The younger generation is screwed – thanks, Joe

This week I read an article about how an anti-work TikTok video has gone viral, resonating with millions of younger Americans who can't seem to get ahead. The lyrics:

I don't want to contribute nothing to society
I don't struggle I don't hustle.
If you want it, you can have it.
Sorry, I wasn't born to work. No, I wasn't born to work.
I'm too pretty to get dirty. Yeah, I said it. You can sue me.
Don't want to lift the finger. For the money.

Reactions to the video include:

• "Can every corporate worker please turn this on super loud at their desk????"

• "This Gen Z's anthem."

• "Me thinking about quitting my job & living out a van."

While I don't approve of this sentiment, I understand it. That's because Bidenomics isn't working, especially for the younger generation.

"Youngsters are starting to realize just how much the federal government, college, and the Federal Reserve are scams," notes the article. "These institutions are failing the youngsters and have provided them with worthless degrees and an economic environment that is some of the worst living conditions in a generation due to failed policies. … Plus, woke leftist universities are indoctrinating multiple generations with collectivism, i.e., socialism, which has left some of these folks believing the government will be handing them stimmy checks (universal basic income) and student debt relief checks. … [T]hese kids got a taste of Covid helicopter money via stimmy checks and want more – instead of working."

Smacks of the hippies in the 1960s, no? Turn on, tune in, drop out. For some, that's the only option for a terrible economy.

Earlier, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote an editorial titled "Good Economy, Negative Vibes: The Story Continues" in which he lavishly praised Biden's economy as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and anyone who disagrees is just whining. To support his thesis, he drew solely from the progressive echo-chamber and cited articles of carefully curated statistics. He did everything, in short, except talk to the people living on the ground floor who are struggling as never before.

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"If you ask me," Krugman concludes, "more progressives should celebrate the current economy, not just to help Biden get re-elected, but because economic success vindicates the progressive vision. I'd argue that Biden deserves some credit for the good news, but the more important point is that policies like the expansion of Obamacare and student debt relief have not, contrary to conservative predictions, dragged the economy down – which means that it's OK to call for more. The truth is that the U.S. economy is a remarkable success story. Don't let anyone tell you that it isn't."

Needless to say, responses were vicious. "Paul Krugman doesn't know any regular Americans, and so he and the rest of the corporate press mock and gaslight you while you struggle with your rent or mortgage, food and other living costs. Absolutely zero compassion or connection to reality," financial commentator Carol Roth reacted to Krugman's post. "How much do you get paid to be this out of touch with normies?" Daily Caller editor-in-chief Mike Bastasch asked.

It's worth noting that Krugman turned off replies to this column.

At the moment, the U.S. economy is NOT "a remarkable success story." Groceries have inflated nearly 40% since 2019 (and some people are literally going into debt to buy food). Gas is up 47.8%. The overall cost of energy in March is up 36.9% from where it was in January 2021. Mortgage interest rates went from 2.65% (in January 2021) to 7.74% today. Home prices increased 31.22% between 2020 and 2022. Rental prices have been jacked up as well. In some high-cost-of-living areas (such as Los Angeles), the average home price reached $869,000, which means monthly mortgage payments top $5,500 – assuming you can put 20% down.

No wonder the younger generations despair of ever achieving the same middle-class milestones in life that their parents and grandparents achieved.

The older generations, watching their children and grandchildren struggle, mourn the inability for their descendants to get ahead. "They can't afford the American dream," notes one woman. "What we wanted when we were young, it's not something our kids can afford." Another woman lamented, "We kind of are a caste system at this point. Where you start is generally where you end up."

Now jump over to a seemingly unrelated article by Catherine Salgado entitled "Brazil's Spiral into CCP-Like Tyranny Should Scare Americans." Writes Salgado, "From allegedly aiming to criminalize 'lying' to threatening to arrest those who exposed the country's increasingly tyrannical judiciary, Brazil's government under President Lula is trying to turn itself into a perfect Orwellian dystopia."

She cites journalist Michael Shellenberger, who warns Americans are heading down Brazil's path. He notes, "A significant share of the Left wants to incarcerate their political enemies. The Brazilian government appears to view '1984' not as a dystopia to avoid but rather as a guide to a better future." He added, "Just this week, top Brazilian government representatives were in China talking about how China, one of the most totalitarian nations in the world, is a model for Brazil."

What concerns me is the younger generations, unable to achieve the middle-class milestones of their parents and grandparents, are swallowing the sweet lies of socialism and extremism to achieve some semblance of control. Rather than embrace free-market (as opposed to crony) capitalism and government limitations as outlined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, they're taught that "capitalism is crap" and we must do away with those dusty old documents written by dead white men.

In explaining why Brazil's crisis is personally relevant to Americans, Shellenberger notes: "The most terrifying part of all of this is the marriage of psychopathic government leaders like Lula and de Moraes with totalitarian activists and voters. … Young adults raised on social media are today more intolerant than the students in China's Cultural Revolution who denounced their teachers and sent them off to work camps to be tortured. … At the same time, people with a mentality no different from the people who ran the Stasi and the Gestapo are in charge of intelligence agencies in Europe and the United States."

Salgado concludes, "Marxists have indeed infiltrated and taken over the U.S. government and institutions. … That is precisely why we are facing the current anti-constitutional crisis. Like in China or the Soviet Union, the modern American Marxist believes any breach of rights, any loss of freedom, any lie is justifiable in service of his own ideology."

Since the younger generations has been screwed out of the normal milestones of adulthood thanks to insane progressive policies and government overreach, it's not hard to see what path they'll be eager to follow.

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