Millennials:
The Most
Entitled
Generation,
Or the Next
Great One?
Artemus Ward
Dept. of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
aeward@niu.edu
• Millennials (also knows as the Millennial Generation or
Generation Y) are the demographic cohort following
Generation X.
• There are no precise dates when the generation starts and
ends. Researchers and commentators use birth years
ranging from 1980 to about 1994.
• The standard criticism of millennials is that they need to be
coddled, they’re naïve and have a profound sense of
entitlement. But is it really accurate?
• Millennials are more racially diverse than any other generation (40% non-white),
young (roughly age 10-25), single (75%), college-educated (50%), libertarian and
tolerant, use technology, like music and pop culture, fashion/clothes conscious.
• They prioritize 1) parenting, 2) marriage, and 3) helping others more than 4)
owning a home, 5) living a religious life, 6) having a high-paying career, 7) having
lots of free time, and 8) becoming famous.
There is a massive disconnect in the way that millennials
see themselves v. the way older generations view them.
• On January 8, 2015, RealClearPolitics and Business Insider published an article
about millennials, written by two millennials: Ross Pomeroy is the assistant
editor of RealClearScience while William Handke is a graduate of Georgetown
University and a self-employed entrepreneur.
The article quickly went viral with over 1.5 million views and thousands of
shares on facebook, twitter, and other social media sites.
• The title was “The Most Entitled Generation Isn’t Millennials. It’s Baby
Boomers”
• Not surprisingly, millennials overwhelmingly “liked” it. The article follows:
The Most Entitled Generation Isn't
Millennials. It's Baby Boomers
• For the first time in America’s history, an entire generation of her
citizens is poorer, more indebted, and less employed than the preceding
generations.
• That generation is the Millennials – our generation.
• The culprit, say some social commenters, are Millennials themselves. In
this telling, we are a lazy cohort of entitled and narcissistic brats– the
proverbial “Generation Me.” But this is a classic case of blaming the
victim.
• The true cause of this unfortunate situation is clear: it’s the economy. The
Great Recession stymied economic growth, halted job creation, kept older
Americans in the workforce longer, and encouraged younger Americans to
continue debt-financed schooling.
• Moreover, the Great Recession was not merely a one-off calamity – it was
a symptom of economic ills long perpetuated and ignored. And the
criticism and labels that have been heaped upon Millennials bear much
more resemblance to the type of intergenerational stereotyping that has
always existed (“Darn kids these days.”) than to any measurable reality.
• The truth: The economic tragedy of the Millennial generation was
written before many of us had even learned to read – by Baby Boomer
parents and grandparents who, at once, genuinely love and care for us,
but have also created or perpetuated institutions, policies, and economic
realities that have now hobbled us.
• Our generation has been called “entitled.” We beg to differ. If any
generation is entitled, it’s our parents’ and grandparents’ generation: the
Baby Boomers.
• True entitlement is tripling the national debt since the 1980s and using
the proceeds to spend lavishly on tax cuts and government programs
that primarily provided short-term economic boosts, while refusing to
raise the Social Security age of retirement or to reduce benefits, even as
the gluttonous program careens toward unsustainability.
• True entitlement is allowing the reasonable minimum wage that Baby
Boomers enjoyed when they were our age to deteriorate while opting to
cut taxes on the gains from stocks and bonds that they accrued during
periods of debt-driven economic and stock-market surges – creating an
economy where wage earners at all income levels, as of 2012, receive a
smaller portion of economic output at any time since 1929.
• True entitlement is, for decades, enjoying the benefits
of the lowest energy costs in the world while refusing
to price-in the external costs of carbon emissions,
exacerbating the real changes to our planet that pose
profound risks to the environment and economy for
which Millennials will soon be the primary stewards.
• These grave consequences were entirely foreseeable –
but they happened. Young Americans have been
fleeced in order to fund the transient excesses of the
old – and yet Milliennials are labeled “entitled”
because we were given “participation trophies” and
“personal tutors” before we were old enough to
vote...?
• Give us a break. Millennials are not entitled. But we are
frustrated.
• We’re frustrated because the same Baby Boomer bloc
that created or tacitly perpetuated the policies that
have hamstrung Millennials now makes up almost a
third of the American voting -aged population and
holds nearly two-thirds of the seats of the United
States House of Representatives and Senate. This,
during a decade-long span when incumbent House and
Senate members are richly rewarded for being the
most unproductive legislators in U.S. history,
respectively winning reelection 94 percent and 87
percent of the time.
• Granted, many members of our generation need to learn how to vote
every two years, not just every four. And we need to begin to fulfill the
civic-minded label - “The Next Great Generation” - which social scientists
have bestowed upon us. When we do begin to regularly share our
opinions in the voting booth, not just on Twitter, you can be assured that
we’ll act to keep this country great. We’ll make the “hard” choices the
Baby Boomers have refused to make.
• Already, we’ve learned how to be fiscally responsible - with the most
student debt of any generation in history, we’ve had to. More than any
other generation, we eschew expensive possessions like cars and large
houses, opting instead for bikes and shared living spaces. Sure, we would
like to own all that fancy stuff someday, but we realize that we can’t have
everything we want.
• We know that our government would be better off spending more of our
tax dollars on jobs and education, and not just on social security and
defense.
• We overwhelmingly recognize that the war on drugs has been an
embarrassing waste of money and lives and that anyone should be able to
marry whomever they love.
• Perhaps we Millennials are entitled: we seemed to think that Baby
Boomer politicians will enact much needed changes while we fiddle with
our smartphones. We were definitely wrong on that one.
2014 Midterm Election: Exit Polls
•
•
•
•
Millennials (voters age 18-29) are by far the most liberal voters but also by far the least
influential voters.
They comprised only 13% of voters while older generations (those 45 and older)
comprised 65% of voters.
Older voters are far more conservative than younger voters.
Thus, the failure of Millennials to vote and otherwise participate in elections, cedes those
elections to voters and candidates they disagree with which will result in policies they
don’t want.
The Potential of
Millennials Already
Makes Them Influential
• The day before the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on a bill to
ban abortion after 20 weeks, except in cases of officially reported rape, a group of
GOP lawmakers killed the bill.
• Rep. Rene Ellmers (R-N.C.) led the revolt and said one week before: “I have urged
leadership to reconsider bringing it up next week.… We got into trouble last year,
and I think we need to be careful again; we need to be smart about how we’re
moving forward. The first vote we take, or the second vote, or the fifth vote,
shouldn’t be on an issue where we know that millennials—social issues just aren’t
as important [to them]."
• The frustration came after a GOP retreat hosted by demographer Neil Howe, the
man credited with coining the term “millennial,” where the party discussed how
to appeal to young voters.
• This example shows how millennials are going to be increasingly important at the
ballot box going forward and if the GOP wants to win future elections they are
going to have to drop their increasingly unpopular stances on social issues such as
opposition to abortion, gay rights, and legalized marijuana.
Conclusion
• Is it possible that millennials are at once both
lazy, spoiled, naïve, and entitled, but also
creative/innovative, caring, and smart?
• Because their potential already makes them
influential, imagine what they will do once they
start participating in public life?
• How will they transform America? The World?
• It is our job, as the “older” generation, to help,
empower, and inspire them to become engaged
in public life.
References
•
•
•
Newhauser, Daniel, “Republican Split on Next Week’s Anti-Abortion Bill Vote,” National
Journal, January 16, 2015. http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/republican-split-onnext-week-s-anti-abortion-bill-vote-20150116
O’Keefe, Ed, “Abortion Bill Amid Concerns of Female GOP Lawmakers,” Washington Post,
January 21, 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/postpolitics/wp/2015/01/21/abortion-bill-in-flux-as-female-gop-lawmakers-raise-concerns/
Pomeroy, Ross and William Handke, “The Most Entitled Generation Isn’t Millennials,”
RealClearPolitics, Business Insider, January 8, 2015.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/01/08/the_most_entitled_generation_isnt_
millennials_its_baby_boomers_125184.html ; http://www.businessinsider.com/the-mostentitled-generation-isnt-millennials-2015-1