? Deep inside, they feel a resentment towards you for not taking it upon yourselves to support yourself and they also feel a disappointment in themselves for not being strong enough to teach you the importance of a good work ethic.

Parents who give their kids everything are not doing their kids any favors. In fact they are prolonging one of lifes most important lessons. That lesson being that the only way a person appreciates what they have is if they have to earn it for themselves with their own blood and sweat.

In May, Britain's HSBC banking group released a global study on the future of retirement, which found that in nearly all of the 21 countries they studied, senior citizens--those who in times past would have been cared for by their grown children--gave more money to their offspring than they received. What are they going to retire on? What is their prospect of earnings when they are too old for work?

This country, as a whole, does not respect their elders. This country does not respect to the wisdom of age. This country would rather hire young people and let the elders fend for themselves. And if the young aren’t going to help support them then their future is pretty dismal.

Is any of this getting through to you selfish, lazy, narcissistic heathens? Sure, most of the blame begins with your parents for not instilling in you a strong work ethic. Sure you could blame a lack of ‘fun’ jobs to keep your interest. Sure you could again blame your parents for always giving you what you want instead making you work for it. But, sooner or later, you are going to have to realize that your future is your own responsibility, not your parents, and not anyone else’s.

Have American workers lost their pride?

Recently a Chinese co-owner of Cheung Shu-hung, the company that exported toys that were recalled in the U.S. due to lead paint, committed suicide. The reason for his decision to take his life was based on the responsibility he felt he carried in bringing embarrassment to the Chinese government over this latest recall.

Truly, this man took his responsibility in this embarrassment very deeply.

This is something that American workers cannot possibly understand.

American business owners don’t take their responsibility seriously enough to consider such as rash action.

This would require things like ‘pride in workmanship’ and ‘pride in a job well-done’.

These noble ideas have become foreign to the American worker.

The American worker only cares about showing up for work for the sole purpose of collecting a paycheck. And there are a lot of those who scheme ways of collecting that paycheck without putting forth any effort at working for it. And all the while complaining that they aren’t paid enough.

They only perform their job duties to the point that it keeps the boss off their back. Nobody goes the ‘extra mile’ to produce a better quality product, except maybe the ‘new guy’ and then he is laughed at and soon ‘falls in step’ with the rest of the work force.

Everyone of you out there knows this is true. You have either participated in it or have witnessed it.

So when American companies make the decision to move overseas for a cheaper work force, think back on what you could have done to make them think a little harder about that decision. Maybe they would have stayed if they didn’t have to pay you so much to do such little work of such poor quality.

When is the last time you put in a solid eight hour work shift and truly felt you earned that money? Actually, it is unfair to ask any individual this question because I would most certainly be lied to. Let’s ask the question this way, look around you, how many people can you honestly say really work for their income?

I worked in this job market for over thirty years and I am not exaggerating when I say that clearly less than 20 percent of the number of American workers actually put themselves into their job based on pride toward the final product.

This is to say that very few Americans meet their employers expectations to ensure the final product is up to standard.

Most people will look at their job as something they have to do in order to collect money. It is nothing more than a nuisance. There is no pride in what they do and the end result shows it.

This is why our ‘quality of workmanship’ is falling behind the rest of the world. The quality of ‘American made’ is based on an idea that died decades ago.

American workers today just don’t care about quality.

The phrase ‘they don’t make them like that anymore’ is sadly true.

The phrase is very apt because it is based entirely on quality.

The quality of workmanship given to preparing the raw materials, the quality of workmanship given to the final product just isn’t there anymore.

When you see advertisers use this ‘gimmick’ to sell a product, everyone sees through it immediately as BS.

When you walk into any store or any restaurant and try to find someone to help you who actually acts like or looks like they want to help you will be in for a long and fruitless search. Hell, just try to find someone to help you, period! Those people that genuinely do try to help are few and far between.

There are many reasons for this lack of pride and they are all based in selfishness. Nobody wants to work harder than the next guy and get the same paycheck. Nobody wants to stand out as an ‘over-achiever’ which has somehow been twisted into being a bad thing. Nobody wants to look outside themselves at the bigger picture and take that extra step to ensure a job well done. Mainly because there are too many low-lifes ready to backstab you and take credit of your extra hard work.

The end result of this selfishness is that nobody does go beyond, nobody shows any real effort to do it right the first time. Therefore, quality and pride suffers.

Suicide because you brought shame and embarrassment to the U.S. government? Not going to happen in America.

What the U.S. is being left with when all of these manufacturing jobs move overseas is the service industry. God help us because American workers are not ‘into’ serving anyone. They think everyone should serve them.

We need to wake up and practice humility. We need to stop trying to convince ourselves that we are better than everyone else. We need to treat others as we want them to treat us otherwise there can be no respect and therefore there can be no pride.