People Born in 1900 Have Nothing On the People Born in 2000
There is a viral post going around called “Be Happy You Weren’t Born in 1900.” With all due respect to our elders, I don’t think they have anything on the generation that was born around 2000, who are on the cusp between the Millennials and Gen Z.
1999 — the year before they were born — Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 11 people at Columbine H.S. — ushering in an era of school shootings and making them grow up during an era where “active shooter drills” will be a regular part of their experience once they enter school. Every kid in their generation will grow up rehearsing in their heads what they will do if a gunman enters their school for every classroom they sit in.
Beginning of 2000 — Y2K panic
2000 — No Child Left Behind legislation ushers in an era where schools’ and students’ “success” is measured entirely in test scores. They will grow up in an era where the first thing that greets them when they enter kindergarten is a test, where they get tested every year (often multiple times), where “learning” often means learning how to take tests, and where their value is measured by their scores.
2000–2001 — “Dot-boom” turns into “dot-bomb” and a lot of people in tech or tech-influenced industries lose their jobs. Begin another 20 years of economic and market volatility and continuing decreases in job security.
September 11, 2001 — Terrorists pilot planes into the World Trade Center, beginning an age where such acts of domestic terrorism are part of our reality.
2002 — U.S. invades Afghanistan. We’re still fighting there 18 years later.
2003 — U.S. invades Iraq. We’re still fighting there 17 years later.
Over the next 17 years we will expand our Middle East war into alternately bombing in Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.
2008 — Housing bubble bursts. Banks and corporations get bailed out, but homeowners don’t. While “the economy” and stocks recover, workers don’t. Many people lose their homes or their jobs, or take a hit to their incomes or retirements. Many people born in 2000 have lost a home at least once.
2008 — Obama gets elected. People who can’t handle a Black President create the Tea Party. The Koch brothers and other neo-conservative economic groups fund them, more extreme Republicans fan the flames, and more moderate Republicans retire or lose elections.
Politics becomes more hostile and more divisive. Being from a “Red State” or a “Blue State” or a “Republican” or a “Democrat” becomes less about having general (but at least somewhat flexible) views on issues and more of a matter of ingrained identity. Politics gets framed less and less as a conversation and more and more as a war.
Considering a stance outside of one’s “party” becomes unthinkable — almost more like changing race or religion. People become openly hostile toward those from “other” groups. A small but growing minority becomes more open about threatening armed rebellion if they don’t get their way.
There is increasing hostility toward immigrants, particularly those from south of our border. Republicans refuse to support any candidate who is open to discussing any real immigration form apart from “close the borders.” The U.S. pressures Mexico and uses other tactics at the border to discourage immigrants from entering. Meanwhile, the economy becomes increasingly dependent on immigrant labor. Many children in this generation grow up with one or more relatives or friends who are undocumented, and with the constant fear of being deported.
Endless cuts to state funding and schools mean they’re growing up in an era where “there isn’t money for that” is practically a given. They grow up in schools with leaky roofs, overcrowded classrooms, younger and less-prepared teachers, and where documented needs may or may not be addressed.
While going to college has always been touted as the best pathway for upward mobility, it’s not seeming like such a sure bet for them. Endless cuts to state funding for higher education mean that students pay much more for college than their parents or grandparents did. Endless demands for colleges to do more to demonstrate “compliance” and “measurable results” also suck up resources, leaving fewer resources that actually go to services students use.
The planet is looking more and more fragile. Temperatures climb every year. Once-in-a-generation storm events, floods, or fires now happen regularly. The older generations argue about what to do but provide no real leadership. None of them want to stop driving their trucks, or flying, or limiting their level of consumption, saying that doing so would enroach on their personal freedoms.
Growing socio-economic disparity means that everyone is anxious. If their families are lower-income, they see less and less of a way out. If their families are higher-income, there is endless pressure to jump through more and more hoops to have a shot at maintaining their family’s status. Many members of their generation grow up with multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and many have mental health issues by the time they reach adulthood.
2016 — A senile narcissist gets elected to be President. Cue 3+ (currently) years of governmental insanity and social and cultural division and vitriol.
2017 — Congress passes a huge “Tax and Jobs Act.” At this point the U.S. is also spending $600 billion PER YEAR to bomb 5 or more other countries. This creates a massive deficit which their generation will need to pay back. Many pay into Social Security but assume that their money will get appropriated by the federal government long before they reach retirement.
The senile narcissist had run his 2016 campaign on promises to “build a wall” between the U.S. and Mexico. While there isn’t any money for roads, schools, hospitals, or aid for families, there is money to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. When Congress won’t fund his pet project, he takes money from other pots, such as the military. Mexican cartels sharpen their already-impressive tunnel-digging skills, figure out how to make a hard-to-see ladder with $5 of materials from hardware stores, or remember that it’s still very easy to fly into this country.
2019 — Boomers get outraged when young people start saying, “OK Boomer.”
2020 — Impeachment hearings. Even though the Senate believes the evidence, they decide not to confirm the impeachment because they decide that it doesn’t matter that the President tried to blackmail a foreign country by withholding public funds in order to manipulate an election. They essentially rule that the President is above the law.
2020 — CORVID-19 global epidemic. Now that they’d finally started figuring college out, their courses get cancelled and go online, and they get sent back home to live with their parents again. Now that they’d finally started getting jobs, they get laid off.
Many students who are seniors this year practically shrugged when they found out their graduation, prom, senior spring sports season, and ALL OF IT were going to be cancelled. It was probably similar for freshmen and sophomores in college. They felt like OF COURSE this would be how their senior year ended. They almost felt like they’d been preparing for this their whole lives.
