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The Wall Street Journal's framing exemplifies how establishment media obscures systematic dismantling of public goods while blaming individuals. Their narrative

The Wall Street Journal's framing exemplifies how establishment media obscures systematic dismantling of public goods while blaming individuals. Their narrative of "outsized expectations" conveniently ignores that their editorial page championed policies creating this crisis: deregulation, union-busting, and tax cuts that gutted public investment. The "conventional path to adulthood" they reference required massive public investment - the GI Bill, FHA loans, strong labor protections - which WSJ consistently opposed. Now they blame millennials for failing to thrive in the hostile economic environment their ideology created. The article's focus on individual choices ("high expectations," "choosing less traditional paths") deflects from the core issue: the deliberate dismantling of public goods and social safety nets that made the postwar prosperity possible. When 30-somethings say "instructions don't work anymore," they're describing the collapse of institutional supports, not personal failure. The WSJ's perspective represents the interests that profited from privatizing public goods while downloading risk onto individuals. Their "tough economic luck" framing obscures how these outcomes were policy choices, not accidents.

fargle 2y ago
"When he couldn’t put his double major in English and history to use" "I’m sick of partying. I did that already." whether or not you are right about the impact of policy choices, you still can't ignore personal responsibility as well. if you party your way through school to get a useless degree, then double down for a law degree you don't (or can't) use for unspecified reasons, i don't see how any policy is going to have a different outcome. the idea that if all you did was get a college degree, didn't matter in what, and you were on "easy street" hasn't been true for at least 30 years before he graduated, probably never was.
- travisporter 2y ago
  Really harsh calling it a useless degree (even though I don’t disagree) but expectations should be in order. Hell, even Harvard MBA is 200k+ in the hole, so without a plan afterwards it may not be the best choice. If he wanted to work in academia I think it’s a very reasonable choice.
- tokioyoyo 2y ago
  If about ~30% of people are experiencing the same problem, I'd say ignoring the "personal responsibility" part of the equation is valid. At some point of progress, we did something wrong, but not a single country can figure out what that wrong thing was, and how we can revert it. Frankly, I think these opinion-lite pieces come from the problem how we have moved on from having unified culture and trend setters. Everyone has so many options, possible hobbies, interests and etc. to explore that conventionalism is frowned upon. Even if individualism has been promoted in North America for the past century, there was still things most people agreed on. We just don't have that over here anymore. And nowadays, almost nowhere. Committing to something or someone results in bigger opportunity losses than ever before, so ever chasing the dopamine rush from trying new things is more acceptable than ever. I don't even know if it's right or wrong. I'm morally conflicted when I think about it. Same as having multiple kids, these topics will only come up more and more as literally every country is diving further into plummeting fertility rates.
  - raztogt21 2y ago
    We know what went wrong. It's housing. When housing became a vehicle for investment instead of a place to live, it all fell apart. The only way forward is to discourage multiple property ownership through very draconian measures. If you fix housing, you fix commitment, increase birth rates, and improve general happiness.
    - tokioyoyo 2y ago
      Housing hasn’t been the biggest problem in Japan since 2000s. Like it is, but not the biggest one. Yet the birth rates have never increased after the initial bump. People, especially women, have other things they can spend time on instead of giving birth to 3+ kids.
      - raztogt21 2y ago
        Japan is an ethnostate with unique problems and situations that no other country shares. I agree with you that other factors, such as cheap international travel and constant bombardment of people's highlights on social media, make it less attractive to invest in having a family. Still, housing is a huge problem for Western Mediterranean Europe (Spain, Portugal, and Italy) and most of Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Colombia).
matrix87 2y ago
I mean Europe has more of the type of policy that you describe, there's still the same drop in birthrates (Not disagreeing with you that the WSJ is evil, but I doubt throwing money at people will make them have more kids at this point)

fargle 2y ago

"When he couldn’t put his double major in English and history to use" "I’m sick of partying. I did that already." whether or not you are right about the impact of policy choices, you still can't ignore personal responsibility as well. if you party your way through school to get a useless degree, then double down for a law degree you don't (or can't) use for unspecified reasons, i don't see how any policy is going to have a different outcome. the idea that if all you did was get a college degree, didn't matter in what, and you were on "easy street" hasn't been true for at least 30 years before he graduated, probably never was.

travisporter 2y ago
Really harsh calling it a useless degree (even though I don’t disagree) but expectations should be in order. Hell, even Harvard MBA is 200k+ in the hole, so without a plan afterwards it may not be the best choice. If he wanted to work in academia I think it’s a very reasonable choice.
tokioyoyo 2y ago
If about ~30% of people are experiencing the same problem, I'd say ignoring the "personal responsibility" part of the equation is valid. At some point of progress, we did something wrong, but not a single country can figure out what that wrong thing was, and how we can revert it. Frankly, I think these opinion-lite pieces come from the problem how we have moved on from having unified culture and trend setters. Everyone has so many options, possible hobbies, interests and etc. to explore that conventionalism is frowned upon. Even if individualism has been promoted in North America for the past century, there was still things most people agreed on. We just don't have that over here anymore. And nowadays, almost nowhere. Committing to something or someone results in bigger opportunity losses than ever before, so ever chasing the dopamine rush from trying new things is more acceptable than ever. I don't even know if it's right or wrong. I'm morally conflicted when I think about it. Same as having multiple kids, these topics will only come up more and more as literally every country is diving further into plummeting fertility rates.
- raztogt21 2y ago
  We know what went wrong. It's housing. When housing became a vehicle for investment instead of a place to live, it all fell apart. The only way forward is to discourage multiple property ownership through very draconian measures. If you fix housing, you fix commitment, increase birth rates, and improve general happiness.
  - tokioyoyo 2y ago
    Housing hasn’t been the biggest problem in Japan since 2000s. Like it is, but not the biggest one. Yet the birth rates have never increased after the initial bump. People, especially women, have other things they can spend time on instead of giving birth to 3+ kids.
    - raztogt21 2y ago
      Japan is an ethnostate with unique problems and situations that no other country shares. I agree with you that other factors, such as cheap international travel and constant bombardment of people's highlights on social media, make it less attractive to invest in having a family. Still, housing is a huge problem for Western Mediterranean Europe (Spain, Portugal, and Italy) and most of Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Colombia).

matrix87 2y ago

I mean Europe has more of the type of policy that you describe, there's still the same drop in birthrates (Not disagreeing with you that the WSJ is evil, but I doubt throwing money at people will make them have more kids at this point)