The generation gap today
As if it ever went away.
You might be among the many about to tell they told me so.
For years now, I’ve heard complaints about today’s kids, that they don’t take work seriously, showing up when they want. In my latest pathetic excuse for employment, I’m seeing far too many examples of this to dismiss as any sort of exceptions to the rule.
Of course, the rejoinder lies within my own claim. It’s a crappy job I do under often brutal conditions for nowhere near enough money, appreciation, or respect. I do it because I haven’t been able to find anything better. The kids I’m seeing might still be living with their parents and might not need the job like I do. If I had the choice, I’d retire—I’m certainly old enough—and not do the job either.
So there’s a lot of truth in Jason Miciak’s column criticizing White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt’s hypocrisy in blasting the left for what really amounts to a deprivation of the privileges afforded many in previous generations. Miciak offers a fantastic rebuttal of the conservative “free stuff” trope, pointing out that few of today’s jobs offer any meaningful prospect of a decent living, let alone retirement, while Leavitt herself benefits from her family’s wealth and her marriage to a man who is 30 years older.[1]
I’m a boomer, born during the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidency. I’ve worked hard all my life. I have a Ph.D. And I still have a crappy job, that relies on brawn rather than brain, at an age when I should be able to retire. I’m certainly not the one to tell kids their assessments of their economic prospects are wrong. (And don’t even get me started on what they likely face with the climate crisis.)
I remember hearing about the generation gap when I was a kid. Then, as now, elders sniffed that the kids were/are ungrateful and indolent. And then, as now, it didn’t mean that the kids were/are wrong.
[1] Jason Miciak, “Karoline Leavitt’s loose lips just handed the left a bomb to blow up the GOP,” Raw Story, July 15, 2026, https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/karoline-leavitt-communists/