2021: generational tipping point

[beechnut79]

(02-01-2021, 12:59 PM)nguyenivy Wrote:

(02-01-2021, 11:17 AM)mamabug Wrote:

(02-01-2021, 04:25 AM)nguyenivy Wrote: Will the shared experience of being in school & university during the pandemic forcing the switchover to online ed by a generational marker? It seems to match up pretty well as a defining characteristic, so the generation would have birth years around 1998 - 2016 which cuts into the S-H Millennial birth years a bit, with the oldest finishing university about now and the youngest having been in their first year of school last spring when everything switched, and people born after 2016 not remembering either Trump or pandemic (assuming the pandemic ends soon). Given how long this has gone on for, it may make a huge impact down the line, especially with all the resumption & closures going on every so many months. There is bound to be a lot of anxiety around this unstable life from such a young age.

I don't think it will effect those who were in University, the impact of online education on those over 18 is, arguably, less impactful as well as not being as universal experience given that not everyone goes straight to University post-HS.

Those graduating HS this year or later are still in play as being on the Millenial/Zoomer border.  Their lived experience is vastly different from those just one year older.  Greater rates of academic failure, social isolation, depression, suicidal ideation, obesity, child abuse, child hunger, developmental delays, and so on.   This is in addition to the economic instability impacting their families.  

Anecdotal time - I live in a working-to-middle class area that is high immigrant and minority.  My son is a senior at what the district likes to call a 'minority majority school.'   Per him, many of his classmates are either working or desperately trying to find work in order to help keep their families financially solvent.  This was NOT the case just a year ago.  My state has been pretty generous with unemployment, but that is no longer plugging the holes.  IMO, there is a crash coming and we are about to find out it is a lot harder to restart an economy than to shut it down.

Makes sense that those still in school this school year are having it even harder than last where everyone still had school till the March shutdowns. This school year is an overall mess right from the start. About restarting an economy being even more difficult, another issue there is the number of industries that are reliant on discretionary spending that usually can only happen when economic times are good. Once the pandemic is under control, I expect smaller more local discretionary/recreation stuff to pick up but not the bigger things like international travel until the pandemic is fully in the rearview mirror across the world.

But the travel and hospitality industry is very bullish about a robust recovery post-pandemic. Have often wondered though why we keep hearing every year that new spending records were achieved in this industry or that. Am very skeptical of said claims.