Letter to the Editor: Millennials are Facing Challenges
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Dear Editor-In-Chief,
My name is Carlos Ascasibar, and I am a 30-year-old who is back in college to finish my education. In recent years, other generations have said that Millennials are lazy and entitled. As a Millennial myself, I beg to differ. Unfortunately, we have been put in a challenging situation and position compared to our parents and grandparents, who had a different course to what is considered the American dream.
The American dream is to go to college, buy a home, start a family and work until one retires. However, this dream has become harder to achieve. College can be way too expensive to afford, so this generation may choose not to pursue an education. Also, having families at an earlier age is not a viable option and buying a house has become extremely difficult.
I don’t believe we’re lazy or entitled. I believe we weren’t set up to succeed by the previous generations. We don’t all come from generational wealth, which affects most of the working class. According to an article from CNBC, Gen Z and Millennial generations ages 18-25 and 26-41 want to own a home someday or even now but the biggest obstruction is affordability.
The older generation needs to realize that the cost of living has rocketed compared to their generation. They need to have more empathy and not judge us, based on our speaking up and calling to action, on the fact that some of us can no longer afford education or to buy a home.
There’s a quote from Bernie Sanders that says, “For many, the American dream has become a nightmare.” I couldn’t agree more as some of us are not able to achieve those dreams until we as a united country begin to understand and help one another.
Ms. Madison, I hope that one day my wife and I will soon be able to afford to buy a home, one that our family deserves because we work hard, but apparently not hard enough, to be able to own a home. I hope that our leaders do the right thing and explore ways to provide better assistance for those that need it the most. This no longer needs to be a generation battle. We need to come together as one for the better of our country and for each generation to come.
Sincerely,
Carlos Ascasibar
Concord, CA
M Scott • Sep 22, 2022 at 2:32 pm
I’m Gen Y (that forgotten gap between Gen X and Millennials). I remember my parents not understanding why my generation had such a hard time leaving home. I was unable to move out until I was 21. My mom thought I didn’t understand how to save money and hounded me on it all the time. She didn’t understand that rent was $1200 a month for a tiny one bedroom and I wasn’t even making that much per month, let alone food and gas. I ended up dropping out of college and joining the service. I’m now pushing 40, trying to finish with my GI Bill and a five year old. If I was a single mom, there is no way that would be enough to cover us. If I was unqualified for the military for any reason, I don’t know what I would have done or where I would be now. Even now, my mom struggles to understand that being an adult in the 70s was one of the best times for cost of living in recent history. My mom made low wages. My dad made okay wages and was taking out student loans and finishing college around the time I was born in the early 80s, the youngest of two. They had debt with the IRS. They were still able to raise us and eventually buy a townhouse and later upgrade to a house. They are now retired and doing well. They got to have a family and own a house in their early 20s with wage jobs. They could have one breadwinner and a homemaker. That is real living.