Is Gen Z the poorest generation ever? I've seen a few videos and posts suggesting that is the case.
Honestly, absolutely not. Not remotely.
Is Gen Z poorer than the boomers? Yes. Is Gen Z poorer than the millennials? Also yes. Are they the poorest in history? Not by a long shot.
Consider that a lot of previous generations struggled to get enough to eat. A lot of previous generations couldn't have actual savings. The bulk of many previous generations weren't even allowed to own anything since private ownership is a relatively recent thing in history.
You know the word "Bandit"? Well historically, that's not just a word, it's a lived reality. You couldn't really travel between cities easily because you'd be jumped by roving bands of such bandits because that's the only way they had to live. In Rome, many bandits were former farmers whose lands were taken by the government and given to soldiers without compensation. They'd be so many the would conquer a city, and they wouldn't hit the Louis Vuitton store, they'd hit the granary because a few tons of grain were worth more to them than luxury goods because they were so poor food wasn't a guarantee.
There have been chokepoints in human history where the average human was so destitute, the race nearly ended. We know of two such chokepoints, mitochondrial eve and Y-Chromosomal adam, where the entire human race has a single female and male ancestor. That doesn't mean that all of humanity was just one woman or one man at that time, but it does mean that humanity came close enough to the brink that such a bottleneck was possible. Comparing that to not being able to buy a nice house and a nice car, and there's no comparison.
Much more recently, workers in the early industrial revolution were constantly on a knife's edge, working their asses off and barely getting enough money for food and shelter, such that an employed worker faced a real potential for starvation.
Even in the past century or so, we have evidence of how destitute the average person was. Most people can barely fit in cars from the 40s and 50s. A Mustang used to be a car you and your wife might use, but today most people would find it uncomfortably cramped. Why? Because individuals face much better material conditions their entire lives and ignoring for a minute that being fat is considered a poor person's disease, people are incredibly tall and muscular compared to the past as well.
I do believe that the millennials and Gen Z are the poorest generation in the history of the world in other ways.
We are the poorest generations in history in that we have lost our connections to local culture and community. Before the postwar boom, more people went to church, more people participated in community clubs, more people had friends they saw in person on a regular basis.
We are the poorest generations in history in that we have some of the weakest family connections in world history. Postmodernism has attacked concepts like the family because they can be deconstructed. Many parents aren't passing on much to their kids except how to use an ipad. The majority of both men and women are seeing a collapsing likelihood of ever having families of their own.
We are the poorest generations in history in that we have lost more of our history and culture disappear than any other -- libraries full of books, and nobody reads. Certain specific societies seemed to have parallels in the bronze age collapse, but oral traditions did continue at that time. We don't even tell old stories because clever postmodernists deconstructed them and told us they were stupid. How many in Gen Z know about the seven Pleiades sisters? How many in Gen Z actually know the stories of King Arthur or Charlamagne? How many in Gen Z can look at the sky and understand the stars? Most of Gen Z can't even see the stars from their cities -- surrounded by lights when most societies were too poor to light every street every night all night, but missing the truth of reality beyond the shroud of that light.
Given that Gen Z and beyond are currently materially wealthy, their futures are bleak. Previous generations were poor, but at least they knew how to grow a potato. How many kids grow up thinking food comes from the store? If entire generations are growing up not knowing how to make the fundamentals of life work, how exactly are they supposed to maintain the immense wealth when it comes time for them to steward it? For that reason, I expect that the poorest generation in history may end up being something like Generation Gamma, after the boomers and even millennials die out, and bring their knowledge to the grave. Surrounded by farms, but nobody knows how to farm. Surrounded by technology that eventually erodes into rocks.
Honestly, absolutely not. Not remotely.
Is Gen Z poorer than the boomers? Yes. Is Gen Z poorer than the millennials? Also yes. Are they the poorest in history? Not by a long shot.
Consider that a lot of previous generations struggled to get enough to eat. A lot of previous generations couldn't have actual savings. The bulk of many previous generations weren't even allowed to own anything since private ownership is a relatively recent thing in history.
You know the word "Bandit"? Well historically, that's not just a word, it's a lived reality. You couldn't really travel between cities easily because you'd be jumped by roving bands of such bandits because that's the only way they had to live. In Rome, many bandits were former farmers whose lands were taken by the government and given to soldiers without compensation. They'd be so many the would conquer a city, and they wouldn't hit the Louis Vuitton store, they'd hit the granary because a few tons of grain were worth more to them than luxury goods because they were so poor food wasn't a guarantee.
There have been chokepoints in human history where the average human was so destitute, the race nearly ended. We know of two such chokepoints, mitochondrial eve and Y-Chromosomal adam, where the entire human race has a single female and male ancestor. That doesn't mean that all of humanity was just one woman or one man at that time, but it does mean that humanity came close enough to the brink that such a bottleneck was possible. Comparing that to not being able to buy a nice house and a nice car, and there's no comparison.
Much more recently, workers in the early industrial revolution were constantly on a knife's edge, working their asses off and barely getting enough money for food and shelter, such that an employed worker faced a real potential for starvation.
Even in the past century or so, we have evidence of how destitute the average person was. Most people can barely fit in cars from the 40s and 50s. A Mustang used to be a car you and your wife might use, but today most people would find it uncomfortably cramped. Why? Because individuals face much better material conditions their entire lives and ignoring for a minute that being fat is considered a poor person's disease, people are incredibly tall and muscular compared to the past as well.
I do believe that the millennials and Gen Z are the poorest generation in the history of the world in other ways.
We are the poorest generations in history in that we have lost our connections to local culture and community. Before the postwar boom, more people went to church, more people participated in community clubs, more people had friends they saw in person on a regular basis.
We are the poorest generations in history in that we have some of the weakest family connections in world history. Postmodernism has attacked concepts like the family because they can be deconstructed. Many parents aren't passing on much to their kids except how to use an ipad. The majority of both men and women are seeing a collapsing likelihood of ever having families of their own.
We are the poorest generations in history in that we have lost more of our history and culture disappear than any other -- libraries full of books, and nobody reads. Certain specific societies seemed to have parallels in the bronze age collapse, but oral traditions did continue at that time. We don't even tell old stories because clever postmodernists deconstructed them and told us they were stupid. How many in Gen Z know about the seven Pleiades sisters? How many in Gen Z actually know the stories of King Arthur or Charlamagne? How many in Gen Z can look at the sky and understand the stars? Most of Gen Z can't even see the stars from their cities -- surrounded by lights when most societies were too poor to light every street every night all night, but missing the truth of reality beyond the shroud of that light.
Given that Gen Z and beyond are currently materially wealthy, their futures are bleak. Previous generations were poor, but at least they knew how to grow a potato. How many kids grow up thinking food comes from the store? If entire generations are growing up not knowing how to make the fundamentals of life work, how exactly are they supposed to maintain the immense wealth when it comes time for them to steward it? For that reason, I expect that the poorest generation in history may end up being something like Generation Gamma, after the boomers and even millennials die out, and bring their knowledge to the grave. Surrounded by farms, but nobody knows how to farm. Surrounded by technology that eventually erodes into rocks.
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