Earlier this month, Andrea Learned posted a Census finding revealing that money holds more weight than life purpose for young people today—compared to youth in 1970.
For this little tidbit of information, she took a fair amount of comment flack from folks wanting to defend the honor of today’s young people or to deny this statistic’s accuracy at all.
I must say, I was not compelled to do the same. I’m not disturbed by this fact; I even find it a little encouraging.
Considering that today’s young people will follow on the heels of my peer 20 and 30-somethings, otherwise known as Generation Debt, it seems logical to me that they’d prioritize earning a decent living.
Might as well learn something from our mistakes.
We are in an economy facing rising housing costs, steady or decreasing income levels, fewer and fewer student loans and rising tuition costs—along with staggering pressure to earn more and more degrees.
Instead of wondering if we’ll be better off than our parents, we’re increasingly asking ourselves if we’ll ever even catch up. (Having decided maybe not, a number have taken up residency in their parents’ basements, but that’s another blog for another day.)
As a result, I don’t see it as a bad thing that today’s young people are thinking about their financial futures as a priority.
As long as it’s not the only priority.
And I have come to learn that there is no reason that money and purpose have to be mutually exclusive.
Indeed, they are the cornerstone of philanthropy.
Just ask Oprah or Bill Gates.
But for some reason, these two ideas are so often presented in contrast, as a choice. You’re a Peace Corps granola crunchy kid or a Wall Street wannabe.
But why not both?
Many former Peace Corps volunteers, adventurers and otherwise purpose-driven folk, have fulfilled this obligation early on in life and then moved on to more lucrative opportunities.
And some of the world’s most powerful do-gooders clearly established themselves on career paths built far more around financial ambition than saving the world.
And this is what enables them to do the latter today.
So while the Census 2007 may reveal that today’s young people are concerned about their financial futures, the 2005 Peace Corps Census showed volunteer numbers at a 30-year all time high while Teach for America reported an all-time high number of applicants.
So my sense is not that we need to be too concerned that our young people’s top priority seems to be their financial future.
But that we should concern ourselves with what they rank next.