Waiting in line at the grocery store, I am once again at the register of that young man not much older than 20. He is easygoing and carefree, reflected in his chubby size and casual smile. I wonder how someone his age can be happy working as a register clerk checking people through with coupons, asking if they want their chicken in plastic, counting the bags they have brought, and then making small talk before reading their gas points to them from the receipt. Maybe it is because I am not a fan of small talk. I can play the game with the best of them and I can cheer anyone up at this game or ignore them if I have to. But he has to do it for a living.
Since he has been working at the store for a couple of years I have been able to draw him out in the small talk game we play as he slides my grapes across the scale. I have learned that he loves fantasy games, Comic Con, science fiction novels and Halloween. He is already way too set in his ways for someone so young. He already knows it all, and is the first to reach any conclusion that satisfies his view of the world.
This week he was talking to a heavy set customer with feathery blonde hair and a smoker's wheeze in her voice as she finished paying for her groceries. They were discussing how expensive food had become, how the minimum wage was too low and other familiar subjects about making ends meet. He handed her the receipt and then turned to me as she left and said he really was not too worried about raising the minimum wage because he already made over ten dollars an hour and he was also due for a promotion and even more money. (Check Out Clerk Level II?)
I felt a small dark cloud move in behind me.
"I hope you are saving something," I said trying to catch his eye as his hands moved my yogurt containers across the scanner.
He looked up with his self-same grin and said that he most certainly was saving. He said that he had $400 already set aside.
"I have been saving for some time. I am waiting for a certain flat screen TV to go on sale and then I want to add an X-box to the system."
I kept my smile as tight as a Marilyn Monroe sweater and tried not to sigh too audibly. That was not the saving I was thinking about. I was thinking about saving for tomorrow, that tomorrow which for his age never comes. I thanked him and collected my groceries, knowing his world view right now was very different from mine and that this generation is never going to get old.
Does not even occur to them. It will be a mad, mad, mad, mad world when the bottom falls out on their world.
ReplyDeleteDoes not even occur to them. It will be a mad, mad, mad, mad world when the bottom falls out on their world.
ReplyDeleteEach generation has to re-invent the wheel apparently. What saddens me is that he is not invested in the issue because he is satisfied for himself, not caring about those in his position who have children to clothe and feed.
ReplyDeleteHe's also a guy, a young guy, and so has a hypothalmus the size of a split pea. There may still be hope. I remember my son at that age had exactly the same priorities and now he owns two houses and saves as though Armageddon is next Thursday.
ReplyDeleteI don't think 20 year olds need to be concerned about saving for old age. They are just out of the house and are finally able to buy things they want without depending on their parents. I doubt any of us were concerned about saving for the future when we were 20 years old. heck, I didn't even get my first job, part time at that, til I was 21. and if he can save money for an expensive item he wants now then he already has the ability to save and as he gets older, meets a young woman, gets a better job, then he will turn his eye to the future. for now, let the boy be carefree and have some fun.
ReplyDeleteTabor, great job of describing the scene...we could almost be right there with you. I wouldn't be too concerned right now about the level of interest for the young man, since he's still so young. At some point the light may go off when he realizes he needs to be more ambitious. However, if mom and dad leave him an estate before he gets to this point, he may be lost forever in taking responsibility!
ReplyDeleteThat's why i'm glad my #1 Son, the only one so far who is not in school and has a big, grown-up job, has already started his 401-k. He learned the hard way, living in Kansas for a year, that tomorrow does come.
ReplyDeleteBoth of our kids were ambitious early and have managed to do as well or better than their parents, which we were assured their generation never could do. They wanted to move out at 21 and never looked back or moved back ... so far ;). They are constantly busy and now raising their offspring with ambition and not asking us to do it. I take zero credit for it and don't know what makes the difference in our goals. Maybe it's parenting or just in the DNA.
ReplyDeleteThere is this cool little story out there about hippies and trying to explain what they were doing to their ambitious parents who were disappointed they didn't have higher goals. Basically the hippie was doing what the parent worked hard all their life to be able to retire to do.
Maybe the kid likes a low-key job, likes working with people and maybe has no desire to move out of the family home.
Whatever the case, you write an excellent little vignette of life and the questions it leaves us :)
That's bad, but what's even worse is talking to people my age or older (my bondhead brother, for instance or and my hubby's good friend) and they haven't put ANYTHING away. My brother doesn't even take advantage of the fantastic 401K plan at his work. WTH?????? Crazy. Then my hubby's friend casually brings up how he was thinking about starting a savings account. The man is over 40 and has TWO kids!!! You're thinking of opening a savings account? BAH!!!!
ReplyDeleteMaddening.
I had my first full time job when I was 19 and I took the max out of my paychecks to put into the 401K plan. How is it that so many people are just SO clueless?
Ha----so typical of the younger generation.. BUT--I remember when I was young and NOT thinking of the future much at all. That needs to be taught by the parents who 'should' set a good example--when kids are young (drumming it in them the importance of saving for the future).... Luckily for me, I got wise and started saving BIGTIME in my 40's... I am not rich (since I never made tons of money) --but I do OKAY in retirement. I am trying to preach 'saving' in my sons' lives now--even though they are in their 40's... But--it's not too late... Just do it!!!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Betsy
I encounter far too many young people like this. It's a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are going to live forever. I was like that. Then many of us pick careers that make us little money.
ReplyDeleteAll you can do is smile at him. :)
The smile as tight as MM's sweater really got me! When I was young if I had $200 dollars saved I thought I was rich.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to see this when you care about the future of young people. And yet he might very well be right at the beginning of a good career. Supermarket managers make pretty decent money,for instance. And a person who knows the retail grocery business does not need a high school degree. He's starting out young and could move up into a better position. It sounds as if he is good at what he is doing.
ReplyDeleteSome take a little longer to come around. Then there is a version I call... permanently clueless. It takes all kinds.
ReplyDeleteWith guaranteed pensions a thing of the past, and low wages not keeping up with cost of living, I fear for what our world will look like when these younger generations age.
ReplyDeleteBeing young with little or no responsibility is a very small window in our lives. There is nothing wrong with enjoying it; real life comes along soon enough and brings with it a life full of anxieties and doing what needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't a tragedy. This young man isn't a lost cause. Someone has to check our groceries. Someone has to mow our lawns and pick up our garbage. We are going to have so many over-educated louts someday and the only jobs will be for the ones willing to do "menial' jobs and then their pay will be the highest. Plus he sounds like he has a great future as a marketing guy with those customer skills.
ReplyDeleteLead Sleds are those forty and fifties cars that have been chopped, channeled, and changed dramatically with the holes filled in with lead. Now days they use bondo, but lead was the preferred hole filler in the old days.
ReplyDeletetodays 20 is yesterdays 15.
ReplyDeleteI too worry about the young people who don't seem to have a 'work ethnic' (not this particular fellow - he may be content with his life - at least for now.) But more and more I hear parents saying that their kids don't want to work... at anything (school or jobs). They want to sit home and play video games well into their 20's and more. I personally don't think 20 is so young. (DH and I were married at 22 and started our family soon after. It's lasted 47 years... we weren't too young to be responsible). But perhaps because of technology or a somewhat easy life... some kids (definitely not all) seem to have the "why do the work" attitude. They live for the now and can't seem to contemplate future problems.
ReplyDeleteMy younger one was like that (he's now 24). Any money in his pocket went to guitars and anything music-related. When *I* moved out, last year, he got a dose of reality and has scrambled to make ends meet. But they're beginning to come together for him. And he'll do fine. My older son, on the other hand, was born knowing what to do. He is 27, has owned two houses and has just bought his second new vehicle. And there's a good savings in the bank. We raised them both.. go figure. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school I worked as a supermarket cashier. I made far more money than my friends because I had to join a union. The people who worked there full time liked their work and felt part of the success of the store. This was a short term job for me, but the regulars were really good people, hard workers who mentored me with care and enthusiasm. One of those "regulars" was the sister of a very famous actor whose name you would recognize. She always said, "he's famous for being a great actor, I'm famous for being a great cashier."
ReplyDeleteI have been forced to take many low-paying jobs to pay rent, n it's true there promotions are scarce n pay raises of .15 cents per year just get you nowhere. It's tough surviving these days. Any job is better than none-
ReplyDelete