Despite my criticisms that I have for the United States, I do love where I live and am happy that I basically won the lottery on the whole "born in the right place" thing. I have access to water, I learned to read relatively well, and most of my problems are because of a lack of wi-fi connection. Have you ever been too lazy to make food? It happens to me, and I'm pretty sure that is the actual definition of a first world problem.
America is cool, I like it at least, but I see a lot of comments, posts, even conversations about how America is soft, and it was better back in the day before everyone got a trophy and people want things handed to them and all that stuff you hear from your grandpa on Facebook. It's a certain nostalgia for something that I'm starting to believe was never there in the first place.
First off, if you're pissed that 6-year-olds get trophies for participation in sports, and it doesn't "teach them how to be in the real world," you should probably stop living your glory days vicariously through your child's eyes. It's a freaking game, and by the time they hit middle school, it is about winning. I stopped getting trophies in 5th grade. In fact, I stopped even making teams by the time I was a sophomore.
Second of all, America didn't get soft. I've written about the topic of other generations bashing millennials for really no reason, so this type of stuff isn't new to me. My favorite people that criticize millennials are baby boomers. You know, the ones that literally get a check every month from the government and have the government pay for their healthcare. Yeah, those people. The ones who lived through the Great Depression and voted for a president who enacted wide-spread social programs to help a growing middle-class, that also fought in World War 2. Oh crap my bad, that was their parents. Then those baby boomers thrived off that system. Moochers.
Once these baby boomers turned the ripe age of 18, they didn't want to go to Vietnam and fight in a war they disagreed with. There were draft dodgers for crying out loud. You're telling me you couldn't just fight in a war like your parents did before you? Fight for your country? You're soft.
See, I can find things about a generation that makes them look bad as well. The good ole' days weren't always so good were they? That's not the point I'm trying to make, though.
The point is, there are certain things that transcend generations, races, and gender. A few of those things are laziness, being polite, and being soft. You didn't want to go to war in Vietnam; I'm tired of the United States being in Iraq. You fought for equal rights for black people to be treated equally; I think the LGBT community should have those same rights.
If we're going by your logic, you're just as soft as we are. You wanted everything handed to you. You were being too politically correct.
So can we come to an agreement? That maybe we do have the same work ethic and America isn't becoming soft? We just want what you had. If you graduated high school now instead of working in the factories with a strong union, good benefits, and high pay, you'd be working at Wal-Mart with no unions, horrible pay, and very little benefits. Yes, the largest employer isn't Ford anymore, it's Wal-Mart. The modern day factory worker has become a Wal-Mart employee, and nothing is wrong with that; we need Wal-Mart employees.
Do you think though if the factory treated you the same way Wal-Mart treats its employees that you'd like it if you were told that you just need to work harder? That maybe you should just get a better education? Whoops, I did it again. You COULD afford a better education with your defacto Wal-Mart job, mostly because of your parents GI Bill. Guess you lazy kids had it real easy back then huh, because, in my day, you don't make enough money to pay for school, or pay medical bills, or basically just live. Adults these days am I right?
