Where Have All the Grown-ups Gone?
The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming of Age Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-reliance, by Ben Sasse, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017, 306 pages, hardcover.
While growing up, I often heard the older generations complain about “kids these days.” Now as I enter my late 30s, I find myself doing the same thing. Only this time, it seems like more than just a criticism of different tastes in music, clothing, and hairstyles. Something seems really wrong with the young generation of Americans, the “millennials” and those currently in high school or college. I hear people my age and older complain about the young people’s lack of work ethic, their sense of entitlement, their almost nonexistent critical thinking skills, and their very superficial values. Case in point about the apparent lack of work ethic: I work a part-time job on Saturdays at a small health-food store in town. This summer, two employees, one 19 and one 18, were complaining about working full time over the summer doing fairly easy physical labor, and remarking on how tired they were and how they didn’t have any free time. Both are healthy, athletic, and good students, and come from middle-class/upper middle-class families and have parents with good jobs and strong work ethics. When I asked how they could be tired at their age, they said I sounded like their parents.
Now don’t get me wrong; these are both good kids and I like them both. But seriously, most people my age and older can remember working as many hours as we could (overtime was great) at that age, to make as much money as possible, especially as college students.
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