Get Rich or Start Cryin?
By Jeff Milone · February 20, 2008
Ever feel like if you could just get rich, everything would be ok? Ever feel like becoming wealthy is the most important thing? You’re not alone.
According to a Pew Research Center poll, 81 percent of 18 to 25-year-olds site getting rich as one of their generation’s most important goals and 51 percent feel the same about being famous.
In an annual survey of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, data from 2005 clearly show that money is on their minds much more than in the past. The percentage who say it is “essential” or “very important” to be “very well off financially” grew from 41.9% in 1967 to 74.5% in 2005; “developing a meaningful philosophy of life” dropped in importance from 85.8% in 1967 to 45% in 2005.
Those numbers would seem to suggest that today’s twentysomethings are a bunch of money-grubbing sellouts, just looking to make a quick buck. Some would say that because the standard of living is so much higher for this latest generation of young adults, it’s somewhat of a kneejerk reaction to want to become rich: “I was really comfortable growing up, now I’m out of college and I’m starving – I need to hurry up and get rich, so I can be comfortable again.” They are falling victim to the curse of being born into a stable environment: all the benefits of being provided for, but no knowledge of the struggle it took for their parents to get there.
Or maybe it’s simply that we live in expensive times. Housing, insurance, cars, even food is more expensive now than it was for our parents. Sure, we make more money than our parents did at our age, but our dollars buy less. We’ll have a harder time coming up with the amount of income to even do as well as our parents did at our age.
These are uncertain times for the United States. Fears of economic recession, corruption in politics, the erosion of America’s standing in the eyes of the world, all dominate the headlines. Perhaps this unprecedented obsession with becoming wealthy is just young adults wanting to insulate themselves from upcoming hardship? One could argue such behavior is a function of evolutionary biology. Squirrels stockpile nuts for the winter. Fish eat more before a storm hits. Twentysomething humans go after money when it seems there is going to be a shortage of it.
Then there’s the rags-to-riches stories. The college drop-out who started a billion dollar website. The 20-year-old actor who’s set for life doing what he loves. Twentysomethings can’t help but ask themselves: “why can’t I have that life? Did I go wrong someplace?” And the explosion of technology only makes the pain worse. The internet is minting more overnight stars than ever before. MySpace and YouTube are like big cultural department store windows – and our generation is shopping till we drop.
Whatever the cause, the numbers are too staggering to be ignored. The question looms; what does this tell us about our generation?
Written by Jeff Milone · Filed Under Work · 
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Tagged: career, fame, fulfillment, money, rich
I think the poll about being famous is very telling and symptomatic of a generation that has been weaned on reality television and the internet minting of overnight stars (as you mentioned). It seems that success isn’t truly enough; you also have to inform AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE about your success, and the internet, unfortunately, provides that outlet to boast and brag.
Don’t you feel that this prevailing need to be famous ultimately stems from an unchecked, boiling cauldron of insecurity and narcissism, qualities which can also be attributed to someone wanting immediate success?
I tend to attribute the perceived need for fame and riches primarily to each individual’s insecurity. That insecurity can often masquerade as narcissism, but I believe the “cultural department store window” effect I mentioned, is breeding insecurity at an alarming rate.
And it’s a silent killer. Since cultural comparison is so readily available, people often develop a “covet-complex” without even realizing it. It stifles both professional and personal growth, and can paralyze an individual faster than most any other phenomenon.