The New American Dream is to Leave America

An increasing decline in overall economic opportunities, a corrupt Supreme Court, and a chokehold on power by the older generations has led to a major disadvantage for American youth. Unable to afford the basic fundamentals of the American lifestyle and tolerate the culturally tonedef decisions from the older generations in power, younger generations have decided to simply walk away from the corporate commercial that was the American Dream.

Consider their experience with school shootings, hate crimes, openly racist governmental policies, and lack of financial future, and you might begin to understand why they want out…fast.

The Consequences of Absent Youth in the American Workforce

This oncoming trend has a myriad of consequences for those Americans who choose to stay behind. The American work culture and long-term economic viability of the nation will continue to devolve as the current mid-to-senior level workforce seek retirement (or an exit out of the corporate world themselves). An implosion of domestic market reliability and quality will force the collapse of an economic system that relied on shifting its losses to the younger generations. “American Made” will only become a stronger punchline in the global markets. 

And so the last traces of the American Dream will be gone with a youth too jaded to dream anymore.

American Work Culture via Zoom

Younger generations are pursuing remote-only career fields out of basic necessity. The argument that remote-workers are lazy is not worth the consideration in this piece. What is worth considering is how, for the few young parents that do exist, the cost of childcare has surpassed the average mortgage. Young parents cannot afford to work from an office since it would require an expense that is the size of a second mortgage (if the young couple even have a mortgage). If you’re a single parent with only one job and a mortgage or rent, the odds of being able to go into the office are very low.

Long-Term No Shows

Digitally native, social media dependent, and fluent in engagement tactics, the younger generations are not afraid to rely on themselves to navigate a path to digital freedom. This shift in workforce pathways removes long-term talent from a variety of industries that have previously relied on internal long-term development. Many jobs require a long-term learning curve in order to properly understand the industry, obtain the necessary skills to manage more responsibility, gain the larger perspective that comes with experience, and establish the trust of both leadership and new teams to properly lead the organization into the future. However, this need has been overshadowed by American greed.

Long-term job security is an illusion to my generation; for the younger generations, it never existed. Young Americans grew up in a country where major corporations fire employees in seconds if it means more for shareholders. Witnessing this trend not only cultivates a healthy distrust for corporations but an inherent resentment for c-suite execs. Given the option to build a gig-career via a smartphone or trust the evil corporate overlords, young Americans opt to trust Fortnite over the Fortune 500.

No More Interns

American corporations have come to rely on the new workforce replacements to pick up the slack for irresponsible leadership decisions. Gutting entire teams, departments, and compromising ethical standards was readily accepted as long as the interns believed they had a place waiting for them at the top the mid-level workers were expendable.

However, as the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting took hold of the American workforce in 2021 and 2022, a reckoning was on the horizon. Tired GenX managers, debt-ridden Millennial workers, and disillusioned GenZ interns decided they were not going tolerate the greed and arrogance of their older management counterparts anymore. A paradigm shift in the American workforce was finally making its way to the public eye.

The effects of this paradigm shift have arrived. Without long-term development, leadership in major corporations upholding the “slash-and-burn” style of management continue to compromise quality for short-term gains like Tesla did with its Model 3 or how Boeing continues to risk the lives of anyone who steps foot on their planes or the East Palestine train derailment caused by Norfolk Southern’s leadership hiding quality control issues and ignoring systems warnings to save money. 

This is nothing new, unfortunately. Any reader over the age of 40 can recall several examples of how corporations managed to destroy the communities around them for higher profits; the difference here is the younger generations refuse to have any part of it anymore.

And if you think this trend is bad now, give it another ten years and fly on a Boeing 737.

American Domestic Market Implosion

Even if organizations were to offer better incentives to potential employees like higher entry pay, better benefits, stock incentives, and mentor coaching, younger generations have come to appreciate their personal freedom over profit; which is very American if you think about it.

Stagnant leadership at the top of so many American industries continues to deny access for mid-level leadership to move up in the organization. A growing population of frustrated GenXer’s have quit their jobs after 10 years in the same mid-level position. Empty promises from management about that upcoming promotion have left the mid-suite with more bitterness than their Millennial counterparts. Those GenXers and Millennials that remain do so only because of the mortgage, college tuition their kids are racking up, or both. Thus, entry-level positions for GenZ and the upcoming GenAlpha are dwindling.

The New Hire and Multi-Role Exploitation

American corporations continue to consolidate multiple roles into single positions in order to save money and squeeze more labor from younger newcomers. The older leadership is more than happy to wait out the desperation of those looking for work, all while blaming the younger generations for their lack of opportunities due to character flaws. Yet, the younger generations refuse to give. Instead, young Americans shrug off the fake incentives (unlimited PTO!) and opt out of the entire nation as a whole.

America Costs Too Much

The results of these generational shifts will become more apparent as the American sentiment of the economy struggles along.

For the young American Gen Z, and upcoming GenAlpha, finding a career in their native country will no longer be possible. Simply put, it’s not worth being an American who lives in America.

There is a life of debt-free living beyond the razorwire borders and immigrant cages of the south, the extremist militia borders of the north, the collapsing coastlines of the west, and the hurricane ravaged coastlines of the east.

The cost of living, career opportunities, affordable healthcare, quality education, basic civil rights, possibilities, and time would be too great to afford on American soil.

And so, the next generation will find their dreams somewhere else.

Moving Forward

A new framework is arriving with the new generations: a community-centric workforce. New organizations are pulling away from the traditional standard of power and acknowledging this fundamental truth: people are driven by their own decisions and choices rather than the orders of external authority. 

This doesn’t mean an organization without leadership but it does mean organizations without bosses. It also means organizations that are more horizontal in sharing the responsibilities of desired results and direction within the organization. There is a place here to debate the merits of such an evolving organizational structure but that’s for a later article.

Either way, this new paradigm of workforce organization inherently elicits ownership within the organization by the increase of individual sovereignty while adding a vested interest in the success of the organization as a whole. It is a nod to the worker-owned business structures and co-ops that struggle to find a place in the corporate zeitgeist of America.

The irony can be found in the corporate traditionalists disdain for co-op structured organizations. The traditionalist will cite a list of reasons centered around a “inability to lead” or “hard to find backing capital” but the underlying reason for the dismissive language is simple: co-ops decide their own fate by popular vote and it’s rarely about firing everyone and giving all the money to the investors. 

If deciding one’s own fate by popular vote sounds familiar as an American but does not quite seem realistic anymore it’s because America has failed its populace. The upcoming generations are not inclined to sift through the broken debris in hopes of finding a future.

Socio-Digital Democratic Workforces

The next generation will find work wherever they’d like from wherever they’d like whenever they’d like with whoever they’d like. It may sound improbable for the older generations, even pompous for the oldest generations still with us, but that is the future of an economy that’s outgrown nationalist and populist opinions.

When one decides to let go of the beliefs found in nationalist tradition, they might find a world that’s been waiting for them this entire time, free to live and work as they please.