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All the American kids wanting to become influencers (or music stars or grifting entrepreneurs) nowadays is actually smart and makes sense (hexbear.net)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by to c/chat@hexbear.net
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"Why don't kids want to be scientists or engineers or blah blah"

Because this isn't the 20th century anymore

Scientists, teachers, librarians, etc. make dirt wages despite lots of education

Tradespeople and factory workers can make a livable wage but they have to work so long to retire now destroying your body is guaranteed

Engineers seem like a bunch of sociopathic antisocial nerds, and actually oftentimes are. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and your classmate that's really into right wing content and thinks they're smarter than everybody else are negative motivation

Lawyers, bankers, accountants, bizness peepol, look miserable all the time and the jobs/coworkers are known to be toxic af

Doctors pay 300k in tuition and get hazed in residency for years for no good reason other than to be exploited for cheap labour at the cost of their patients having to be taken care of by sleep deprived and overworked doctors

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[–] 12 points 4 months ago (1 child)

It isn't because kids are smart or thinking things out, its because the tech industry platforms streamers, youtubers, and influencers, making them famous, so that now they're the culturally hegemonic "figures to emulate". This is entirely the fault of techbros.

This isn't a positive development.

Because this isn't the 20th century anymore

We need tradespeople, scientists, mathematicians, doctors, nurses, engineers more than ever. These professions in some form are as old as recorded history.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    Kids weren't exactly lining up to try and be the next Michael Jackson or Taylor Swift in the past when other career paths were still viable

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    We shouldn't impute too much life-wisdom on kids with respect to wages and quality of life. They generally want to grow up to be whatever society looks up to and considers prestigious.

    In the past actors, musicians, and sportsball stars, were held up right alongside useful professions (or their prestigious equivalents) like teachers, doctors, astronauts, rocket scientists, bridge-builders, etc.

    Its a late-stage capitalist development specific to liberal countries that no longer values the useful professions, and even looks down on them. This isn't the case in many other countries like the PRC:

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    I think there's a qualitative distinction in how much of a casino the influencer role is. Like who can hope to be Mr. Beast? Literally anyone. Where's any moment in any of his videos that has kids thinking "that couldn't be me?" For Michael Jackson, that could be any 5 seconds of him dancing and for Taylor Swift, I guess "I knew you were . . ."

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