None taken. Me specifically, I started my own company where the more I work, the more I am rewarded. I believe in hard work, and I make my employees work hard, but I pay them better than my competitors, pay for retreats etc. I have it built into their employment agreements that (basically) the more money I make, the more they make. I don't have to answer to share holders, so I don't need to screw people or do whatever it takes to increase numbers in any year. For my clients, if they are assholes and I don't like dealing with them, I fire them (nicely of course) and find someone else to work for them who might be a better fit. There are tons of people who just want to go to work at a certain time, check in, do their jobs, and then leave. There is nothing wrong with that. For anyone who wants more, they need to realize that we still have a system to have whatever you want. "I can't get a job because I don't have experience and I can't get experience because I don't have a job". That is just one example of shit my kids never had to experience. I had them volunteering since they were kids, enough to be remembered by directors of the organizations who would provide references for them. I had them as lifeguard/swim instructors by the time they were 16. Any place they wanted to work for was happy they applied. Anybody can do something similar. Find someone who is already great in the industry that you want to be great in. Go volunteer to be their personal assistant in exchange for learning to do what they do. Just about everyone in that position would be happy to do so, seeing someone with initiative is pretty rare these days. So you get to learn for free. Work hard at it and you get to show the top dog how good you are. At some point, if you worked hard enough, he is probably going to think "shit, I don't want this guy to be my competitor" and will offer you some kind of paid position. If you really learned well, you can negotiate bonuses for yourself if you bring him X amount of new revenue. That is but one example (that I personally did myself) of how anybody can become anything, but only if you're willing to really apply yourself and work for it. Us Gen Xers grew up where nothing was instant gratification, so we just chose to work hard or never get what we want. That is a built in advantage for us, but it is not exclusive to us. Anyone can do the same and build themselves up, feel really good about it, and want to continue doing so.