Milliennials: Generation Free Stuff

Millennials, young adults aged 18 to 35 years old, represent an uncertain future for our nation. They are the country's largest age group, a burgeoning demographic that tops 75 million.  However, their attitudes and values raise questions about how they will mold America's destiny.

Born into relative affluence, Millennials reject most political, economic and social beliefs of their parents, grandparents and certainly great grandparents.  Although there are notable exceptions, most Millennials are stridently more liberal than the rest of the country.

Their fawning support for Barrack Obama produced two victories for the former Illinois senator. The president garnered 67 percent of the Millennial vote in both 2008 and 2012.  Millennials represented about 19 percent of the total voter turnout, a potent bloc which tipped the political scales.

Today many have lined up behind Vermont Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist who has lured enthusiastic throngs of Millennials with promises of "free" stuff.  Sanders' political axioms mirror those of the younger generation.

More than two-thirds of Millennials think government should guarantee food, shelter and a living wage for everyone.  They feel entitled to free health care, free birth control, free college, free day care and free transportation.  They think the government should provide more services than it now does.

Those are not generalizations.  That wish-list of "free" services and products reflect the attitudes of a majority of Millennials, based on recent surveys conducted by the public policy think-tank Reason Foundation and the nationally renowned Pew Research Center.

Who are these Millennials?

Most are saddled with college loan debt.  Many are toiling in jobs beneath their education level. They switch jobs and career paths often. More than a few are wallowing in self-pity.  They vent their anger over life's unfairness on social media and take little responsibility for their own choices.

Pew Research found that 45 percent of Millennials had no clue about what percentage of their salary would be required to make the college loan payments.  Nearly four in 10 (37%) claimed they were unaware of the loan interest rate.  Yet they are supposed to be the best and brightest among us.

Perhaps, that explains why 43 percent of Millennials with student loan debt are either behind in their payments or have quit shelling out money.  Those statistics were released this year by the federal Department of Education.  Millennials act is if they were forced to accept the loans at gunpoint.

In a survey by Citizens Bank, Millennials were asked what they'd considering giving up to pay down their student loan debt.  Less than one-half were willing to eschew concert tickets, lattes, food delivery or alcohol purchases to settle their debt.  Poor babies can't be expected to forego coffee.

On the job, Millennials no longer work for you, they work with you. In a recent survey, hiring managers at a range of firms chose "narcissistic" as the adjective that best described most Millennials. Personnel people pegged them as money driven and prone to work alone rather than with a team.

Millennials aren't on the same page as today's workers.  For starters, they aren't wedded to an office. Pew research found that 64 percent of Millennials want the opportunity to at least occasionally work from home. They also chafe under rigid work schedules and value free time over all other perks.

These young renegades have come to expect free snacks, casual dress codes, flexible work hours, networking evenings and socially accommodating workplaces.  Unlike previous generations, Millennials do not believe work is its own reward, the research concludes.

Despite falling unemployment, a depressing 44 percent of college graduates in their 20's are stuck in low-wage, dead-end jobs, the highest rate in decades.  The number of young adults earning less than $25,000 annually has also spiked, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Perhaps, Millennials' attitudes toward work might be responsible for stunting career growth.

Their employment woes are creating another phenomenon. For the first time in 130 years, adults 18-to-34 are more likely to be living in their parents home than with a spouse or partner in their own household. Those words are ripped from the latest Pew Research study on Millennials.

More worrisome, a recent Reason-Rupe survey of Millennials found 53 percent view socialism favorably.  Many see the federal government as a benevolent caretaker paying for the things they need and want. They are seemingly uninterested in where or how the government gets the money.

These young people are going to be the driving force in America's political, social and economic arena for the next 30 or more years. They will have the demographic power to remake America in their own image.  That is a sobering thought for Americans concerned about the country's future.