Why is Gen Z so Angry — Transcript

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1. 0:00The "Okay Boomer" alliance is over. Millennials and Gen Z are turning on each other.
2. 0:05Millennials say Gen Z are impossible to  work with. Gen Z dismisses Millennials as
3. 0:10Harry Potter-obsessed nostalgia  addicts with cringe fashion.
4. 0:13But the truth of the crisis  is far darker than that.
5. 0:16The real fight is over who gets to inherit  what's left of the middle class. Millennials
6. 0:21reached adulthood just as the ladder to  a stable life started collapsing… and
7. 0:26they've spent years trying to climb it  anyway. Gen Z inherited an even steeper
8. 0:30climb. But unlike Millennials, many of  them don't want to climb the ladder.
9. 0:34They want to tear it down. It doesn't matter whether you know
10. 0:38more millennials or Gen Z. You're probably hearing  the exact same thing: the job market is brutal.
11. 0:43No one seems to be hiring. And when they are, the  pay, hours, or requirements make the job barely
12. 0:49worth taking. It's become normal to send out  hundreds of applications and never hear a word
13. 0:54back. Sometimes people spend 30 minutes filling  out an application, only to get an AI-generated
14. 0:59rejection before they've even closed the tab. The average millennial has seen wages stagnant,
15. 1:05leading to less buying power than their parents  had at the same age. Promotions are scarce,
16. 1:09and many are doing the work of two people. But  ask whether they're thinking about quitting,
17. 1:13and the answer is usually, "No way." Right now, the job market feels like a giant
18. 1:18game of musical chairs. The music stopped years  ago, and anyone who found a seat isn't standing
19. 1:23up unless they absolutely have to. The problem  is, there are new players joining all the time.
20. 1:29Millennials aren’t staying in the  same jobs because they love them.
21. 1:32They’re staying because they’re afraid to leave.
22. 1:35This isn’t just a millennials-versus-Gen  Z story. Baby boomers are retiring later
23. 1:39than any generation before them and  staying healthier while they do it.
24. 1:43That means more Boomers and Gen  X are holding onto senior roles,
25. 1:46leaving millennials stuck in entry- and  mid-level positions instead of climbing
26. 1:51the ladder. The result is some entry-level  jobs being filled by people pushing 40.
27. 1:56That leaves nothing for Gen Z.
28. 1:58It wasn’t long ago people were calling  millennials “kids”, but they’re slouching
29. 2:02towards middle age now. And the oldest Gen  Z are now approaching 30 and finding very
30. 2:07few opportunities for them. They’re the last  car in line of a multi-generational pile-up,
31. 2:12getting frustrated at the traffic with no  way of even seeing the source of the delay.
32. 2:17Meanwhile, millennials are  in line in front of them,
33. 2:19trying to ignore the rearview mirror  so they can concentrate on their job.
34. 2:23But a closer look at millennials  reveals a much scarier picture.
35. 2:27For older generations, the American Dream  was wealth and comfort. For millennials,
36. 2:32it’s just a steady paycheck and some basic  stability. Millennials have become associated
37. 2:36with hustle culture, with many of them working  longer and picking up side gigs in their off
38. 2:41hours. And that’s the advice their parents  gave them: if you work hard, people will see
39. 2:46that and you’ll be rewarded for your effort. The  only way to lasting success is striving for it.
40. 2:52So then why do millennials  feel so stuck in place? It
41. 2:56turns out the answer goes back well over a decade.
42. 2:58For many, 2008 felt like the dawn of a new era.  The oldest millennials were around 27 years old,
43. 3:04out of college and rising in the  workforce. It had been 7 years since
44. 3:08the 9/11 attacks - the first crisis of many  millennials’ lives - shook the country and
45. 3:12the future looked bright. While the  country was at war, there was no draft,
46. 3:16and the majority of millennials  were untouched by the conflict.
47. 3:20Then, the bottom fell out.
48. 3:21A massive economic shock hit Wall Street, and then  hit everyone else. The crisis was primarily caused
49. 3:27by a subprime mortgage collapse, but the resulting  shockwaves took out several major banks and sent
50. 3:33the Dow freefalling. A full-scale depression was  avoided by government bailouts, but an estimated
51. 3:388.7 million jobs were lost between 2008 and 2010,  the worst years of what would come to be known
52. 3:44as the Great Recession. Businesses went under  and many of those jobs would never come back.
53. 3:49For the millennials, it was a body blow.
54. 3:52Suddenly, the economy of promise that  millennials grew up in simply no longer
55. 3:56existed. Many saw all the progress  they made in the job field collapse,
56. 4:00leaving them to start from scratch. Few companies  had the money to hire during this period. Those
57. 4:05who graduated during this period saw one “No  openings” sign after another. And of course,
58. 4:10the bills never stopped coming. For many,  it led to arrested development, as they had
59. 4:15parents who were willing to let them stay at home  or come back while they got on their feet again.
60. 4:19For others, there was one choice… hustle.
61. 4:22Millennials didn’t have the luxury of picking and  choosing when it came to jobs during this period.
62. 4:27Many MBAs found themselves selling couches  or mixing Starbucks in their hometown. As the
63. 4:32tech market recovered and apps and gig work  became the future, some started driving Uber
64. 4:37or making deliveries part-time to supplement  their income. They scraped by in most cases,
65. 4:42but it left them little time to concentrate on  career progress. They remained stuck in place,
66. 4:47making enough to get by but not  enough to step up the ladder.
67. 4:50All the while Gen Z was looking on.
68. 4:53If you talk to the average Gen Z member, they’ll  have no shortage of complaints about Millennials.
69. 4:58One big one is that they’re stuck in place,  endlessly cosplaying the 90s and talking about
70. 5:02the good old days. They still dress like they’re  in high school and talk about their favorite
71. 5:06nostalgia movies and TV. But digging below  the surface, that might be just projection.
72. 5:12Gen Z is looking at millennials hustling  for everything and using nostalgia to cope.
73. 5:16And they’re asking why they don’t even have that.
74. 5:19It’s not that Gen Z are annoyed that Millennials  work hard, they’re annoyed that they work hard
75. 5:24for nothing. Millennials are still stuck in  neutral, failing to attain the success of the
76. 5:28generations before them. Rather than taking over  the big guns, they’re sitting on the bottom rung,
77. 5:33making sure no one else can climb up. When Gen Z  looks at this dynamic, they have one big question.
78. 5:39What are we doing this for anyway?
79. 5:41For millennials, the math is daunting. For Gen Z,  it looks impossible. Wages are staying the same,
80. 5:47while the cost of everything keeps going up. If  there’s one thing Millennials and Gen Z still have
81. 5:52in common, it’s that they don’t want to hear from  Gen X and the Boomers about how easy everything
82. 5:57used to be. Grandpa will talk about how he walked  up to a factory the day after high school, got a
83. 6:02job with a handshake, held it for 47 years, and  bought a house and raised a family on one income.
84. 6:07To the younger generations, that  might as well be science fiction.
85. 6:12Back in 1985, the average family had  four main expenses: housing, healthcare,
86. 6:17transportation, and food. Education might  be an additional expense if private school
87. 6:21or college is involved. Being able to cover  these and have money left over was called the
88. 6:26cost of thriving. On average during the  mid-1980s, it took the average person 40
89. 6:31weeks to earn enough money to cover them.  The remaining three months of income could
90. 6:35go into savings for emergencies, or  be spent on luxuries like vacations.
91. 6:40Today, it’s a very different picture.
92. 6:42The cost of all those things has risen  precipitously, with groceries being the
93. 6:46most noticeable on a day-to-day basis. But wages  haven’t kept pace. That means that as of 2025,
94. 6:52the cost-of-thriving index indicates that the  median male worker will have to work 65 weeks in
95. 6:59order to hit the same metric. The average worker  simply can’t meet this metric anymore, which has
96. 7:04led to a huge increase in dual-income households  and people cutting back on basic expenses.
97. 7:09Yet the costs keep going up.
98. 7:11Imagine running a marathon. You’re getting more  and more tired, and you feel like you’re almost
99. 7:16there. But as you get closer to the finish  line, it moves another 100 yards away. You’d
100. 7:21get demoralized pretty quickly. Millennials are  used to it, though. At the last count, 42% of
101. 7:26millennials have side hustles to supplement their  income. The numbers are fairly similar for Gen Z,
102. 7:31with an estimated 45-46% having supplemental gigs.  The single-income family is gone and increasingly,
103. 7:38the 9 to 5 is going with it. Working used to buy  a life, but now we’re lucky if it buys a week
104. 7:44And it still might not be enough.
105. 7:46Millennials have been hit by three economic crises  in a row, with Gen Z sharing in the third and
106. 7:51biggest - the Covid-19 pandemic. The shut downs  caused massive job losses, dwarfing even the Great
107. 7:57Recession with an estimated 22 million jobs being  lost in 2020 alone. Things have improved since,
108. 8:03but many of those jobs are never coming back,  and inflation hasn’t slowed down even a little.
109. 8:09Cumulative inflation has topped 20% since 2020,  making it feel impossible to ever catch up.
110. 8:15There’s only one clear path to success these days.  It’s not how much you make, it’s what you own.
111. 8:21But who owns it?
112. 8:22For most people, the events of 2020 are  the dividing line between before and
113. 8:26after. Millennials were struggling  to find their footing after 2008,
114. 8:30but many had found some stability.  The economy did recalibrate,
115. 8:34and some were even able to buy homes. And those  millennials who owned property before 2020 have
116. 8:39hit the financial lottery. Home prices have seen a  nearly 50% increase in the 6 years that followed,
117. 8:45giving those millennials one of the few  truly stable sources of wealth in the
118. 8:49modern day. After all, not having to pay rent  is one of the biggest money-savers around.
119. 8:54Everyone else is struggling to survive.
120. 8:57The numbers don’t look entirely awful for Gen  Z. They’ve actually got a slightly higher rate
121. 9:01of home ownership than millennials have -  26.3% to 24%. But Gen Z has a much higher
122. 9:08debt-to-income ratio, with the average Gen  Z consumer debt coming in at over $34,000.
123. 9:14Tthe houses that Gen Z are buying are  often described as “Survival Bunkers”,
124. 9:18offering them little room to  spread out or raise a family.
125. 9:22But they’re the lucky ones.
126. 9:24It’s a common refrain that “We have more houses  than there are homeless people”, but the problem
127. 9:28with that is, many of those homes aren’t where  people want to live. The Great Recession and Covid
128. 9:33caused a lot of people to lose everything, and  the bank often took possession of their houses.
129. 9:38Many of those vacant houses are heavily rural,  with many falling into disrepair. The more vacant
130. 9:44houses in an area, the more likely the area is  to be economically depressed. That means there’s
131. 9:49no chance for someone who moves there to take  advantage of cheap real estate to start a career.
132. 9:54For Gen Z, that often means  there’s only one choice.
133. 9:57The hubs of American commerce are in the big  cities, and that’s where most young people
134. 10:01go to try to find their fortune. But getting a  home in a city these days is a herculean task.
135. 10:07Buying a property in the city center of New York  or Los Angeles will cost 7 figures in most cases,
136. 10:12which means that the suburbs benefit as well.  The increased demand has seen sales prices
137. 10:17rise dramatically in places like Long Island.  The average Gen Z in a city will be renting,
138. 10:23and those rates have been going up too. The  average rent in NYC is around $3,700 a month,
139. 10:29which means it’s likely an apartment will eat  up the majority of a Gen Z resident’s income.
140. 10:34It's turning into a tale of  the haves and the have nots.
141. 10:37Millennials who bought when the time was  right struck it rich. They have access to
142. 10:41the one thing everyone is striving for, the  potential for generational wealth. Meanwhile,
143. 10:46everyone else is either spending everything  they have to buy a less desirable property,
144. 10:51or remaining stuck in the vicious cycle of  paying rent, never able to save enough to get
145. 10:56out of it. Gen Z is looking up the ladder at  the lucky millennials, getting more and more
146. 11:00resentful. But they don’t quite realize that a  lot of millennials are stuck in there with them.
147. 11:05Is it any wonder they’re starting  to think the game is just…rigged?
148. 11:10When it comes to work, Gen Z has a reputation  problem. Employers are firing them at higher
149. 11:15rates than millennials. The biggest complaints  are a weaker work ethic, less willingness to go
150. 11:20beyond their job description, and little interest  in climbing the corporate ladder or buying into
151. 11:25workplace culture. Meanwhile, millennials are  consistently rated as the easiest generation
152. 11:29to work with. They bridge the gap between  traditional, by-the-book employees and younger,
153. 11:34tech-savvy workers. Gen Z, on the other  hand, is consistently ranked at the bottom.
154. 11:39It’s not that Gen Z is failing at adulting,  it’s that they’ve given up on trying to compete
155. 11:44in what they feel like is a game rigged  against them. They’re far more likely to
156. 11:48leave on the dot as soon as their shift is  over, refuse requests to pick up shifts,
157. 11:53come in on a day off, or split their focus  on the job with a side hustle. In fact,
158. 11:5850% of them say they’re actively not trying to  get promoted, because the middle management roles
159. 12:02that are offered seem like a big increase  in stress for a small increase in pay.
160. 12:07They’re not failing, they’re opting out.
161. 12:09And the reason is the cautionary  tale of the millennials.
162. 12:12Millennials have embraced hustle culture like no  other generation. That’s what happens when you get
163. 12:17knocked down repeatedly. You do what it takes  to get back up there. For all the Boomers like
164. 12:22to talk about younger generations not knowing  the value of a dollar or an honest day’s work,
165. 12:26millennials know all too well. Many had to  rebuild themselves after both the 2008 recession
166. 12:31and the Covid-19 collapse, and they did it by  stretching themselves thin. Between a full-time
167. 12:37job and side hustles, it’s not unheard of for  millennials to work 60-hour weeks in some cases.
168. 12:42That would be worth the sacrifice…  if they were getting rich.
169. 12:46Gen Z doesn’t look at the millennial hustle  culture and work ethic with admiration. They
170. 12:50look at it with horror. They see it as the  ultimate validation of their perspective
171. 12:55that the system just isn’t worth it anymore.  What’s worse than working your life away?
172. 13:00Doing it for little reward long-term. They  see the millennials just up ahead of them,
173. 13:04hustling for a dollar and still winding in  the same place. So could it be any worse
174. 13:09if they just opted out entirely?  They’re not just slacking off,
175. 13:13they’re rejecting the whole dynamic of the economy  that every previous generation was raised with.
176. 13:18This isn’t just a workplace trend.
177. 13:20It’s an alarm bell for the  whole system we live in.
178. 13:22If this were only happening at work, people  wouldn’t be nearly as concerned. But it
179. 13:27isn’t. Gen Z is losing faith in almost every  major institution around them. We’re already
180. 13:32living through a period of record-low trust in  institutions that previous generations relied on,
181. 13:37from Congress to the Supreme Court. But among  Gen Z, that distrust runs even deeper. Just
182. 13:4314% of young adults believe Congress or big  business is actually looking out for them.
183. 13:48It seems like there’s a lot of  division between the generations.
184. 13:51But in reality, Gen Z and millennials are  both in the same boat - and it’s sinking.
185. 13:56Gen Z looks at millennials and sees the  more successful generation in front of
186. 14:00them. Millennials see the ambitious,  radicalized younger generation coming
187. 14:03up fast behind them. But both generations  are suffering. They just don’t realise it.
188. 14:09Combined, they hold only 11% of total US wealth  as of 2026. That puts them well behind the curve,
189. 14:16with the baby boomers holding a massively  outsized influence on the economy and culture.
190. 14:21Gen X is quietly reaping the benefits of  the stability they saw in their working
191. 14:25years and are generally happy the angry  generations seem to forget about them.
192. 14:30Millennials and Gen Z are fighting over scraps,
193. 14:33while the older generations  have the rest in the vault.
194. 14:36And they’ve locked the door.
195. 14:37This isn’t new, either. In 1990, the Boomers  held approximately 21% of total wealth,
196. 14:43more than double what the millennials  hold now. The system worked for them,
197. 14:47and they took full advantage. But now, they’re  holding on to all that wealth, with little
198. 14:52interest in sharing it. Many millennials were  banking on an inheritance from their parents,
199. 14:56only to see their parents sell the house  and embark on a cruise-filled retirement.
200. 15:00And if the vault is locked,
201. 15:02then who’s going to hold the key when  only the younger generations are left?
202. 15:06There’s one force no one can resist,  and it’s the passage of time.
203. 15:10Eventually, the Boomers will pass into history,
204. 15:13albeit at a much older age than the previous  generations, thanks to the improvements in
205. 15:17elder care and treatment of diseases. Then  it’ll be Gen X’s turn to look at retirement,
206. 15:22leaving the millennials as the  dominant generation in the workplace.
207. 15:25But by that time, what will be left?
208. 15:28Right now, millennials and Gen Z are  pitted against each other in the same
209. 15:31way two beggars are pitted against each other  when a man eating a whole turkey throws them a
210. 15:36bone. But beneath the fighting, there’s  a much bigger crisis brewing. The basic
211. 15:40math of working today no longer supports a  traditional middle-class lifestyle, no matter
212. 15:45whether you’re 25 or 40. Both generations have  been pulled into the same vicious cycle, with
213. 15:51one feeling like they can beat it and the other  believing that it’s better to not play at all.
214. 15:55There’s only one way the vicious cycle ends.
215. 15:58Yes, millennials haven’t gotten over the 1990s  yet. And they may be naive about the systems
216. 16:03they’re trying to win at. Gen Z has a lack  of work ethic and spends all their time on
217. 16:08screens. But those cosmetic differences aside,  both generations have a lot in common. Both came
218. 16:13of age in an era where the American age  of prosperity seemed to be on the wane.
219. 16:18Both saw the systems they were  supposed to believe in let them down.
220. 16:22Both saw the world march on without them.
221. 16:24And what scares the power brokers the  most is… they’re starting to realize it.
222. 16:29There’s only one way this war ends: when  Gen Z and millennials both realize they’re
223. 16:34not fighting over the lion’s share of the pie.  They’re fighting over what’s left, and that’s
224. 16:38not enough for either group. So increasingly, Gen  Z is reaching out to their older counterparts and
225. 16:43saying “the system isn’t working for us, and it  doesn’t look like it’s working for you either”.
226. 16:48There’s one resource that can’t be hoarded… the  young. Every industry needs a new generation
227. 16:54eventually, and if the millennials join Gen Z  in quiet quitting, no one knows what comes next.
228. 16:59Want to know more about how the Boomers  conquered the American dream? Check out
229. 17:03“You Need to Be Mad Now” for all the scary  details, or watch “The US Economy Is About
230. 17:08to Break” to be warned about the next  crisis that could be around the corner.