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Cut the Zoomers some slack

Every generation loves to give the next one a hard time. Socrates famously called young people lazy, rude, and decadent, starting a tradition that continues to this day. Although these criticisms are sometimes true, elders rarely acknowledge the role they played in fostering conditions that led to spiritual and cultural decline.

Gen Z, or Zoomers, may seem foreign to older generations, but they face unique challenges that their elders could never imagine, let alone solve. Issues of identity, spirituality, family, and economics are shifting beneath the feet of this younger generation. Rather than despise Zoomers, the right should offer them leadership and solutions.

Conservatives should offer young people a future worth embracing, rather than ridiculing the world they inherited.

I'm not a zoomer. I am only a few years into the Millennial generation, while Gen Z is from 13 to 28 years old. Many of the problems zoomers face begin long before they are born.

When young people complain about job prospects or financial security, the standard response is to work more and “pull yourself up by your own efforts.” On a personal level, this advice is sound. No matter how dire the situation, effort and attitude remain personal choices. However, at a societal level, this attitude can have dire consequences. As a nation, we have a responsibility to foster an environment in which young people can succeed, start families, and invest in a bright future for their children.

When the baby boomer generation came of age, America was full of opportunities. Most jobs didn't require a college degree, and store managers could build a home and support a family on one paycheck. My grandparents still tell stories about how they paid for college by working part-time and taking extra shifts in the summer. Starter houses exist in decent areas, and tuition fees are often less than a year at many modern universities. Most importantly, the majority of children came from healthy families that modeled stability, and parents felt an obligation to pass on wealth and opportunity to their children.

At age 14, I rode my bike to my first job on the local subway. I believe that getting a menial job as a teenager is an important rite of passage that teaches humility and the ability to connect with average people. However, most of the employees were high school students, and all the managers and section managers were adults with no ambitions. There were no people there who could just make sandwiches and pay for college, let alone buy a house or support a family.

Today, many entry-level positions that would provide much-needed work experience are given to undocumented immigrants who are willing to work for lower wages without similar work restrictions. Meanwhile, while Zoomers hear that college is a gateway to the middle class, many white men quickly discover that they don't meet the diversity requirements. Those who get into college simply pay tuition fees that can exceed the down payment on a house and land the accounting jobs their parents once secured through apprenticeships.

After graduation, many find that jobs that have not yet been sent overseas are given to foreign workers brought in on H-1B visas. The path to financial security that their parents once took seems increasingly out of reach.

For Zoomer, love and marriage seem bleak. They often come from broken homes and have few positive examples of healthy relationships. Churches, once essential for providing moral guidance, meeting potential spouses, and helping couples overcome marital conflicts, have been abandoned. Instead, young people turn to dating apps, which have a low chance of success and are considered degrading. Young women are hesitant to start a family because they are saddled with college debt to secure a job and cannot rely solely on their husband's income.

Once upon a time, the American Dream revolved around becoming middle class. Middle-class status meant independence rather than a fixed salary. Wage workers depended on their employers for their daily survival. They were usually renters, had little security, and lived paycheck to paycheck. Aiming to join the middle class meant freeing oneself and one's children from dependence on the system.

Middle-class families owned their own homes, their own cars, and often small businesses. The capital they acquired went toward investing, saving for retirement, and creating new opportunities for their children. Civic associations, fraternities, guilds, clubs, and churches formed a network of social organizations that kept government small while communities flourished. This leisure and the excess capital of the middle class fostered institutions that liberated generations of Americans from dependence on corporations and government.

Today, the American middle class has become proletarianized. Mortgage terms range from 15 to 30 years, and are for those lucky enough to be able to purchase a home in a market where costs continue to rise. Car loans are also becoming longer term, with many consumers choosing to lease rather than own. Health care, education, housing, and food have all experienced runaway inflation, while wages have not kept up. Even with two college-educated parents, they often have to work long hours in jobs that compete with foreign workers just to build a home and raise a child or two. These children are often cared for by strangers and educated by the state. For most workers, “middle class” now means being able to afford both Netflix and Hulu, not a path to prosperity and independence.

Zoomers are neither inherently entitled nor lazy. They were born into a culture that destroyed many key social institutions in order to boost abstract metrics like GDP. Previous generations forgot that economic growth is about improving people's lives, not just inflating earnings reports. Destroying faith, family, and community for profit invites cynicism among young people who see fewer paths to success.

This does not absolve zoomers of personal responsibility, but rather than ridicule them, conservatives should encourage them. Opportunities still exist, but both illegal and legal immigration must be reduced so that Americans can access these jobs. Universities’ monopoly on qualifications must end, and DEI mandates in schools and workplaces must be punished to the strictest legal standards. Conservatives who claim to protect “family values” need to help rebuild local institutions that allow families to thrive and mentor the next generation of leaders. They should offer young people a future worth embracing, rather than ridiculing the world they have inherited.

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