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Kevin Z's avatar
7hEdited

There is one gaping hole in this otherwise excellent overview of how we find ourselves in this "situation":

Parents.

As a parent of only 10 years, one of the biggest surprises to me, In spite of the realities of life laid out here, has been the persistence of the "participation trophy", or as I prefer to see view the problem: the avoidance of accurate assessment. When we as parents do not accurately assess our children, we deprive them of the ability to accurately assess themselves.

The very statement "overproduction of elites" is an oxymoron. One is elite because of their abilities is relation to others. They cannot be overproduced. What we have is simply the over production of people who *think* they are elite.

This inevitably leads these individuals to the expectation vs reality problem that causes unhappiness. The unhappiness persists because the individual lacks the ability to self asses. The problem they conclude is the system.

As I struggle to find the correct balance between encouragement and criticism of my children, I find my wife and I alone in our struggle. "I just want my kids to live in reality when they grow up", I explain to my wife as we discuss potential strategies to motivate without deluding.

As I often say, do no underestimate societies ability to normalize self destructive behaviors. The solution is not policy, it's Parenting.

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BronxZooCobra's avatar

I think I see the disconnect in your corporate drone comment. As an example, I know someone who was all in on this humanities/socialism track and the ended up being a sales trainer for a pharmaceutical company and loved it. There are still a ton of great jobs out there but a lot of kids just don’t know what’s available. And part of that is how common the idea of the corporate drone job is from people who don’t know what they are talking about. A lot of those jobs are fun and lucrative and way better than the prestige jobs that many focus on.

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