Andy Kessler

Reaction to Gen-G piece

Ah, the state of discourse today. Over the course of a few hours, after Gen-G piece ran in the WSJ, http://t.co/nUFlREvRAz, I’ve been called:

sociopathic scum (http://bit.ly/16nNudA),
a cold-hearted inhumane sadistic fiend,
a douche,
clueless moron,
pure evil and greed,
sociopath/maniac,
sneerer (http://bit.ly/13KczDH),
self-absorbed snob,
one man Spanish Inquisition,
devil,
lunatic,
sad human being,
pond scum,
judgmental,
blinkered executive,
belongs in a cage,
inhuman wingnut,
low life simpleton,
a$$hole,
tax this idiot,
dick,
a curmudgeon...you sad, sad little man,
well-supplied with arrogance, privilege, and douchebaggery,
traitor,
self important self aggrandizing self promoting selfishness,
a sociopath,
a greedy selfish piece of filth,
a few threats of physical harm (Someone needs to pop that guy in the mouth. Hard. Repeatedly. At least he raised a conscientious son,)
but finally (whew) not a total dungheap.

So at least I’ve got that going for me.

WSJ: Gen-G

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324853704578589902110093308.html

Passing through the San Francisco airport recently, I ran into a couple I know who were waiting to pick up their teenage children. "Coming back from camp?" I asked.

They responded with a gaze that could curdle milk into yogurt. Their kids were coming back "from their service trip to Guatemala," their mother informed me. "It was a wonderful volunteer experience, they really are improving lives." Gee, and I thought my kid was doing well by working at Jamba Juice this summer.

A little digging turned up some information about these service trips. One is called the Global Leadership Adventure: Children of the Maya. "Volunteer at a Maya school, attend a ceremony with a Maya shaman," the website reads. You'll receive 30 hours of community-service credit—also known as college-application fodder—for only $2,999. For $200 more, head to Ghana for two weeks to "improve local health and living conditions, live just steps away from the beach." What about investing the same $2,999 in Guatemalan entrepreneurs? Fat chance. Volun-tourism is charity for the giver.

I understand that overbearing parents encourage their children toward such do-good interludes, hoping that it will get them into Brown, but why does this generation go along with it? My take: Because they have it all. The baby-boom generation gave way to the slacker Gen-Xers, followed by Gen-Y and now we've moved up the alphabet to Gen-G—for Guilty.

So many young adults today really do have everything: GPS smart phones so they're never lost and Facebook so they're never bored. Macrobiotic yogurt, photorealistic computer-generated movies and shelves filled with participation trophies. Gen-G has not yet contributed anything but still feasts from the cornucopia of technology plenty.

Instead, these young people "serve."