Tyler Cowen: preference

Transcript context

…— I would not be blaming millennials. I would be blaming we parents and grandparents that we’re not helping think with our kids about the fact that we’re not celebrating scar tissue with them. Scar tissue is the foundation of future character, and they are able to persevere, and they need to develop a work ethic. They just happened to live at the richest time and place in human history, and so they live a life that’s almost entirely separated from productive work environments. That’s never been the case of anybody who’s ever grown up before, that they didn’t grow up around work. One of the most basic things that makes you happy in life is thinking that you’re needed. My work, our work is needed. Not “Does my back hurt at the end of the day?” or not “Do I think I get paid enough money?” or not “Is there some annoying person three cubicles away who talks too loudly on his or her phone?” But when I leave home on Monday morning or whatever day you begin your workday or workweek, “Do I think anybody needs me?” If you think that, if your work matters to somebody, if you have a meaningful way to contribute to your neighbor, you’re basically going to be happy. And if you don’t have that, you’re almost certainly not going to be happy. And right now, we’re raising our teens segregated from work, and therefore, segregated from any clear sense that they’re needed now or going to be needed in the future, and that ends up feeling a lot like cotton candy. It’s pretty Peter Pan–like and pretty miserable. I’m actually a fan of the older 19th-century British Lancasterian system, where when possible, you have these somewhat older children teach the younger children, and the older children also learn through teaching — not just by being students — and you mix roles that way because you have a natural way to mix ages where there’s some rationale for it. I worry also with people aging and going more into nursing homes, we will become more of an age-segregated society. There’s a lot of worry about racial segregation, gender segregation; but age segregation is hardly mentioned. But if you think about it, how old you are is a pretty fundamental fact about your life and I’m very glad to see your book is drawing attention to this issue. I hope that gains some traction. Thanks, and it isn’t just the older. I want to underscore your point, Tyler. It isn’t just 13-year-olds being around 60- and 75-year-olds, though it should be that because the pattern of life is, you start needing diapers, and you end up needing diapers. We ultimately become dependent again, and that means there are a whole bunch of people that need us, that they need our help. Our kids shouldn’t live the narcissistic 13-year-old consumer experience of thinking there’s this fountain of youth and if only they could consume more, they’ll be happy. All the data shows that that doesn’t actually make you happy. There are older people who need us, but there are also younger people who need us, and there’s a really good way to get outside your own education, to think about how you pass along education. I do think there’s a benefit to our family structure: providentially just happens to be 15-year-old girl, 13-year-old girl, big gap, providential surprise son.…

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