As a former college student and Millenial (1984), I don’t expect anyone to hand me anything on a silver platter. I work damn hard for what I have. It may not be in a factory on an assembly line or some other menial labor nine to five that was one of the primary employers for past generations, especially in my home state of Michigan. Instead, I am a Millenial who uses her brains and ideology to get ahead in my career. My employees are motivated, not through harsh words and scare tactics, but through rewards and recognition. “Work smarter, not harder” is the motto of my generation and we’re damn proud of it.

Too many people in this world look down upon us, but we have shown that we can overcome adversity and rise up. We did it with this past election and we will continue to do so with the current recession and in the future as well. There are a myriad of traits that we possess, many positive and many contradictory. We are an unapologetic, passionate, headstrong group who have been witness to too many things caused by the older generations that we plan to fix. We are not an apathetic group, but, rather, are the opposite. We instill and inspire change whether on a small scale or a large one.

Dave, I checked out your site, and it’s great – a fellow Howe and Strauss fan, I see! I particularly liked this observation you made: “The ideological battle for how society should look will be debated by the Boomers and fought by the Millennials (born 1982-200?).”

I think this speaks to some of what theleastresistance was saying – with the proper inspiration, Millennials are unstoppable. And the older Boomer and Gen X’ers are in a unique position to provide some of this guidance. Developing these mentor-like relationships is, in my mind, a far more productive use of time than criticizing Millennials for having a different world view.

And I also agree with it.

As both a member of, and someone who teaches Gen Y, I can say that our generation is the biggest bunch of confused, proactive, self-serving, world-reaching, networked, isolated, resilient, fragile, lazy, hard-working, opportunistic self-starting, brain-dead and imaginative, boring and exciting bunch of winning losers I've ever seen. There's a lot of double negatives in my generation. I love it and hate it at the same time.

My generation *does* want things handed to them. But many of them also don't want to take over the family business. They want to carve out their niche in the world, but with so many options, paths and subsequent responsibilities, they don't know where to start. We've got the youngest families, the most amount of debt, and something we really really dislike: the older generation telling us what to do.

Rodriguez basically says we're a smart (but scattered) generation, and his only real fault with them is that they might not know how to prepare themselves in the dawn of a recession. That the oncoming debt crisis may put a roadblock in the path of their expectations.

But who's to blame? The Y'ers or the employers? Rodriguez even quoted the CEO of Jobfox as saying that "Businesses must learn new ways to incorporate Gen Y views. … The companies that succeed … will be the ones that can most inspire Generation Y. This is the most educated and technologically savvy generation ever."

But then Rodriguez says that was before the recession. But he doesn't offer proof as why a financial crisis would make us any less educated and connected.

If anything, it might give us some perspective.

Generations will always consider the new wave of young folks as "having it easier." They'll try and tell the new generation how lucky they are just to have ____ & ____. And the new generations won't listen, again.

I also teach this generation at the college level, Anon, and I've learned that you get back what you put in. If you can inspire this generation, they will be unstoppable. But unless you do that, Gen Y won't respect you one bit. And the older generation hates the idea of having to earn respect to this group of self-important little prits. But I've seen it happen. If you keep asking them "why?" and teach them how to speak up for themselves, they can be amazing. But the old ways don't equal the same solutions, especially in the classroom setting. They need constant change, real-world dilemmas. They need to know what they are actually capable of. And until the older generation can do that, the newer one will continue to amuse themselves however they please.

So in short, I believe that both sides of this argument have very valid points. But we can't do the "old man yelling at the punk kids on his lawn" thing. This generation has been given a world of information. Someone needs to show them how to use it. And do understand *that* you have to stoop to their level, and realize that everything changes.

Can I get a w00t?