The Kids Are Unhappy (Blame Capitalism)

This is a follow-up to my recent articles (“The Kids Don’t Know…” and “Barbarians at the Gate”). The “Kids” article decried the fact that critical thinking skills are not being taught to our children which has led to fuzzy thinking about socialism. “Barbarians” was the political manifestation of that fuzziness with a Democratic Socialist receiving the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor of New York City.

This article is about rampant unhappiness of young people in their jobs which leads to unhappiness in their lives. I’ll give you the punchline: many blame capitalism for their unhappiness. 

There is a lot of data about generational job satisfaction. Older workers (55+) have the highest rate of job satisfaction (72% in one survey). As you descend the age ladder the satisfaction rates decline. When you reach the youngest workers (18 to 29) the satisfaction rate dropped to 44%. As you can imagine, the data varies a lot, but the overall trend in all surveys reveal younger workers have higher job dissatisfaction rates. Even a January 2025 survey by the Conference Board which showed the highest single year overall increase in job happiness, the exception was workers under 25.

Younger workers say the reasons for this are: stress and burnout; loneliness; being undervalued and underappreciated; devaluing their ideas; lack of connection and belonging; a lack of understanding of work expectations. This all adds up to detachment from their work and unhappiness. Many look for someone to blame and capitalism is emerging as the culprit.

This leads to the question of why young people feel that way and why older workers are happier. Jobs are just one reason for their unhappiness.

I think the main reason for job dissatisfaction is a mismatch of expectations: what young workers expect from work are at odds with the reality of work, plus a lack of understanding of the purpose of work. They haven’t accepted the fact that life is not always fun, fun, fun.

At one point in my involvement with Santa Barbara City College, I started a law club to introduce students to a career in law. Each year I would ask them why they were interested in becoming lawyers. Invariably the answers were: I want to right wrongs; I want to save the environment; I like to argue. As most lawyers know those lofty goals are rarely achieved in actual practice, except perhaps lawyers’ proclivity for arguing. The result of these lawyerly expectation mismatches? Associate attorneys (young non-partners) have the highest job dissatisfaction rate of all professions.

What got me going on this topic came from a brilliant essay by the Reason Foundation’s Emma Camp. Her article “Capitalism Isn’t Why You’re Unhappy” revealed an emerging social media meme is that capitalism is responsible for your melancholy. I urge you to read the article(https://tinyurl.com/ReasonCapitalismArticle). It is very revealing. Here’s a sample:

“Are you feeling bad? Sad? Lonely? Despondent about your life? Anxious about politics? Angry about the state of the world? The gurus and influencers and deep thinkers of the internet have identified the culprit, the reason, the overarching explanation for why everything, everywhere sucks all the time.

“‘Do you feel horrible? That’s capitalism, baby!’ says the wildly popular mental health influencer TherapyJeff in a TikTok with nearly 50,000 likes. ‘Is your self-worth based on who you are or what you do? If it’s what you do and the value you create, that’s internalized capitalism.’” 

It goes on with examples of sad, frustrated, lonely young people who blame “capitalism” for their problems. Why take responsibility for your action. Be a victim! They don’t actually understand capitalism or socialism, but it’s a handy scapegoat. Their main discontent is with work (thus the association with “capitalism”). They don’t see work as a noble endeavor, but rather a mindless, soul-sucking, oppressive, victimizing activity spawned by exploitative capitalism. Why get up in the morning to just make a buck? It’s not fun. That is a bleak view of the world we live in.

Camp says that the assumption that work will be “a major source of meaning and fulfillment in your life” is overstated. Most jobs she says are not so fulfilling or interesting. There are other things that lead to happiness. According to various data, one thing that will give you the most happiness is a very happy marriage. And this gets to the root of the problem: these unhappy young people are becoming more insular, self-centered, and lack purpose. They are lonely, socially averse, and lack good friendships.

Earning a living, having a family, and social engagement are the fundamentals of being human and they are a path to success, satisfaction and contentment, if not happiness. Capitalism provides freedom of choice and opportunity enabling people to take control of their lives. As Camp says, “Building a fulfilling life requires effort and risk.”