Young people today have excessively high expectations fueled by social media, and they should stop complaining because no generation had it easy.
Michael argues that young people see wildly successful peers on social media and assume that should be their reality at 27, when historically no young generation expected to be rich or have their dream job immediately. He contends the sympathy directed at Gen Z is overdone. ✦ AI generated
Michael · The Compound · 2026-08-19 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 5:03
I think way too much kid gloves for young people these days. I'm sorry. We've given plenty of sympathy, empathy, whatever the word is for people in the housing market. I think we're we're way too like tiptoeing around young people. Oh, boohoo. Young people, you know what? Suck it up. You don't get to get rich overnight. You don't get to have your dream job right away. I think the problem with young people is that they know too much. Like when when I came up, no one expected to get their dream job right away. No one expected to be rich by age 30 right away. I think that's the young people live in a a day and age where they see other young people who are wildly successful and they go, 'That should be me. At 27, I should be wildly successful.' And I think that's I think the expectations for young people are way too high.
verbatim transcript · starts at 5:03
5:03stock market, I look at the housing market, I say, "Yeah, parlays. Let's go. I get it." >> Okay, I wanted to get into this in a minute. Um, I think way too much kid gloves for young people these days. I'm sorry. I We've given plenty of sympathy, empathy, whatever the word is for people in the housing market. I think we're we're way too like tiptoeing around young people. Oh, boohoo. Young people,
5:24you know what? Suck it up. >> This will be a popular take. >> Suck it up. You don't get to get rich overnight. You don't get to have your dream job right away. I think the problem with young people is that they know too much. Like when when I came up, no one expected to get their dream job right away. No one expected to be rich by age 30 right away. I think that's the
5:42young people live in a a day and age where they see other young people who are wildly successful and they go, "That should be me. At 27, I should be wildly successful." And I think that's I think the expectations for young people are way too high. And I think that we are all being a little too like, oh boohoo young people, I'm so sorry. I feel like
5:59there's way too much virtue signaling with young people right now. You know what? No young generation has ever had it easy. It's true. Is they've never had Okay, that's what I'm feeling these days. I got more to say on that. >> Wait, I think I think you're right. And I also think that nobody looks bad by pandering to the young people. >> Oh, of course. It's a great It's a great strategy these
6:21days. If you want to get good on social media, you tell young people, "Hey, listen. >> Screwed. >> You're screwed. You're paying all the interest on the debt. You're never going to buy a house. >> Yeah. You you pandered to the male. >> Blame the baby boomers." >> Epidemic of loneliness and a lot of pandering going on. And listen, there's more than a kernel of truth, right?
6:42Like, >> yes, I agree. Yes. >> In many ways, young people do have it hard. Harder than previous generations. It's always been hard to be a young person. And but now there's a but now there's a content strategy around that audience which which amplifies the out of it. >> Well, here let's let's get into this now if we're going to do this now. >> Go ahead. >> I think a lot of this came on because
7:02there was this survey in Bloomberg that went kind of nuts on social media. >> Hang on. Correct the record. Better survey. >> Yes, sorry. Betterman survey in reported it. Yeah. >> Yes. 26% of Gen Z investors born between 97 and 2007 said they treat sports betting as a deliberate ongoing component of their financial plans, according to an online survey of 10,000 retail investors. Uh that's compared with 14%