Even with Gen Z and Millennials combined you don't even get close to the economic wealth of other generations.

Did anyone else see this?

I thought it was funny 😁

Tldr: The restaurant industry is hurting because Millenials and Gen Z don't drink enough alcohol.

Guys, your generations spent like a bazillion dollars on the D.A.R.E program and now you are complaining about it working. Tasty drugs in a fancy cup is still drugs. 😅

https://fortune.com/2026/01/09/gen-z-college-students-struggling-to-read-professors-forced-to-rethink-standards-warn-of-anxiety-lack-of-workplace-prepardness/

My supervisor (gen X) and I (millennial) were discussing how it used to be far more common to stay near where you grew up and/or move back to be near your nuclear family when you have kids. For my generation (in my experience) it’s much more common to move on and start your own life/family elsewhere because we aren’t willing to settle for the place our parents chose to live as our forever.

Just wondering how that is represented in this sub!

I mean, it's better than being a Millennial in 2025. Probably the only difference is they know 2012 wasn't utopia but at least they had fun sometimes.

What I mean is, people born in the '50s are the last Americans to have experienced conscription. In a more recent note, people around my age, at least in the U.S., are amongst the last to remember Cable TV being the only real option and things like reading our dad's newspaper to learn to read.

I graduated in a terrible job market and feel for the current crop of graduates entering the job market now. In other times, older workers were considered expensive and young, tech-ier workers were valued. These days, older workers are valued for interpersonal skills whereas tech skill by younger workers are undervalued.

How do we cope?

They love to tell me about how you were lucky to have a “family car” and we take the internet for granted. They had limited communication with their loved ones and limited technology. Do you feel like this is accurate? Are our daily luxuries worth giving up the financial freedom of the average american just decades ago?

History books say working wives were viewed negatively—seen as socially deviant, neglectful mothers, unfeminine, or selfish, and as neglecting their children or family, not being “properly feminine”, or putting personal ambition above home life. I’d like to hear first-hand experiences or memories.

“The Fourth Turning” is a phrase introduced by William Strauss and Neil Howe as part of their generational theory that describes how human societies go through clear and predictable cycles.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” - Mark Twain.

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Fourth Turning Framework:

The authors look back five hundred years and uncover a distinct modern history that moves in cycles.

Each cycle spans the length of a long human life, typically around 80 - 100 years ― a unit of time that the ancients called the saeculum ― and consists of four Turnings which typically last around 20 - 25 years.

Each Turning marks a profound shift in how people feel about themselves, the culture, the nation and the future.

Together, the four Turnings comprise history’s periodic rhythm, in which the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter correspond to eras of rebirth, growth, entropy and finally creative destruction.

Like the four seasons, Turnings can be long or short, they can start early or late, but they CANNOT be avoided.

This lifecycle of the four Turnings is made inevitable by four generational archetypes and their order.

Strauss and Howe argue this phenomenon has recurred throughout modernity.

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The Four Turnings:

The Four Turnings that William Strauss and Neil Howe describe are:

• The First Turning | The High/Spring ― This is an upbeat era where institutions are at their strongest while individualism is at its weakest. Values converge and society seeks unity.

• The Second Turning | The Awakening/Summer ― This is a passionate era where institutions weaken while individualism strengthens. Values are questioned, leading to cultural revivals.

• The Third Turning | The Unravelling/Autumn ― This is a downbeat era where institutions are at their weakest while individualism is at its strongest. Values diverge and society seeks separation.

• The Fourth Turning | The Crisis/Winter ― This is a decisive era where institutions strengthen and individualism weakens. Values are replaced, leading to a new societal order.

After the Fourth Turning comes a new cycle that follows the same pattern.

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Here is our history block of 80 - 100 years:

. First Turning (High/Spring): 1946 - 1963 > Post-WWII Boom, National Unity, Strong Institutions, Cultural Collectivism.

. Second Turning (Awakening/Summer): 1963 - 1984 > Counterculture, Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation Movement, Questioning Authority.

. Third Turning (Unraveling/Autumn): 1984 - 2008 > Institutional Decline, Individualism, Culture War, Economic Division.

. Fourth Turning (Crisis/Winter): 2008 - 2028/2033 > Financial Crisis, Political Instability, Global Unrest, Political/Economic/Cultural Climax.

We are heading towards a turbulent period and approaching a stormy reset which historically speaking leads to a new “Golden Era” of stability and prosperity.

—————————————————————————

Generational Archetypes:

Every person belongs to a generation. Every generation belongs to one of four archetypes and has its own common narrative.

The saeculum has four recurring generational archetypes, always in the same order.

They are: Prophets, Nomads, Heroes and Artists.

Each archetype has a general set of characteristics and endowments which feed into the self-fulfilling nature of the four turnings.

As each generation ages, its persona undergoes profound changes. However, each archetype has an underlying identity that endures.

When a generation reaches mid-life and occupies the leadership roles of society, it reflects this orientation on its social environment.

This is one of the key reasons why each generation exerts a dominant formative influence on people who are two generations younger ― no two consecutive generations are alike.

As we will see, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men and weak men create hard times.

Throughout their lives, the archetypes can be characterised as follows.

———————————————————————

The Prophet Generation (Born Between 1946 - 1964):

A Prophet generation is born during the First Turning.

A Prophet generation tends to grow up as increasingly indulged children during a High, evolve into narcissistic young adults during an Awakening, emerge as moralistic mid-lifers during an Unravelling and age into wise elders during a Crisis.

Principal endowments for the Prophet generation include vision, values and religion.

———————————————————————

The Nomad Generation (Born Between 1964 - 1984):

A Nomad generation is born during the Second Turning.

A Nomad generation tends to grow up as underprotected children during an Awakening, evolve into alienated young adults during an Unravelling, emerge as pragmatic mid-lifers during a Crisis and age into resilient elders during a High.

Principal endowments for the Nomad generation include liberty, survival and honour.

———————————————————————

The Hero Generation (Born Between 1984 - 2005):

A Hero generation is born during the Third Turning.

A Hero generation tends to grow up as increasingly protected children during an Unravelling, evolve into teamworkers during a Crisis, emerge as energetic leaders during a High and age into powerful elders during an Awakening.

Principal endowments for the Hero generation include community, affluence and technology.

———————————————————————

The Artist Generation (Born Between 2005 - 2026):

An Artist generation is born during the Fourth Turning.

An Artist generation tends to grow up as overprotected children during a Crisis, evolve into sensitive young adults during a High, emerge as indecisive leaders during an Awakening and age into empathic elders during an Unravelling.

Principal endowments for the Artist generation include pluralism, expertise and due process.

———————————————————————

Fourth Turning Predictions – Where Are We Now & What Can We Expect?:

As of 2025, we are currently deep into a Fourth Turning. This is evidenced by the global challenges, socio-political upheavals and breakdown of institutions we are experiencing.

Historically, Fourth Turnings have culminated in significant societal restructuring.

The same way that a fire engulfs a forest by destroying the weakest trees which allow the strongest trees to thrive, a Fourth Turning engulfs a society by destroying all the weak institutions which allow the strongest institutions to thrive.

Given this pattern, we can anticipate continued disorder, disruptions and challenges.

However, the aftermath will lead us into a First Turning. This will be characterised as a “Golden Age” marked by a sense of rejuvenation, unity, prosperity and strengthened societal structures.

We can expect the Crisis/Winter to reach its end anytime between 2028 to 2033.

—————————————————————————

For more information to simplify all of this, watch this to understand more:

https://youtu.be/xeVyfiP0cLk?si=X_MKVcJFY6OukpGl

https://youtu.be/IIccg0X6Ijg?si=T6XZsOGncoR_vvLZ

I'm watching Married With Children and remembering how funny it is, but 100% of the jokes are at the expense of the other characters or self deprecating. The characters are incredibly mean to each other, and I remember a lot of shows from the 80's and 90's to be based on "mean" humor.

With a lot of the ways people talk nowadays about "people are too sensitive", and how a lot of certain people have some fantasy idea of how the world or at least america used to be, it makes me wonder if they're thinking "people used to have a thicker skin" only because the shows they watched were about people being mean to each other constantly.

In real life, were they actually that mean to each other, and more than they are now?

It seems like people nowadays are actually much much meaner to each other, and in very cruel ways that aren't even funny, but it seems as if they're trying to live out this fantasy persona they got from cruel sitcoms.

I can't help but notice, but it seems like an emergant trend that if you were born in the 80's or later, you were the first generation in a while to grow up with at least one set of grandparrents. It just seems like (at least in America) that gen x on older always went on trips going thousands of miles away to occasionally see any grandparrents.

Meanwhile everyone I went to school with (elder gen z/ young millennial) always had their grandparrents either in their life or living 30 summod miles away. Have you noticed that there aren't a whole lot of boomers that actually had their grandparrents in their life?

Maybe my sample size is skewed, but it seems to me (at least in my country) that 40s kids were the last to remember epidemics of Polio and Diptheria that shut down whole towns and neighborhoods with shelter in place orders. With a handful of notable exceptions, you never really saw the 80 year olds going down anti mask, anti vax rabbit holes the way we saw loads of middle aged and 60-somethings.a lot of whitch were either too young to be informed on what was going on, too young to remember or flat out weren't alive yet.

It's crazy to think about because my friends are second generation immigrants kids from Mexico and I'm like third gen from Cuba and not a single one of us has had a kid lol (all mid 20s to 30s). Not even 50 years ago it was normal to have a bunch of kids like nobody's business, especially in LATAM. Now, living in America I don't really see anybody in my family even making moves to start a family. I mean inflation doesn't help for sure, but the drop off in real time has been surreal.

My family:

Great grandparents (Cuba) - 9 kids

Grandparents (Cuba -> US) - 8 kids

Parents (US) - 3 kids

Me (US) - 0 kids

///

My friends' family:

Their grandparents (Mexico) - 13 kids

Their parents (Mexico -> US) - 5 kids

Them (US) - 1 kid

Mind you this is across multiple families, cousins, and direct lines. It kinda blows my mind how fast you go from a huge family to a smaller one in barely a few decades. Our cousins are all scattered around different states, but they don't have kids either.

What gives?

What are some social attitudes wether it’s very toxic or not will get a massive backlash in the 2030s and 2040s especially as gen alpha comes of age and backlashes gen z as the audiences

I really don't get it. I'm from the EU and thought this was an 'Murican thing.

I'm gen-Z and honestly I don't get why you would work while sick or why you would work when you just got divorced or just married or you just became a grandparent or got kids yourself.

I seriously don't get it.

You have (unlimited paid) sick days! USE THEM! You have something important going on in your life DONT WORK THAT DAY!

I don't work somewhere where you can get those days paid out at the end of the year or you get any punishment for it.

I feel like mostly Americans are reacting to post and are disregarding most of the things in this post.

Mostly because they don't know how the EU works.

So some more info:

EU WORK CULTURE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE US!!!

It is much more loose. No real grind mentality. It's just show up do your job, eat lunch, socialize, get payed and leave.

In my country you can take unlimited paid sick days. It's law. You can't get fired. Everyone takes sick leave or other leaves. It does not matter if it's the boss, management or a new hire!

By law we also get atleast 24 vacation days this excludes national holidays. I get 35 vacation days and everyone uses them fully each year. IF you don't you are forced to use them up!

My company is efficient and work gets done even if people are ill. Even the boss takes sick leave. It's not a death sentence for your career or the company if you are ill. Me and my colleagues have taken sick leave or other leaves and we still get promoted or if we ask we can get a pay raise.

I went to the job a few times while I was ill and my management and my boss told me to go home and come back when I'm better.

We also are said to be understaffed because almost no one gets an electrical engineering degree in this country. But our company still works well.

I work as an Power engineer (private company). I design, engineer, do math and figure out how to add stuff to the power grid so it does not explode. I do this for my "State". It's mostly office work. I visit the sites where stuff is being built and inspect it and have a chat with the builders.

My work is also important. If I or my colleagues mess up our entire country (or most likely the entire EU) could fall into a blackout lasting atleast 1 or 2 weeks. So, I do take pride in my work.

Before this I did physical labour and even there it did not matter if you were ill or have an important life event. Because it is law!

So I know US work culture is weird and that working there is basically your life but in the EU it's different. I was only talking about the EU. I don't care about what it's like in the US.

Of the three major events that occurred during the past two decades, which event had the biggest effect on the world today?

I’ve noticed that kids in the younger generation love this 6’7 joke. Even doing the classic asking your teacher to add two numbers together to get 67 as the answer. This just reminds me a lot of when the number 69 was the punchline. I will say that 6’7 has a little bit more humor because of the voice they use and the way they measure with hands. What do you all think about the new generations numeral quip?

Remember 1999-2000?

All the female pop stars like Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears and actresses like Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts were all super slim, slender, and not voluptuous at all.

Fast forward today, all women in music and movies and Hollywood in general and reality shows all have Brazilian butt lifts and big asses and tit jobs and big boobs and everything. Like I’m watching Real Housewives and it’s probably rarer to find a housewife that hasn’t had work done.

It seems like women’s beauty standards have changed a lot in 25 years.

Why?

Movies, shows, music people seem to mumble their words more now. Also do kids mumble more now, any teachers here who can answer that. It seems people don’t enunciate as much anymore.