Last week I attended Web Summit, Europe’s largest tech conference. This was the first year they summoned in Lisbon, Portugal having been in Dublin the years prior. The conference brings together over 50,000 attendees, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, globally renowned thought leaders and tech magnates as...
Last week I spoke at a conference in Madrid called “No Money”. It was hosted by Spain’s leading newspaper El Pais and was literally about the transition to a cashless society. Foregoing cash in the near future is no far-fetched idea since entire countries are...
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="441"] Source: Wikimedia[/caption] 45 % of today's jobs will disappear by 2035. Sure, job titles have come and gone over the centuries as we progress technologically, but this time we're dealing with an entirely new animal. Computers are starting to replace us in jobs...
[caption id="attachment_2582" align="alignright" width="296"] The Great Depression - the last time life was particularly tough for poor families[/caption] Our youngest generation, the Homelanders is defined by the Great Recession. According to generational expert Neil Howe, this was the pivotal historic moment that allowed one generational archetype to be...
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at Free Digital Photos[/caption]
According to psychologists who measure things like high rates of materialism, narcissism, the millennials have grown into adulthood with some serious personality problems which the baby boomers lacked. The entire nation is worrying about the present financial condition and the steps that the generations need to take in order to keep debts at bay. The analysts see a clash between the baby boomers and the young generation in accordance with the way they handle their finances and this is what is leading to a huge gap between the two aforementioned generations. While the current seniors are still in the process of learning how to handle their finances, the young generation is already suffering due to the wrong steps taken by them. The younger generation seems to be stressed over debt, thereby making savings a distant dream. The concerns of this article will deal with the different financial problems faced by the seniors and the young and the message that the seniors would love to pass on the young adults to save the economy from crushing.
Most personal insolvencies these days are caused by expenses related to the two service industries we depend on the most in our modern society – healthcare and education. And not surprisingly some of the most disruptive technological and social innovations are happening in these two areas as well.
Much of the skyrocketing healthcare costs in the United States have been attributed to lack of preventative care. Obesity rates have climbed in response to insufficient physical exercise and nutritional ignorance or at least by our slant toward self-deluding eating habits. Health monitoring and simple checkups add to the costs and time spent in doctor’s offices.
I want to see The Great Gatsby. And then I hope Hollywood will churn out ‘Grapes of Wrath’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’ soon after. History rhymes, and once again we’re at this junction in time when the younger generations are reexamining the validity of...
“How do I love (bankrupt) thee? Let me count the ways.”
This election year it’s hard not to take note of all the various ways in which the next generation is screwed. Younger cohorts will struggle with student loans, possibly endure continued high unemployment rates, foot most of the bill from the national deficit and suffer the effects of a national economy that has paid out more than it has taken in over a long time. The Z’ers, or Homelanders, see their grown up sisters and brothers test their wingspan only to return back to the safety of parental den when things go wrong. They are advised that an expensive college degree is the only means to a comfortable future, yet that there are no guarantees for anything anymore. One would think in a time when individuals feel the effects of a troubled economy family bonds grow stronger. And they do. Many parents gladly open up their homes to boomeranging grown children and quarterback them each time they test their employment muscles in the slow job market. But what the long-term financial security? If the younger generations are going to be held back for decades by the locked doors they meet now won’t family assets once again gain importance as a source of income? If neither a college degree nor a mortgage seems like a good investment you should at least be able to look forward to your fair share of the family estate. Right?
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When I asked my 8-year old daughter the other day what she wants to be when she grows up she gave me a metacognitive answer I did not expect from somebody her age. "Mom, you know how children my age often dream of becoming popstars, but they know that it's probably never going to happen? Well, I'm one of those children who have those dreams. So in my dream I will become a popstar, but in the "real world" I'm going to be an engineer and find ways to get more clean fresh water for the world. Maybe by taking the salt out of the seawater".
Of course at age 8 few people really know what they want to do with their lives. I probably changed my mind at least thirty times growing up, and so do children today. Yet I feel that the signals they pick up from their environment today will have an impact on their future choosing. My own children and many of their friends have been learning about water conservation and the perils facing the global climate pretty much from they learned how to talk. Today teaching children about environmental protection in preschool and elementary school seems as important as teaching them basic manners and academic pre-skills. And that is not even mentioning the lessons you learn from the increasingly severe summer droughts in central Texas!
Yet if current trends continue by the time this generation reach college, the best and brightest minds might very well be sucked up by Wall Street firms and big
Do you have a tween at home? A kid grown tired with your pre-packaged, PG rated stuff, yet who’s still too young to be allowed to choose products and entertainment for themselves? Well, guess what – they’re making their own choices and you’re not the only...
