This ridiculous article does not once mention the word "Obama" or the irony of Gen Y Pros committing economic suicide by voting for the human monster.

For them the "American dream" hasn´t faded, they´ve destroyed it in favor of their new daily nightmare. I think they´re too stupid and brainwashed to realize they should have a notion that they actually have a problem.

I would wager a large sum that all the people quoted in the article twice voted for Obama.

Can´t ever underestimate the willing ignorance of the low information voter. They are like the dogs returning to their own vomit mentioned in the Bible. Very sad really.

One of our graduate students, back in 1999, accepted a position with an oil company, in labor relations. The company is well known, and has an excellent careeer ladder for its employees. (another of our graduates from the early 1980s, went with the same company, and is now a VP.
But the student from 1999 bailed out quickly, after an offer from one of those dotcom companies came in. He believed he had all sorts of opportunities greater than the oil company could offer.
He is now a nowhere man.

Wow!

I am a bit older than the Generation Y folks, but I have been where they are. I can say two things: First, they are not the only ones facing this. Second, they got what they voted for.

Thank the teachers union for these poor souls.

We had a saying in Vietnam, "Payback is a mother". You sweeties voted for the narcissis in chief. Now live with the consequences. We who have worked all our lives to make this country great shake our heads in disbelief at your stupidity.

I can´t imagine why some posters presume that 100% of Generation Y members voted for Obama. I know plenty who either voted Republican or chose to sit out the election because they didn´t want to vote for Obama.

....a "sit out the election" is the same as a vote for "choomboy"...snark.

I am not sure what "the American Dream" means or when or why this term became a journalistic favorite. It seems to signify something along the lines of "If I do certain things I will have what I want." Whatever it means, if it means anything whatever, it is naive and infantile. Life has never worked that way. Earlier generations of Americans seem to have known that there were no guarantees - that opportunity was not the same thing as success.

Somewhere along the line, relatively recently I believe, "the American Dream" actually seemed to expand to include the fantastic and impossible notion that home ownership is or ought to be within the reach of every American. We have seen the consequences of that economically preposterous idea - and we will, all of us, be paying for them for a long time to come.

If there has ever actually been an "American Dream," it has been one of opportunity, apparent or real. A dream is not the same thing as a result. We have a generation of Americans who know little or no history, not even of their own country. Many of them seem to have acquired the idea that opportunity and dreams equal or guarantee the results one desires. This is sheer infantilism. It is a dangerous path to go down, for the inevitable frustrations it brings will lead to frustration and indignation, as though there were something wrong with a world in which one´s efforts were not reliably rewarded and one´s desires almost always gratified.

Spot on, #11. For a glaring example of your post, just look at the behavior of contestants on any of the ´´Idol´´ shows. The no-talent losers weep uncontrollably into their hands and wail about the injustice that anyone would even dare to not recognize their self-inflated greatness.

The American Dream means to me that if you set your sights on a goal and work for it, your chances of reaching it are reasonably good. Sometimes luck plays a part. Nothing is guaranteed.

If you sit back and wait for somebody else to do the heavy lifting for you, your chances are considerably less. Voting for somebody like Barry Obama on the basis of campaign promises is just plain stupid.

Gen Y voted for Obama. ´Nuff said.

FTA: "..Young Americans are struggling to reconcile their lack of economic rewards with their relatively privileged upbringings by Baby Boomer parents and the material success of their older peers, Generation X, born in the late 1960s and 1970s, …"

They forget, or never knew that the ´material success´ of their ´older peers´ was brought about by their hard work…and the hard work wasn´t necessarily ´fulfilling,´ or ´rewarding,´ but usually just a job performing productive labor of one type or another for an employer who was willing and able to pay for it…and the labor performed had to be worth more to the employer than the cost of the employee.

´Dream Jobs´ rarely occur in real life. And if life offers you one it should be nurtured and treasured.

i´ve never had a lot of empathy for New Yawkers with hyphenated names who only know Flyoverland as that "someplace west of the Hudson"..

Change the healine to "...Everyone" and you´d have some accuracy. To say the poor Gen Y´s are in trouble...well boo hoo! at least they have their youth and have a chance to turn it around and maybe see some return to prosperity.

It´s the law of supply and demand:
"Law schools are turning out about 45,000 degree holders a year for about 25,000 full-time positions available to them, according to the National Association for Law Placement Inc. in Washington."
Just going to law school doesn´t make you smart or hard-working (look at the current resident of the White House). The good ones rise to the top and the others...

Meanwhile, I know a journeyman large equipment mechanic who will clear $120K this year.

Yep, this article is another boo-hoo special from the entitlement crowd, and that includes the clueless author. As #11 points out so eloquently, the author doesn´t understand what the American dream is. He thinks it´s an entitlement.

#1 has it all.

Just want to add that when this country had fewer nanny regulations and fewer freeloaders, the increased opportunities gave a lot of us a real hand up to better jobs, higher incomes and saving money. Even motivated people are having a hard time these days. Oh, smart and hard working people will make it but not at the level we (I´m a ´boomer´) did.

Oh, and if you´re a dumb bunny liberal who voted for Obama... thank a teacher.

Liberals don´t get it because they don´t know what economics, public finance, or the constitition is, but expanded government and huge deficits mean lowered growth and living standards for everyone. The government can spend your money or you can. This business that a majority of idiots can have the government take your money and throw it away on nothing is rot and ruin. The government spent $2 trillion in 2000, now $5 trillion. What are we getting for the $3 trillion -- nothing.

Someone mentioned that not all Generation Y´s voted for Obama.

Yes, that stinks, but it is an opportunity. You Generation Y´s who didn´t vote for Obama are in the best position to set straight the Generation Y´s who did vote for him.

In this way Generation Y´s who didn´t vote for Obama are like Muslims who oppose terrorism and government-by-sharia-law. You unfairly bear the criticism for your group, but you have a unique opportunity to fix the problem.

Appropriate name that: Generation Y. Why? Because you are ignorant, lazy narcissists who gave the country a clone of yourselves to destroy the American Dream you know nothing about.

You guys are tools. You really make me sick. They absolutely do have it worse - every generation has after the early boomers. Almost anything is tolerable if you feel you and your family are moving forward in the greater scheme of things. That´s the difference between previous generations and now.

My boomer uncle could take a few years off in his 20s to "find himself" and return to an economy so robust with engineering jobs that he could work in whatever place he found interesting. Minimum wage paid survival rates for a family of four with only one person working - in CALIFORNIA. Don´t even get me started on real estate.

The jobs have been outsourced starting in the 90s, with a small holiday from history know as the dotcom bubble. Obama didn´t do that. Elites did so their returns would skyrocket while labor costs bottomed out. Investors did so they could sit on their butt and have their shares increase while their kids and grandkids paid the price in an overall crap service economy.

Obama didn´t do any of that and neither party has made moves to correct it.

Now retirees sit on their butt and snark while 4 kids work crap jobs to pay for their fat, boomer butt´s social security.

I´m a baby boomer. At the beginning of my 33 year career I started at the bottom rung even with a college education. Over the years, I climbed the ladder rung by rung. The last 10 years of my career was miserable because the Generation Y´s were being hired and demanded the same respect, pay, time off, and perks seasoned employees had after paying their dues with decades loyalty and dedication.

What #14 said and because of that fact, Generation Y have many, many, many important life lessons to learn before they begin to get on the right path. They are just beginning to suffer the consequences of the twisted political ideology they were spoon-fed in their hallowed university classrooms. We can only pray for them now. If they do not put their faith in something other than self, money and liberal government leaders and celebrities then you betchya, their futures are looking very bleak indeed.

I´ve had the misfortune of supervising a few of these immature, whining little brats, mostly young lawyers. They come in thinking that the firm/company that they are honoring with their presence owes them a secure "fulfilling" career path. A few hard life knocks will do them a world of good. I´d have liked to provide them, but California Employment Law prevented it.