The Sound and the Fury Over the Millennials

“I suppose that people, using themselves and each other so much by words, are at least consistent in attributing wisdom to a still tongue...”- William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

Over the last year, the media seems to have been collectively obsessed with the plight of young workers.  When I say, "collectively obsessed," I mean mostly gawking and pontificating about the merits of hard work.  Here's one particularly horrifying story about student loan debt. I had remembered reading that story a few months ago, but to find it again, when I searched, I had to use Fark.com, which is mostly a commentary website, to find it (and they didn't have good things to say).  The internet is simply littered with other examples.

However, for this past May (coincidentally around graduation), it came to a fever pitch.  Joel Stein (who I normally respect) wrote an article in Time the now in-famous, "Me Me Me Generation" article.  In it, he details in the very beginning about the incidence rate of narcissistic personality disorder among Millennials being three times higher than in adults age 65 or older.  This begins the long number of exhibits Stein pulls out to illustrate his ultimate point: Millennials are self-adsorbed, narcissistic and, perhaps most offensively to prior generations, entitled.  Granted, there is some discussion about how "we'll save everyone," but frankly, it's a systematic assault on the entire generation.

There have been some attempts among my cohorts (yes, I am a Millennial) to defend our generation.  The Nation posted one such response, which was just dripping with sarcasm.  A more measured one from PolicyMic can be found here, though it focuses on more of a defense of the things Stein points out.  Then, one of the publications I read somewhat regularly, Public Management, ran a commentary by Garin Giacomarro, an Economic Development Coordinator from Texas and fellow Millennial, on how to work with Millennials.  As the Whispers once sang, "And the Beat Goes On..."

I'm not here today to launch a polemic attack on Stein or the number of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who believe what he has to say.  I'm here to suggest that this is all one great sound and fury over nothing.  Socrates famously said:

"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

 To which Joel Stein responded:

"I am about to do what old people have done throughout history: call those younger than me lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow. But I have studies! I have statistics! I have quotes from respected academics! Unlike my parents, my grandparents and my great-grandparents, I have proof."

To which I now posit a great Homer Simpson quote:

"Aw, you can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to say it: you were once Millennials.  You once had no idea what you were going to do after college or what a reasonable starting salary was.  You once longed for flexibility in the work schedule to do what you wanted to do.  You once slept in until 11 a.m. on the weekends (I no longer do, but I remember back in the day).  Your "good, old days" are actually your, "bad, young days."  You can claim that you understand that productivity was the point of work and not pursuing your passions, but hindsight is always 20/20.

Now, to my fellow Millennials, I am going to say that the older generations are right.  The point of work is to be productive (you can pursue your passions on the side).  Yes, sleeping in until 11 a.m. is a bad thing (but can be done once in awhile like all things in moderation).  Yes, job hopping is bad, but if you feel that your job isn't secure, by all means, I'd encourage you to look for another.  Yes, do show up to work on time.  However, don't let anyone get you down by telling you you're too young.

So, I now ask everyone in this conversation - what are we fighting about?  This is artificial divide is all nothing but sound and fury over age old divisions, all of which repeats itself over and over.  And the beat goes on.

Detroit: Cautionary Tale

I doubt anybody missed the news this week about Detroit.  Or the subsequent protests from city employees and pensioners. Or how a Michigan state judge has since blocked the city's attempt to file for bankruptcy.  And, just for good measure, everybody and their mom's dog's opinion on why Detroit got into this mess in the first place.

In short, it was a bad week for Detroit and just about everybody there.

As Jared Bernstein said, "It’s obviously been a long way down for Detroit."  There's an understatement.  Detroit, in recent years, has been more of the proverbial snowball, rolling down a hill and rapidly collecting and compounding problems, than falling straight done to a hard landing.  The warning signs were there, and Detroit responded, but it was too little too late.

Detroit was a perfect storm of bad things.  With a largely homogenous industrial base, a rough reputation and housing stock that is particularly susceptible to price swings, it comes as no surprise that Detroit's tax base shrunk with gusto when the economy first started to shake.  Without that foundation, Detroit faced massive revenue shortfalls and with already substantial debt and pension costs. The whole house of cards came down pretty quickly as Detroit had few safeguards in place.  And here we are. 

Of course, that's only the local view.  Others can point to globalization, which hurt Detroit's major economic players.  As that occurred, the housing bubble compounded the problem.  Perhaps it's all a matter of perception about exactly whose fault it is.

However, I think this is a clearly cautionary tale to the rest of us and our communities.  Some clear lessons which we should take to heart:

1. Diversify: Detroit flew high when American autos corporations were kings.  When they fell, Detroit fell even harder.  Further damage came from the fact that Detroit wasn't just housing the auto corps but all their supply chains.  Once upon a time, keeping all the supply chains close was a smart philosophy for everybody, but those days are gone.
2. Manage Your Reputation: Detroit has long had a rough image.  Even native Detroit metro inhabitants admit this.  Of course, this has a subtle but still powerful impact on where businesses and individuals want to locate.  Detroit or Chicago? Detroit or Houston? These are generally not hard decisions.  Businesses can be incentivized, but individuals not as easily.  Keeping ahead of our reputations is an important part of keeping a vibrant community.
3. Plan Ahead: I'm not sure to what extent Detroit officials knew how bad this situation could become.  Nate Silver argues in his new book The Signal and the Noise that economists themselves had significant difficulty predicting the 2008 recession.  However, it's obvious to us now that we have to at least consider the worse case scenario and plan accordingly and install safeguards.
4. Obligations and Liabilities Need Proper Consideration by All Parties: Many are quick to blame pensions for Detroit's problems.  Pensions are one of many institutional factors that contributed to the situation.  To some extent, Detroit may have been able to control its pension liabilities - I'm not exactly an expert on pension law in Michigan.  However, in many states, it's up to the State Legislature to define pension benefits, which accordingly drive pension costs and contributions.  Communities must be vigilant in educating their elected representatives about pensions, how they function and their costs.
5. Federal Policy Matters: It's commonly said that local government has the most impact on the lives of residents.  That's true, but what's not as commonly understood is how federal law ultimately impacts local government.  In the case of Detroit, globalization is obviously a key factor in the problems which lead to the bankruptcy as major economic players struggled.  We often watch our State legislatures - we should be constantly watching Capital Hill as well and predicting its impact on us.

 So what say you, readers? What else can we learn from Detroit?