July 19, 2004

Today's Younger Generation More Entrepreneurial?

Jeff Cornwall has some interesting comments about James Glassman's much-discussed recent column, Good News! The Kids are Alright. Glassman's column cites various survey evidence that

violence, drug use and teen sex have declined. Kids are becoming more conservative politically and socially. They want to get married and have large families. And, get this, they adore their parents.

A "rewrite of the boomer years," with young people reacting critically to the world of sexual experimentation and family breakup and "earnestly knitting up their unraveled culture."

The trauma of 9/11, which has made kids more patriotic and turned them inward toward the comfort of family.

The information economy, which has given young people greater faith in their own chances to succeed, especially through self-reliance and entrepreneurship, and

Immigration, which has produced what Hymowitz calls a "fervent work ethic, which can raise the bar for slacker American kids, as any higher schooler with more than three Asian students in his algebra class can attest."

I was talking with one of my colleagues just this past week about how different the young people we see in college are compared to those of just five years ago. They are more serious and more diligent. They are more self-reliant and ready to learn for the sake of learning. And they have a very different meaning of success. It includes more balance between economic measures of success and the successes achieved through becoming a spouse and a parent.