The economics of being a millennial

It is a brave new world. Okay, that's a tad dramatic. I suppose there is no real difference between last month and this one. So perhaps it isn't as bleak as Huxley or Burgess imagined, but if you're a millennial like me (hell, even if you're not), you may agree it's time we clear up some things with our older generation(s). First, though, let me rewind to a conversation I had with a friend in Toronto before the New Year.

As Canadians are wont to do, I found myself attending a hockey game. Shocker. Interestingly, as a Torontonian, it was very uncharacteristic of me to have had the opportunity to see the Maple Leafs. It's the equivalent of being from Barcelona, loving FCB, and almost never going because it's outrageously expensive and inaccessible. In any event, while there, something became blindingly obvious: it has become a very regular occurrence when gathering with people my age to talk about how we are going to take on the future that the older generations are leaving to us.

If we take a second to look at the economic history of the world, it's pretty easy to see why we're having a bit of a problem with simple things like buying a place to live, getting a job after university, and sticking to one place. The world is different now. The fact is that over the last half century, monetary value, economic activity, consumption, and the use of commodities have all spiked to orders of magnitude higher than they had ever been, while our economy now fluctuates to a degree not thought possible throughout history.

My own Catalan history stems from a long line of people who worked hard to give as much as they could to their families. My avi (grandfather) from Cardona was happy when, as a baker, he found a job in Canada where he didn't have to wake up at 430 every morning for the rest of his life. He dreamed of playing basketball and football, but one day a friend told him, “People will always need bread”. So, he became a baker to support his family. His sense of purpose and fulfilment came from the fact that he had work.

Until now, nobody could ask the same questions that millennials do with such regularity. Admittedly, we have the privilege of sitting around and wondering about whether or not we are “happy” or if we find fulfilment in our professional lives. We do so because we are becoming increasingly aware of the instability we must pilot, while trying to live up to the expectations from a world view that is obsolete.

Uncertainty is why we have to expand our skill set while doing unpaid or poorly paid internships. It is why we have had to become tech-savvy in order to keep up. It is why millennials may not be able to own a home for years, if at all. (To be honest, when I lived in London, it was a relief and a strain to pay extremely high rent, because it meant I never felt the pressure to buy a home in a place I knew I couldn't afford.) Simply put, such change has never happened on such a scale at any point in history, and we are held responsible.

My generation was raised in an economic system that has transformed into something new. And, we do not know how to manage it, yet. In this new economy, university educations have become standard and are not necessarily a mark of excellence as much as a stamp of normalcy. For millennials there is uncertainty about whether a job will be around in five years, or what new jobs will be created tomorrow. As our world evolves at this pace, we have to adapt to the job market. What it also means is that we are constantly starting over. Whether for personal or professional reasons, it is a reality for us either way.